4 Screens - Windows 10

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NateWon

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Topic # 198214 30-Jun-2016 19:04

Hello, I'm trying to workout what I need to do to get 4 screens running on my desktop, I have 4 connected 2xDVI, 1x HDMI and 1 via a Display Port with an Adapter. Windows seems to see all of the screens, however the one on the Adapter/Display port won't run after boot and I cannot save any settings against the screen in displays.

G Card is a R9 380x.

Anyone know what the problem is?

Thanks

Dairyxox

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Reply # 1583531 30-Jun-2016 19:11

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Is it an active adapter? Pretty sure it has to be for this to work.

NateWon

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Reply # 1583555 30-Jun-2016 19:39

Dairyxox:

Is it an active adapter? Pretty sure it has to be for this to work.

I suspect its passive as it was cheap - looking at the active ones, they are about 3x the price. Any recommendations on what to get, is there anything I need to be careful of?

Dynamic

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Reply # 1583698 30-Jun-2016 21:24

Passive adapter is fine for basic connections. I see the card should support up to 6 displays....

How does it behave with ONLY the DP monitor connected at boot time?

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

NateWon

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Reply # 1583997 1-Jul-2016 12:44

Dynamic:

Passive adapter is fine for basic connections. I see the card should support up to 6 displays....

How does it behave with ONLY the DP monitor connected at boot time?

Good point, will check tonight - I read somewhere about a hub for supporting 6 displays, apparently it was expensive, will see if I can find the reference.

Thanks

Zeon

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Reply # 1584002 1-Jul-2016 13:00

I can confirm Windows 10 works with 6 screens. I use a Gefore 650 with 4 connections and 2 on the motherboard with Intel graphics

NateWon

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Reply # 1584160 1-Jul-2016 15:47

Zeon:

I can confirm Windows 10 works with 6 screens. I use a Gefore 650 with 4 connections and 2 on the motherboard with Intel graphics

Thanks Zeon, was just mentioning windows 10 in case it help solved the current issue, the Graphics card says it supports 6 screens but only has four ports, so believe that is what the website I was reading was referring to, my MB doesn't have any graphics ports, so just the card at this stage - 4 screens a KVM and some SSH, RDP sessions will to fine for now, though 6 screens would be a treat when I'm able - will keep that in mind for the next build.

Passive adapter is fine for basic connections. I see the card should support up to 6 displays....

How does it behave with ONLY the DP monitor connected at boot time?

Doesn't appear to do anything, it goes to standby, but nothing really happens and doesn't allow interaction with the OS. Will buy an active adapter today and sounds like should sort it out.

Dairyxox

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Reply # 1584168 1-Jul-2016 16:05

Passive adapters use a clock generator built in the graphics card. Of which most cards only have two.

The clock generators are required to create DVI-I signals. Displayport does not make use of a clock generator.

Active adapters include their own pixel clock generator, and don't count towards this limit.

The fact you're using DVI for 2X screens could be an issue (they are using both the cards pixel clock generators, leaving none spare for your passive adapter). If its not DVI-D then its using one of those two clock generators on the graphics card I mentioned above. If its true DVI-D then it wont use one of the two.

To run 6 screens of the card the OEM must make special provision for the port types (most don't). Even though the chip supports six displays, the card must have the correct resources (ports etc) for this to be possible. Your card maybe only supports 4 or 5 displays.

You could have two "analogue type" displays (DVI-I, VGA, HDMI) and the rest would need to be displayport or DVI-D.

Dynamic

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Reply # 1584198 1-Jul-2016 16:26

Very handy information for me for the future, thank you @Dairyxox

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

NateWon

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Reply # 1584239 1-Jul-2016 17:13

Dairyxox:

Passive adapters use a clock generator built in the graphics card. Of which most cards only have two.

The clock generators are required to create DVI-I signals. Displayport does not make use of a clock generator.

Active adapters include their own pixel clock generator, and don't count towards this limit.

The fact you're using DVI for 2X screens could be an issue (they are using both the cards pixel clock generators, leaving none spare for your passive adapter). If its not DVI-D then its using one of those two clock generators on the graphics card I mentioned above. If its true DVI-D then it wont use one of the two.

To run 6 screens of the card the OEM must make special provision for the port types (most don't). Even though the chip supports six displays, the card must have the correct resources (ports etc) for this to be possible. Your card maybe only supports 4 or 5 displays.

You could have two "analogue type" displays (DVI-I, VGA, HDMI) and the rest would need to be displayport or DVI-D.

Thanks, interfaces are

DVI Output : Yes x 1 (Native) (DVI-I), Yes x 1 (Native) (DVI-D)
HDMI Output : Yes x 1 (Native)
Display Port : Yes x 1 (Native) (Regular DP)
HDCP Support : Yes

So the extra port which is Display Port, isn't working? have used DVI-D, DVI-I and HDMI for 3 screens. Hopefully the Adapter allows another screen, Tried configuring EyeFinity but doesn't seem to support an L shape configuration (on first glance) not sure if there are any benefits in that, can't find where 6 monitors was referenced, might be something like this, http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/DrivingMultipleDisplaysFromaSingleDisplayPort.aspx but that appears to be an old article

Dairyxox

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Reply # 1584299 1-Jul-2016 18:08

Your DVI-I and HDMI screens are using up all the clock generators on your card.

Without changing that above, your display port will work with either a native DP connection OR with an active adapter.

NateWon

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Reply # 1584311 1-Jul-2016 18:29

Dairyxox:

Your DVI-I and HDMI screens are using up all the clock generators on your card.

Without changing that above, your display port will work with either a native DP connection OR with an active adapter.

Sweet will update when the adapter arrives,

richms

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Reply # 1584319 1-Jul-2016 18:52

Dairyxox:

Your DVI-I and HDMI screens are using up all the clock generators on your card.

Without changing that above, your display port will work with either a native DP connection OR with an active adapter.

It really does seem absurd that they need one clock generator per port on the cards. I would have thought the obvious thing to do when having multiple monitors at the same res and refresh rate would be to clock them all together at exactly the same rate so that they were perfectly in sync with each other.

I remember back when doing tripple head with CRT's it was a mess with them on different cards and not really any better on the same card since the magnetic fields from the screens screwed each other up.

Richard rich.ms

NateWon

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Reply # 1588672 9-Jul-2016 10:41

Active Adapter doesn't seem to work - does the same thing shows as a dead box in the display settings - eye infinity seems to be restrictive on the setups and won't show the screen either, will remember this next time around and try and get something that will run went with the cheaper monitors I'm guessing this is why they don't have display ports. Kind of wondering if crossfire would allow an extra screen to get in the mix, never done it before - is for development not gaming so not sure if that would make much difference - read somewhere that some games support it and some don't.

For the time being the extra screen will mean I can monitor an extra server manually without running RDP or SSH, which will be rare but work in a similar fashion - the extra work space would have been nice for tinkering.

richms

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Reply # 1588752 9-Jul-2016 12:25

If it's just for monitoring type things that seldom change then perhaps a USB display link adapter? Bit laggy so interactive things are unpleasant but work great for a friend who just sticks a PDF on it to read while typing on the other screens.

Richard rich.ms

NateWon

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Reply # 1588804 9-Jul-2016 13:48

richms: If it's just for monitoring type things that seldom change then perhaps a USB display link adapter? Bit laggy so interactive things are unpleasant but work great for a friend who just sticks a PDF on it to read while typing on the other screens.

That sounds like it could work well for monitoring boxes, as for work-space I'm not sure it would work to well in my case, try my best not to type from one place to another - copy and paste is a treat when building software. Best example I have is was working on some SVG animations on a website the other day, had Web Browser + Firebug Window, Visual Studio + Debug Window, Adobe Illustrator, Design PDF, Notepad++ (To edit the generated SVG) all open. an extra screen would allow more room for the Workspace for less clicking backwards and forwards - but will be fine with 3 for now, still luckier than many.

Thanks for your advice guys,