3 Monitors

[amer1337]

I have a pc with a radeon 6850 and currently have 2 monitors hooked up via DVI. I recieved a 3rd hd tv and would like to hook it up via HDMI but everytime i try to enable it a message pops up saying "unable to save display settings" .

If i disconnect one monitor i can hook it up fine, ive even tried taking one of the dvi monitors off and hooking it up via a displayport > dvi adapter, still the same message pops up. Am i overlooking something?

 

[c627627]

I know nVidia can only have two active monitors at a time even though there are usually two DVI outputs and one HDMI output for a total of three.


I was told that ATi, unlike nVidia, can handle all three active at a time. I almost replaced my nVidia a week into using it because of this and was still looking to do so just because I need three outputs active at one time.


I guess step 1 would be to confirm if it is true that ATi can handle all three outs simultaneously because my nVidia cannot. Ask here then post back what you found out:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=85


_____________________
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[fcomstoc]

I have a 6950 and I run 3 monitors in eyeinfinity with no issues so I can attest to the fact that it does work. the 6950 will support up to 4 monitors in 1080p. If you want to run 3 I would start with using the catalyst control center instead of using the windows control system.

 

[c627627]

Great, thanks. If it has two DVI and one HDMI, where does the fourth output come from?

 

[fcomstoc]

So with that card the HDMI and the DVI next to it are the same output, you need and active Mini-Display-Port to DVI (or HDMI) adapter, So 1 DVI, 1 HDMI/DVI, and 1 MDP(with adapter) if you use both the DVIs and the HDMI you will get an error because one of the DVIs shares the HDMI output

Edit: to fully answer your question

1 DVI
1 DVI/HDMI
2 MDP (2 DVI/HDMI with adapters)

 

[c627627]

You mean 1-2-3-4:




and yes, the original poster should try catalyst control center instead of using Windows Display properties.

 

[fcomstoc]

Like this (sorry I suck at drawing with a mouse)

 

[c627627]

Oh, so with ATI if both DVi outputs are taken, you cannot use the regular HDMI output, you have to use one of the smaller output connectors to get a third video connection?

 

[fcomstoc]

Yes that is how it is with most video cards, dvi and hdmi are essentially the same so they share the output. If you want a 3rd monitor you have to use one of the MDPs with an adapter. I had that issue a few months ago when picking a video card, I spent some time researching and discovered this.

 

[c627627]

So are there ATI cards out there with only 2 DVi and 1 HDMI output and so you can only use two at a time on them and this is why nVidia only has two outs on their cards with 2 DVI + 1 HDMi out?

 

[fcomstoc]

Short answer : yes 1dvi and 1 dvi/hdmi

Amd is ahead of Nvidia on this, some of the higher end AMD cards can support more outputs because they support the MDP; that is why I ended up getting a AMD over NVidia.

I believe the new amd (7000s) support more than 4 outputs

 

[c627627]

Right, so really for three outputs, look for cards with mini MDP connectors. Thanks for this info.

 

[fcomstoc]

The only thing about that is even though many newer high-end cards like the 6950 support up to 4 outputs the quality will go down as you add more outputs. If you want to run more then 2 you might want to upgrade to a second card (crossfire) for better results. I am running 3 in eyefinity on my 6950(2 gb) @ 3840x1024 and I get 60 FPS at the highest quality settings. If I were to get 3 1080p monitors I might have to upgrade to a second card or get a better card.

 

[c627627]

The only thing I need the third output for is to connect HDMI to receiver for Blu-ray sound. My 2006 industrial Plasma has no HDMI.

SO i'm using one DVi for PC and the other DVI for Plasma's VGA input. Blu-rays are OK at 1360x768 VGA.

 

[c627627]

I'm still not 100% clear on if TrueHD audio can be done through Windows XP or Win7 only?


Right now I have one nVidia card and a second low end ATi card which only handles HDMI out to receiver for TrueHD audio. So two cards on the system, both nVidia and ATI.


_____________________
Intel i7 950 [206] BCLK x 20 = 4.12 GHz @ [1.4000] CPU Voltage & [1.35000] QPI/DRAM Uncore Voltage, Batch 3029A40
3 x 1GB G.SKIL DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) [DDR3-1691MHz] 10-10-10-24 @ 1.64 DRAM Bus Voltage
ASUS P6T Deluxe v.1 [LGA 1366 Intel X58] BIOS 2209
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme 1366 RT with 120mm Scythe S-Flex F fan
nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti PNY XLR8 1GB GDDR5 822MHz Core Clock
ASUS ATI Radeon video card HD 5450 [used for HDMI HD sound only]
OCZ Agility 60GB SSD
Asus Xonar DX sound card
Antec nine hundred case, two front 120mm fans, one back 120mm Fan, one top 200mm fan
Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

 

[fcomstoc]

I didn't realize that people used hdmi for audio only, I suppose that it could be used for that but it does seem a little unusual. Why don't you use optical, if you have a recent mobo and receiver they should support it and optical supports 7.1 surround (I think anyway) it would save you having to deal with audio through the video card.

 

[fcomstoc]

I checked on your Mobo, (your sig doesn't post all the time) and it looks like it supports optical, if your receiver supports optical (which I suspect it does) you could just run one optical line and have full HD surround.

 

[c627627]

That's a negative on optical supporting Blu-ray TrueHD audio and DTS-HD audio. Optical is only OK for standard DVDs.

HDMI is required for TrueHD audio and DTS-HD audio.

Even then, I don't think even Windows XP can be used for TrueHD, Vista/7 are required. Lots of inaccurate info out there on this.

 

[fcomstoc]

That's a negative on optical supporting Blu-ray TrueHD audio. Optical is only OK for standard DVDs.

HDMI is required for TrueHD audio.

So you are right, blue-ray is a pain in the , I guess you have to use HDMI, one of the DVIs share the output with the HDMI so I guess you could go that route; it just seems like a waste of your GPU's resources.

 

[c627627]

Yea but my Plasma TV has no HDMI. So I connect DVI to VGA for TV and the other DVI goes to PC.

So I need a third out and it has to be HDMI, for HD sound.



My only option is to switch from nVidia to ATi and then only to ATi with mini MDP connectors. Or use a second video card, which may be interfering with my main video card.