Solved How to connect 3 monitors with 2 graphics card

[rap33042]

Hello all!
I have one Sapphire HD 5770 and one Sapphire HD 6770.

I don't care about crossfire capability.

I have two Hanns-G 22" widescreens and one cheapy 17" I want to stick between them. Obviously they have different resolutions.

Can I connect them so the desktop is shown as one screen across the entire expanse?

I've tried connecting the 17" to the 6770, but all I get is a blank screen.

I don't know what I'm doing and need some help here. If it won't work I want to send the video card back to NewEgg.

TIA,
Richard

 

[paulpicks21]

I did a little research into this a while back and iirc all 3 monitors must be connected to 1 card, in my case it required 1 via hdmi,1 via dvi and 1 via the display port. The display port one required a display port to dvi adapter and it had to be an "active" adapter not a passive one.

Once those are all connected up it's then down to setting them all up how you want them, and yes you can have one desktop running across all screens

Cheers

Paul.

 

[rap33042]

OK, Thanks Paul. Not good news for me, though. I guess I have to ship that card back. darn!
Now, can you tell me the difference between a passive and active DP?

TIA,
Richard

 

[paulpicks21]

I can't tell you a lot about them except I made the mistake in buying a passive one (didn't look into enough before buying!) and it didn't work.

After searching around as to why it was not working I found time and time again that it should be an active adapter.

Pulled from the net-

An active adapter converts a true displayport signal into DVI/HDMI/VGA/whatever else. It will have either a converter chip or a DAC built in to do said conversion.

The difference between active and passive is simple.
Passive adapters are merely a cable to go from displayport to DVI/HDMI/VGA/w.e. The video card detects the monitor as such, and outputs the required signal (DVI/HDMI/VGA).

Not sure if that makes sense to you or not, but hey ho lol.

 

[Zepher]

You can use the cards you have or use 1 card and use an active DP to DVI adapter.
You won't be able to run a horizontal span unless you decide to run all screens at the same resolution off of 1 card, but most of the time you don't' want to run horizontal span unless you are gaming in Eyefinty. Maximizing a program or window in horizontal span will expand it across all 3 screens.
Most users will use Extended Desktop, meaning you have a larger desktop but when you maximize a window, it will maximize on the screen it is on.

You have to go into the display properties and activate and position all the monitors you plan on using. With your 2 cards, it should show 6 screens available and you just enable the 3 you are using.

 

[rap33042]

Zepher:

I did as you said and I'm sorry to report that it worked. Wait! I mean I'm happy that it worked!

I now have three monitors to play with.

Now, if I understand you right, in order to use EyeFinity, I will have to have all three monitors running off one card- and they all have to be set to the same resolution. Is that right?

I see you have different wallpapers on your monitors. How'd ya do that?

Thanks so much for your help. This has really been great. I feel like a power user, oh boy!

Richard

 

[Zepher]

Ya, if you want to run Eyefinty (which is Horizontal Span) then you will need to run all the screens off of 1 card and they will need to run at the same resolution.
Also, 1 of those monitors will need to be hooked up to the Display Port with an Active Adapter.
When I first got my HD5850 I had 2 monitors that were 1440x900 and 1 that was 1680x1050. I used a DP>VGA adapter since it was only $30 vs $90 for the Active DVI one. I think the Active DVI ones have come down in price now.
Running in Eyefinty with those screens means 1440x900 on all 3 so the 1680 monitor wasn't as sharp since it was not running in it's native resolution.
It wasn't an issue for me since I only ran in Eyefinty when I was gaming and the loss of sharpness wasn't noticeable to me in the game. In Windows I could see a difference since everything was kinda fuzzy.

For the wallpapers, I use a program called Ultramon. It gives me a task bar for each screen as well as the ability to easily have 3 different wallpapers and screen savers.
There is another program called Display Fusion that does the same but I prefer Ultramon since I have been using it for 10 years now. Ran dual screens for 9 years and went triple last year.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Display fusion is what I use to use single wallpapers stretched across my dual monitor setup. Its a fairly user friendly program. Both that and ultramon are good programs, so you have some choice

 

[paulpicks21]

Zepher:

I did as you said and I'm sorry to report that it worked. Wait! I mean I'm happy that it worked!

I now have three monitors to play with.

Now, if I understand you right, in order to use EyeFinity, I will have to have all three monitors running off one card- and they all have to be set to the same resolution. Is that right?

I see you have different wallpapers on your monitors. How'd ya do that?

Thanks so much for your help. This has really been great. I feel like a power user, oh boy!

Richard

My apologies, I feel like I have given you bad advice now

When I looked into doing it I was planing on eyefinity and didn't realise that you could connect 3 screens using 2 cards.

Glad you got it sorted anyway.

Cheers

Paul.

 

[rap33042]

@LiquidSnak - TNX! I'm about to take a look now!
@paulpicks21 - No problem. I've posted erroneous advice on this forum in the past. Thanks for the effort.
---
One problem I discovered is that I had that Crossfire connector connected. Even with Crossfire disabled in CCC, the third monitor wouldn't work. As soon as I pulled that connector off I had all three monitors available.

Thanks for the help, everyone.
I think I'll mark this as resolved.