Solved 3 Monitors?

[jamiedolan]

HI;

I have a Dell Studio XPS 8100 i7. It has a ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series video card in it. It has 2 ports on the card that accept DVI cables. I can plug in 1 monitor to each of those and it works just fine with 2 displays.

There is also a DVI port on the main part of the computer (not an add on card), presumable it is connected to a video card that is built into the motherboard.

When I connect a third monitor to the built in DVI port (with 2 monitors already connected via DVI to the video card), I don't get any image, and have not been able to get the computer to recognize there is a third monitor.

Should this setup work to support 3 monitors? If so, any suggestions as to what I may need to do to get it going?

Thanks
Jamie

 

[alphanumeric]

The onboard is likely disabled in the BIOS. It's usually one or the other, but not both. You can run a dedicated graphics card "or" the onboard video, but not both at the same time.

 

[jamiedolan]

The onboard is likely disabled in the BIOS. It's usually one or the other, but not both. You can run a dedicated graphics card "or" the onboard video, but not both at the same time.

Thanks, that rules out the easy was of using that HDMI port that is just sitting there.

I looked up my video card because I see it has some more ports on it, (only 2 HDMI).

"Driver version 8.66 (Catalyst 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity technology and to enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector."

So it sounds like I can do 3 displays if I have a monitor that accepts a Display Ports connection, which unfortunately, none of my current monitors do. I do see they make VGA to DisplayPort adapters, so I may order one of them and see if it works.

Thanks

Jamie

 

[Brink]

Hello Jamie,

Be sure that you use a active displayport adapter to connect it to your monitor since it does not have a displayport. It will not work with the 3rd monitor unless it is.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[stormy13]

One of these is what Shawn is referring too,

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Active DisplayPort Adapter 100924 DisplayPort to DVI Interface

or this one if your card has a mini displayport on it,

Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR Video Adapter ACTIVE MDP TO SL DVI-D ADAPTER-C Mini DisplayPort to DVI Interface

Either of which should work with any AMD card regardless of who made, just a matter of whether you need to mini or not.

 

[jamiedolan]

Either of which should work with any AMD card regardless of who made, just a matter of whether you need to mini or not.

Thank you both for this information.

Are there any reasonably priced new monitors with a display port on them? I see a lot of low cost monitors (under $200 for 22"), but they seem to be DVI or HDMI.

I wouldn't mind a new monitor if the price was reasonable and it came with the DisplayPort.

Any suggestions on monitors?


Thanks

Jamie

 

[profdlp]

...Are there any reasonably priced new monitors with a display port on them?...

It was pretty much an Apple innovation. Does that tell you anything?

ATI/AMD jumped on the bandwagon figuring they would catch on. The technology is also what makes three monitors on a single card possible to begin with. Nice teeny-weeny little port, too, a legacy of the Mac Airbook design. I just got my DP/DVI adapter today and it works fine - though like the others have mentioned it has to be of the "Active" variety.

http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/135589-hd5450-triple-monitor-support-problem.html

 

[jamiedolan]

ATI/AMD jumped on the bandwagon figuring they would catch on. The technology is also what makes three monitors on a single card possible to begin with. Nice teeny-weeny little port, too, a legacy of the Mac Airbook design. I just got my DP/DVI adapter today and it works fine - though like the others have mentioned it has to be of the "Active" variety.

Thanks. I'll get the active adapter, then I don't have to worry about what monitor I can buy. The active adapter should allow me to use any DVI monitor correct?

Jamie

 

[profdlp]

...I'll get the active adapter, then I don't have to worry about what monitor I can buy. The active adapter should allow me to use any DVI monitor correct?

Jamie

Yep, up to a resolution of 1929x1200. Above that you need to use a Dual-Link DVI cable and adapter and (obviously) have a video card and monitor to support it.

One thing to note is that most (maybe all, for all I know) video cards with two DVI connectors have one Dual-Link and one Single-Link. It's something I need to research a little more, but it has to do with the bandwidth limitations of the GPU. This is also the reason you must use at least one Display Port connection and can't get away with using both of the DVI along with the HDMI ports for a three-monitor setup.

I had to look through the documentation to discover that on my XFX 6870 the bottom DVI is actually the Dual-Link one, which seemed kind of counter-intuitive to me. Not that it mattered to me, since all my monitors are 1920x1080.

 

[Zepher]

...I'll get the active adapter, then I don't have to worry about what monitor I can buy. The active adapter should allow me to use any DVI monitor correct?

Jamie

Yep, up to a resolution of 1929x1200. Above that you need to use a Dual-Link DVI cable and adapter and (obviously) have a video card and monitor to support it.

One thing to note is that most (maybe all, for all I know) video cards with two DVI connectors have one Dual-Link and one Single-Link. It's something I need to research a little more, but it has to do with the bandwidth limitations of the GPU. This is also the reason you must use at least one Display Port connection and can't get away with using both of the DVI along with the HDMI ports for a three-monitor setup.

I had to look through the documentation to discover that on my XFX 6870 the bottom DVI is actually the Dual-Link one, which seemed kind of counter-intuitive to me. Not that it mattered to me, since all my monitors are 1920x1080.

Your 6870 seems to have 1 DL DVI since since it has 2 miniDP ports.
My older cards, 9800GT, GTX260, GTX285 and my current HD5850 all have 2 DL DVI ports on them.

This is the unit that XFX uses in house,
Amazon.com: Accell B087B-005B UltraAV DisplayPort to DVI-D Single-Link Active Adapter ATI Certified (Black): Electronics

 

[profdlp]

Your 6870 seems to have 1 DL DVI since since it has 2 miniDP ports.
My older cards, 9800GT, GTX260, GTX285 and my current HD5850 all have 2 DL DVI ports on them.

Interesting!

This is the unit that XFX uses in house,
Amazon.com: Accell B087B-005B UltraAV DisplayPort to DVI-D Single-Link Active Adapter ATI Certified (Black): Electronics

The difference there is that the one I linked had the "mini" DP and that one is regular. Now I'm curious as to what different cards use what versions.

 

[Zepher]

Accell makes 2 models of that adapter, one with regular DP and one with miniDP, both cost the same at Amazon.

 

[profdlp]

I think that's what I just said.