Closed my business and just spent about 3 days and nights of my life trying to find out how I can get my brand new AMD FirePro v4900 up and running in a configuration I desire.
After several years with a ATI FireGL v3400 and dual monitors with different sizes/resolutions I thought the upgrade to a new card with more memory/speed would solve some of my issues I have with my workstation. When it comes to number of open windows it seems I am a 'horder'. E.g. with over 50 Firefox windows and over 250 tabs VRAM was often gone after a few hours of using the workstation. It also seems that flash videos like youtube are eating VRAM and not freeing it. And I tend to reboot not very often if possible.
So far I was using Windows XP x64 as my host for several VMware guest OS on this workstation.
Before I purchased the card I read all announcements etc and I saw a promotional AMD youtube clip showing a setup with 3 monitors, which looked like they have different resolutions (a center one in landscape and one to each side vertical ... maybe they actually have the same resolutions, just didn't see it).
Well, so far so good. Got the v4900 card and a StarTech DVI2HDMI adapter for my HDTV and lots of hope that I could use my workstation as my HTPC as well.
My setup:
MB: Dell Precision 390, Q6600, 8 GB, PERC 5/i, 2TB RAID 1, USB 3.0
Graphics: FirePro v4900 with 1 DVI and 2 DisplayPort connectors
Monitors:
- Dell 2407WFT (DVI 1920x1200)
- Dell 1801FP (DVI connected via DP2DVI adapter, 1280x1024)
- 1080p HDTV (Samsung 0390 with StarTech DP2HDMI adapter and 25' HDMI cable, 1920x1080)
Installed the card under XP x64 and AMDs latest Catalyst Pro Control Center. Got both Dell monitors up and running in 'Extended' Desktop type mode just like I had it before. Then I connected the HDTV via the StarTech adapter and realized that for some reason I can only get 2 monitors online at the time. Then I found a note in the box: "Note: Under Windows XP, Eyefinity technology supports a maximum of 2 displays of any type.".
In order to get the HDTV on I have to sacrify one of my extended desktop monitors. Mmm ... why do I have a card with 3 connectors and I can only have two monitors at the time on?
Anyhow, let me get rid of Windows XP after converting XP from physical to virtual machine ....
I also never got the AMD HDMI audio driver working except in the Device Manager. But nowhere as a selectable audio device.
Then I installed Ubuntu 11.10 server with Xubuntu desktop and xfce as somebody suggested, which is about my ideal target host. Clicked some buttons and installed the suggested proprietary AMD fglrx package. After a reboot I got a AMD warning 'Unsupported hardware' always present on the display. Well, I then tried the AMD supplied Linux driver software, but I never got that up and running as there was always something missing. Only the Ubuntu included fglrx package worked. Guess I just have to wait until the v4900 is included in that package.
I quickly found the limits of the AMD fglrx package as it does not support dual monitors with Extended Desktop and different resolutions. Both monitors have to have the same resolution with fglrx. I then scraped the fglrx driver and went back to the standard Linux ati package xf86-video-ati. Now I had the trouble of setting up the two Dell monitors as extended desktop. Found that xrandr is the right choice for monitors with different resolution and fortunately found the arandr GUI for it.
Have to admit that the setup was quite messy with missing packages, libraries etc compared to the Windows setup. Removing AMD's fglrx package was not restoring my desktop again and I had to find libraries and restore links manually. But that is an AMD issue and not Linux.
Anyhow, again I was never able to have a video signal on all 3 displays.
And beside all this there was always the issue with the missing HDMI audio. Never heard a beep from any of the HDTV speakers when trying to use the HDMI cable for video and audio. Well, many people suggested that this is an issue with an non-AMD DP to HDMI adapter. I guess that is true. Checked the StarTech DP2HDMI specs and reviews and thought it would work (need DP++ to function correctly ...). Well, it is a passive adapter with a level shifter. I can get the EDID from the HDTV nicely using moninfo. The AMD eyefinity dongles site only recommends 4 different passive adapters. Guess I have to get the Accell B086B-001B to get audio going.
After my days of XP x64 and Linux, I thought I give Windows 7 Pro a try as that is a requirement for Eyefinity with 3 monitors (Linux is supposed to work too).
Created a partition and installed Windows 7. Then the latest W7 Catalyst Pro Control Center. Same story, only 2 displays at the time and no HDMI audio.
I started juggling with moninfo and EDID for the HDTV, but that all made not difference.
So, I am still stuck with 2 displays at the same time despite having a card with 3 ports and a youtube video showing me 3 monitors as one extended desktop using a FirePro card.
Well, maybe I am just not completely Eyefinity compatible with my cables, adapter and monitors.
After all this AMD advertising driving up to 6 monitors with one v4900 card, I thought my 2 monitors and the HDTV would be nothing complicated.
Seems I was wrong or reached the outer edge of my IT knowledge despite making a living with IT for donkey's years.
Seems for now I have to get a long audio cable now and switch one monitor off when I like to use my HDTV screen. Did I maybe buy the wrong card?
There is quite a log of writing about this 3 monitor and HDMI stuff on the new, but I have not really seen it working on monitors with different resolutions.
Ok, will do a little more reading about the different passive and active DVI/DP/HDMI adapters ... or get a card which is working in my configuration.
Sorry for the long posting, I did not have the time to make it shorter ;-)
After several years with a ATI FireGL v3400 and dual monitors with different sizes/resolutions I thought the upgrade to a new card with more memory/speed would solve some of my issues I have with my workstation. When it comes to number of open windows it seems I am a 'horder'. E.g. with over 50 Firefox windows and over 250 tabs VRAM was often gone after a few hours of using the workstation. It also seems that flash videos like youtube are eating VRAM and not freeing it. And I tend to reboot not very often if possible.
So far I was using Windows XP x64 as my host for several VMware guest OS on this workstation.
Before I purchased the card I read all announcements etc and I saw a promotional AMD youtube clip showing a setup with 3 monitors, which looked like they have different resolutions (a center one in landscape and one to each side vertical ... maybe they actually have the same resolutions, just didn't see it).
Well, so far so good. Got the v4900 card and a StarTech DVI2HDMI adapter for my HDTV and lots of hope that I could use my workstation as my HTPC as well.
My setup:
MB: Dell Precision 390, Q6600, 8 GB, PERC 5/i, 2TB RAID 1, USB 3.0
Graphics: FirePro v4900 with 1 DVI and 2 DisplayPort connectors
Monitors:
- Dell 2407WFT (DVI 1920x1200)
- Dell 1801FP (DVI connected via DP2DVI adapter, 1280x1024)
- 1080p HDTV (Samsung 0390 with StarTech DP2HDMI adapter and 25' HDMI cable, 1920x1080)
Installed the card under XP x64 and AMDs latest Catalyst Pro Control Center. Got both Dell monitors up and running in 'Extended' Desktop type mode just like I had it before. Then I connected the HDTV via the StarTech adapter and realized that for some reason I can only get 2 monitors online at the time. Then I found a note in the box: "Note: Under Windows XP, Eyefinity technology supports a maximum of 2 displays of any type.".
In order to get the HDTV on I have to sacrify one of my extended desktop monitors. Mmm ... why do I have a card with 3 connectors and I can only have two monitors at the time on?
Anyhow, let me get rid of Windows XP after converting XP from physical to virtual machine ....
I also never got the AMD HDMI audio driver working except in the Device Manager. But nowhere as a selectable audio device.
Then I installed Ubuntu 11.10 server with Xubuntu desktop and xfce as somebody suggested, which is about my ideal target host. Clicked some buttons and installed the suggested proprietary AMD fglrx package. After a reboot I got a AMD warning 'Unsupported hardware' always present on the display. Well, I then tried the AMD supplied Linux driver software, but I never got that up and running as there was always something missing. Only the Ubuntu included fglrx package worked. Guess I just have to wait until the v4900 is included in that package.
I quickly found the limits of the AMD fglrx package as it does not support dual monitors with Extended Desktop and different resolutions. Both monitors have to have the same resolution with fglrx. I then scraped the fglrx driver and went back to the standard Linux ati package xf86-video-ati. Now I had the trouble of setting up the two Dell monitors as extended desktop. Found that xrandr is the right choice for monitors with different resolution and fortunately found the arandr GUI for it.
Have to admit that the setup was quite messy with missing packages, libraries etc compared to the Windows setup. Removing AMD's fglrx package was not restoring my desktop again and I had to find libraries and restore links manually. But that is an AMD issue and not Linux.
Anyhow, again I was never able to have a video signal on all 3 displays.
And beside all this there was always the issue with the missing HDMI audio. Never heard a beep from any of the HDTV speakers when trying to use the HDMI cable for video and audio. Well, many people suggested that this is an issue with an non-AMD DP to HDMI adapter. I guess that is true. Checked the StarTech DP2HDMI specs and reviews and thought it would work (need DP++ to function correctly ...). Well, it is a passive adapter with a level shifter. I can get the EDID from the HDTV nicely using moninfo. The AMD eyefinity dongles site only recommends 4 different passive adapters. Guess I have to get the Accell B086B-001B to get audio going.
After my days of XP x64 and Linux, I thought I give Windows 7 Pro a try as that is a requirement for Eyefinity with 3 monitors (Linux is supposed to work too).
Created a partition and installed Windows 7. Then the latest W7 Catalyst Pro Control Center. Same story, only 2 displays at the time and no HDMI audio.
I started juggling with moninfo and EDID for the HDTV, but that all made not difference.
So, I am still stuck with 2 displays at the same time despite having a card with 3 ports and a youtube video showing me 3 monitors as one extended desktop using a FirePro card.
Well, maybe I am just not completely Eyefinity compatible with my cables, adapter and monitors.
After all this AMD advertising driving up to 6 monitors with one v4900 card, I thought my 2 monitors and the HDTV would be nothing complicated.
Seems I was wrong or reached the outer edge of my IT knowledge despite making a living with IT for donkey's years.
Seems for now I have to get a long audio cable now and switch one monitor off when I like to use my HDTV screen. Did I maybe buy the wrong card?
There is quite a log of writing about this 3 monitor and HDMI stuff on the new, but I have not really seen it working on monitors with different resolutions.
Ok, will do a little more reading about the different passive and active DVI/DP/HDMI adapters ... or get a card which is working in my configuration.
Sorry for the long posting, I did not have the time to make it shorter ;-)
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram