Is this screen tearing?

[vollman1]

I have a Powercolor HD 6950 and 3 x Asus vh236h monitors in Eyefinity.

When I am at the desktop, if I move a window horizontally to my far right monitor, there is a line through the screen and the window is 'split' into two connected pieces. One half is on top and one half is on the bottom.

The two halves do not line up until I stop dragging the window, or until I move it above or below this 'split' line.

The 'split' line seems like it is not isolated to one specific lateral line on the monitor; it can be higher or lower on the screen.

I have also noticed these 'splits' when gaming.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? GPU? Monitor?

I need a little help with this one.

 

[alyoshka]

Most probably the GPU. Low Video memory could also cause this. I hope you're using a >=2Gb 6950, 'cos most probably you're running all three monitors @1920x1080
And that works out to 5760x1080..... Heavy stuff....

 

[fb39ca4]

It could also be caused by a lack of vsync, but IDK how to go about enabling that for the windows desktop.

 

[vollman1]

Yeah I am using exactly that, Alyoshka, 6950 2GB.

I am just trying to figure out if I need to RMA anything and if so which?

Anyway to know for sure which is the problem?

 

[bystander]

It is likely tearing as a result of the 3 screens not having synced up refresh times. The desktop normally always has it synced, but if you have 3 monitors and they aren't synced, you'll get tearing. I've seen others have similar issues due to not having all 3 monitors using the same connection type.

 

[vollman1]

Hmm,

The monitor in question is connected using a mini DP to DVI adapter.

I suppose that it could be an of the three:

1) adapter
2) monitor
3) Video card

Trouble shooting the adapter is easy enough. Trouble shooting the monitor is easy also. So I guess if it isn't one of those two, it would be the video card.

Anything that I may be missing?

 

[Kari]

yep, bystander is right. I've heard of this before as well, even some reviewers complained about it. Has something to do with different signaling/timings among the plethora of connection types used on those boards.
It might get fixed through drivers at some point, or not.. eyefinity isn't quite finished yet. *rolleyes*

So there's nothing actually wrong with your hardware as far as I know. Ideally you would need to use connections of the same type, but that means using 3 DP's and that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Even though the card supports DP1.2 and monitor daisychaining and DP MST hubs, neither are available.. (hubs or 1.2 capable monitors)

edit and if you google 'eyefinity tearing' you'll get tons of forum threads, some with weird solutions to fix it...

 

[bystander]

I don't know if they make any 7970's with 3+ mini-DP's yet, but they do make several older cards in the 6000 series this way. This would likely be your best option if there are any.

Here is one 7970's that meet that requirement, but it's out of stock atm, and 3 slots wide:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121499

Here is a 6950 (I misread what you had at the start): http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-EAH6950-DCII-2DI4S-1GD5/dp/B004SUO55Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329439616&sr=8-2

 

[vollman1]

WOW! (I saw the price tag, lol)

Well, the three slots I have but my wife would kill me if I spent that much ona video card

I suppose that this would be an option then as well, yes?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431

 

[bystander]

WOW! (I saw the price tag, lol)

Well, the three slots I have but my wife would kill me if I spent that much ona video card

I suppose that this would be an option then as well, yes?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431

Yah, but so would the one in my edited post, which is one less slot, and would allow you to crossfire to help you get much more appropriate FPS for your eyefinity setup.

 

[vollman1]

This may be a stupid question, but does it cause any problems if you Xfire different brands or models?

 

[bystander]

As long as the first 2 digits are the same on an AMD setup, it's good, but it's best to make sure they at least are the same model number, as in 6950 with a 6950, the brand doesn't matter.

 

[vollman1]

Best answer selected by vollman1.