GTX 690 Issue with connecting fourth display

[vpointcon0011]

I recently swapped a Radeon 6990 for a GTX 690 for a couple of reasons.

First, I wanted to increase performance while decreasing power draw and reducing heat. I also wanted a fourth monitor option and one that didn't require the active display adapter that Eyefinity does.

I have three Samsung 24" LCDs as my main setup. I want to add my Samsung 32" LCD TV to the mix. The 24s are all DVI. The 32 is HDMI. When connected to the system, the computer identifies and allows me to setup the 32, but I get nothing on the display. It appears active to the system, but I get a no signal on the TV. I have tried all manner of combinations, and set the port connection in all different ways, and even tried the active adapter from my Eyefinity setup, all to no avail. Forums haven't been helpful thus far, so I'm hoping you all can give me a different angle to approach from.

The thing that makes me crazy: The AMD setup I was using runs the screen. I am currently mind-boggled. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[cygone]

stupid question but is SLI enabled? or have you set one of the GPUs to be dedicated physx?

 

[vpointcon0011]

I have tried all of the settings under Control Panel. All displays active, single GPU, 2d surround, multi-gpu, One gpu for PhysX, SLI enabled/disabled. Further reading has me curious about HDCP, though I won't be able to do/check anything about it until I get home from work.

 

[cygone]

Check connections against this,

I'm running SLI670 and I had so many problems trying to get a 4th display I gave up.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/3dvision-surround/system-requirements

 

[vpointcon0011]

I tried those too. I may NOT have tried one of the configurations shown, so I'll go and take a look and report back. I may try an older driver version, too. Sorry to hear you're having the same trouble. You'd think it would be such an easy task.

 

[cygone]

And yet we hear about all these 'ATI drivers suck so bad compared to nVidia drivers' personnaly i think that is just hype with little backing.

 

[bystander]

AMD's problems with drivers seems to be general issues. How many run a 2D Surround setup with an extra monitor added in to the mix?

 

[cygone]

not saying otherwise, yet with all my years and tens of thousands of pounds of hardware spent, i cant say ive never noticed that nVidia have better drivers.

 

[vpointcon0011]

I had very little issue out of the 6990. The driver liked to crash if the system was up for around a month or longer. At least it would actually drive all four monitors. I get nothing out of this 690 and there is no good reason as to why. I'm not really interested in the 2D surround setup. I just want the fourth screen to work.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Try ULTRAMON ....

All the best Brett

 

[bystander]

I had very little issue out of the 6990. The driver liked to crash if the system was up for around a month or longer. At least it would actually drive all four monitors. I get nothing out of this 690 and there is no good reason as to why. I'm not really interested in the 2D surround setup. I just want the fourth screen to work.

If you used the formation displayed in their help guide and it doesn't work, then it is likely a hardware issue and you need to exchange it for another. They are picky on the setup selection. The 2D surround part plus an extra monitor. Given you are using a 690, I can only assume 2D surround is important for those 3 monitors (eyefinity equivalent).

 

[vpointcon0011]

Thanks guys. I'm boing to try Ultramon today to see if it treats things any differently. I fear that it may be the hardware, but it doesn't make sense to me that all the other screens work no matter what port they're plugged into, and the TV doesn't work no matter what, but is still detected and treated like a working screen.

 

[vpointcon0011]

Sorry for the late reply. I have everything working as it should now. I'll get to that in a minute.

The 7990 is a beast of a card. That said, if you aren't using very specific connections, it doesn't run four screens easily. My setup would've required and additional active adapter to get the fourth screen to display. I feel this hardware limitation is unacceptable considering the size and power of that card. Those active adapters are around $100.00 each. I already owned one, and certainly didn't want to increase the cost any further.

So I went back to the GTX 690. The reason I couldn't get the fourth display to connect was the HDMI cable. Yup. The easiest piece of equipment to troubleshoot was the last piece that I checked. I now have all four screens running beautifully, but still didn't achieve my overall goal.

I wanted to game on the 32" screen and leave my other applications to the tri-24" setup. While gaming worked, there is some lag between rendering on the card and rendering on the screen that makes fast paced games nigh unplayable. So it looks like it will be for movies and network administration software. We shall see. I do love the setup, and I prefer the GTX over the Radeon so far. It's quieter, cooler, and blazing fast. And requires no active adapter to run the fourth screen.

So, I have this Radeon 7990 just sitting in a box waiting for me to resale it. Figures.

Thanks all for the help. After a decade working IT, I still sometimes forget that some solutions are easier to find than I allow them to be.

 

[vpointcon0011]

Best answer selected by vpointcon0011.

 

[hotdogtimemachine]

I wanted to game on the 32" screen and leave my other applications to the tri-24" setup. While gaming worked, there is some lag between rendering on the card and rendering on the screen that makes fast paced games nigh unplayable.

Hopefully you've been able to figure it out by now, but thought I'd add (if a bit late) that if you change your tv to "game" mode it should get rid of that lag so you can play games on it.