3 Monitors on Sapphire Radeon HD 6870

Question

I've got a decent machine, 8 GB RAM, good motherboard etc and an Radeon HD6870 GC. I'm desperately trying to run three monitors on the card. The card has 1 HDMI, 2 DVI and 2 Mini DisplayPorts. The set up is as follows:

• Monitor 1 is connected via the DVI cable.
• Monitor 2 is connected via a DVI to HDMI lead into the HDMI slot.
• Monitor 3 is connected via a DVI lead into a DVI to Mini DisplayPort adapter.

Now, in Ubuntu, I have no problems whatsoever, they all work completely fine as extended desktops. Windows is seeing none of this. I've got the Catalyst Control Centre, and I tried setting up an Eyefinity group, but I can only ever have 2 enabled at once.

Solution 1

I set up an Eyefinity triple monitor setup just recently but with a 6950 card. The 6870 should also be capable of 3 displays

To get it to work I plugged in the monitors and had to hit the 'detect' button inside of the screen resolution settings to get them all recognised. Initially I just tried extending the desktop to all of them, but then I went into the Catalyst Control Center and made the EyeFinity group.

If you are having problems getting all 3 monitors working you could try these tests:

1. Plug in each monitor one at a time, each using a different connector, verify that all screens, connectors work (Even if this worked in Ubuntu, it's nice to check on Windows)
2. Start with one monitor connected, and while Windows is running, plug in each monitor. Detect the added monitor if necessary and continue until you have (hopefully) all 3 working.
3. Double check that you have the latest version of the catalyst control center. The latest one (Assuming you have 64bit windows because you have 8GB of RAM) is 12.2

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

Solution 2

The hdmi is shared with one of the dvi ports. You must use all three inputs. The third being the DisplayPort or use a converter for MiniDisplayPort to DVI to get your other DVI into it.

E.g. (one of the 2 hdmi/dvi), one dvi, one display port)

I also believe you need to have eyefinity installed and the converter needs to be an active converter, not passive.

(Don't have the card, hope this helps)

Comments

[RobotHumans]

idk what the problem is as I don't have your particular card. I got a really generic card from VisionTek and it works fine with 3

[kinokijuf]

Try to use the Windows display settings instead of third-party programs. Catalyst may not support your video card.

[HaydnWVN]

I have a feeling that although there are multiple ports, only 2 can be active at once... Or the HDMI is shared with the MDP, have you tried using the 2x DVI and 1 HDMI?

[RobotHumans]

On my card I can have 2 DVI and a displaylink port all active at once through catalyst. I haven't tested the fourth port as hdmi yet. On an interesting note, getting it to play nicely on recent linux has been a PITA for me...so I guess you take the wins where you can get them.

[user3490]

Which version of windows are you using? If it's XP or older you won't be able to enable eyefinity groups. Windows 7 is required.

[Aaron Lee]

This is still a big issue, I've now updated the graphics card (which turned out to be faulty) purchased and installed an 850w PSU, so I know it has enough direct power, but now, I have them connected the same, it still doesn't allow 3x1 Eyefinity groups, someone please help.