7970 Eyefinity Screen Tearing problem Still Exist?

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Lord_Exodia

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I know this thread is probably a little early. One thing that I hated about the Cayman cards is that most cards had a unavoidable screen tearing on one display if you are using mixed connections with your monitors. E.G. I"m using 2 Mini DP to DVI and 1 DVI and I get tearing. After extensive research I found that this was a hardware limitation on the cards themselves. The only way to avoid this was to run 3 monitors using DP and this was only possible on a rare set of cards. E.G. 6990s Asus Direct Cu2 cards. (Triple Slot)

I see that the 7970s have LESS ports on the card with only a single DVI, 1 HDMI, and 2 Mini DP connections. It seems the Single link DVI was omitted. Does anyone know or has anyone been able to Test if the tearing prolem that plagued Cayman cards still exists on the Tahiti Cards?
 
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I would think the problem will still be there, you have to use identical inputs for all the monitors so this will be an issue with everything that does not have 3+ display port inputs. Gotta go with the 6GB flex edition with multiple DP inputs.


Just to add, some people running a landscape eyefinity setup say the tearing is hard to notice, but people running a portrait setup (me included) say it's obviously there
 
I just posted in a thread at hardwareheaven to see if the reviewer who did their eyefinity crossfire review noticed any tearing as there is currently no way to run 3 similar connections on the card.

Also if Brent wants to chime in here on my thead that would be most appreciated. :D

I really hope they fixed this issue as it's something that can be remedied on the hardware level. Sapphire kind of did it on the flex cards but running 120hz monitors on dual link dvi as required by my monitors are a problem. My only choices were the asus direct cu2 which required 3 slots or ditching my 6950s for a 6990.and a 3rd mini dp to dual link dvi. That solution was very expensive.

Currently I get a tearing on one display so if Kepler is far off I'll still get Tahiti, but to be honest if I had a better choice that gave me the performance I need then I'd jump ship to avoid this tearing.
 
I was wondering the same thing in the thread I made last night. Seems so weird that eyefinity is marketed so much by ati and there's no way to run 3 identical displays on the reference cards.

I think ill grab a 7970 at launch and hook up my center monitor w/dvi, flank it with mini dp to dp connectors, and pick up a 7990 later for trifire and connect all of them to that card with mini dp dp cables.
 
Exodia, I am almost certain the issue will still be there. But remember it is only with VSync on, with Vsync off you just get normal screen tearing on all three screens. ;) I think AMD screwed up again with the outputs. 1x DVI-D and 3x DP would have made much more sense.

I will be waiting for the 6GB Flex cards myself to keep everything display port, not to mention that gives me the option of upgrading to 5x1 120Hz portrait Eyefinity from my current 3x1.
 
Vega said:
Exodia, I am almost certain the issue will still be there. But remember it is only with VSync on, with Vsync off you just get normal screen tearing on all three screens. ;) I think AMD screwed up again with the outputs. 1x DVI-D and 3x DP would have made much more sense.

I will be waiting for the 6GB Flex cards myself to keep everything display port, not to mention that gives me the option of upgrading to 5x1 120Hz portrait Eyefinity from my current 3x1.
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Well, if AMD released the 7900s with 3 miniDP + 1 DVI-D, people would complain about needing a DP/HDMI or DVI/HDMI adapter.

I waiting to see the Sapphire 7970 Flex also, and I hope they make a 12GB 7990 Flex. :D
 
I didnt even realize this was a problem since im coming from the nvidia camp. This might drive me insane. Tearing really bothers me. Can you avoid it by running 2 cards in crossfire?
 
I've noticed tearing with my eyefinity setup, but it really doesn't happen enough to bother me.
 
Astral Abyss said:
I didnt even realize this was a problem since im coming from the nvidia camp. This might drive me insane. Tearing really bothers me. Can you avoid it by running 2 cards in crossfire?
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No, the monitors all need to be run off the same card. So I'm just waiting for a confirmation. I actually posted in a thread here of some guy who bought a card here http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1662199 He's using eyefinity and can confirm this 100%.

Also if Brent J wants to chime in he's more than welcome to, but I'm concerned I wont hear from him until maybe tuesday if that. :(

Cirdan said:
I've noticed tearing with my eyefinity setup, but it really doesn't happen enough to bother me.
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It's rare, but I'm really anal about that kind of stuff, it kills the immersion factor for me when it happens at the wrong times.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
I'm using that driver on my cards and it definitely didn't fix the issue. I'm convinced it's a hardware issue after extensive research.

If you can, can you make a video of you grabbing a window e.g gpu-z and dragging it up and down on each of your 3 displays. From that video I'll be able to tell if the tearing is still there. It happens if you use mix matched connections for your monitors. E.G. 1 HDMI 1 Mini DP and 1 DVI or any combination that is not the same on all 3 which basically is any possible configuration on a 7970 as there are not 3 display ports and those hubs are still not available. I know I'm asking for quite a bit, but not only would I appreciate it, I'm sure the community would find the information very useful as you can tell if you visit my thread and see the people who are also concerned/wondering the same thing.
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So my friend I know exactly what you say about tearing with different signal output.
I had three reference Sapphire HD6950 with this problem and thats why I changed with two Asus 6970 DC II with four DP and of course no problem.
Before this new fresh card HD7970 one of my monitor Dell U2311 lost dp input so I plug my third monitor on DVI port at Asus 6970 DC II.
The phenomenon comes back and the tearing even on desktop was there.
But when installed this driver http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst121Previewdriver.aspx as I told you the tearing disappear.
Now with HD7970 I have connect my monitors with adaptors that came with the card.
First minidp to dp second minidp to dvi and third dvi to dvi.
With that scheme I have no tearing.
There exist an uninstaller program from atiman http://www.mediafire.com/?bzbf9kyk5ymodka that can play with.
I have use it much times and solve many things.
Give it a try.
 
This is a very damn good question. I have bitched about this myself.

I guess this would be a good time for AMD to release an MST Displayport hub. I have been waiting to see those for almost 2 years now.
 
good question, depends if they put another RAMDAC in as I understand it

got the displays down in landscape right now for holiday gaming fun...much less noticable
 
XTF said:
It has the same amount of usable ports.
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Yes that's true because on the Cayman cards the HDMI is shared with the single link DVI, however you could do 2 dvi single link monitors along with a display port whereas on the Tahiit you can't. There is 0 ways to have 3 connections match and if the tearing remained I agree with Vega above in that they should have use 3 mini dp's and omitted the hdmi and added a mini dp to hdmi adapter with the cards.
 
For desktop tearing go here Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization and change theme to Windows 7 Basic and then just open a windows and drag it.
You see tearing ? No. :D
The problem is with Aero Themes.
 
I didn't notice any issues, but I'm using three of the same Display Port connectors with Mini-DP adapters on them, for Eyefinity, its not mixed. I'll keep an eye on this issue in my testing and see what I experience as I do more testing with the 7970.

If you can, elaborate a bit more and describing what "tearing" means to you, so I can look for it in Eyefinity.
 
Brent_Justice said:
I didn't notice any issues, but I'm using three of the same Display Port connectors with Mini-DP adapters on them, for Eyefinity, its not mixed. I'll keep an eye on this issue in my testing and see what I experience as I do more testing with the 7970.

If you can, elaborate a bit more and describing what "tearing" means to you, so I can look for it in Eyefinity.
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Thanks brent, I'm currently at work but I can post a video for you later. You can replicate the issue by grabbing a window e.g. your browser window and dragging it up and down on each of your 3 displays. One of the displays will noticably tear almost like vsync is disabled or worse. It happens during gaming too but it's especially noticeable in portrait eyefinity setups. You don't need 2 cards to do it just simply have 2 display ports and 1 dvi or anything that isn't 3 of the same connection out of the back of the card. The only cards last gen that weren't affected were the 6990 since they had 3 display ports, and the Asus direct cu2 cards that had 3 display ports.

It seems to be an issue related to the difference between display port's frequency and the other output's e.g. dvi/hdmi etc... and the card's inability to sync them togheter properly.
 
It will also be a single well defined screen tear with Vsync on the odd output connected eyefinity display. Not the normal screen tearing all over the place on all displays you would normally find with Vsync off.

It will also be more apparent in portrait eyefinity.
 
Vega said:
It will also be a single well defined screen tear with Vsync on the odd output connected eyefinity display. Not the normal screen tearing all over the place on all displays you would normally find with Vsync off.

It will also be more apparent in portrait eyefinity.
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Actually, when I last was running into it it didn't necessarily have to be the odd output, but rather the output(s) that was not the same type as the "primary" monitor as set in the amd control panel for eyefinity. Depending on what was set, I could see tearing either on just one screen or two.

And yes, it was 1000x worse with portrait eyefinit - looks like half the side of the screen vertically was "shifted off" the other half when you dragged a window over it or had motion in a game.

That being said, I have since swapped my monitor config so I'd be curious to see if what was linked a few posts back did indeed fix this issue. Especially with the off chance of eyefinity 2.0 supporting PLP...sounds very tempting.
 
The tearing is a very bothersome issue for me as well; like the OP said, it's extremely apparent in portrait mode, and a little less so in landscape.

It happens to me on the desktop & in games; Skyrim & BF3 included. I would consider switching to dual 570's or SLI kepler mid-range for the surround because it bothers me.

Also, I have no intention of switching out my 2209wa Ultrasharps to get DP lcds yet. I'm holding out for the 120hz IPS variant with 2560x1440, at which point I'll probably skip the eyefinity/surround altogether and just use a single display.
 
watanabe said:
Am I reading this correctly? The card has 3 mini dp ports? That's all I want...
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Hopefully there will be an option like the Asus DirectCU II cards. I'm using those as they have 4x DP ports and 2x DVI ports. My monitors are all connected via. DP and therefor have no tearing (running landscape as well).
 
I was under the impression the mini DP ports on 7970's could easily do daisy chaining. thus getting 6 displays from 2 mini DP's.

I think that was from the AMD slides.
 
^ with a hub, yes, I don't have a hub, nor have I seen one in retail, yet, but they are supposed to be coming
 
Yeah I just rechecked the slides and they say 1 port 3 displays with Hub, 1 port 3 displays daisy chain.

I'll go read up on the difference. Thanks,
 
Brent_Justice said:
Aha, ok, good info, I'll look for that when I hook up Eyefinity tomorrow on 7970 again, I'm working on 7970 overclocking right now, but I'll look for this issue specifically when I set Eyefinity up again.
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Here is my video. http://vimeo.com/34489126 It's only 25 seconds long but worth a quick look ;)

Notice the left screen specifically. If I switch my primary screen I can get that to appear on the right screen too.

Last 3 seconds or so I threw in a lil site shout out.
 
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Tiporaro said:
Actually, when I last was running into it it didn't necessarily have to be the odd output, but rather the output(s) that was not the same type as the "primary" monitor as set in the amd control panel for eyefinity. Depending on what was set, I could see tearing either on just one screen or two.

And yes, it was 1000x worse with portrait eyefinit - looks like half the side of the screen vertically was "shifted off" the other half when you dragged a window over it or had motion in a game.

That being said, I have since swapped my monitor config so I'd be curious to see if what was linked a few posts back did indeed fix this issue. Especially with the off chance of eyefinity 2.0 supporting PLP...sounds very tempting.
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Ah ya, now that I think about it you could limit the tearing to one screen by setting one of the side monitors as the "primary" display.

Brent_Justice said:
^ with a hub, yes, I don't have a hub, nor have I seen one in retail, yet, but they are supposed to be coming
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Ya, those MST hubs have been promised for going on a couple of years now. I wonder if they have nixed the idea due to their supposed high cost. Last I read they were projected about $150 each, which means in reality closer to $200.

I am also very suspicious about the three displays out of one port claim. Are there any limitations? Is the bandwidth shared? Could you run three 2560x1600 or three 1080P 120Hz screens on one mini-DP? I have my serious doubts.
 
So running Eyefinity using Crossfire can't alleviate the problem by running only the DVI/HDMI ports on both video cards? Or is Eyefinity not like NVSurround where you can use both video cards for your monitor connections?

You'll have to forgive my questions, I've not used ATI/AMD since the x1850. I'm really interested in these 7970s, but I don't want to spend a fortune for a "downgrade" in visual quality.
 
Astral Abyss said:
So running Eyefinity using Crossfire can't alleviate the problem by running only the DVI/HDMI ports on both video cards? Or is Eyefinity not like NVSurround where you can use both video cards for your monitor connections?
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With Crossfire, all monitor connections have to be made to one card.
 
Astral Abyss said:
So running Eyefinity using Crossfire can't alleviate the problem by running only the DVI/HDMI ports on both video cards? Or is Eyefinity not like NVSurround where you can use both video cards for your monitor connections?

You'll have to forgive my questions, I've not used ATI/AMD since the x1850. I'm really interested in these 7970s, but I don't want to spend a fortune for a "downgrade" in visual quality.
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No, as I said before ALL the monitors that you use for your eyefinity setup must be connected to only ONE of the cards. You can't connect SOME on one card and SOME on the other.

There currently is no way to get a configuration of 3 of the same output on the reference cards, however I'm not sure the tearing is there yet. I'm waiting for confirmation from a few people to let me know.
 
Lord_Exodia said:
No, as I said before ALL the monitors that you use for your eyefinity setup must be connected to only ONE of the cards. You can't connect SOME on one card and SOME on the other.

There currently is no way to get a configuration of 3 of the same output on the reference cards, however I'm not sure the tearing is there yet. I'm waiting for confirmation from a few people to let me know.
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Did anyone at AMD/ATI ever think maybe we don't need a rainbow of ports on the video cards since probably the VAST majority of people are perfectly happy using DVI? Or at least give me HDMI so I can just use a cheap $2 connector to convert the signal to DVI. What a pain in the ass and totally unnecessary.
 
DP is required for the Eyefinity technology as its based on the Displayport Spec not requiring separate RAMDACs for each monitor

HDMI/DVI is required for legacy support for people who dont have DP monitors or are using classic 2 monitor setups. Each Legacy port requires its own RAMDAC.

4 DP + 2 Legacy = 6 total monitors.

No way to avoid the Rainbow.

Most people are probobly only using 3 montors, so 3 Mini-DP + 1 legacy HDMI/DVI i would think would be a better mix.

However you are wasting a Legacy RAMDAC by not including the 2nd Legacy port, hense the dilema the designers have.
 
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The Mac said:
No way to avoid the Rainbow.
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Sure you can. A few manufacturers have already done it with Eyefinity 6 versions of cards. Put all miniDP ports on the card, then include a few legacy adapter cables. Then you get the ability to connect up to 6 monitors and the flexibility to use whatever connector type you want.
 
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