4 monitors on the HD6970

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calzoned

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Dec 3, 2012
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Hello everyone,

I was seeking some input on an issue I've run into regarding having multiple dispalys (4) operate on a single Radeon 6970. The card itself has (1) DP, (1) HDMI, and (2) DVI outputs.

Currently I can only get 2 monitors to be active at once. My boss is adamant he has 4. He doesn't do anything graphic intensive, so I assume this beast of a card should be able to handle it. I think he's willing to shell out a few bucks to make this happen, so if an active adapter is needed that's not a problem. I just have no clue what to look for in this realm of IT

Thank you and best regards.
 
Need some more info
What 6970 card do you have exactly?
What size screen/resolution are you going to be using?

I have 6950's in my system and to be able to run 3 screens from one card, I had to pickup an active mini display port to DVI adapter. Below is a link to it, but looks like it's been discontinued.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814998050

I've never tried 4 screens from one card, I'd assume you'd need 2 of those adapters
 
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Your HD6970 only supports 3 monitors because it only has one DP output. You can only use 2 of the DVD/HDMI outputs at one time.

The HD6970 does support upto 6 monitors, but requires a model with more DP outputs.

You can always add another video card for ~$30, like a HD5450, for more monitors.
 
Is your card listed as a card to handle 4 screens at a time? :confused:

I'm pretty sure in order to do this you will need:
1 DVI
1 DVI / HDMI
2 MINI DP / 2 DP

as for the Mini DP depending on your monitor + resolution your aiming for will determine weather you need a single or dual active display port adapter

Most cards have 1 DVI and the HDMI signal shared meaning only one can be used.
 
Silly question: what operating system are you using? Windows XP doesn't support more than 2 displays on a HD6970.
 
Apologies for not including more pertinent information. Thank you very much for the replies.

The operating system is Win 7 Pro and I have mounted 4 22" Asus LCDs to a 2x2 mount. They each run at 1680x1050

So there's only 1 DisplayPort which means I will be limited to a maximum of 3 outputs. Shoot. Dumb question, but would I be able to use the integrated gfx card in conjunction with the 6970 to get the 4th display?

How about adding an additional PCI card, as suggested? Or does it have to be PCI-e? Unfortunately there is only 1 expansion slot for PCI-e, although I've heard one can cut the back end of the plastic on the motherboard itself and 1x slots will support the card, but it will be throttled downed to 1x speed due to the lack of bandwidth.

Also, I have one of these Matrox DualHead2Gos on hand. Would it be of any help?

I truly appreciate the assistance. I will return the favor in other subforums related to my areas of expertise! :D
 
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I am almost sure this will not work.
I have 4 6970's in my system and I think at one point I might of tried this to get 3 monitors + projector and had no luck...
But Just in Case I am wrong I don't think it will give you what your looking for...
IF by some chance this will work you will not be in Eyefinity setup. it would end up as 3 monitors sharing a screen and the 4th monitor just cloning 1 of the 3 monitor displays since the discreet is not a Eyefinity card.
 
calzoned said:
Here is the model I have-
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4960997

I mean, it says support for up to 6 displays. I bit curious to how that works.
Click to expand...

With chainlinking monitors, so 6 displays is "supported". Or HD6970 with more DP outputs have no issue displaying 6 monitors (the chipset supports it). There was supposely going to be a splitting adapter too, but I dont think it was ever released and neither option is cost effective. Use the onbaord gpu or an extra pci video card.
 
I assumed your card had the same outputs as my xfx 6950s, I was wrong :(
I'd grab a cheap PCI card if the onboard video card doesn't work.
 
You didn't say what motherboard/CPU you have so I can't judge the onboard GPU situation.

You can alter the x1 slot as you said - I did it myself years ago when I was running 6 monitors from 3 cards. I don't recommend it unless the motherboard is out of warranty for obvious reasons. The x1 is only a bottleneck if you plan on going CrossFire. If you are treating the monitors as discrete surfaces instead of SLS then you don't have to worry about Eyefinity and you can use whatever GPU you can fit into your computer, even a USB adapter.
 
Ok guys, I went ahead and tried a few of your suggestions. Thank you very much for the assistance. Progress has been made, however, I still am not able to get the 4th monitor to display. I set the onboard GPU to "always on" in the BIOS and that did the trick. I am now able to successfully get a signal to a monitor via the onboard VGA. So I now have 3 out of the 4 monitors active, which was a relief. 2 monitors are connected to the DVI ports on the GPU, plus one connected to the VGA on the onboard VGA.

Per ClearM4's suggestion, I purchased an Active DP > DVI adapter and hooked that up to he DP on the GPU. The monitor flashes and Windows recognizes it, however there is no display.

Any ideas why it would be receiving a signal with no output? I'm stumped. Logically, it should work right?
 
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Would the better solution be to obtain a PCI card? At that point, running through 3 GPUs to obtain 4 monitors would seem like an awful waste.
 
calzoned said:
Would the better solution be to obtain a PCI card? At that point, running through 3 GPUs to obtain 4 monitors would seem like an awful waste.
Click to expand...

I'd think so. So long as he's not gaming on the extra screens/playing back loads of HD video, even a simple PCI card should do the trick. I've got a nvidia 6200 in my dad's old PC but I will warn you that anything above 1280x1024 is going to start seeing some serious performance hits with this particular PCI card. I'd recommend getting something like this for running a couple extra displays:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139070
 
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