Eyefinity Problem

[Dmac122383]

I just got my new monitors and running my eyefinity set up but I have a huge problem.

no matter what game I try to play I get unbelievable slow studdering and choppiness. Its basically a slide show. Even trying to navigate thru the game menus everything is slow. Nothing is playable. I did a benchmark on Batman AA and got an average of 6 fps and a max of 8fps.


I've updated my drivers and looked thru the catalyst control center for any possible changes I could make. I checked all my gpu clocks thru msi afterburner to make sure the gpu wasnt "stuck" in 2D mode. My clocks were fine and I was utilizing ~80% of the gpu and using ~1gb of vram

In 2d mode or just using the 5760x1080 resolution for web browsing, opening files, and even watching youtube videos everything is perfect, just and 3D applications slow down to a slide show.

I have 3 Asus VH236H monitors. I'm using an Active mini display port to DVI adapter, a DVI, and a HDMI for my connections.

My hardware is:
AMD pII x6 1090T
G.Skill Ripjaws X ddr3 1600mhz
Crucial M4 128gb SSD
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO Mobo
Corsair 650tx power supply
XFX 6970

I had the computer and videocard overclocked, but just for trouble shooting purposes I returned everything to default. If I try to play games on any of the single monitors, the game runs flawless like before.

Any info or recommendations would be great I'd love to be able to use these monitors to game with (been waiting all week to game on eyefinity)

Thank you

 

[qbanb8582]

Have you tried lowering the settings? Does it affect the framerate?

 

[Dmac122383]

I've tried lowering the eyefinity resolution in game, and turning every setting all the way down in all games. Even doing a benchmark using Furmark I get terrible low fps. In Furmark I've used extremely low resolutions all the way upto 1920x1080 and 5760x1080 and I get bad fps across the board.

The games I've tried at lowest settings are;
Batman AA
Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
Darkspore
Magicka
Darksiders
Borderlands

I just un-installed amd catalyst drivers and re-installed, did a windows update also. The only thing that makes a difference is when I disable eyefinity and use one monitor.

 

[qbanb8582]

Have you tried updating your bios do you have the chipset drivers installed? Probably won't make a difference.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Wow this issue makes no sense. So to be clear your system was running fine with drivers and everything since you had the cards, the only thing you did was add the monitors?

Also have you tried using the older set of drivers 11.10 etc? Try killing any and all unnecessary processes, disable and close msi afterburner or any program like that.

 

[Dmac122383]

My system ran perfectly before adding extra monitors. If I run anything on 1 monitor everything is smooth and perfect like it should be, as soon as I try to play a game using eyefinity performance slows right down to ~5 fps on every game.

I've tried several catalyst driver packs, updated windows, made sure my mobo drivers/bios are up to date. Un installed msi afterburner and radeon pro just incase they were doing something weird with the videocard.

 

[seemlessthunder]

I also just setup eyefinity on tri-monitors. It's awful and seems like no games really support it well. The ones that display ok don't take nice to handling the camera with it (moving/rotating). The others stretch everything out and just make it look like crap. You get marginal extra real-estate, but it's all stretched out on your side monitors so it looks like barf since most people have their monitors set up roughly like a flat plane in front of them instead of around the sides of their head. I dislike it so much I'm probably going to just sell the monitors I got to do it with.

Fish eye is lame and there's no good reason to have it on tri-monitor setups. Eyefinity's been around long enough that it should be supported by now without the gimmicks.

 

[Gorankar]

There is something wonky going on, just not sure what.

Sig rig 3, before adding the second 5870, was able to play Batman AA, Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, and Borderlands, at medium to high settings at 5780x1080 no problem. OP's setup should be able to do better than that.

I also just setup eyefinity on tri-monitors. It's awful and seems like no games really support it well. The ones that display ok don't take nice to handling the camera with it (moving/rotating). The others stretch everything out and just make it look like crap. You get marginal extra real-estate, but it's all stretched out on your side monitors so it looks like barf since most people have their monitors set up roughly like a flat plane in front of them instead of around the sides of their head. I dislike it so much I'm probably going to just sell the monitors I got to do it with.

Fish eye is lame and there's no good reason to have it on tri-monitor setups. Eyefinity's been around long enough that it should be supported by now without the gimmicks.

WSGF is my friend. It does take some tweaking sometimes but, Eyefinity/Surround is well worth it to me. Sorry you did not enjoy your experience with it.

 

[magoo]

I would try the following......my suspicion is that the active adapter is the culprit.

Run a series of single monitor tests. DVI output and the DP output, to a single monitor. Alternate monitors and also change the position of the GPUs between master and slave.
My guess is your adapter is FUBAR'd.

 

[Dmac122383]

Well I got the problem "fixed" and I am able to play games in eyefinity with the 5760x1080 resolution fine.

I ending up downloading and installing several catalyst drivers packs from 11.5 to current 11.10 and also testing each monitor on different outputs and each monitor on the dvi-display port adapter. After doing all that I was still having issues with all games getting ~5fps no matter what settings. So I gave up for the night, then the next day I fired up the pc and monitors and tried some games and everything is working as it should.

So I guess the problem fixed itself somehow, thank you all for your tips and info on this problem.

The only issue I'm still having (small issue) is in World of Warcraft I unable to select the correct 5760x1080 resolution in game. I have to use 1920x1080 in fullscreen window mode but it properly is displayed across the 3 monitors as its should. And sometimes while running WoW in Eyefinity I'll look at my VRAM usage using Afterburners OSD and I will only be utilizing ~500mb of VRAM and getting terrible fps, but then if I restart the game the problem usually goes away.

 

[drlawyer]

For your Warcraft issue, I'm betting that you have DirectX 11 enabled; WoW + Eyefinity + DirectX 11 don't play well together. Your best bet is to set your in-game settings in Warcraft to DirectX 9 - this will allow you to select the current display setting resident on your desktop.

 

[Dmac122383]

Drlawyer you were right, WoW was in DX11 mode. I havent played around with it yet but from what I've read and experienced in the past is WoW gets a decent performance boost in fps with DX11 enabled so I'm unsure if I'd be better off keeping my current settings vs changing to DX9. Does anyone know which would give better results?

Current Settings:
DX11 Enabled - Windowed Mode (Fullscreen) - 1920x1080 (WoW ingame video setting) resolution spanning the desktop resolution of 5760x1080

or

DX9 Enabled - Fullscreen Mode - Resolution set to 5760x1080 ingame WoW video settings

 

[Lord_Exodia]

Drlawyer you were right, WoW was in DX11 mode. I havent played around with it yet but from what I've read and experienced in the past is WoW gets a decent performance boost in fps with DX11 enabled so I'm unsure if I'd be better off keeping my current settings vs changing to DX9. Does anyone know which would give better results?

Current Settings:
DX11 Enabled - Windowed Mode (Fullscreen) - 1920x1080 (WoW ingame video setting) resolution spanning the desktop resolution of 5760x1080

or

DX9 Enabled - Fullscreen Mode - Resolution set to 5760x1080 ingame WoW video settings

Although your issue is fixed and your working out game issues now, I would seriously consider doing what magoo suggested about 2 or 3 posts ago. If this issue resurfaces in a week or 2 your gonna get super annoyed, so I'd try to narrow down what could have been going on, and if it is your adapter, hopefully you can exchange it now. I know your thinking that it's working now and you don't want to mess with it because your afraid it'll only come back and worse not go away but that's a tough call your going to have to decide. I would do the troubleshooting but I wouldn't blame you if you decided to pass, I just don't like uncertainty. If a game isn't getting the performance I think it should I'll forever have that doubt in the back of my mind nagging me with me thinking "is my setup really working right?"

 

[Dmac122383]

I have tried testing the display port adapter on each monitor separately and in multi monitor configurations and also changing dvi/hdmi output positions on the videocard to try to isolate the problem and narror it down, but I'm unable to replicate the original problem. Who knows maybe I had something set incorrectly then went back and changed it unknowingly. Hopefully things stay working and I dont have to worry about the problem coming back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Lord_Exodia]

I have tried testing the display port adapter on each monitor separately and in multi monitor configurations and also changing dvi/hdmi output positions on the videocard to try to isolate the problem and narror it down, but I'm unable to replicate the original problem. Who knows maybe I had something set incorrectly then went back and changed it unknowingly. Hopefully things stay working and I dont have to worry about the problem coming back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, ok forget it then. Enjoy the setup and don't look back.