New AMD Drivers Coming July 31st

solidnickel said:
@ the unknown one, what games are you having issues with micro stutter now outside of directx 9?
Click to expand...
All games, since this driver still doesn't work for Eyefinity, which is what my HD 6970 was hooked up to.

The ones I'm having the worst time with, even on a single screen + single card, are Bethesda games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Horrible hitching every second or so. Already mentioned these titles several times.

solidnickel said:
I think it should come down to what your brain processes when looking at the game on screen vs fixating on numbers not visible to the naked eye, get my point?
Click to expand...
Like I said, you're missing the point I'm making. Not complaining about the end result (when it works), I'm taking issue with the implementation.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
But you still haven't said why. There's a reason for it other than 'Nvidia hates you'. I know people have done 3x2560x1600 on Nvidia.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're asking, but I'll try to answer it. Nvidia surround simply DOES NOT WORK unless you have 3 monitors that are basically the exact same model, built by the same slave labor on the same day under a blood moon. Where as Eyefinity works on pretty much any combination of monitors as long as they have the same resolution. So my point is, nvidia multiscreen is junk.
 
veedubfreak said:
I'm not sure what you're asking, but I'll try to answer it. Nvidia surround simply DOES NOT WORK unless you have 3 monitors that are basically the exact same model, built by the same slave labor on the same day under a blood moon. Where as Eyefinity works on pretty much any combination of monitors as long as they have the same resolution. So my point is, nvidia multiscreen is junk.
Click to expand...

I'm asking, what evidence do you have other than the issues you're having with your setup?

I'm not doubting your experience, I do believe you- but I haven't seen any evidence elsewhere of such an issue, and I'm inclined to believe that your issue has to do with using three monitors that require dual-channel DVI. Someone using three different 1080p monitors would likely have better success, for example.
 
veedubfreak said:
Where as Eyefinity works on pretty much any combination of monitors as long as they have the same resolution.
<snip>
So my point is, nvidia multiscreen is junk.
Click to expand...
Really depends on your hardware configuration, I suppose. I've had far more trouble with AMD/Eyefinity and multiple monitors than I've had with Nvidia/Surround. (Full discolsure: I've been using Eyefinity since day-one, version-one. I jumped to Surround after it had already matured)

On the AMD side of things: Bezel correction doesn't like to show up for Eyefinity groups with mismatched monitors. Portrait-Eyefinity modes don't like to show up for Eyefinity groups with mismatched monitors either. Then there's the matter of Eyefinity on 2x DVI + 1x DisplayPort causing tearing in V-Synced content on the DisplayPort monitor.

And since I was forced to use at least one DisplayPort to get Eyefinity going, I've also dealt with DisplayPort voltage issues on both an HD 5850 and an HD 6970. I have an active DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter that both cards like to lose sync with at random (causing the monitor to flicker, blink or just go into power-save mode). When I upgraded my monitors I made sure they all had native DisplayPort inputs so I could avoid using an active adapter, which helped prevent the sync issues.

I know what you're thinking, bad adapter... nope, I'm using that very same adapter right now with a GTX 780 and it's working flawlessly.

The way I was going, I would have eventually ended up with a non-reference HD 7970 (one with 3x DisplayPort outputs to avoid the V-Sync issue) to drive three matched monitors with native DisplayPort... just to (hopefully) solve all my Eyefinity issues.

You can call Nvidia Surround "junk" all you want, it suffers from a noticeable lack of flexibility when it comes to the number of combinations in which displays can be grouped, but Eyefinity is hardly perfect...
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
IdiotInCharge said:
I'm asking, what evidence do you have other than the issues you're having with your setup?

I'm not doubting your experience, I do believe you- but I haven't seen any evidence elsewhere of such an issue, and I'm inclined to believe that your issue has to do with using three monitors that require dual-channel DVI. Someone using three different 1080p monitors would likely have better success, for example.
Click to expand...

No, he's right about this. In sone instances, people have foubd some monitors that work fine together, but nVidia surround requires: same resolution, same sync polarity, and all digital inputs (no vga for you). And even with the above requirements, you can still have issues. On surround, the only stable setup is 3 identical monitors.
 
suiken_2mieu said:
No, he's right about this. In sone instances, people have foubd some monitors that work fine together, but nVidia surround requires: same resolution, same sync polarity, and all digital inputs (no vga for you). And even with the above requirements, you can still have issues. On surround, the only stable setup is 3 identical monitors.
Click to expand...

That's something I wasn't aware of, thanks!

Though other than the 'not identical monitors' issue, I don't see a reason for his setup to not work. Given that Surround works for a large number of people, I'm more inclined to believe that his issue is more of a quirk with his setup than an actual wide-spread fault, and I kind of expected him to be able to respond with the offending quirk; his lack of response leads me to suspect that he might have just given up on the setup without putting significant effort in finding a solution.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
That's something I wasn't aware of, thanks!

Though other than the 'not identical monitors' issue, I don't see a reason for his setup to not work. Given that Surround works for a large number of people, I'm more inclined to believe that his issue is more of a quirk with his setup than an actual wide-spread fault, and I kind of expected him to be able to respond with the offending quirk; his lack of response leads me to suspect that he might have just given up on the setup without putting significant effort in finding a solution.
Click to expand...
To fix his situation, he'd either need an edid mask (safe) or reflash the edid on the monitor so that each had the same sync polarity and resolution. Though he may have to change the model number too, which would require an edid flash (which could brick the input on the monitor).
 
suiken_2mieu said:
To fix his situation, he'd either need an edid mask (safe) or reflash the edid on the monitor so that each had the same sync polarity and resolution. Though he may have to change the model number too, which would require an edid flash (which could brick the input on the monitor).
Click to expand...

That sounds like fun. So the Nvidia driver is just refusing to attempt building the display array because it sees EDID's it doesn't like?
 
techrat said:
Which is why I won't buy nVidia again. Multiple generations of cards are affected by a DX bug that casues the driver to crash in many games, mostly Valve based ones. The thread about it on the Steam forums is one of the oldest, longest threads ever. nVidia is only just NOW attempting to track down the cause of the crash... 3+ years after it was first discovered.

Face it, both camps have had their issues.
Click to expand...

I had this shit on my GTX 260, I think it got introduced around the time they added multi-threading to the engine... so 2007? Happened in basically all of their games at random.

Fucking annoying.
 
socK said:
I had this shit on my GTX 260, I think it got introduced around the time they added multi-threading to the engine... so 2007? Happened in basically all of their games at random.

Fucking annoying.
Click to expand...

I think the simple fix was just to turn off multi-threaded rendering; it wasn't a big deal. Used plenty of Nvidia cards with Source games- 8800GTX 640MB, GTX260 core 216, GTX570, no real problems.
 
suiken_2mieu said:
To fix his situation, he'd either need an edid mask (safe) or reflash the edid on the monitor so that each had the same sync polarity and resolution. Though he may have to change the model number too, which would require an edid flash (which could brick the input on the monitor).
Click to expand...

I did the edid masking and had the same issues. The problem is simply that I have 3 monitors that were bought or acquired years apart. And the simple fix was to remove the nvidia card and insert an amd card. I spent a solid 6 months and posted on damn near every forum I could find, including evga and nvidia proper. No one could fix the issue, but replacing the card with a 7970 and all 3 screens span perfectly fine. The only problem is that a single 7970 doesn't quite have enough juice to run cryengine 3 games at 12 million pixels.
 
I think I would have traded out monitors first, personally. Getting multiple monitors from different manufactures to calibrate the same is nearly impossible (even with dedicated color calibration hardware). As an added bonus, 30" monitors don't devalue anywhere near as fast as graphics cards, so you could have sold the old mismatched ones without taking much of a loss.

Would have fixed your issues with mismatched sync polarity while also giving you a better picture overall. You also wouldn't have to deal with the potential issues that both Eyefinity and Surround can experience on mismatched monitors.

Edit: You probably only needed to swap one of the displays to fix all your problems. Your Dell U3011 and HP LP3065 are both +/-, while the Dell 3007WFPHC is -/+.
 
Last edited:
Unknown-One said:
I think I would have traded out monitors first, personally. Getting multiple monitors from different manufactures to calibrate the same is nearly impossible (even with dedicated color calibration hardware). As an added bonus, 30" monitors don't devalue anywhere near as fast as graphics cards, so you could have sold the old mismatched ones without taking much of a loss.

Would have fixed your issues with mismatched sync polarity while also giving you a better picture overall. You also wouldn't have to deal with the potential issues that both Eyefinity and Surround can experience on mismatched monitors.

Edit: You probably only needed to swap one of the displays to fix all your problems. Your Dell U3011 and HP LP3065 are both +/-, while the Dell 3007WFPHC is -/+.
Click to expand...

Well, video cards are definitely cheaper, so I do see where he's coming from, but thank you for spelling out a potential solution!

To be honest, AMD is in the position again to better supply the market with high-performance GPUs equipped with higher than average memory capacities. It'd be nothing for AMD's partners to ship out HD7970's with 6GB of RAM (they already do in small numbers), and a 12GB HD7990 is just as feasible.

Given that games built for the next generation of consoles will have access to 4GB-6GB of memory for games, it's a good time to capitalize on GPUs with larger memory capacities, and AMD's CFX driver initiative is really pushing them into the forefront of this effort.

I may have to go back to AMD for next-gen games and 4k; hopefully someone will strap a decent blower to one of their top end cards.
 
veedubfreak said:
I did the edid masking and had the same issues. The problem is simply that I have 3 monitors that were bought or acquired years apart. And the simple fix was to remove the nvidia card and insert an amd card. I spent a solid 6 months and posted on damn near every forum I could find, including evga and nvidia proper. No one could fix the issue, but replacing the card with a 7970 and all 3 screens span perfectly fine. The only problem is that a single 7970 doesn't quite have enough juice to run cryengine 3 games at 12 million pixels.
Click to expand...

Neither does 2 (see sig) I have a similar setup. I also acquired my 30"rs over a long time.
 
Unknown-One said:
I think I would have traded out monitors first, personally. Getting multiple monitors from different manufactures to calibrate the same is nearly impossible (even with dedicated color calibration hardware). As an added bonus, 30" monitors don't devalue anywhere near as fast as graphics cards, so you could have sold the old mismatched ones without taking much of a loss.

Would have fixed your issues with mismatched sync polarity while also giving you a better picture overall. You also wouldn't have to deal with the potential issues that both Eyefinity and Surround can experience on mismatched monitors.

Edit: You probably only needed to swap one of the displays to fix all your problems. Your Dell U3011 and HP LP3065 are both +/-, while the Dell 3007WFPHC is -/+.
Click to expand...

I actually did this. I borrowed my 30" hp that is identical to my home hp and removed the 3007 from the equation. Same issue.
 
veedubfreak said:
I actually did this. I borrowed my 30" hp that is identical to my home hp and removed the 3007 from the equation. Same issue.
Click to expand...
Well, I said "probably" not "definitely." Sounds like the remaining Dell was different enough from the HP monitors to screw things up (or the specs on the HP are listed wrong and the sync polarity on them is totally different. The specs were VERY difficult to find in the first place).

The only way to avoid a good number of issues with both Eyefinity and Surround is to use matched displays. I was forced to switch to matched displays long before I switched from Eyefinity to Surround.

suiken_2mieu said:
Basically, non-matching edid's are nVidia's issue.
Click to expand...
AMD's as well, there's a large thread on WSGF about getting bezel correction working on Eyefinity systems with mismatched monitors. If you run into this limitation with your particular monitor combination, the only solution that really seems to work is EDID masking (if the monitors are similar enough to all use the same inf). Otherwise you're stuck with a hobbled Eyefinity setup without bezel correction.
 
Last edited:
Then you got pretty lucky. The odds of getting three screens that are just "off" enough to fail Surround verification but aren't "off" enough to screw up various Eyefnity features are pretty slim.

I'd still want matching screens, though... Fewer headaches, easier to get them all calibrated the same, and the matching bezels sooth my OCD :p
 
Last edited:
I still think that it's utterly retarded that these GPU vendors haven't implemented resolution-independent 3D rendering. They should be able to take the desktop configuration as set by Windows and run with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top