Best Way to Use 3 Monitors with 780G?

[bentech]

Here I am with another question.

I have an AMD 780G (ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics) chipset motherboard and need to run three monitors. The chipset graphics only support two monitors (HDMI + VGA).

So, what is the best hybrid crossfire card that is compatible with the 780G? Or, would it be better/cheaper to ignore the hybrid idea on such an old board and go with another type of video card? A small boost in FPS (gaming) would be nice, but low price (used OK) and power consumption are more important factors.

Thanks for any tips. The Wikipedia entry for the 780G and ATI Hybrid technology was too confusing as to what might work these days with such an old motherboard.

 

[KingFatty]

I'd suggest getting a cheap video card that supports triple monitor eyefinity, with passable gaming performance and HD video performance. maybe something like a 5770 or 6850 if you find a cheap deal after rebate. Connect all 3 monitors to that card, and just disable the on-board video, and use the eyefinity supported by the new GPU that is vastly more powerful than the on-board video to where it is not a comparison. Hybrid crossfire will increase performance if you can find a compatible card, but even then, that's like saying you are increasing the performance of a snail by putting salt on it. But if you get a 5770, then the stand-alone eyefinity on that is like a galloping horse compared to the snail, even though you aren't doing hybrid eyefinity and letting the power of the snail go to waste by disabling the on-board graphics.

Another cheaper option is you could continue to use your motherboard graphics and buy a very inexpensive video card like the 5450 that is usually $20 after rebate (as low as $5 after rebate) or a similarly priced Nvidia card (but I'd suggest sticking with the same brand of video card as your on-board so you only have to install one set of video card drivers to support both cards). then run both cards at the same time, not a bad solution for cheap. But 3D games will not be as eye-pleasing compared to a more powerful card, you'll have to turn down the settings etc. But, this triple-monitor solution will probably save a bit of electricity over the years if you leave your computer on all the time, compared to a more powerful video card.

I watched my kill-a-watt meter and used dual monitors on my computer's on-board video card (890GX with a 4290 graphics, a few generations more recent than yours) and my PC idled around 50 watts. When I plugged in a 5850 video card to power 3 monitors, the computer would idle around 90 watts. So that's 40 extra watts difference. The story is very different at full load, but that's not a fair comparison as I can do things with an overclocked 5850 that I could never manage with just the onboard video card.

Also check youtube, you can find videos of people using a specific video card to do a specific task like playing a game etc. to give you an idea of how good/bad a particular application will look.

 

[Vesku]

If you do decide to keep using your integrated graphics, double check that your motherboard allows integrated+PCIe operation. Most will but I had at least one 790GX that did not.

 

[bentech]

Thank you for the detailed info! It gives me something to start looking into at least. My system with the kill-a-watt is idle @ 45 watts. (4850e/780g/a few HDDs)

Just hoping to get a bit more out of the graphics subsystem.

The system is on 24/7 so it all adds up at 17 cents/KWH.

 

[Icecold]

Not sure about your motherboard, but my MSI 760G supports surround view which lets you add a discreet card and use the integrated graphics + discreet card graphics. I succesfully ran 3 monitors with it and could have added a fourth if I wanted to. As far as I can tell your motherboard should support it too. I used an ATI 4850 graphics card with it but i'm sure you could use something that uses less power and is cheaper.

 

[bentech]

I'm not 100% sure what my MB supports. It is a nice board, an MSI KA780G. I'll have to research if MSI says whether it supports integrated + discrete graphics or not.

 

[bentech]

I looked through the manual and Google'd, but no luck finding out if this particular MB supports integrated + discrete graphics. Does anyone here know it would work, and if so, what limitations do I have as far as cheap ATI/AMD cards to purchase? The 5770 looks nice, but is a bit more than I wanted to spend. After all, it's a gaming card, and I don't game that much.

 

[KingFatty]

maybe look at the 6450, it should have decent performance and allow use in some gaming situations, with low power draw. I think I saw it for $20 after rebate recently on Newegg.

Can you borrow a video card from someone, then you can throw it into your machine and see what happens, adjust the settings to see if you can get the video card and the onboard graphics to work at the same time. Or, just buy one card, test, and then if it doesn't work, buy a 2nd card. This would be best if the card is very cheap after rebate, but only if you can qualify for two rebates (I don't think so as they limit per household typically).

 

[bentech]

Interesting that the 6450 does not support Eyefinity without an active displayport adapter, and the older 5450 does, at least according to: http://www.amd.com/us/products/tech...ology/how-to/Pages/faqs.aspx#products-support

I wonder why they dropped support on their low-end cards?

 

[ther00kie16]

No cards other than Sapphire's flex cards supported eyefinity without an active adapter, except for using a passive dp -> vga adapter but that wasn't perfect I seem to recall. So if it doesn't have displayport and isn't a flex card, it won't support 3 monitors.

 

[KingFatty]

Interesting that the 6450 does not support Eyefinity without an active displayport adapter, and the older 5450 does, at least according to: http://www.amd.com/us/products/tech...ology/how-to/Pages/faqs.aspx#products-support

I wonder why they dropped support on their low-end cards?

The 6450 can support eyefinity see http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/amd-radeon-hd-6000/hd-6450/pages/amd-radeon-hd-6450-overview.aspx#4

I think the problem is the list you were looking at was compiled before the 6450 existed, and AMD didn't bother to update the list. They often have outdated info on older pages that is not dynamically updated.

I got my active displayport adapter for under $30, the thing is it's single-link active that doesn't need its own power supply, so it is not intended for resolutions above around 1920x1200 (where you'd need a dual-link instead that uses it's own power source).

I think on the 5450 and 6450 cards, they can have different features enabled/disabled depending on the manufacturer etc. As an example, you could get a 5450 with all-passive cooling or with an active fan, with or without overclocking, with DDR2 or DDR3, with displayport or without displayport, etc. etc.

Edit: actually, the 6450 card may support up to 4 monitors all by itself according to the AMD link I provided where it says:

AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology
Native support for up to 3 simultaneous displays
Up to 4 displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport
Independent resolutions, refresh rates, color controls, and video overlays
Display grouping
Combine multiple displays to behave like a single large display

 

[Vesku]

A Newegg user claimed to be running 2 monitors on his 4870 and his TV off the integrated, for your MSI board. YMMV, but it seems it isn't among one of the few gimped boards.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

On page 2-22 of the manual it says, "when hybrid crossfireX is enabled. GPU accelerated physics is automatically disabled in the configuration as are all displays except the one used by Hybrid CrossfireX."

That tells me you are limited to the display connections on the card you install.

 

[Vesku]

For hybrid crossfireX, doesn't translate to 2 monitors on a dedicated GPU and 1 on the integrated without attempting crossfirex. I've had that exact setup in the past on a 760G board, 2 monitors on a GTS 450 and 1 on the integrated. But the Asrock 790GX I have will disable integrated whenever I plugged in a dedicated card (no hybrid xfire tried) with no option to force it to stay enabled.

 

[bentech]

It sounds like the least expensive option, without purchasing adapters and such would be to get a cheap PCI-E card (AMD of course, I smell a BSOD coming if I tried to install both Nvidia and AMD display drivers on XP) and hope it will work alongside the enabled 780G graphics while leaving hybrid crossfire disabled. I don't like rebates much so I'll be hunting second hand. Thanks all! I'll come back and update the thread when I have something installed and working / not working.

 

[ther00kie16]

Well, if you are going to get it for some serious gaming, new cards are the way to go since older cards typically won't give you better performance/$ ratio unless you get a terrific deal.

Also, hybrid crossfire was only with cards of the same generation (3450?). I remember reading people using ATi and nVidia cards together years ago so mixing shouldn't cause an issue.

 

[bentech]

I intend to avoid the hybrid crossfire altogether. That way I can choose just about any card. I might have an old 6600 GT but that's about it on the PCI-E. Most of my stuff is much older than that. Still, I consider it pretty risky to install both display drivers simultaneously. I think it's worth a few bucks to avoid doing that.

 

[KingFatty]

On page 2-22 of the manual it says, "when hybrid crossfireX is enabled. GPU accelerated physics is automatically disabled in the configuration as are all displays except the one used by Hybrid CrossfireX."

That tells me you are limited to the display connections on the card you install.

But only when using Hybrid CrossfireX - we still don't know if the limitation extends beyond that to non-crossfire uses. that will depend on the BIOS/motherboard and how the integrated graphics are implemented.

The OP does not appear to intend to use hybrid crossfire, so this shouldn't be an issue for him and should come down to his mobo.

We know that other motherboards do support simultaneous multi-gpu use of integrate/onboard video GPU and discrete video card GPU, and even offer BIOS settings to enable/disable/auto the dual GPU support. But the OPs mobo user manual appears to be silent on this issue. but even if the manual said one thing, it's still possible that a later BIOS update added the support. We'll have to see when the OP eventually tests this out.

 

[bentech]

While I'm looking for cheap-o video cards, I have another question! I will be using just one monitor at a time. I think responders to this thread thought I'd have all three on at once. Does that make a difference in terms of my options?

Right now I have profiles set up to switch monitors in CCC. I'd just like to add a third and leave it permanently hooked up to switch to conveniently with a keyboard shortcut as I'm doing now. Kind of a multi-zone monitor setup.

It seems that in the past I've tried hooking up all three ports at once on the 780G and it does not recognize the DVI or HDMI ports when both are hooked up. The VGA is always OK. This is normal for that chip, but what about others?

 

[KingFatty]

Hmm never tested that usage of three monitors where only one is used at a time. I bet that opens more options. Perhaps your integrated graphics is hardware-limited to prevent use of monitors when physically connected, sounds like you've tested that already. If so, what about a video switch to physically switch between two of the 3 monitors (effectively disconnecting one or the other physically at the switch).

 

[ther00kie16]

I've had hdmi and dvi both hooked up to a 690g and it was fussy about switching. It's certainly doable so I'd say try it.

 

[bentech]

Well, I tried hooking up a VGA monitor to the DVI port on the 780G. The DVI - VGA adapter did not fit. On closer inspection, it seems that, for some mysterious reason, MSI put a DVI-D connector on there. My adapters are DVI-I. So, I tried to modify one of my DVI-I adapters to fit by clipping the four pins around the long prong. Then it fit. But, when connecting two known-good VGA monitors to it, there was no signal, no matter what I did in CCC as far as detecting and enabling the monitor. I also tried setting the resolution and refresh rate low enough to work with any display. I suppose I would have to get a DVI-D to VGA adapter to pursue this further. Or, the DVI port on the MB may be dead.

 

[bentech]

Ah yes, regarding my above post, DVI-D does not have an analog signal, so that certainly explains why a simple adapter mod would not work as I clipped the four analog pins off to make it fit physically. I suppose an active adapter would be required. Or, perhaps a DVI-D to HDMI cable might work with another monitor I have. (I do not have this cable though.)

 

[KingFatty]

There are cheap cables at places like Fry's or Microcenter where you can just pick one that is DVI-D or not, whether to include the extra pins or not to fit in the particular DVI port.

 

[ther00kie16]

You'll have to check specs but I remember that you couldn't drive 2 digital signals with those generations of integrated graphics. Don't know about 2 analog signals though.