R9 290 MST-Hub flickering issue

[Ashoka]

Hey there.

I am new here and I have a problem with the driver of my graphic card (or my monitors).

I am using:
* R9 290 (2x DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2) [max. 6 monitors]
* Three AOC i2269vwm 21.5'' monitors (VGA, 2x HDMI (1x MHL), DisplayPort)
* A Club 3D MST-Hub (CSV-5300)
* Windows 8.1 64-bit (and/or Linux Mint 17.1)

The monitors are connected via the MST-hub with my graphic card. They have a max. resolution of 1920x1080. So theoretically I can connect all 3 monitors via the MST-hub with my PC and play at maximum resolution, because I do not exceed the bandwidth of the DP 1.2.

But if I use the setup described above, there occurs some kind of flickering, especially in the top left corner of every monitor. Additionally the monitors go black at random.

At first installed the current driver from AMD (14.20) and I also tried the beta driver, but it did not help. I uninstalled every old driver with the Display Driver Uninstaller. I tried this on Windows and Linux. Also if I only plug one single monitor into the HUB, the flickering occurs. But some strange things happened.

On Windows: If no driver was installed, the native resolution was set to 800x600 I think. There no flickering occurred. But if I install the driver and set the resolution to 1920x1080 the flickering started. Also reducing the frequency from 60Hz to 50Hz reduces the frequency of the flickering. At lower resolution with just one monitor in the hub, the flickering also stopped.

On Linux: Plugging the MST-Hub into the PC with one monitor attached and NO driver installed, the native resolution was 1920x1080, but without flickering. This lead me to the conclusion, that the hub does not cause this problem at higher resolutions.

I think this is mainly a problem of the driver. I also tried the MST-hub on the PC of my sister (freshly installed Windows 8.1 64-bit), installed the latest AMD driver and the same problem occurred. So it also might not be a hardware problem.
I also do not think that the monitors causes this flickering, although I do not have another monitor with a DP.

Can anyone give me some advise which driver should I use to get rid of this flickering?

Ps: Yes, I know I can buy a DVI-HDMI adapter and can play without this problem. But maybe I want to buy another monitor (or three) in the next years and would have the same problem again.

 

[i7Baby]

Connect without the MST hub.

 

[digitaldurandal]

ByAdamon 4 December 2013
Verified Purchase
Terrible. Three ports, but I can only get two monitors to work at once. I have a Radeon 6990 connected to this via a HBR2 (20Gbps) Displayport cable. Only two monitors will display at once. Additionally there is significant random blackouts and 'snow' on the other two monitors.

I can run these three monitors just fine with each on their own Displayport cable.

I'm not sure what is going on, but this technology is not ready for the masses. Take a pass until they iron out the issues, perhaps around Displayport 1.3.
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By2501on 27 May 2014
Verified Purchase
Product does not operate as described; snow through one of the DisplayPort connectors on the hub. Additionally, monitors will flicker off randomly, and connections are continuously broken causing them to need to be re-detected amongst other issues.

Friendly advice: Avoid buying this product entirely. Instead you may wish to consider buying a cheaper video card if you're just after monitor extensions. It's cheaper and more reliable if you do it correctly. If you're using it for gaming or high end applications, buy two, high-end identical cards.
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3 1 star reviews out of 8 total reviews.
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Another 6990 user gave 5 stars saying it is great.
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My surface pro 3 / MST CSV-5300 set up with 1 HDMI and 2 DVI screens and docking station which has been working OK since 19th Dec has suddenly started having a similar problem following a wake from sleep in the dock. I now cant get it to drive 3 screens at all ( the best is 1 DVI screen not the HDMI) whether dock connected or plugged directly into the Surface despite reboots in or out of the dock. I have checked the screens and cables individually. Any suggestions or am I going to have to return the MST under warranty?
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By Jon on June 3, 2015
Verified Purchase
For the cost, I expected better functionality. Have to sync monitors multiple times a day. Drops a monitor connection frequently while viewing full screen videos. When it works, it works well.
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Another person said they had issues and had to replace the cable they were using. I wonder if the cable you have is not capable of hitting the maximum bandwidth. I know you said you tested with one monitor connected but its difficult to know what the driver is doing when it sees the hub.

Additionally if you have tried multiple PCs and found them to exhibit the problem I would definitely not rule the hardware out, again because we don't know how the driver is behaving when it sees the hub. If the driver is behaving as expected it could still be the hub that it is the problem.

You could also test a bunch of older drivers and see if the issue persists.

 

[thesmokingman]

Connect without the MST hub.

Yea, you could do this via two hdmi to dvi adapters. If you can't, I suspect your hub is going out.