Screen Tearing / Eyefinity / 7970s??

[bamaaviator]

How do you avoid this?

I have a 5870 that I have been using and its never been an issue. I had all my connections via DVI to the back of the card.

I upgraded to a 7970 and now I have screen tearing on 2 out of the 3 monitors. I googled the issue and it seems to be a rampant problem with Eyefinity.

Seems to be because the card uses multiple connections. There is no way to plug in 3 monitors with the same type of connection since they have 1 HDMI, 1 DVI, and 2 Mini Display ports.

This is really pissing me off. I contacted new egg for an RMA and even though I paid 600, they will only refund 467 due to the 15% restock fee and the "free" dirt 3 game that it came with that I didnt ask for, dont want...and dont need.

Anyone else find a solution to this issue?

I have the MSI 7970 card and 3 Asus 27 inch monitors with VGA / DVI / HDMI , and Display port connections.

 

[jackstar7]

The solution is the ASUS DirectCu or the coming MSI Lightning IV, which both feature 4 mini-DP connectors.

 

[bamaaviator]

The solution is the ASUS DirectCu or the coming MSI Lightning IV, which both feature 4 mini-DP connectors.

I really wish I had know that before purchasing the new 7970s. Read nothing but raving reviews about them and then had the tearing problem and googled it. Found 1000s of posts about it all over the forums, but never had seen the problem in any forums without specifically searching for that problem

 

[Ieat]

You can reduce the screen tearing to 1 monitor by changing your primary monitor to the one with 2 common inputs. But yeah you have just learned the hard way as I did with a hd 6950. Its the only reason I'm running 2 gtx 460's instead of 2 6950 cards. Its ridiculous that ati still hasn't fixed this yet.

 

[wand3r3r]

Wow, nice to find out about that "feature" after the purchase. I haven't seen that advertised anywhere, I thought the point of all the ports would be to run eyefinity. I guess that's why they have eyefinity cards, I just thought it was advertising.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Ya I found out about that with my 5870 after purchase. I also ended up having to spend 450 bucks to get a DP monitor (adpoted eyefinity too early!) and the worst thing is that the because of the gamma issues on the HP I prefer my TN panels..

 

[bamaaviator]

Wow, nice to find out about that "feature" after the purchase. I haven't seen that advertised anywhere, I thought the point of all the ports would be to run eyefinity. I guess that's why they have eyefinity cards, I just thought it was advertising.

I think what irritated me the most is that I read review...after review...after review about how amazing these cards were, especially if you were running anything over 1920x1200, how great they would push games in Eyefinity without any hitching or lagging etc....

...and not one review mentioned that there was no way to NOT get screen tearing running programs in Eyefinity. I am no videophile, I dont care if there is a small problem that is hardly noticable, but this tearing is out of this world. You cant even scroll a picture, play a game, or do anything where its not so apparent that it makes you turn the other 2 monitors off and just game / browse on 1 monitor.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Are you overclocking your card?

I had to modify the BIOS files on mine and change it so that the cards would idle at a higher memory speed so that my 2d desktop would work correctly (5870). It was a real pain in the behind. Run a utility that watches your memory and see how low it is going in eyefinity. Then see if that is too low.

 

[kashwashwa]

Are you overclocking your card?

I had to modify the BIOS files on mine and change it so that the cards would idle at a higher memory speed so that my 2d desktop would work correctly (5870). It was a real pain in the behind. Run a utility that watches your memory and see how low it is going in eyefinity. Then see if that is too low.

I was going to say the same thing - it may be overclocked from the factory. I'd try stock clocks, and even underclocking it to see if that makes a difference for some reason.

But I know my 5870 tears 2D visuals when overclocked. 3D seems to always be fine though.

 

[bamaaviator]

My 5870 works flawless. It has 3 DVI connections on the back and I have never had screen tearing like I do on my new 7970. Contacted MSI and they said it was because of having to use different type of connections to the monitors, that they all 3 need to be identical. So I just need to wait for one of those cards to be released.

 

[ss284]

Are you overclocking your card?

I had to modify the BIOS files on mine and change it so that the cards would idle at a higher memory speed so that my 2d desktop would work correctly (5870). It was a real pain in the behind. Run a utility that watches your memory and see how low it is going in eyefinity. Then see if that is too low.

I think the disparity in 2d/3d memory clocks when overclocking, and using different monitor connection types, are two different causes of two very similar problems.

I have the screen glitching issue on my Asus 7970 direct cu II despite using three displayports due to the memory overclocking. Eyefinity is working well though, no tearing that I can notice.

 

[KingFatty]

Solved? Hey, the 12.4 catalyst drivers are out, and one of the changes shows it solves the tearing issue in multimonitor. Can someone confirm this?