Question about multi monitors and GPU

[TheSwede]

Hi all,

Just a quick question.. I presently have two 290's 4GB but having sound issue when playing game in Xrossfire, all ok when using a single GPU though, hence my question. And yes, tried everything possible to get the sound issue fixed, AMDMatt also been helping me but no luck at all.

Would a single 290 8GB be able to run 3 Dell 24'' 2412M and a LG 29UB65 monitor and still be able to play, watch movies etc without problem ?? I could have them switched on with a single 290 4GB but was "lagging" just browsing forums so bought the 2nd to help out but now having this sound issue in Xrossfire I am thinking going back to a single GPU if possible (can sell one of the 4GB cards to a friend, then have the 2nd one as a backup). I just need to be sure a single 8GB will be able to cope with a 4 monitor setup without problem.

Any and all input will be greatly appreciated !

 

[africanos23]

Are you running a youtube video while gaming ?
Have you tried with Vsync off ?
Are you running sound over HDMI ?

 

[TheSwede]

Are you running a youtube video while gaming ?
Have you tried with Vsync off ?
Are you running sound over HDMI ?

Thanks for your reply africanos.
No, not running video whiles gaming but might be browsing while watching videos. Which with a single 290 wasn't possible.
Didn't know the 290's had Vsync, thought only nVidia had that function ??
Nope, turned off the sound through HDMI.

 

[eyetrip]

How are you outputting sound? What device and connectors?

What exactly is the sound issue?

How are you connecting the three screens?

 

[TheSwede]

How are you outputting sound? What device and connectors?

What exactly is the sound issue?

How are you connecting the three screens?

Thanks for your reply eyetrip.
Through my onboard sound and have a Logitech sourround system.
A crackling sound that is coming and going while playing.
DisplyPort connected for the 3 Dell screens, HDMI for the LG

 

[Shiari]

Maybe you should start with your full system spec, it sounds like your CPU may be underpowered.

Functionally you shouldn't have any particular problems playing a video while playing a game, but a lot would depend on the game you're playing as well. If the GPU is too taxed but you have CPU power to spare, you can turn off hardware acceleration off in the video player, which should help with that.

Adding more cards for a CF or SLI setup won't help that much, at at 4GB VRAM driving those 4 monitors is always going to limit somewhat what you can do. And it doesn't help desktop usage to add another card in CF or SLI, as that requires fullscreen mode to be active and a CF/SLI profile for that game. It doesn't do anything on the desktop by itself.

The sound crackling is probably caused by a driver problem, and it happens only (for me anyway) when Crossfire is enabled and a game is running with vsync on while there's more than one monitor connected to the same videocard. AMD have not yet been able to reproduce it, but at least a few of us are seeing this issue.

My 4770K setup started developing DPC latency issues of its own (couldn't even play music without crackling), which I could fix with a warm reboot. And it had the crackling in CF supporting games with my 295X2, and now on my 5820K as well.

You're not entirely without options ... you could not use CF, and drive the monitor(s) you're not playing on through the other card and/or the iGPU (if you have one). Having my 2nd screen on the iGPU worked as a workaround for the sound crackling on the 4770K. Or you can turn off vsync if you can stand it, or wait to see whether AMD can come with a fix for the issue.

You should get LatencyMon and see if it finds any particular problems, you may need to find some better drivers.

 

[eyetrip]

Are you using optical to connect or analog?

Also, do you get the issue with only the three dell screens connected?

Is the lg used for gaming as well?

 

[TheSwede]

Shiari, thank you for your detailed reply, much appreciated.

Maybe you should start with your full system spec, it sounds like your CPU may be underpowered.

Sorry, was in a bit of rush this morning before heading to work. Full spec is as follows.

Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H Intel Z97
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell)
2 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X OC 4096MB
SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 850W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold"
TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
Intel 335 Series 20nm 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive x 2
Couple HDD's: 2TB, 5TB and 2 x 3TB HDD's
Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
ASUS BluRay Combo BC-12D2HT
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Digital surround

Was under the impression the above would be able to run most things, part from Tetris, which I heard is very demanding.

Functionally you shouldn't have any particular problems playing a video while playing a game, but a lot would depend on the game you're playing as well. If the GPU is too taxed but you have CPU power to spare, you can turn off hardware acceleration off in the video player, which should help with that.

Adding more cards for a CF or SLI setup won't help that much, at at 4GB VRAM driving those 4 monitors is always going to limit somewhat what you can do. And it doesn't help desktop usage to add another card in CF or SLI, as that requires fullscreen mode to be active and a CF/SLI profile for that game. It doesn't do anything on the desktop by itself.

Wasn't looking at adding more cards, more removing the 2 R9 290 4GB I have and going for a single R9 290 8GB card, if it be able to run the above 4 screens for normal usage, i.e. some video and browsing at the same time and gaming on Eyefinity (and then wont mind turning of the LG screen, but if playing only 1 screen I prefer having all running for other programs as well and easy ALT Tab out of game to do other things if needed).

The sound crackling is probably caused by a driver problem, and it happens only (for me anyway) when Crossfire is enabled and a game is running with vsync on while there's more than one monitor connected to the same videocard. AMD have not yet been able to reproduce it, but at least a few of us are seeing this issue.

Although sorry to hear you experience the crackling sound effect as well, I got to admit I am glad to hear I am not the only one experience it. I tried googling it when it first showed but couldn't find anything about it. And yes, it only there when Crossfire is enabled for me as well. With AMDMatt's help I tried everything possible I think, changed sound drivers, Graphic Drivers, uninstalled the game totally and reinstalled it, no luck. I even went so far I reinstalled Windows and bought a new HDD which are for games only but the crackling sound still there.

Matt and his AMD team even went so far as they put together a similar system as mine and tried to reproduce the crackling sound effect but no luck there either. Still amazed how far they went to try and sort this issue for me, just wish it would have worked out better and it been able to been solved, not only for me but for those others that have same problem.

I got to check out vsync when I get home, for some reason I thought that was a nVidia feature only.

My 4770K setup started developing DPC latency issues of its own (couldn't even play music without crackling), which I could fix with a warm reboot. And it had the crackling in CF supporting games with my 295X2, and now on my 5820K as well.

You're not entirely without options ... you could not use CF, and drive the monitor(s) you're not playing on through the other card and/or the iGPU (if you have one). Having my 2nd screen on the iGPU worked as a workaround for the sound crackling on the 4770K. Or you can turn off vsync if you can stand it, or wait to see whether AMD can come with a fix for the issue.

True, I could disable CF but that would fell bit of a waste having the 2nd card just to run the monitors, but is an option I guess, especially if a single R9 290 8Gb wont be enough to run it all and be able to play games etc through it.

You should get LatencyMon and see if it finds any particular problems, you may need to find some better drivers.

Will check the above program out when I am home from work later. =)


Thank you eyetrip, appreciate your reply again.

Are you using optical to connect or analog?

Also, do you get the issue with only the three dell screens connected?

Is the lg used for gaming as well?

Using analog cables and as mentioned above, the issue occurs when I run the game in Crossfire, disable CF and all good.
No, the LG is not used for gaming.

 

[Shiari]

Yeah, your CPU should be plenty. You've not indicated whether you overclocked it, but you should

By "adding another card" I was referring to what you did already, you added a 290 to hope to solve your desktop performance problems.

As you have an iGPU, you should probably put the LG on that. I don't know if the three monitors in eyefinity are considered as one, but if they are, that should work around your crackling issues.

 

[TheSwede]

Yeah, your CPU should be plenty. You've not indicated whether you overclocked it, but you should

Nope, never done any overclocking of anything in a PC so not got around to read up about it yet. Might do one rainy day though.

By "adding another card" I was referring to what you did already, you added a 290 to hope to solve your desktop performance problems.

As you have an iGPU, you should probably put the LG on that. I don't know if the three monitors in eyefinity are considered as one, but if they are, that should work around your crackling issues.

Ahh gotcha !! But actually, I did solve my desktop performance problem with a 2nd 290 since now I can use all 4 screens villy nilly if I so wish. The problem is just when I am gaming in Xrossfire, just as it was for you (Or I am totaly missing your point here and if so, I do appologize ). When I first got the LG I only had 1 card and it could run all 4 monitors but even just browsing OcUK forum and scrolling I noticed it didn't scroll normal but was a bit jerky in movment, and when I tried to play a movie at the same time, it got even worse. Also tried to play Bejeweled 3 with all 4 monitors running and I was very noticably lagging and that is not the most taxing game on a GPU ! LOL

I am on the other hand gonna try and play around and see if I can have the monitors running on different cards, that's a possibility I not tired yet. And I don't know either if 3 monitor in Eyefinity is coinsidered one but I'll try and find out. That is if Skyrim can be played in eyefinity, have to check up on that one. (So far I only had the crackling sound when playing Skyrim and for now, that's the game I want to play, hence trying to solve this malakry. lol )

======

I do appreciate all the suggestions you guys been giving me in regards to manage to run game in Xrossfire without this crackling sound effect, I really do !

BUT ... I am still curious though if it would be possible to run the 3 Dell monitors and the LG at the same time through one card, and the card I am thinking of is this one:
Sapphire Radeon R9 290X Vapor-X OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
And still be able to play on one screen (for the moment the most demanding game is probaly Skyrim with mods) and have the other ones with other application or if LG is turned off, run the 3 Dell in Eyefinity mode.

Would the above card have enough grunt to manage this ?

 

[MyBrainz]

Use MSI Afterburner's frame limiter instead of vsync?

 

[eyetrip]

Try the setting in your bios relating to pll filter level (or something like that).

I remember when I was having issues when trying to oc, adjusting this helped.

I can't remember the exact setting though.

And yeah, also try the lg off the igpu, or see if it will maybe allow connecting to 2nd gpu - worth a shot.

 

[TheSwede]

Use MSI Afterburner's frame limiter instead of vsync?

MSI Afterburner not installed yet, when i did the Windows reinstallation I didn't add anything at all part from the Windows updates and the game itself, to try and have as llittle interference as possible. Might install it and try though. For now though, I checked the AMD Catalyst Control Center and Vsync is OFF.

Try the setting in your bios relating to pll filter level (or something like that).

I remember when I was having issues when trying to oc, adjusting this helped.

I can't remember the exact setting though.

And yeah, also try the lg off the igpu, or see if it will maybe allow connecting to 2nd gpu - worth a shot.

Uhmm OC and in Over Clocking ? I aint doing any overclocking on anything, as stated above, never done it at all.
And pardon me for being such a n00b but what is "pll filter level"" ??
Going to try the LG on the 2nd card yes, just not got around to it yet though.

 

[Confused Stu]

Can you run all 4 monitors on the one card? Yes, provided the connectors are compatible. So, for the Sapphire you linked to, you will need to use 2 x DVI, 1 x HDMI and 1 x DP. As you're using both DVI + the HDMI, you will need to have these three plugged in when the PC is booted up - you cannot hot-swap the screens on these outputs.

If you connect screens on the second card, these will only work if you disable Crossfire.

I have run with 4 screens on my primary card of a Crossfire pair for a couple of years now (was 2 x 7970, now 2 x 290) and it works fine. I switch between 4 "separate" screens, and 1 x 5760x1080 Eyefinity display with a single 1920x1080 on top, depending on what I'm doing/playing. Recently I switched the single screen onto my CPU's on-board GPU, and have found some games happier with this setup - Alien Isolation, Grid Autosport, and others, so am sticking with this setup for the moment.

Your PC should have been more than capable of running 4 screens on one card, and I amazed to hear you had lag just surfing the internet. If you do decide to run 1 GPU, then I am sure a change in drivers, or even turning off GPU acceleration in your browser, will make surfing a nice, smooth experience.

I'm sure I remember a couple of people have mentioned in the AMD driver thread about having sound/latency issues when playing a game with multiple monitors, crossfire and V-Sync enabled. Personally, never run across it as I never use V-sync, but might be worth having a look through the AMD driver thread on this forum for DPC latency to see if any of their suggested fixes/workarounds help in your situation.

Good luck.

 

[TheSwede]

Can you run all 4 monitors on the one card? Yes, provided the connectors are compatible. So, for the Sapphire you linked to, you will need to use 2 x DVI, 1 x HDMI and 1 x DP. As you're using both DVI + the HDMI, you will need to have these three plugged in when the PC is booted up - you cannot hot-swap the screens on these outputs.

Thank you for answearing my main question. And I am using something similar as to this one: StarTech.com Triple Head DisplayPort 1.2 Multi Monitor MST Hub which I run all 3 Dell monitors from.

If you connect screens on the second card, these will only work if you disable Crossfire.

Ahh okis, then that workaround wont work then with using the 2nd card to run a monitor and still using Crossfire.

I have run with 4 screens on my primary card of a Crossfire pair for a couple of years now (was 2 x 7970, now 2 x 290) and it works fine. I switch between 4 "separate" screens, and 1 x 5760x1080 Eyefinity display with a single 1920x1080 on top, depending on what I'm doing/playing. Recently I switched the single screen onto my CPU's on-board GPU, and have found some games happier with this setup - Alien Isolation, Grid Autosport, and others, so am sticking with this setup for the moment.

Just had a look around and for the game I am trying to play, Skyrim, didn't really like the pictures from Eyefinity, looked a bit to strectched so guess it be on one Dell (and seems some ingame functions not working properly either). Or might try the LG since what I could find it supported as well for 21:9.

Your PC should have been more than capable of running 4 screens on one card, and I amazed to hear you had lag just surfing the internet. If you do decide to run 1 GPU, then I am sure a change in drivers, or even turning off GPU acceleration in your browser, will make surfing a nice, smooth experience.

From what I read on the 290 it can run 4 monitors but even if they ran it wasn't a smooth experience using just one 4GB card, if I dissconnected the LG monitor then it was back to normal, hence why I bought another 290 4GB and crossfired the PC. But if the 8GB card can run them, might try that (although me being a n00b at this, I am guessing 8GB Vram would help with the slight problems I had using only a single 4GB Vram card at start..)

I'm sure I remember a couple of people have mentioned in the AMD driver thread about having sound/latency issues when playing a game with multiple monitors, crossfire and V-Sync enabled. Personally, never run across it as I never use V-sync, but might be worth having a look through the AMD driver thread on this forum for DPC latency to see if any of their suggested fixes/workarounds help in your situation.

Here shows my n00bishness again. If what I found is the right on the AMD CCC panel, which is "Wait for Vertical Refresh" and if that is the same as Vsync, then it is turned "OFF, unless application specifies". I will have a look through the AMD driver thread though and see if there is something that can help out. Thank you.

Good luck.

Thank you, I need all the luck I can get considering the headache this is giving me. lol

 

[eyetrip]

An 8gb card isn't going to do much more for you than a single 290 4tb.

It won't have the grunt to run eyefinity at settings high enough that the vram will make much difference.

Either stick with single 290 4gb or try and sort the issue (easier said than done sometimes)

Earlier, I was not suggesting that you overclock, but to look in your bios settings for something relating to pll filter, and try the different settings. You will have to look it up for your board

I only suggest it as it's something that I remember helping for sound issues I had in the past.

 

[TheSwede]

An 8gb card isn't going to do much more for you than a single 290 4tb.

It won't have the grunt to run eyefinity at settings high enough that the vram will make much difference.

Either stick with single 290 4gb or try and sort the issue (easier said than done sometimes)

ahh gotcha, that throw a wrench in that solution then.. also shows my n00bnishess as I thought more wram would be good to run the screens..

Earlier, I was not suggesting that you overclock, but to look in your bios settings for something relating to pll filter, and try the different settings. You will have to look it up for your board

I only suggest it as it's something that I remember helping for sound issues I had in the past.

whopsi.. my bad there. Ok gonna have a look and see if it says anything about pll filter or such in the BIOS.. also gonna try running just the Dell's, some links in the AMD Driver threads suggested that some had luck with that for their crackling sound effect, which you might have seen as well since I saw your posts there about your own problem. Hopefully yours all sorted now though. =)

Might also try eyefinity even if the screenshoots did look a bit stretched but maybe not as bad in real.. but first with turning of screens (worse case dissconnecting them I guess).

ohh by the way, have anyone used RadeonPro, was suggested in the AMD forums that vsynv don't work from the CCC and to use the RadeonPro instead, although that was posted the 14/12 last year (post is the 3rd from bottom - Link )

 

[Shiari]

More VRAM is good if you have the GPU grunt to push that amount of VRAM. Just throwing more memory at it won't increase performance, unless you were VRAM capped to begin with.

Turning the screen off in the windows display configuration is fine, you don't need to physically disconnect them. Only turning the screen off doesn't work, disconnect it or disable it in windows.