Using TV

[dan958]

Hi,

Everything runs fine normally. I have a HD 7870 connected to my monitor using DVI. I recently decided to connect my tv to the HDMI so I can game with a controller a little more comfortably (with rpg's and games that are awkward with M&k)

I have the antec cooling for my GPU but I find once I turn my TV on, even at idle it reaches just over 60 degrees.

Is this normal? Without the tv plugged in it gets just above that at full load.

 

[RetrogamerX]

Do you have both the game on your monitor and TV at the same time?

 

[dan958]

Do you have both the game on your monitor and TV at the same time?

No, extending the display - not duplicating.

 

[Confused Stu]

When you go from 1 screen to 2 attached to your 7870, the card cannot drop as far on idle. If you check CCC, GPUz, or any other monitoring tool, you'll find your core will idle higher (probably 500 rather than 150 with 1 screen) and your RAM won't downclock at all. This is by design and is to stop people having issues when running two (or more) screens, and is to do with the card having to produce 2 (or more) signals so it won't matter if the second screen is extended or duplicated.

Easiest way to see this is to open CCC, check the clocks in Overdrive, then disable one screen and check them again - you should see the clocks and temperature drop when disabling the second screen.

 

[dan958]

When you go from 1 screen to 2 attached to your 7870, the card cannot drop as far on idle. If you check CCC, GPUz, or any other monitoring tool, you'll find your core will idle higher (probably 500 rather than 150 with 1 screen) and your RAM won't downclock at all. This is by design and is to stop people having issues when running two (or more) screens, and is to do with the card having to produce 2 (or more) signals so it won't matter if the second screen is extended or duplicated.

Easiest way to see this is to open CCC, check the clocks in Overdrive, then disable one screen and check them again - you should see the clocks and temperature drop when disabling the second screen.

So are you saying that if I want to game on my TV, I should just disable my monitor?

 

[Confused Stu]

So are you saying that if I want to game on my TV, I should just disable my monitor?

No, I am only talking about your idle clocks/temperatures. When you're pushing the card in games it should always be at maximum clocks, so it'll be roughly the same temperature whether you're gaming on one screen or two.

 

[Five.Stars]

So are you saying that if I want to game on my TV, I should just disable my monitor?

That is what I do. It will auto disable once the tv comes on (HDMI is the primary output). If you wish to re-enable monitor just press windows key + p and select projector only and this will disable tv, or simply have the desktop in duplicate mode. I don't believe it requires any additional voltage to run the displays duplicated. It may only be able to display games and video on 1 screen though, so make sure to set tv as primary display when you wish to game on it.

 

[Five.Stars]

Also, a good way to see if clocks/ voltages are changing without opening CCC or Afterburner etc is to simply download the gadget 'gpu observer' and select to show clocks/ voltages. I am assuming you are using Windows 7.

 

[dan958]

Okay. Since I mentioned this problem, it seems to be running ok now. The idle temp with dual monitors is a little hotter than usual, but that's expected. But it doesn't reach he very high temp that it did before, maybe the fans auto speed wasnt working properly and was fixed on a reboot - who knows!

Thanks for the help