Widescreen Gaming Forum

Long time TH2GO user, go way back to TH2GO analog when first released.

To get this cleared right up, no, I'm not using EyeFinity and I won't be soon. I have 3 28" monitors that have HDMI inputs and I'm not going to spend money on DP to DVI or DP it HDMI converters. I'm also not spending money on upgrading my monitors to DP editions either. Just working with what I got.

I just did a mid-tier upgrade, my older Q9450 running on an X48 mobo to an I5-2500K on a Z68 Mobo. I just had an AMD 6-core budget Game machine with a 2GB 6970 swiped out of my car and I wanted to wait till next year for the "Massive" upgrade for my X48 system (PCI-xpress 3.0, new Mobos, etc.) so I just did a "good" nudge up the ladder for my new home system and use my older X48 for my LAN Game machine.

On my X48 machine, I was running two 560TIs in SLI (Using SLI Hack). For this newer machine, I thought to myself, go give AMD a try again, so I picked up an Asus 7850 2GB card. And that decision ended up wasting my weekend, a level of aggravation I will not soon forget.

Here's the skinny, the Asus 7850 DVI connector "says" its a Dual Link DVI, however, the max resolution it can be set to is 3840x1024. I spent an entire weekend screwing around with Drivers, using PowerDesk, Custom ATI settings, Registry Hacks, you name it I tried it. Tried changing out cables, nothing. I thought maybe my TH2GO Digital edition was bad, swapped it out with a spare I have (I actually have 3 TH2GOs, keep a spare on hand) and got the same results.

I downloaded the GXM Compatiblity Tool and gave it a whirl, it said the max resolution supported for the card was 3840x1024. This just doesn't make sense.

So, I said screw it. I took out the 7850 from the Z68 board, installed the two 560TIs in SLI mode (SLI Hack). connected everything up, turned it on, and bammo, 5040x1050@60hz right off the bat. Ok, fine, I'm done.

I put everything back, hid all my wires, closed everything up and powered on, WTF I was limited to 3840x1024. After a vulgar tirade my Italian Grandmother would've been proud to hear, I tried to think what changed. I then noticed that when I connected the DVI cable to the graphics card, I actually installed it on the DVI #2 connector. I thought to myself, that shouldn't make any difference whatsoever, but hell, give a try. So I moved the cable from the #2 DVI connector on the 560Ti to the #1 Connector (Card has two DVI connectors). Powered up the system and oh what did I see, a max resolution of 5040x1050.

Now for me to draw my utterly no idea why it is factually true but from trial and error I have seen it to be true. The DVI connector on the 7850 must be equivalent to a secondary type connector. The 7850 has two Display Port connections, an HDMI connector and a DVI connector. I'm thinking, the DVI connector got second billing on the card and thus, isn't designed to be given the full bandwidth of a Dual Link DVI. It probably has to do something with the DisplayPort and how all these connectors are tied into each other on the card PCB.

Just for kicks, I'll probably pick up a Display Port to Dual Link DVI connector and see if I can get it working. I think that would work. If it does, then I'm really pissed off at ATI. If a Dual Link DVI is capable of 330Mhz full bandwidth, and you choose not to support it, then say NOT FULLY SUPPORTED. Arghh !!!

Hopefully this helps out someone else and you don't waste a weekend on it like I did. If someone does have card and a DP to DVI and a TH2GO Digital Edition laying around, maybe you can give it a go.

Picked up a DP to Dual Link DVI adapter and no luck. Still not working.

Appears to me, that if you want Widescreen and AMD products, you HAVE to use their Eyefinity solution. Either their hardware or drivers won't support anything greater than 3840x1024 through a single connection.

I'm not going to say "that sucks" or start to say how bad AMD is, nope, not going there. If AMD chooses to do this, then so be it, looks like Nvidia will be the recipient of my cash next time around.

I was thinking of writing to AMD tech support and ask for help, then after about .5 seconds reality took back over and I just had a good laugh. I actually thought for a moment thinking that AMD tech support would actually respond. If nothing else, that brought a brief smile and moment of humor to an otherwise sad moment.