PC Graphics

[vikefan80]

Hello,

I am running a single R9 290X card on an ASUS Maximus VII Hero MB.  I have twin Samsung UHD monitors (U28E590D) that say they support up to full UHD (3840x2160 @ 60Hz) on both the DP and the HDMI 2.0 port.

The monitor that's connected via the one DP on the R9 is of course fine at 3840x2160 @ 60Hz, but the 2nd monitor is not able to do this.  Because the R9 only has one DP, obviously I have to use the HDMI port to connect to the HDMI 2.0 port on the monitor.  However, the best 60 Hz option I'm being given in display settings is 2560x1440.  The 3840x2160 option is available, but only at 30 Hz max.

Is there a way to get both of these monitors on the same settings with one R9 290X card?  An adapter of some sort?

[4monkeys]

the r9 290 and x were the original 4k cards to get and work at those rates, the problem you are having is the HDMI only supports up to 30fps due to architecture of that time, get another 290 or 290x to run along side.

[vikefan80]

I see, thank you.   Is another 290 a requirement then?  I only plan on using the 2nd monitor as essentially a website browser and extra real estate for simple programs like excel and PowerPoint.  the main monitor is used for gaming / movies.

is there a cheap card out there I could buy instead to just feed that display for that purpose that would be compatible?

[4monkeys]

Well if you don't mind just 30fps I can't see why two displays at 4k wont work, yes it is a 4gb card and technically for games 4k needs 3.5gb ram+, but the second display if just doing web browsing/desktop work, I can't really see a problem might have to turn down graphics in heaviest games, I think on todays standards medium is minimum on graphics settings on a r9 290x.

I ran a r9 295 in single and crossfire (essentially 4x 290x in crossfire) I am sure that could handle 4x 60hz 4k using display ports on cards. this was on a 9590, bottle kneck happened no matter what processor at that level, but for that config 2k psu is needed.

These days I run a vega 64 with 1x 4k and 27inch and 24 inch running off hdmi, the 24 inch is mainly web panel / discord etc while gaming on 27", the power saving are phenomenal  on this one car, I pull on average 180w off the wall, with overclocks up to 480w, I prefer this in this day in age.

[vikefan80]

Well my issue with the 2nd monitor is that the screen / mouse / typing lag at 30Hz is very noticeable and annoying, particularly  the other monitor running at 60Hz. 

But since I currently only have 1 290X with just one DP, I need another card with a DP output (or HDMI 2) to feed to that 2nd monitor to get it working at 60Hz in the UHD resolution.

Im just curious if there‘s a cheaper workable GPU solution that could provide that, since another 290X is pretty expensive for just a secondary monitor.  I get that I’d be losing out on the CrossFire option without another duplicate card, but I don’t need the extra power.  All of my games are running fine on the main monitor.

[4monkeys]

Well you could add any 4k card but there not cheap as another desktop screen, if this screen is only a browsing screen, crossfire would boost speed on unused 2nd gpu power. 

Why not run  second screen as 1080p?

[vikefan80]

youre definitely right that I could run the 2nd at 60Hz on a slightly lower res (2160x1440 for example), but I suppose it’s just too jarring to me when I see windows auto-adjust as I move them across the two screens, which I apparently do fairly often.

I have seen that the GTX 1050 seems fairly reasonable at ~$160. That’s definitely better to me than another 290X at ~$400, although obviously I miss out on the option of crossfire.  Not sure if there’s a better option out there than that.

[4monkeys · Accepted solution]

There is a couple of issues I can see doing that.

Nvidia would stop the card working due to the whole 3dmark physics saga.

The 1050 barely does 4k, people have troubles getting the 60 fps.

I haven't looked at prices but 2x rx 570 and sell the 290x? Maybe?

[vikefan80]

Thank you for your help 4monkeys.  I opted to just run the 2nd monitor on a lower res and deal with the window resizing.  I decided that I don't drag windows across the screens often enough to justify several hundred dollars