HD5670 + HD3000 = Triple monitor support?

[memmerson]

Hi all,

I read somewhere recently that someone had triple monitors working using the HD3000 and add-in GFX. It seemed trivial at the time I read it, however now that I have bought a HD5670 and installed it in to my fully operational hackintosh (10.7.2) I am having trouble getting it all working.

Dual monitors work fine when only using the HD3000, the problems occur when the HD5670 is fitted.

I have been in the BIOS and set on-board GFX to always, but despite this the HD3000 does not appear in the System Report. Also, I only ever get one display working on the 5670 and no displays on any other connector (the other connector on the HD5670 or either of the digital connectors on the mobo (Gigabyte Z68MA).

Perhaps my expectations are out, can anyone advise as to what should be possible? I bought the card as I saw it listed as working OOB on a couple of OSX HCL's, but if I need to return it for another then I'd better do it sharpish!

Thanks

 

[memmerson]

Ok, I have made some progress, possibly sideways.

I set the BIOS option for "Init Display First" to: Onboard and now I see an entry for "Display" in System Report - Graphics/Displays (without that setting only the HD5670 was listed, if the HD5670 was not installed then it lists the HD3000 and it would work fine).

However, I still do not get a desktop on that screen, after OSX finishes booting I get the grey Apple splash screen stuck on the monitor connected to the HD3000, I get a desktop on the 2nd monitor which is connected to the HD5670 just fine though.

The system report has the following detail for the HD3000 or just "Display" as it refers to it:

• Display:
  
  [list:3qajuk5n]
  Type: GPU
  Bus: Built-In
  VRAM (Total): 64 MB of Shared System Memory
  Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
  Device ID: 0x0122
  Revision ID: 0x0009
  Kernel Extension Info: No Kext Loaded

[/list:u:3qajuk5n]

I tried kextloading AppleIntelHDGraphics.kext and AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext to no avail...

Perhaps it is somehow possible to force OSX to load the kexts during boot somehow? or does anyone have any better ideas?

TIA

 

[neilhart]

I have never heard of anyone having success running HD3000 interfaces and concurrently running HD5xxx interfaces.

How about just running your HD5670 with three displays? The ATI eyefinity specification indicates that it is possible (but would be dependent upon the physical interfaces on your GPU card as not all implementations are the same).

I have a Sapphire Radion HD 5770 card running three displays (2 via DVI ports and one by Display port to active adapter to DVI). This is on my ASUS P8P67M-Pro MB on Lion 10.7.2 but using ATI kexts from 10.6.7.

If you are going to try this, the files can be extracted from the 10.6.7 Combo Update and are:

ATI5000Controller.kext
ATIFramebuffer.kext
ATISupport.kext

The version numbers are 1.6.26.31

Create a clone and install these drivers to the clone, in /S/L/E, using Kext Helper b7.app (or equiv) and run Multibeast System Utilities to repair permissions before rebooting. Test well.

Good luck, have fun,

neil

 

[memmerson]

Thanks for the concise info Neil. Unfortunately my hd5670 only has 1x dvi, 1x hdmi and 1x vga, so I may swap it for a HD5770.

Why are the 10.6.7 kexts required?

 

[neilhart]

Thanks for the concise info Neil. Unfortunately my hd5670 only has 1x dvi, 1x hdmi and 1x vga, so I may swap it for a HD5770.

Why are the 10.6.7 kexts required?

For some unknown reason Apple keeps tweaking the kexts and the ATI HD5XXX three monitor solution fell off the table going from 10.6.7 to 10.6.8. And is not supported in 10.7 at all. Thus the need to using this older set.

My three display system is my main home system that is up 24/7 and is stable.

I recommend the Sapphire HD5770 1G GDDR5 PCI-E DUAL DVI-I/HDMI/DP P/N 299-E148-302SA SKU# 11163-02-20R.

neil

 

[memmerson]

Hi Neil,
I see, thanks for letting me know, perhaps they temporarily killed triple monitor support while they work on an suitable full-screen app solution...

Anyway, having to use another kext is only a minor irritation, it's certainly easy enough to add to any combo-update routine, audio usually needs re-enabling anyway.

Regarding 3-way cards, a short while ago I noticed that my HD5670 does NOT have a VGA socket but instead a DisplayPort! So hopefully that saves the hassle of exchanging it, I have ordered a DP>DVI adapter from eBay, it should arrive for Friday/Saturday with any luck.

Shame the HD3000 + Add-in card setup doesn't look like it's going to work, 4/5 monitors would have been interesting. I work opposite 5 monitors, across 3 PCs using Synergy.

One last thing, this morning I noticed that the System Report was displaying "Intel HD3000", I now realise it changes to "Display" when GraphicsEnabler is disabled (which I had done to enable multi-monitors on the HD5670). I already knew that the GraphicsEnabler=on activates the HD3000 but I forgot to reset the kernel cache so my boot results weren't consistent with the settings I was changing... Doh!!

 

[memmerson]

Hi neilhart,

I swapped the kexts as you recommended but still no joy, however, I know what the problem is... My lack of attention!

You DID mention "active" DP adapter... And I should have paid closer attention to that because the adapter I received today is passive, all it is capable of doing is mirroring the DVI connectors output. I NEED that "active" adapter for Eyefinity to be able to provide 3 unique displays.

So, I've just ordered one of those on eBay, and with any luck I'll have this nailed when it arrives...