dan99t Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Hi, I have 12 Monitor setup that is run by three ATI FirePro 2460 GDDR3 512 MB cards. Each card has 4 ports so each runs 4 monitors. I have been using this setup or last 5 years for displaying stock charts & using other regular applications including playing YouTube & regular videos. I DO NOT play any games at all. I never had any problem with setup for last 5 years. Recently one of the cards died so I bought a new one. But new one has identical specs except it has GDDR5 instead of GDDR3. Now whenever I play YouTube videos, the new card crashes after few minutes. So 4 monitors that are connected to that video card goes blank & also keyboard & mouse freezes. So I have to shut down the CPU using start button & Restart it & again all 12 monitors start working. But then if I play YouTube videos, new card crashes after a while. Crashing time is random. What seems to be a problem ? Is it because new card has GDDR5 instead of GDDR3 that other two cards have & thus it is not compatible with two other cards ? All cards are identical except the new one has GDDR5 instead of GDDR3. Please help. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted October 20, 2017 Moderator Share Posted October 20, 2017 (edited) 14 minutes ago, dan99t said: So I have to shut down the CPU using start button & Restart it & again all 12 monitors start working. Uh, I think you mean the computer, not CPU... Anyway, they could possibly having a conflict with each other. As one runs faster, the other two cant keep up. So it shuts off the GDDR5. I'd suggest getting the SAME card, EXACTLY the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unobscured Vision Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Yeah, they need to be the same. Multi-GPU setups cannot have mismatched cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Hi, I have a multi monitor system that I run using three ATI FirePro 2460 GDDR3 cards. Recently one of those card died. So I replaced it with a new card. But new card has GDDR5, rest of the specs same. But new card keeps crashing & the drivers might be the cause because current drivers are 2 years old. So what is the best way of installing new drivers & replacing the old ones ? New drivers size is 400 MBs. Thank You Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted October 20, 2017 Global Moderator Share Posted October 20, 2017 //merged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted October 20, 2017 Moderator Share Posted October 20, 2017 28 minutes ago, dan99t said: So what is the best way of installing new drivers & replacing the old ones ? New drivers size is 400 MBs. Thank You What does that matter? Your GDDR5 card is your conflict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevTech Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 9 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said: Yeah, they need to be the same. Multi-GPU setups cannot have mismatched cards. You can mix and match any variety of video cards on a modern Windows PC. Not the best way to reduce headaches of course. Circaflex 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevTech Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Not enough information has been provided to even begin to guess on the nature of the problem. Things to try: 1. provide Windows version, motherboard details and BIOS version, Card details and on-board BIOS version, Driver versions. 2. Install latest drivers of course. Just download and run them. You might have "End of Life" driver issues with cards that old. 3. Consider that new card could be defective. 4. Consider returning the expensive Workstation card and buying 3 consumer cards for the same money to get current technology which would have better driver support. 5. GDDR5 should in theory have absolutely nothing to do with anything since faster RAM has no exposed surface to the software. It is a Red Herring. Other new things to focus are simply new hardware that could be defective, new hardware that expects a particular PCIe version, new hardware that draws too much PCIe bus power etc etc. 6. Some issues mentioned in #5 could be resolved with a mobo BIOS update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helpifIcan Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Does it crash on any monitor that you play you tube or only the new card? If only new could be a bad card new does not equal perfect. If any one causes the crash then likely a mismatch issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 19 hours ago, helpifIcan said: Does it crash on any monitor that you play you tube or only the new card? If only new could be a bad card new does not equal perfect. If any one causes the crash then likely a mismatch issue. Great point. That is what I first thought & I switched those 4 monitors that new card was assigned to, to the old card & testing now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 19 hours ago, DevTech said: Not enough information has been provided to even begin to guess on the nature of the problem. Things to try: 1. provide Windows version, motherboard details and BIOS version, Card details and on-board BIOS version, Driver versions. 2. Install latest drivers of course. Just download and run them. You might have "End of Life" driver issues with cards that old. 3. Consider that new card could be defective. 4. Consider returning the expensive Workstation card and buying 3 consumer cards for the same money to get current technology which would have better driver support. 5. GDDR5 should in theory have absolutely nothing to do with anything since faster RAM has no exposed surface to the software. It is a Red Herring. Other new things to focus are simply new hardware that could be defective, new hardware that expects a particular PCIe version, new hardware that draws too much PCIe bus power etc etc. 6. Some issues mentioned in #5 could be resolved with a mobo BIOS update. Some really good points. Cards are Two AMD ATI FirePro 2460 512 MB GDDR3 One AMD ATI FirePro 2460 512 MB GDDR5 Driver Version : Dec 2015 Cards are 7-8 years old Motherboard : It is Dell T-7500 workstation about 7 years old BIOS : 2011 Version = New not available Win-7 Ultimate 64 bit Can't find consumer cards that are latest for the same or better price Closest comes AMD FirePro W4100 but it is PCIe 3.0 & my slots are PCIe 2.0 Haven't installed any new hardware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unobscured Vision Posted October 22, 2017 Share Posted October 22, 2017 PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 are back-compatible. Shouldn't make a difference at all. I still think it's the memory timing mismatch between the cards. Sure the model is the same, but the memory speed is the only difference that could explain it. Either that or your PSU is starting to bug out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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