How many displays does 7950 support at once?

I'm thinking at least 3 so long as they are 1080p or lower resolution, but don't quote me on that as I'm not 100% sure. If one of the ports is dual link DVI that port can run higher resolutions.

What resolution are your monitors and what is their connection (DVI, Displayport, HDMI)?

All reference based HD7950 cards can drive at least 4x monitors:

MiniDisplayPort/DisplayPort 1.2 = 4096X2160 maximum
HDMI = 4096X2160 maximum
Dual-Link DVI = 2560x1600 maximum

Most HD7950s come with 2x MiniDP + HDMI + DL-DVI.

But there is a caveat. For 3-way Eyefinity (or more than 3 displays), at least 1 of those monitors must be connected to a Displayport/mini Displayport on the 7950*. If your monitor does not have a native display port connection, you need a $28 passive Displayport-to-DVI cable for the 3rd 1920x1200 monitor (or lower) and an Active Displayport-to-DVI cable for higher resolution than 1920x1200.

*The only HD7000 cards that bypass this Displayport requirement are called FLEX series, such as the Sapphire FLEX HD 7950 card. With this 7950 card you can drive 3x1200P monitors using DVI+DVI+HDMI without needing to use a DisplayPort for the 3rd monitor.

If your monitors have native displayports, then a 7950 can drive at least 4x1600P monitors (DVI+HDMI+miniDPx2). Some HD7950 cards already come with 1 miniDP-to-DP adapter in the box, like the Sapphire HD7950 FLEX, as most displayport monitors come with a full-sized DP connect. If you want to use 2 displayports for 2 of your monitors and they don't have miniDP connection, you can grab a 2nd miniDP-to-DP adapter for $5.

However, since the FLEX is $310+ shipping, your other option could be to spend $344 for a GTX670 MSI PE (after $20 MIR and coupon code: GREENFRIDAY). This 670 card will give you near GTX680 performance for not much more $ but more importantly, it uses about 30W less power at idle when driving multiple displays. It's up to you if you care about the 30W of extra power consumption 7950 will incur or if the game bundle is more valuable to you with the 7950. A GTX670 can drive 3x 2560x1600 monitors using 2x DL-DVI + HDMI.

OK so in summary:

- HD7950 FLEX will drive at least 3x 1200P with no adapters (DL-DVI + DVI + HDMI) (but DL-DVI and HDMI will support even higher than 1200P, single-link DVI would be limited to 1920x1200)

HD7000 FLEX series allows all these possible combinations for 3 monitors:


- Other HD7950s will need one $28 passive DP-to-DVI adapter for one of the 1920x1200 (or below) monitors if none of your monitors has a displayport connector




- GTX670 will drive 3x 1600P with no adapters (DL-DVIx2 + HDMI)
- HD7950 will drive at least 4x 1600P if at least 2 of your monitors have a DisplayPort connector (DL-DVI + HDMI + miniDPx2), and you need a $5 miniDP-to-DP adapter for the 2nd 1600P monitor.
- GTX670 will use about 30W less power in idle with 3 monitors

Hope I covered a lot of the possibilities!

Geosurface, if you get a refund for the MSI 7950, are you sure Newegg will not charge you for the value of those 3 games ($170)? Make sure to call them and clarify. I bet they can issue you a replacement MSI TF3 7950 and just withhold the coupon. However, I can't see how Newegg will refund you $300 after you have redeemed a $170 coupon. From all my dealings with them, I am pretty sure if you do not return the game coupon, they will charge you the FULL price for it. What this means is instead of getting $300 refund for the 7950, you'll get $300 - $170 coupon value = $130. You should call so it's not a surprise.

Secondly, perhaps the MSI TF3 7950 ran too loud because of some auto fan settings in CCC. You could have tried installing MSI Afterburner and setting up a custom fan profile. This generally helps with many GPUs that have aggressive fan profiles out of the factory. Also, what are the ambient room temperatures and your PC case model? It's possible your GPU wasn't getting sufficient airflow if you have a case with poor airflow such as Antec P182/183 or similar (i.e., no front intake fans and generally obstructed airflow).

Just to clarify, does that 23 inch Dell have a miniDP/DP connector? I don't recall GTX570 having a mini-DP adapter so in trying to read what you said I am reading it like this:

GTX570 DVI --> --> HDMI --> HDMI-to-miniDP of the monitor? Correct? If the monitor has a miniDP/DP, then a HD7950 card will work for you. If you have any 1 monitor with a miniDisplayPort or a DisplayPort connector, you have nothing to worry about.

If you want the quietest HD7950, go for this PowerColor PCS+ version:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131458

If you can get the $170 refunded, the quietest GTX670 is the Asus Direct CUII or Gigabyte Windforce 670. Otherwise, I think the MSI GTX670 Power Edition is a good 670 card too.

If you can't get $170 refunded, I am guessing you'll have to exchange for another MSI TF3 7950. If they let you exchange to a different 7950, you could try quieter 7950s such as PowerColor PCS+ I linked, or Sapphire Dual-X 7950 or Gigabyte Windforce 3x are all good.

RussianSensation said:

Geosurface, if you get a refund for the MSI 7950, are you sure Newegg will not charge you for the value of those 3 games ($170)?

Click to expand...

Yes. If you can redeem the coupons and get all of your money back people would like to know.

RussianSensation said:

*The only HD7000 cards that bypass this Displayport requirement are called FLEX series, such as the Sapphire FLEX HD 7950 card. With this 7950 card you can drive 3x1200P monitors using DVI+DVI+HDMI without needing to use a DisplayPort for the 3rd monitor.

Click to expand...

Small correction RS, also the Vapor-X series has the same setup, at least the 2x8 pin 7950 that I have. It is a killer card :awe:

RussianSensation said:

What resolution are your monitors and what is their connection (DVI, Displayport, HDMI)?

All reference based HD7950 cards can drive at least 4x monitors:

MiniDisplayPort/DisplayPort 1.2 = 4096X2160 maximum
HDMI = 4096X2160 maximum
Dual-Link DVI = 2560x1600 maximum

Most HD7950s come with 2x MiniDP + HDMI + DL-DVI.

But there is a caveat. For 3-way Eyefinity (or more than 3 displays), at least 1 of those monitors must be connected to a Displayport/mini Displayport on the 7950*. If your monitor does not have a native display port connection, you need a $28 passive Displayport-to-DVI cable for the 3rd 1920x1200 monitor (or lower) and an Active Displayport-to-DVI cable for higher resolution than 1920x1200.

*The only HD7000 cards that bypass this Displayport requirement are called FLEX series, such as the Sapphire FLEX HD 7950 card. With this 7950 card you can drive 3x1200P monitors using DVI+DVI+HDMI without needing to use a DisplayPort for the 3rd monitor.

If your monitors have native displayports, then a 7950 can drive at least 4x1600P monitors (DVI+HDMI+miniDPx2). Some HD7950 cards already come with 1 miniDP-to-DP adapter in the box, like the Sapphire HD7950 FLEX, as most displayport monitors come with a full-sized DP connect. If you want to use 2 displayports for 2 of your monitors and they don't have miniDP connection, you can grab a 2nd miniDP-to-DP adapter for $5.

However, since the FLEX is $310+ shipping, your other option could be to spend $344 for a GTX670 MSI PE (after $20 MIR and coupon code: GREENFRIDAY). This 670 card will give you near GTX680 performance for not much more $ but more importantly, it uses about 30W less power at idle when driving multiple displays. It's up to you if you care about the 30W of extra power consumption 7950 will incur or if the game bundle is more valuable to you with the 7950. A GTX670 can drive 3x 2560x1600 monitors using 2x DL-DVI + HDMI.

OK so in summary:

- HD7950 FLEX will drive at least 3x 1200P with no adapters (DL-DVI + DVI + HDMI) (but DL-DVI and HDMI will support even higher than 1200P, single-link DVI would be limited to 1920x1200)

HD7000 FLEX series allows all these possible combinations for 3 monitors:

- Other HD7950s will need one $28 passive DP-to-DVI adapter for one of the 1920x1200 (or below) monitors if none of your monitors has a displayport connector

- GTX670 will drive 3x 1600P with no adapters (DL-DVIx2 + HDMI)
- HD7950 will drive at least 4x 1600P if at least 2 of your monitors have a DisplayPort connector (DL-DVI + HDMI + miniDPx2), and you need a $5 miniDP-to-DP adapter for the 2nd 1600P monitor.
- GTX670 will use about 30W less power in idle with 3 monitors

Hope I covered a lot of the possibilities!

Click to expand...

You seem to know a lot about this card and your detailed info was very informative. I just recently bought a Flashed PC 7950 card for my Mid 2012 MacPro. Long story but I'm still in OS 10.10.5 for Audio production and composition reasons. I wanted to be able to run 3 monitors, specifically a bigger flat screen with HDMI for my film scoring gigs. I'm sure this card will allow this configuration but when I installed the card I started experiencing screen freezing with Safari and Chrome. I changed a setting in Chrome I think it was a flag composite setting and Chrome seems to be behaving better, Safari still freezes for a bit and then catches up. Additionally, sometime both monitors that I'm running at the moment go black and they never some back so I have to perform a hard reboot. Any insight you may have regarding this GPU mod I've done would be be great. Thanks so much.

TCM327 said:

You seem to know a lot about this card and your detailed info was very informative. I just recently bought a Flashed PC 7950 card for my Mid 2012 MacPro. Long story but I'm still in OS 10.10.5 for Audio production and composition reasons. I wanted to be able to run 3 monitors, specifically a bigger flat screen with HDMI for my film scoring gigs. I'm sure this card will allow this configuration but when I installed the card I started experiencing screen freezing with Safari and Chrome. I changed a setting in Chrome I think it was a flag composite setting and Chrome seems to be behaving better, Safari still freezes for a bit and then catches up. Additionally, sometime both monitors that I'm running at the moment go black and they never some back so I have to perform a hard reboot. Any insight you may have regarding this GPU mod I've done would be be great. Thanks so much.

Click to expand...

Some necro.

I think you would be better off buying a new Mac than trying to fight this. You're talking about an almost 10 year old GPU, it's probably gone bad.

jpiniero said:

Some necro.

I think you would be better off buying a new Mac than trying to fight this. You're talking about an almost 10 year old GPU, it's probably gone bad.

Click to expand...

So I'm guessing your answer is, the card shouldn't be doing this given the OS I'm running and most likely due to the age of the GPU it's probably tired or done. Just want to make sure before I return it. Thanks for your insight, much appreciated.

TCM327 said:

So I'm guessing your answer is, the card shouldn't be doing this given the OS I'm running and most likely due to the age of the GPU it's probably tired or done. Just want to make sure before I return it. Thanks for your insight, much appreciated.

Click to expand...

Just ran this if this confirms the card is tired or bad, thanks again.

You all are light-years ahead of me on understanding graphics. So, forgive my lack of tech knowledge here.

I recently had to swap out 1 of monitors on my setup. and the seller sent me a different monitor (with much higher res capability) than what I ordered, which would have been a direct-replacement for the older one.

I need some advice as I now want to order another monitor to match the new one and get back to matching setup. But, I'm not sure if my system can handle both of the higher res monitors.

I honestly don't know if I'll even use them at max resolution. Right now, I'm using the higher res monitor scaled down, as when I use it at 4k or even scaled down a little, I can't read any of the text. The text is tiny, at higher res. Is there a way to fix that? OS settings?

I don't game at all on it. Just work and watch videos. Work is mostly Email, browsing, editing documents, spreadsheets, some image/picture editing, etc.
I will eventually be doing some video editing, but doing very little of that right now.

So, If I get another replacement monitor that matches the newer one I just got, will my Graphics card be able to handle two 4k monitors? Will is slow it down tremendously or otherwise affect performance of the whole system?

I have a Mid-2010 MacPro, running macos Big Sur 11.7.10, upgraded to metal capable Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7950 3 GB.
I'm using both of the MiniDP outputs for both Monitors: x2 Samsung 32" Curved monitors, input on both is DP.
I'm using a braided cord that's miniDP on one end and DP on the other end, no adapters.

Previously: I had 1 Samsung C32F397 & 1 Samsung C32F391. They're very similar & looked identical. I never even checked the Resolution they were running at. Probably both at 1920x1080, as that's what the C32F397 is now.

Now: I have the 1 Samsung C32F397 & 1 Samsung U32R591.

The U32R591 It is still a white 32" curved monitor, but looks totally different from the front and it mounts differently to the stand in the back (so, they're at different heights now). The ebay Seller sent me a Samsung U32R591, instead of another C32F397, I think because he sold out of the older, cheaper version. It is much higher resolution monitor at 4k (although I read somwhere its capable of 5k+, but I think that was wrong). So, I don't mind the free upgrade ... but now I'm mis-matched with my dual monitor setup & I hate that! I know it seems like I'm complaining about a free upgrade and that's stupid... I'm not. It's just that the looks and practicailty (usability) of the whole setup is more important to me than the technical specs. Like I said, I appreciate the upgrade and the higher res capability; but I'm not currently using it at max res, nor doing anything that really demands that. I may later on in the future though. I like that it's newer and has higher tech specs, but would prefer to get back to a matching setup. I can't send it back; I can't trade it in for a C32F397 (that wouldn't be wise anyways). But, I could buy another U32R591 that matches & sell the C32F397 for about the same price or a small difference. They're not very expensive monitors but they are hard to find still in good, working condition. these are both in excellent, like new/refurbished condition.

Question is: can I run 2 Samsung 4k U32R591's? What would be the max Resolution for each one, given what my graphics card is be capable of, assuming I set them both to the same Resolution, & keep the hooked up as they are now? (MiniDP output on graphics card, to DP input on monitor)

Would I be able to run them both at full 4k 3840x2160?

Would they both run fine, If I use them scaled down at 3360x1890, 3008x1692, or 2560x1440?

Thank you for any input!

TCM327 said:

You seem to know a lot about this card and your detailed info was very informative. I just recently bought a Flashed PC 7950 card for my Mid 2012 MacPro. Long story but I'm still in OS 10.10.5 for Audio production and composition reasons. I wanted to be able to run 3 monitors, specifically a bigger flat screen with HDMI for my film scoring gigs. I'm sure this card will allow this configuration but when I installed the card I started experiencing screen freezing with Safari and Chrome. I changed a setting in Chrome I think it was a flag composite setting and Chrome seems to be behaving better, Safari still freezes for a bit and then catches up. Additionally, sometime both monitors that I'm running at the moment go black and they never some back so I have to perform a hard reboot. Any insight you may have regarding this GPU mod I've done would be be great. Thanks so much.

Click to expand...

You've got a pretty similar setup as mine. I've had no issues with the GPU Upgrade done on my system. mid-2010 Mac Pro.

RussianSensation did seem really knowledgeable & that's why I posted my question here too. I see RussianSensation hasn't responded to your question though; but I don't think I'd take jpiniero's word for it. He doesn't seem to have added anything positive to the discussion. I wouldn't say it's too old, I wouldn't think it's necessary to scrap it and buy a new mac. That's just bad advice and not even trying to figure out the problem. I like the idea of breathing new life into these old MacPros and saving several thousands $ in the process! Mine has worked great for several years now.

You may have figured all this out already (i'm just now seeing your post is 3+ years old). Update this and let us know what you did to resolve it. It may help me or someone else.

Here's some things I thought of that may help with your situation.

FYI: I'm not a pro at this by any means. I'm not completely a technewbie, either though. I Just don't understand a lot about graphics cards and signals output. I'm new to MacPro's and figuring it out as I go. But, I've had my MacPro for a few years now and been running two monitors the whole time, with the same graphics card you have.

Here's my 2 cents:
-Maybe the flashed graphics card you got was bad, or maybe it needs to be re-flashed (if that can be done).

-I've had my MacPro running two monitors for a few years (3-4 years). Difference is that you're trying to run 3 monitors, instead of 2 & that 1 is a TV.
Could be something with the TV settings. It works a little diff. being a TV and not a monitor, I believe. Not to say it can't be done. What do you have the TV input settings set to? Does it know input is coming from a computer and not another source, like DVD player? If you're using HDMI cable; it may not automatically detect the source signal. Is it (the TV's input in settings) set to NTSC or PAL? I don't know exactly what settings need to be adjusted to; but I vaguely remmeber having the deal with that when using an older flatscreen TV as a monitor in the past, with either my MacMini or my MacBook (5+ years ago).

-Since this Graphics card can handle up to 4 monitors (at 1080p, I think), you should be able to run 3 no problem as long as they're configured correctly. Maybe you're pulling too much from the card, running the monitors at too high a resolutiuon. Try Scaling down the resolution you're running at. In macOS, you can select to run each monitor at it's native/default resoltion, or pick a scaled down resolution. Maybe having all 3 monitors/tvs at too high a resolution is causing your problem.

-Does everything work fine when you go down to just 2 monitors? If so, then the graphics card isn't the problem, I wouldn't think.
-Maybe the monitors going black could be a problem internally with the monitor(s)? Have you tried hooking up any other monitors or troubleshooted each, running only 1 at a time?

-Something about the configuration of your setup might be the problem. Which monitor/TV is plugged into which Output on the MacPro/graphics card? I think it does matter which output(s) you're using and the combination thereof.

I don't know all the answers here (I have my own related question posted below) ... but I am trying to give you things to think about and try adjusting.
GOOD LUCK & GodSpeed!