Acer H243HX cant use 60hz with HDMI

Firstly, if I use DVI there is no problems, but I want to use the HDMI port and run a multi-monitor setup (have not gotten to the adding on of the second monitor yet tho).

My problem is, that when I plug in my Acer H243HX to my HD7850 video card via HDMI, I can only use a screen refresh rate of 59hz as it is clear (good to look at). If I try to use 60hz the screen is absolutely terrible, it has vertical lines and the color looks weird. Problem is, most games I have want to run at 60hz (I think) (and I cannot change that in their settings from what I can see). When I run ones of these games I can not play it as it has all the lines etc.

Is it normal for this monitor to go coo coo when using 60hz over HDMI?

My Rig:

motherboard: Asrock Z77-EXTREME4

cpu: Intel Core i5 3570K

monitor: Acer H243HX

graphics: Sapphire (Radeon) HD7850

hdd: Crucial Technology CRM4256SSD

ram: 8Gb

power: OCZ ZT750W Modular 80+ Bronze PSU

OS: Win 7 64bit

Lost...thanks in advance.

EDIT: Ok this is even weirder, I just unpluged the HDMI from my computer and plugged it into my old computer (next to each other) and I got the reverse. It works great at 60hz, but not at 59hz where it had just weird lines and colors.

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Dsurian

What's the OS and graphics card in the older machine? - and your using the same monitor and same HDMI cord, right?

You wouldn't happen to have an extra HDMI cord laying around, would you? - if so, I would definitely suggest swapping them out.

Is there some particular requirement in you using the HDMI port for a dual set-up? Not positive, but I'm fairly certain that DVI capability tops out at 1920x1080 @60hz - so, you should be able to use the two DVI ports on your 7850 for both monitors. Now, if you get a 27"+ @70hz monitor, then HDMI would be required to fully utilize its capabilities, but I don't think that's necessary in this case - could be wrong, though.

And, just to get the obvious out of the way, check the HDMI ports on your GPU and the monitor for any noticeable imperfections, as well as the cord your using. Make sure that each end of the connection is perfectly tight.

Gambler71

What's the OS and graphics card in the older machine?

Win7 64bit

ATI Radeon HD 5770

and your using the same monitor and same HDMI cord, right?

yes

You wouldn't happen to have an extra HDMI cord laying around, would you?

so far I have tried 3 (one was my xbox 360 at HDMI 1.3b, and one is supposed to be HDMI 1.4a)

Is there some particular requirement in you using the HDMI port for a dual set-up? ...you should be able to use the two DVI ports on your 7850 for both monitors...

I can only see 1 DVI port.

There is also a HDMI port & 2*MiniDSP

The only other DVI port on this machine is for the built in graphics.

check the HDMI ports on your GPU and the monitor for any noticeable imperfections

everything appears to be okay as far as I can see

I also have another computer in the house atm which is almost identical to mine (except it has: cpu: Intel Core i5 3770K and monitor: Samsung S23B350H) and it appears to work very well using HDMI. I will try switching the monitors around and see what happens.

Gambler71

The Samsung SyncMaster S23B350H works perfectly on my machine. All games run fine. Still to test the Acer on the i3770 but it appears that it is the Acer that is at fault.

Gambler71

Ok, the Acer H243HX works on the i3770, and it appears to be all good from the stuff I tested, using HDMI @ 60hz. It is running catalyst control center 12.4, I am using 13.9 (latest) on mine.

Back on my computer, using a Windows 8 partition, same problem with the Acer using HDMI.

I noticed that, even though the video card's were the same, one had 2 DVI ports and the other only 1. Since the computer upstairs only uses HDMI (leaving the DVI ports empty) I decided to swap the video cards over. Now I can run multi-monitors and all is good. I also tested the Acer, back on my computer (which now has the swapped video card), with HDMI and all was good.

So I still have no idea why 1 video card could not talk to it properly, and the other could. I do know that the HDMI port works good in both as I can connect the Samsung monitor to either of them using HDMI and there is no problems.

Final conclusion, I have no idea, weird or what?

Dsurian

Very weird - hard to say exactly what could be causing it, though it honestly seems like some very odd/rare malfunction with the Acer monitor. Unfortunately, it could be a hardware malfunction as the problem seems to follow the cards and/or monitor around, but as each card likely has a different driver, and each computer has a vastly different software setup (I assume), then it could potentially come down to drivers as well. I may be leaning away from the Acer simply due to some personal bias for Acer and against ATI, but the 7850 is just bizarre - never have a seen a single GPU series with so many alterations to its various outputs between manufacturers. What's odder is that, as you seem certain it's Sapphire, I can't find a 7850 Sapphire card without 2x DVI - so, potentially, if you're using a sapphire specific driver on a card that isn't actually Sapphire, that may be the problem right there.

At least you got it working. Future reference: When planning a 2+ monitor setup, it may help if you use a card (or multiple cards via SLI or Crossfire) that has 2+ outputs of the same variety (2x DVI, 2x HDMI, etc.), as well as using two very similar (if not identicle) monitors - though not strictly necessary, it will no doubt make the whole process a lot smoother...

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