The RX 580 (the equivalent of a GTX 1060) came in the mail a day early, and I was so hyped and excited to get it installed. But at the end, I am without my primary monitor, and I cannot figure out how to make my secondary monitor’s screen to completely fit (it’s basically a vertical letterbox).
Installation was.. rough to say the least. This card is about 3 inches longer than my 750Ti, which I’m to assume it’s made for people who enjoy the process of cable management (as the inside of my case is quite messy).
But after some time of trying to move cables back and reorienting the graphics card to fit in such a confined space, I finally got it in. Snapping it into the PCI-E port was the easy part (out of all of that craziness).
Then came the time of figuring out just how to connect a 6-pin power connector into an 8-pin socket. But I finally figured it out, by spinning it around and connecting.
After another ‘screw loose in the case’ problem, I hooked up the base essentials (keyboard, mouse, ethernet, power supply, monitors..) wait. FUCK!! Why won’t you go IN, DVI to VGA adapter?! …. ohh fuck! You require a DVI-D to VGA adapter! God DAMNIT, AMD!! I have to buy another adapter! UGH!
So yeah, I’m without my primary monitor (which still uses VGA instead of HDMI). That means my secondary monitor is now my primary… or at least temp primary, as I just made a rush order on Amazon to haul ass and give me the adapter I need (by tomorrow).
I want my primary monitor back, damnit!
Because I’m (temporarily) without a true primary monitor (and having this limited ‘vertical letterbox effect’), I don’t feel confident on gaming with my new GPU. If I could figure out how to make the window truly full screen, then maybe. And I feel even when I do get my primary monitor working, I’m still going to have this ‘forced resolution’ issue.
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The other thing that concerns me, is the fact the fans of the new graphics card aren’t spinning. They still spin on bootup, but on idle they don’t. The only thing I can think of, is maybe.. they don’t need to spin (as the card is at a comfortable temp)? At least I can only assume that’s true.
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EDIT: I found the answer to the ‘forced resolution’ thing! This Reddit post saved the day, even though I could had SWORN I tried this before, and it didn’t work for me!
It isn’t the card, it’s Windows 10 that was causing the issue. You got to go to Display Settings, then Advanced display settings, then click on ‘Display adapter properties for Display 1’. This third step, I had clicked on and nothing popped up. But this time, I actually got a window to show.
There you can go to the Monitor tab, and change the refresh rate. By default, it’s at 53Hz. Setting it to 60 or 70Hz, fixes the problem!! 😀
Though everything looks stretched out now (apparently my eyes were starting to get used to the smaller view), yay for something I found on Google that actually helps!
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Now to finally start testing my new graphics card, with gaming.
Tried running Wurm (single instance) with the card for about a half an hour, I noticed two cool things (and a very much emphasis on ‘cool’);
1. The dual fans kick on when the temp hits 45*C. Thing is, they only spin when needed.
2. Getting an average of 54-55*C. That is.. wow. For a graphics card, sweet temps! And this is using the default settings. Though, I’m sure my window AC is helping with this (keeping the ambient room temp at a good level).