Issue With Multiple GPU Usage

I'm having trouble getting separate WoW instances to run on a GPU other than the primary. My current setup is a 2x2 grid of monitors plus a fifth off to the left. They are powered by four 5870s. While I can, and occasionally do, use them in crossfire, I don't when multiboxing and normally because each GPU only has four connectors. They are connected such that each GPU powers one monitor in the 2x2 grid. The display that is powered by the first GPU is the primary display. The fifth monitor which is off to the side is on the first GPU.

To keep this somewhat sane and reduce the chances of miscommunication, I'm going to refer to the monitors and GPUs as shown below.

Monitor Physical Layout:

Code:

  3 5
1 2 4


GPU Physical Layout:
1 | First GPU | PCIe x16
2 | Second GPU | PCIe x8
3 | Third GPU | PCIe x16
4 | Fourth GPU | PCIe x8

All four are 5870s with 1GB of RAM

Monitor => GPU
1 => 1
2 => 1
3 => 2
4 => 3
5 => 4

Monitor => DirectX Display Name
1 = > \\.\DISPLAY2
2 = > \\.\DISPLAY1
3 = > \\.\DISPLAY4
4 = > \\.\DISPLAY7
5 = > \\.\DISPLAY10
( This is according to the window layout that I'm using )

I've been using four instances of "TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.1" to display the GPU load for all four GPUs. When I launch a basic, two character WoW profile, one shows up on monitor 2 and the other on monitor 4. The monitors that the games show up on matches what is in the Window Layout used for this set. In the WoW config, I have the monitor setting set to "Primary", which is the default. I have tried a number of different monitor settings in WoW with various Window Layouts but not had any luck so far.

When I run both instances of WoW the load on GPU 1 stays in the 30% to 80% range. GPUs 2, 3, and 4 show either zero load or occasional spikes around 3% to 20%.

In terms of ISBoxer's window layout for the profile in use, I have two swap groups with one display and toon in each swap group. Each region has swapping disabled and the home region for the slot is set to the slot with the same number.
Slot 1 = Region 1 = Swap Group 1 = \\.\DISPLAY1
Slot 2 = Region 2 = Swap Group 2 = \\.\DISPLAY7

Questions:
* Why isn't the per-game-instance GPU selection working like it says in the GPU Management wiki page?
* WoW has it's own monitoring numbering system. While the "Primary" option is pretty obvious, is there any easy and reliable way to correlate this with DirectX/ISBoxer/InnerSpace's naming?
* What additional info do you need to answer the above? I've not included every last setting as that'd be a metric ton of stuff to upload and review to make sure there is nothing private in it.

Thanks for your time

[lax]

It does work as explained on the GPU Management page. WoW's setting should have no effect when using ISBoxer -- whatever WoW has set there should be overridden automatically by ISBoxer.

Show me your configuration -- HOWTO: Share your configuration for better support

My apologies, I didn't mean to imply that the docs or code were wrong.

http://www.privatepaste.com/44fa46a913/
The passcode for it is bogus12345

Oh, and the char set "Leveling Locks" is the one I'm testing with. The others are from previous configs that I'm not using anymore.

[lax]

Okay. Your ISBoxer configuration looks fine as far as this goes.

You can double-check that ISBoxer is assigning the correct GPU (monitor..) via the in-game Inner Space console -- you would set a Hotkey to open that in your Character Set, it is not the same as right clicking IS and selecting "Console" and it is not the same as what you can open through the ISBoxer Control Panel. So anyway, set a Hotkey in your Character Set for the "In-game Inner Space console hotkey" option, for example I use Alt+`, and then Export and hit that hotkey in the game. You can check each window and they should specifically say somewhere in the console which monitor they are assigned to.

You can also try switching the graphics API, in WoW's advanced video options. If it's on DirectX 11 mode, try DirectX 9 mode. Or vice versa. If it works correctly in one but not the other, certainly let me know.

Beyond that, if ISBoxer says it is applying the right monitors and changing the graphics API version makes no difference, I might be double checking the monitor cables because you might indeed have 2 and 4 on one GPU rather than 1 and 2?

[MiRai]

You can also try switching the graphics API, in WoW's advanced video options. If it's on DirectX 11 mode, try DirectX 9 mode. Or vice versa. If it works correctly in one but not the other, certainly let me know.

Not replying to Lax, but quoting this section of his post for emphasis.

There has been a long standing bug with the WoW client where it doesn't run correctly on a non-primary monitor when using DX11. I haven't tested this in maybe 6 months, but this bug has been around since they implemented DX11 in Cataclysm and I would assume with so few people actually reporting it, that it isn't high on their list of priorities.

You can double-check that ISBoxer is assigning the correct GPU (monitor..) via the in-game Inner Space console -- you would set a Hotkey to open that in your Character Set, it is not the same as right clicking IS and selecting "Console" and it is not the same as what you can open through the ISBoxer Control Panel. So anyway, set a Hotkey in your Character Set for the "In-game Inner Space console hotkey" option, for example I use Alt+`, and then Export and hit that hotkey in the game. You can check each window and they should specifically say somewhere in the console which monitor they are assigned to.

So according to the console....
On monitor 2:

Code:

| 23:36:17 ISBoxer: Window Layout binding to monitor:
\\.\DISPLAY1
| 23:36:17 ISBoxer: Window Layout binding to monitor:
\\.\DISPLAY1

On monitor 4:

Code:

| 23:36:26 ISBoxer: Window Layout binding to monitor:
\\.\DISPLAY7
| 23:36:26 ISBoxer: Window Layout binding to monitor:
\\.\DISPLAY7

You can also try switching the graphics API, in WoW's advanced video options. If it's on DirectX 11 mode, try DirectX 9 mode. Or vice versa. If it works correctly in one but not the other, certainly let me know.

Both 9 and 11 result in the same behavior.