The only way I could fix this issue was with flashing the newer BIOS that ATI released to techpowerup with the increased displayport drive strength. The fix seems to be in the 5870 and 5850 updated BIOS but not the other cards.
[quote]if this is true. I shake my head at the fluck up that is ATI
why is this a fuck-up? that's the way it's always been.
I agree it was a major fuck up. The issue was BIOS related but ATI blamed the adapters for ages which had been on the market long before and working fine. Then they finally made a BIOS update that fixed the problem but it was only for the 5800's and not the 5700's and they didn't release it properly and only 3rd party websites actually had it with no real explanation of the fix.
Then they said that all of the card distributes had knowledge of the problem and would be releasing updated BIOS files but after months of me and other people messaging companies like ASUS and getting replies "sorry we don't have an updated BIOS" proved otherwise. I think only Sapphire have actually released an updated BIOS.
Finally most people with the problem like me ended up flashing the cards with the ATI BIOS from the 3rd party site with little information and voiding our warranties with the brand but at least it fixed the issue. 5700 owners are still SOL.