ATI 58xx Eyefinity

[TLO]

Looking at a 5850 or 5870 for my new build and am interested in adding a 3rd monitor. Is it possible to use two DVI monitors and the HDMI, or does one of the 3 have to be Displayport?

[PeterStoba]

You must use the two DVI connectors, with the third monitor running off the Display port connector, either with a displayport cable or display port to dvi adapter.

[TLO]

I thought Displayport wasn't electrically compatible with DVI/HDMI. Are Displayport to HDMI/DVI adaptors active devices?

It's a relief anyway, the few monitors with DP are much more expensive than ones without.

[Pob255]

Ummm can the 58xx run 3 monitors at once? I didn't think any gameing card could.

[Blaineoliver]

It can. Special versions can do 6 at once.

[TLO]

The real special sauce is that the card can treat multiple displays as one large display, so games etc can use them transparently. Here's a vid of it being used for HAWX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKsLwFXqvvo

[badass]

Originally Posted by Pob255

Ummm can the 58xx run 3 monitors at once? I didn't think any gameing card could.

How can you know about the 5800 series and yet not know they can do 3 monitors at once?
And how can then be confident enough in your "knowledge" that you tell others this is the case?
Just curious.....

[TooNice]

^ Pob255 asked for confirmation (that the card can run 3 monitors) and said that he didn't -think- that it could. Doesn't come across as particularly assertive to me.

Just as a side note, the Matrox Parhelia could run three monitors. Okay, performance was inferior compared to the competition at the time, but at the time it was still considered a 'gaming card' at the time.

The real issue is whether the card will cope with games at the extended resolution. That obviously depends on the game and there is small test here: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid...e=expert&pid=1 (not bad overall - but you'll want to check the games you want to play).

[TLO]

Looks like a 5870 will cope with 4480x1200 nicely (two 1280x1024 and one 1920x1200 monitors).

Matrox also do something called the TripleHead-2-Go which splits a single DVI output into 3 to achieve a similar effect with any graphics card: http://www.guru3d.com/article/matrox...on-dvi-review/

The ATI setup is obviously much neater and cheaper.

[ta2]

Originally Posted by TLO

Looks like a 5870 will cope with 4480x1200 nicely (two 1280x1024 and one 1920x1200 monitors).

Can anyone confirm this? This is the setup that I want. My 1920x1200 has DisplayPort so I am alright on that front. Although I read somewhere that all three of the monitors have to be the same resolution for eyefinity?

Would this one work with three monitors http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-G...MI-DisplayPort

[ta2]

Originally Posted by ta2

Can anyone confirm this? This is the setup that I want. My 1920x1200 has DisplayPort so I am alright on that front. Although I read somewhere that all three of the monitors have to be the same resolution for eyefinity?

Would this one work with three monitors http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-G...MI-DisplayPort

P.S. I am not after the eyefinity specifically. Just having 3 screens worth of desktop realestate on the same card is good enough for me.

[Syllopsium]

Originally Posted by ta2

P.S. I am not after the eyefinity specifically. Just having 3 screens worth of desktop realestate on the same card is good enough for me.

You should be fine. One of the monitors has to be displayport, or have a displayport active converter if you want to run three monitors though, eyefinity gaming or otherwise.

By default the cards support three completely independent monitors. For the gaming features it doesn't make any technical sense to have differing resolutions.

PK

[scaryjim]

Originally Posted by ta2

Would this one work with three monitors http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-G...MI-DisplayPort

That would be a 4870, not a 5870. So no. Eyefinity is a new technology exclusive to 5000 series cards.

If you want a card in a similar price / performance range that *will* do three monitors, you need a 5770. Performance is slightly below a 4870, and the price slightly above*, so it's a trade off really. In the 5770s favour (aside from Eyefinity) is a much lower power draw and, of course, DX11 hardware.

EDIT: *actually, having looked again you linked to a fairly expensive 1GB 4870, so the 5770 is cheaper than that one! However, cheaper 1GB 4870s are available

[ta2]

Originally Posted by scaryjim

That would be a 4870, not a 5870. So no. Eyefinity is a new technology exclusive to 5000 series cards.

If you want a card in a similar price / performance range that *will* do three monitors, you need a 5770. Performance is slightly below a 4870, and the price slightly above*, so it's a trade off really. In the 5770s favour (aside from Eyefinity) is a much lower power draw and, of course, DX11 hardware.

EDIT: *actually, having looked again you linked to a fairly expensive 1GB 4870, so the 5770 is cheaper than that one! However, cheaper 1GB 4870s are available

Yes I am aware that I linked a HD 4870. The specific one I linked has HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort, so you could physically hook up three monitors to it... but can it output on all three ports at one time? Also I don't really see what advantage there is to the HD5770 over the HD5750. Seems to me like a 5-6% performance increase for 20% price increase. I'd get a HD5850, but there aren't any around at the moment.

[scaryjim]

Originally Posted by scaryjim

Eyefinity is a new technology exclusive to 5000 series cards.

Originally Posted by ta2

Yes I am aware that I linked a HD 4870. The specific one I linked has HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort, so you could physically hook up three monitors to it... but can it output on all three ports at one time?

I was pretty sure I'd already covered that with the comment above. Prior to Eyefinity, all Radeon graphics cards could out put simultaneously to two monitors only. If the 4870 had been able to output to 3 monitors Eyefinity wouldn't be such a remarkable technology really, would it...

EDIT: Incidentally, the Hexus review puts the 5770 pretty uniformly 15% - 20% ahead of the 5750 across all games and resolutions...

[Blaineoliver]

You can only connect 2 monitors. Ati had to redesign the display output technology to allow for more than 2 outputs. Thats why the new cards are so different.