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Thread: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

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    New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Hello:

    I have a desktop computer with Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 3 GB RAM, built exactly 5 years ago. I have an Nvidia e-GeForce 8600 GTS and a 7600 GT KO card for my three monitors. Having troubles with positioning of text and graphics on monitors, particularly in Firefox. It's probably time to upgrade.

    I used to have ATI before this computer, and was always satisfied. Never liked Nvidia. So, in spite of my Intel CPU, and AMD now owning ATI, I would like to try ATI/AMD. Any reason I should not?

    Also, I have absolutely no idea what cards to even look at. As I said, I need one or two cards for three monitors. I have a somewhat outdated CPU. I am not a gamer. What graphics cards should I look at.

    Grateful for tips on these issues. http://forums.hexus.net/images/smilies/help.gif

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    bored.gamer Yosh's Avatar
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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    4850 / 4870 / 4890 if you want to go the 2nd hand route, can all be picked up for a good price, and should be a substantial upgrade, they only run Dx10 afaik.

    The next logical step if your looking for a bargains is 5770s, updated 48xx series that runs cooler and faster afaik and supports Dx11.

    Should save you a bit of cash from buying new cards, as for new cards no idea, i jumped from a 48xx to a 68xx but i only needed one card, it was however a substantial jump.
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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    the e6600 still has surprisingly good legs, esp if you don't game.

    If your not gaming then almost any cards will be fine.

    If you want want to run 3 monitors off one card in eyefinity then a 6670 would be the cheapest card I know of http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-a...ort-dvi-i-hdmi
    you need a card that has a display port output.
    You may well need an active display port adaptor
    And your current monitors could be an issue, will all depend on the monitors you have.

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Thank you, Yosh and Pob255.

    Now, in order to accommodate three monitors with 6670/EAH6670/DIS/1GD5, I would need DisplayPort, which none of my three monitors have. However, I could use 6670/EAH6670/DIS1GD3, which would accommodate my three monitors. But does that card support three-monitor use? I use UltraMon software today to manage my monitors, but someone on its forum said that the card and its drivers would have to support multi-monitor use for it to work.

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Now, I do see there are a lot of cards with Eyefinity support, so I guess that if a card does not say "Eyefinity", it can only support one monitor. Is that correct?

    I'm going to start comparing, but I wish I knew what the policy is behind the various submodels within one model and between models. Would you guys know?

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Eyefinity (which is the ati triple monitor driver system) requires one of the monitors to be display port.
    The card must have a display port output on it, if it only has D-sub + DVI + Hdmi then you can only use two of those outputs at any one time and cannot run eyefinity on it.

    If none of your monitors has display port then you will just need to get and active display port adaptor.
    They are about £20 eg http://www.ebuyer.com/238403-sapphir...e-44000-02-40r or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xfx-Active-D.../dp/B004S9S632
    I only just found it on Scan http://www.scan.co.uk/products/sapph...p-to-1920x1200 (I don't know if their cheap ones are active or not http://www.scan.co.uk/products/15cm-...-adaptor-black so might not work with eyefinity)

    How eyefinity works, is that you need 3 monitors of the same resolution, the drivers then treat the 3 monitors not as separate screens but as one big monitor.

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Seems Eyefinity can drive 6 monitors, 4 of which must have DisplayPort.

    Now, I do not care much about splitting the screen over three monitors, but I want a different app on each monitor, which I believe Eyefinity can provide. Is there still that DisplayPort requirement in such a case?

    In any event, an adapter would be fine in my situation.

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    The Sapphire FleX series cards don't require an active adapter and so may be cheaper in some circumstances. I think you can use a HDMI to DVI adapter. You may wish to research this further...

    Yes, you must have one monitor running from a displayport connection otherwise...It just depends if your monitors have displayport...

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Okay, I see, Repressor. I get the impression ASUS are very good quality cards. Am I right? If so, it may pay to buy the more expensive active adapter.

    I am comparing three ASUS cards in the 58xx and 57xx series (all Eyefinity). You can see that the people writing the data never did a compare themselves. List of features are not the same (RAMDAC: 400 MHz for one card, no mention of it for the two other cards), same values are expressed differently (Memory clock 4.8 GHz and 4800 MHz), and Software Bundles vs Software, Interface + Outputs vs just Outputs. I never understood ASUS; great products, lousy documentation.

    In any event, may I ask what the difference is between a regular DP and just DP?

    Also, the three cards are:

    EAH5870/G/2DIS/1GD5/V2, 5870 Eyefinity 6/6S/2GD5 and EAH5770/2DIS/1GD5. Trying to finding prices for 6/6S... is difficult. Saw one price in the 500 euro range. Crazy!!!

    So, maybe I'll stick to the 6670 with adapter. Card seems to be about USD 100.00.

    Any help and comments on the above appreciated. right now, I feel dizzy :-)

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    The card I listed is the cheapest one I know of that supports eyefinity.
    in theory all 5xxx and 6xxx series can support eyefinity, however most of the lower end cards don't have the outputs to support it, the key one being the display port

    The Sapphire FleX supports eyefinity without the need for a display port adaptor by basically integrating the display port adaptor into the card.
    AFAIK the Dual-Link DVI output is basically going through a built in adaptor

    Yes eyefinity can support up to 6 monitors but only if the card supports it, and you need a fairly high end card for that many outputs.

    I'll try an explain a bit.

    The number and type of output on any graphics card is limited by display unit of the gpu, in the case of the 5xxx and 6xxx series it has 2 DAC's and 2 signal clock generators and a display port transmitter (that can supply up to 6 display port singles)
    In analog mode a vga or dvi-a uses one DAC and one signal clock per output.
    A digital HDMI or DVI-D output uses one of the display out puts and one signal clock.
    A display port output just uses a single display port output.

    Because the display unit of the gpu only has two signal clocks it can only support 2 non-display port monitors.
    You can fit a 3rd via a display port to dvi/hdmi adaptor, but it has to be an active adaptor, which is an adaptor that also supplies a timing signal via a built in signal clock generator.
    A passive adaptor lacks the signal clock generator so cannot be use if the card is already using it's two signal clocks to send timing signals to two other cards.

    The way the multiple monitors are supported at a driver level is for the card to basically trick windows into thinking it's not 3 (or more) separate monitors but 1 big monitor.
    Which is why all 3 (or more) screens have to be the same resolution (or at least all must be run at the resolution of the lowest resolution screen)
    ie if you have 3 monitors one 1280x1024 one 1440x900 and one 1920x1080, then you'd have to run all three at a custom resolution of 1280x900 each, which would give you a 3840x900 resolution which would be distorted in some way on each screen.
    So ideally you want all three monitors the same resolution and preferably the same size as well.

    Yes you can have 3 apps open, one on each screen, it's just as easy as having 3 separate windows open on a single screen (which is basically what the OS treats it as)

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Great explanation, Pob255.

    So, Eyefinity is then different than the setup I have now, with two cards with two DVI outputs each, of which I am using three, and where each monitor can have its own resolution!? Or is it UltraMon (www.ultramon.com) that makes the different resolutions possible, I wonder?

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Again, Pob255, I must be sure about the following before I make a purchase, so if I may ask:

    if I want to treat each monitor as a separate monitor, does Eyefinity allow this? For instance, if I have one app window open on one monitor, and the window is reduced, and I click the Maximize button in the upper right corner of the app screen, will the window maximize to the monitor screen in question?

    And, can the three monitors in this case be set to different resolutions?

    Thanks,

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    I have been looking and looking, and finally, I found an explicit mention of different resolutions, but I want to be sure I understand the answer:

    http://www.amd.com/us/products/techn....aspx#diff-res

    --------------------
    Can I support different resolutions?

    All monitors running in a Display Group or cloned modes must be running with the same resolution. If monitors have different native resolutions, the highest common non-native resolution between the monitors will be used when creating Display Groups. Monitors running in extended desktop mode can have independent resolutions.
    ----------------------

    I guess cloned means that each monitor has the same content displayed (same resolution).

    Display Group is one big app screen over all monitors (same resolution).

    I guess Extended Desktop is what I have today, where I can use each monitor individually (with different resolutions) and even stretch an app window over several monitors.

    Guess I just want to be dead sure I can get, with Eyefinity, what I have today. Call me paranoid; however, the issue is really that I have limited funds.

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    If OP isn't a gamer, is there any particular reason we're looking at Eyefinity only setups (apart from his preference expressed above)?

    I'd suggest that if you're working with 3 different applications, then perhaps your current solution isn't too far off the mark in the first place Hans? What's actually the issue with it at the moment?

    Sorry if I'm not being particularly helpful in this post, but it'd be nice to understand your requirements a little better before wading in with some suggestions, especially if, as you say, you have limited funds. :-)
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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    Well, the issue is to upgrade my graphics cards. They are old, and I have positioning problems, esp in Firefox.

    So, I was looking at ATI/ADM cards (don't care for Nvidia anymore), and came across Eyefinity as being what you need to treat each monitor as a separate entity where you can have different resolutions and different applications on each monitor.

    Regards,

    Hans L

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    Re: New graphics card in 5-year-old computer

    PS. My funds are limited mostly in the sense that I do not want to buy something that does not work out.

    Hans L

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