Will we be able to buy DP+ boards in the future?
The largest stumbling block for all of us is we're a pre-existing userbase with pre-existing displays that are predominantly DVI or HDMI. Right now I'm sitting on 4 Samsung 245BW wondering what to do about adapters. A selling point for EyeFinity should be taking the need for a box in between the card and displays away. That $350 that went to Matrox could now go towards a better video card. This is an accessibility issue that needs to be key to EyeFinity. The initial DP only limitation I think was a miss-step that can be obviously addressed in different 5800 series cards. When the new cards that address this issue are out how will we know they're DP+ and not only DP? Will it be on the packaging where we could specifically look for DP+? It would be very helpful if the package states clearly that it is "compatible with passive DVI Single-Link and passive HDMI adapters compatible to DP+."
I highly suggest that some variation of the 6-port 5870 be targeted for Mini-DP+.
You may consider the dependance on DP a "misstep", but in fact DP is the
enabler to this technology being offered as a standard feature on all our boards. Remember, that these have to appeal to everyone Eyefinity is not something that
we are charging extra for - the product has to stand on its own two feet as a competetive solution, but with value added features such as Eyefinity, DX11 and new levels of compute capabilities. If it wasn't for DisplayPort we wouldn't be as competetive because we'd be saddled with extra cost.
All of these boards can drive two "legacy" display outputs, the additional displays have to be DisplayPort. The Eyefinity6 Edition board will be DP+, but again only up to 2 outputs - more than two outputs will still require DP.