Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi all!

My apologies if part of this is similar to a post on the Dave/Sunsp*t EF thread I posted not too long ago, but I had a quick question for those of you with 2 58xx or 57xx cards and hopefully 4 monitors.

I need (for 2D desktop issues) to have 2 Eyefinity groups with 2 monitors in each group. All monitors have the same res. Each group can be on its own card.

Can anyone with 2 cards test this if you have 4 monitors handy? Would love to know the answer before buying 2 57xx cards.

The reason for this is that I run 2 x IBM T221 9.2 MP monitors. Each monitor has a panel res of 3840x2400, which requires each monitor be run as two "virtual monitors" of 1920x2400 horizontally spanned together.

Under Win Vista they took away horizontal span and I was left with two separate desktops in one bezel, ugh. I'm hoping that 2 5750 cards and Eyefinity will finally be the solution that allows me to move away from WinXP 64bit.

Thanks in advance!
Yeang Chng

The only way you'll ever be able to push 4 displays with EyeFinity is with the 5870 EyeFinity6 card that is not yet released. You can't bridge GPUs or cards for port outs. EyeFinity is designed right now to only be able to use the port outs of a single card. The standard port configuration of the 5000-series only allows for 3 ports to work maximum at once. That'll change when the EyeFinity6 card comes out which will allow for 6 ports out of the card. Depending upon the port configuration of the display you are using you're also goign to have significant cost associated with the adapters.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Thanks for the reply, BHawthorne. That's a bummer if it is true. I'd understand if you couldn't bridge cards for a single surface, but the least I'm hoping for is for two surfaces, each on its on card.

To clarify, 2 groups of two monitors, each on its own card: group A on card A with 2 x 1920x2400 outputs spanned into a single virtual monitor, and group B on card B with another 2x 1920x2400 outputs into a second virtual monitor. That way there are no groups that go "across cards" if you know what I mean.

If you are sure that the above setup will not work, that that sucks and I'm still stuck with WinXP and horizontal spanning (which does allow the above) until EF SIX comes out.

Thanks again,
Yeang

The only way you'll ever be able to push 4 displays with EyeFinity is with the 5870 EyeFinity6 card that is not yet released. You can't bridge GPUs or cards for port outs. EyeFinity is designed right now to only be able to use the port outs of a single card. The standard port configuration of the 5000-series only allows for 3 ports to work maximum at once. That'll change when the EyeFinity6 card comes out which will allow for 6 ports out of the card. Depending upon the port configuration of the display you are using you're also goign to have significant cost associated with the adapters.

The EyeFinity6 should be out pretty soon, so it's not too big of an issue. I'd have to guess that they'd want it out before the holiday shopping season. It's a bit of a specialty card so it'll have lesser priority to get to market than the mainstream cards though. I'm waiting to buy one myself.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Yeah, but I'm worried about supply issues like the 58xx series. Let's hope so.

Two last questions: 1) have you actually tried 4 monitors with 2 cards, only grouping the 2 monitors on each card together, and 2) do you know for a fact that two separate Eyefinity groups are not possible?

I'm sure you know what you are talking about, but I can't find info elsewhere on the web to answer this question, so I'm wondering if your info comes from personal experience.

If we can only create one Eyefinity group, even when the SIX comes out that will be kind of limiting (not for gaming but for productivity stuff).

Yeah, but I'm worried about supply issues like the 58xx series. Let's hope so.

Two last questions: 1) have you actually tried 4 monitors with 2 cards, only grouping the 2 monitors on each card together, and 2) do you know for a fact that two separate Eyefinity groups are not possible?

I'm sure you know what you are talking about, but I can't find info elsewhere on the web to answer this question, so I'm wondering if your info comes from personal experience.

If we can only create one Eyefinity group, even when the SIX comes out that will be kind of limiting (not for gaming but for productivity stuff).

I have extensive multi-display experience, but my EyeFinity knowledge is purely academic and not real-world yet. There are a few forum members that do have the hardware that can do the tests for you though and definitively say one way or the other though. To my knowledge though, currently you can only do 1 SLS grouping at the moment.

The advantage with productivity apps is most of them are 2D desktop based windowed apps, not requiring a full screen mode. 2D can be accompished with about any video card configuration available with the port outs needed. 3D full screen mode is what screws things up though.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Hey, thanks again for the input. The reason I need SLS for 2D productivity is the way Photoshop/Bridge/Capture One etc behave - I guess I could run windowed but the Photoshop full screen mode (F-key) screws up if I have it stretched to cover two separate monitors.

Well, I think I'll bite the bullet and order 2 5750 cards from newegg to test this. I don't really need the horsepower of a SIX to do this as it is all framebuffer, and it'll be a lot cheaper than buying all the adapters needed.

Will post results here when I get the cards running.

For gaming, a triple projector setup would be sweet though - but that's another rig :)

For gaming, a triple projector setup would be sweet though - but that's another rig :)

Actually, I find it works great for every day use too. I'm typing on it right now actually. So far so good, and by the counter on my projectors it looks like I'm at right about 168 hours of use so far. There are some minor thigns I'm still tweaking on that setup, but that's for the other thread, not this one. :)

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

2 groups (one T221 with dual DL-DVI) , each from a card should be possible. After all, ATI demoed 4 groups (6 monitors each) with 4 SixEdition cards...

SixEdition is not suitable for your displays, though you'll need only one card instead of 2, you'll need 4 active DP to DL-DVI converters, and you may not be able to output the odd ball resolution of 1920x2400 through the converters.

2 groups (one T221 with dual DL-DVI) , each from a card should be possible. After all, ATI demoed 4 groups (6 monitors each) with 4 SixEdition cards...

it was on linux, I don't know whether ATI drivers currently support this kind of setup on windows. best to ask on a "Dave Baumann thread" maybe.
the question being : "is several independent Eyefinity Groups supported on windows ?"