Widescreen Gaming Forum

1. One requirement of Eyefinity is that one of the 3 monitors has to have a DP input. Can this requirement be bypassed by using an Active DP adapter (eg using such an adapter to connect the DP output of the card to HDMI/VGA input of a monitor) ?

From the ATI Eyefinity FAQ, I gather the answer to the above is a 'Yes'. Please confirm.

2. Another requirement of Eyefinity is that all monitors (within an Eyefinity Group) have to use the same resolution.

So, using an Eyefinity 6 card, can an Eyefinity Group be formed with just 3 monitors (of same resolution and same size) and then 3 other monitors (of resolution and size different from the Group) be used (ie not part of that Eyefinity Group) simultaneously together with the Group?
I think, using AMD terminology, this is called ''mixed mode group'' (ie grouped and extended).
As in the FAQ, it is ''3x1 Display Group plus 1 Extended''. Does the top monitor (''2'' shown in the diagram) have to use same resolution as the 3 monitors in the Group?

My aim: using the Group to display forward scenery (in Flight Sim and Driving Sim) and then use the 3 monitors (or just 1 or 2) to display GPS/instruments.

3. If 2. above is not possible, can I go the multi-card route to achieve this multi-mon gaming?
Say, use a 5870 to form an Eyefinity Group of 3 monitors. And, simultaneously, use a 3870 to connect to its own monitor for the display of GPS/instrument?
(OS: Win Vista)

I appreciate any help in this Eyefinity.[/b]

I can only answer to first one, you either need active DP->DVI adapter (expensive, not work 100%) or DP->VGA (cheap, works 100%).

1. One requirement of Eyefinity is that one of the 3 monitors has to have a DP input. Can this requirement be bypassed by using an Active DP adapter (eg using such an adapter to connect the DP output of the card to HDMI/VGA input of a monitor) ?

From the ATI Eyefinity FAQ, I gather the answer to the above is a 'Yes'. Please confirm.

Correct you would use active adaptors, as stated above the VGA adaptors work flawlessly, some of the DVI adaptors do have issues, idealy if you wish to use DVI look for the single-link DVI adaptors (max resolution 1920x1200), as these have proven to be more reliable than the dual-link DVI adaptors(max resolution 2560x1600).

2. Another requirement of Eyefinity is that all monitors (within an Eyefinity Group) have to use the same resolution.

So, using an Eyefinity 6 card, can an Eyefinity Group be formed with just 3 monitors (of same resolution and same size) and then 3 other monitors (of resolution and size different from the Group) be used (ie not part of that Eyefinity Group) simultaneously together with the Group?
I think, using AMD terminology, this is called ''mixed mode group'' (ie grouped and extended).

My aim: using the Group to display forward scenery (in Flight Sim and Driving Sim) and then use the 3 monitors (or just 1 or 2) to display GPS/instruments.

Again correct, you can create a group of 3 monitors which are all same resolution, then still use 3 additional monitors at any resolution working independently form the group.

3. If 2. above is not possible, can I go the multi-card route to achieve this multi-mon gaming?
Say, use a 5870 to form an Eyefinity Group of 3 monitors. And, simultaneously, use a 3870 to connect to its own monitor for the display of GPS/instrument?
(OS: Win Vista)

I appreciate any help in this Eyefinity.

As 2 is possible, there is no need for an extra card, however if you wished to go even further, then yes you can use the 3870 along side the 5870 in both vista and win7 however if you decided to use the 5870 and an nvidia card, then you will be forced to use xp or win7 as vista does not allow multiple video drivers to be loaded, thus the ati and nvidia would conflict, this is fixed in win7.

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1. One requirement of Eyefinity is that one of the 3 monitors has to have a DP input. Can this requirement be bypassed by using an Active DP adapter (eg using such an adapter to connect the DP output of the card to HDMI/VGA input of a monitor) ?

Yes, In fact I use 3 active adapters on my setup.

2. Another requirement of Eyefinity is that all monitors (within an Eyefinity Group) have to use the same resolution.

So, using an Eyefinity 6 card, can an Eyefinity Group be formed with just 3 monitors (of same resolution and same size) and then 3 other monitors (of resolution and size different from the Group) be used (ie not part of that Eyefinity Group) simultaneously together with the Group?

Yes, I can remember the max amount of groups on the E6 card (which I'm using) But I definitely have made 2 groups on the same card. 5760x1080 and 3840x1024 on top.

I think, using AMD terminology, this is called ''mixed mode group'' (ie grouped and extended).
As in the FAQ, it is ''3x1 Display Group plus 1 Extended''. Does the top monitor (''2'' shown in the diagram) have to use same resolution as the 3 monitors in the Group?

Nope. Actually, even in a group the only thing that must happen is the the video card must send the same resolution and refresh rate to each monitor. The monitors can be varying size, native resolution, and refresh rate. Out of a group, no restrictions at all.

My aim: using the Group to display forward scenery (in Flight Sim and Driving Sim) and then use the 3 monitors (or just 1 or 2) to display GPS/instruments.

3. If 2. above is not possible, can I go the multi-card route to achieve this multi-mon gaming?
Say, use a 5870 to form an Eyefinity Group of 3 monitors. And, simultaneously, use a 3870 to connect to its own monitor for the display of GPS/instrument?
(OS: Win Vista)

I appreciate any help in this Eyefinity.

Both ways would work, I just tell you now. If you want to use full screen and not have to deal with too many windows, I'd make a 4x1 group. Render the forwards view on the first 3 and physically move the 4rth monitor to the bottom where you would then move the instrument panel to that monitor. Otherwise group the first 3 and have an extended 4th and run the game in Windowed mode.

EDIT: Delphium Beat me to the punch.

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Thanks to Ergonpandilus , Delphium and suiken_2mieu for quick response!

With your positive feedbacks, I have more confidence to investigate Eyefinity further. Let me provide more hardware info so that you might examine my plan better.
I have three 24'' 16:9 monitors (with VGA and HDMI inputs) with native resolution 1920x1080.
I have another 15'' 4:3 monitor (with VGA input only) with native resolution 1024x768.

Again, my aim is to have forward scenery in the 3 larger monitors and the small monitor for instrument/GPS (for Flight Sim + Driving Sim)

4x1 Group is not desirable because the 3 larger monitors will have to run at 1024x768 (lowest common denominator) and the pictures will not be pretty.

I now have 3 plans:
Plan A:
Use HD6870 (which supports 4 monitors = 3x1 Group plus 1 Extended?)
--DVI output to 1st mon's HDMI/VGA
--HDMI output to 2nd mon's HDMI/VGA
--miniDP (with Active DP adapter) output to 3rd mon's HDMI/VGA
(above 3 monitors setup as a 3x1 Group)

--miniDP (with Passive DP adapter???) output to 4th mon's VGA
(this mon is setup as Extended, not part of the above Group)

Question: If the 3rd monitor's VGA input (vs HDMI) is used, can the adapter be DP Passive?

Plan B:
Use Sapphire HD5770 FleX
--DVI output to 1st mon's HDMI/VGA
--DVI output to 2nd mon's HDMI/VGA
--HDMI output to 3rd mon's HDMI
(above 3 monitors setup as a 3x1 Group)

--DP (with Passive DP adapter???) output to 4th mon's VGA

Plan C:
Same as Plan B except adding a HD3870 to drive the 4th monitor so that this plan will avoid to use any DP adapter.

Any comment on these 3 plans??
Plan A has strongest graphic power but it involves one Active DP adapter (not 100% certain to work).
Plan C uses no DP Adapter and so it is 100% certain to work?


Thanks again! :bowdown :bowdown