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Liquid Cool 2010-03-28 08:18
Hello Folks,
I've been a long time user of Ultramon. Love the software...
Have a quick question...
In the past, I normally just built a new pc with dual pci-e slots and used two video cards with my three monitor set up. Never had a problem doing this with Christian's software. Worked like a charm every time.
Now...I'm considering building a new rig with an ATI card(I've never bought one of these before) and I understand(after doing some research) you can use three monitors on one video card using a displayport adapter for the 3rd monitor...
I'm fine up until this point...and now a little lost. This "Eyefinity" mode, does that allow me to freely use all three monitors as I've used them before in the past with two video cards. Or is it a special mode like SLI where I can only use one monitor or all three...but can't have separate desktops on each monitor?
Or to put it another way, I'm used to using two nvidia video cards for three monitors, I like the way I can have separate desktops, Ultramon works great and I want it to stay that way. If I upgrade to ATI's eyefinity, does this change in some way that I'm not aware?
If it doesn't, it seems as though it would save me quite a bit of cash because I only need one video card vs. two in the past...
Appreciate any help offered.
Liquid Cool
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ecarlson 2010-03-28 13:52
I would also like to hear more about people's actual experiences with 3 monitors on ATI Eyefinity cards (and/or 6 monitors on 2 cards, 9 monitors on 3 cards, etc.).
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
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Javier 2010-04-12 07:33
I'm setting up my first eyefinity system right now. I got a 5850 which will be running three monitors, 2 in dvi, and 1 via display port. This is important - the third must be via display port that is located on the video card. Not quite sure why eyefinity works like that - but thats the deal there. Also as a side note if your monitor doesn't have a display port you will need to buy one of those 100 dell display port converters. The cheap $15-$50 display port converters will not work. The reason is because the $100 converter needs to be powered in order to be able to change the data to digital.
Moving on - The eyefinity setup will make your 3 screens into 1 big screen - much like ultramon does. You can move screens from one side to the other, but what i don't see is the taskbar at the bottom showing whats on each screen - which is very helpful and what i like most about ultramon. What i'm wondering is if i can actually run ultramon with eyefinity running in the background!
Javier
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Dan Rosenberry 2010-04-13 01:34
The reason for the limitation is in the hardware of the card. DVI/HDMI/etc require a dedicated clock signal. DP does not. The card only devotes circuitry to producing two clock signals, hence is limited to two nonDP monitors without using active adapters.
Given that $50 video cards support two clock signals, the cost per signal seems low. Future cards might have more clocks built in. I'd expect them to require passive DP to other adapters due to space in the slot, DVI is a big connector.
They might not depending on the percentage of users that would utilize a 3rd nonDP monitor as the functionality is extra cost (in hardware) for those who don't use it, especially if this is hardware that has to exist across the full spectrum of cards as a lot of people still use video cards for just one monitor.
For desktop usage in spring 2010, there are more cost effective ways to get more pixels than a 5xxx card.
For gaming, it's a different set of objectives.
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