Affordable eyefinity?

[Thefishtank]

Hey so im here to hopefully figure out if these monitors even have the proper display ports to run eyefinity, i know they are only 1440x900... but ill only be using xfire 6950's...and would like to play bf3 on ultra? hopefully? lol fat chance i assume but i figure if its a x900 resolution 6950's should be able to handle it.

http://canadacomputers.com/product_i...item_id=033313

is what i had in mind, 3 of them...or 2 to put beside my samsung 19" TV, which also has 5ms response time.

please leave out your opinions on me wanting a 1440x900 eyefinity... unless its constructive towards a better experience...

thanks fishy

[Djinni]

1440x900 is a single display.... eyefinty takes multiple displays and treats them as a single display (1440 (x number of screens) x 900)
And no, the monitor you linked only supports VGA input (the blue one with pins) :-)

Getting Displayport ready monitors will likely blow out your budget.... do you already have the graphics card(s)?
If so and your really set on more than 2 screens, you will need an Active Displayport adapter and a screen that takes DVI(-D) input.

I can say from experience though that in general the "experience" from using multiple screens as a single one, (spaning the "picture" over 2 or more screens) is less than "stellar"... It's really not all it's hyped up to be, as all your screens need to have ultra thin bezels, and ideally be exactly the same as well as positioned perfectly. (any height difference (even if it's only 2mm) will totally throw you off.)

[Cyanotical]

i use 3 1440x900 cheap acer monitors, they work fine, and no, you cant play BF3 on ultra, mostly high, with textures on ultra

[Thefishtank]

1440x900 is a single display.... eyefinty takes multiple displays and treats them as a single display (1440 (x number of screens) x 900)
And no, the monitor you linked only supports VGA input (the blue one with pins) :-)

Getting Displayport ready monitors will likely blow out your budget.... do you already have the graphics card(s)?
If so and your really set on more than 2 screens, you will need an Active Displayport adapter and a screen that takes DVI(-D) input.

yea totaly linked the wrong monitor...the new link has DVI ports im pretty sure

[Elgand]

I dont know if it is in your price range, or if newegg is even an option, but you might take a gander at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009344

I just bought 3 and am running eyefinity on them. They have a wonderful picture, and are 1920x1080. I am only using a single 6970 card, and BF3 runs on ultra without AA at roughly 40-50 FPS, Your 6950's should easily push ultra with AA on BF3.

The monitor you linked is good as well, I just wanted you to know that a decent upgrade is only a minimal price increase.

You will need a display port adapter though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814999032

^That is what i bought, it only functions up to 1900x1200, but with your selected monitors, and the ones i suggested it works wonderfully. Other active display port to DVI adapters cost in the realm of $100+, and support higher resolutions, which you wont need.

One negative of eyefinity, there is the possibility that you could experience this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saG2mr6qM_8

That tearing is from mixing output signals. Most people use 2xDVI outputs, and 1xDisplay Port to DVi output. The only work around is to use the same display output. This means if you are lucky and bought the 6950's with 4 Display Port outputs you should buy 3 Display port to DVI adapters. If you aren't lucky and didn't buy those specific 6950's, you may have some minor tearing on the desktop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121431

^That is the 6950 i was thinking of with 4 Display Port Outputs.

To pre-empt a few other questions: In Xfire you cannot simply use the second cards ports, while running in xfire the second cards ports are disabled.

Why can't I simply use 2 DVI and 1HDMI? Why do i need an adapter?

This question is completely valid, and you and I need to ask AMD what gives? But the truth of the matter is that you cannot use both dvi in conjunction with the HDMI port. They have said that you MUST use at least 1 Display Port to run in 3 screen eyefinity.

Any other questions just ask!

---------- Post added 2011-11-10 at 08:17 AM ----------

i use 3 1440x900 cheap acer monitors, they work fine, and no, you cant play BF3 on ultra, mostly high, with textures on ultra

I was under the impression that 6950's in xfire were substantially better than 1x6970. Currently my 6970 plays BF3 on Ultra without AA between 40-50 FPS. It could be because of my other components as well, but I would think he could easily play BF3 on ultra with lesser screens. Im running at 5760x1080.

[Thefishtank]

So I had a look at my video card ports. They are smaller than the adapter you linked, does this make them mini display ports? there are 2 of them +hdmi and dual dvi

[Elgand]

So with your current setup, you will be running 2xDVI, and 1x Display Port to DVI adapter. There is the Possibility for tearing on the desktop, but it shouldn't affect gaming. Also, if you turn off eyefinity when not playing an eyefinity game the tearing will go away.

[Thefishtank]

So with your current setup, you will be running 2xDVI, and 1x Display Port to DVI adapter. There is the Possibility for tearing on the desktop, but it shouldn't affect gaming. Also, if you turn off eyefinity when not playing an eyefinity game the tearing will go away.

Thanks for an in depth answer. greatly appreciated

[Cyanotical]

I was under the impression that 6950's in xfire were substantially better than 1x6970. Currently my 6970 plays BF3 on Ultra without AA between 40-50 FPS. It could be because of my other components as well, but I would think he could easily play BF3 on ultra with lesser screens. Im running at 5760x1080.

no, it has nothing to do with xfire, BF3 just wasn't coded right for eyefinity, widescreengaming had a post right after BF3 came out with recommended settings, they are a mix of ultra and high, but even my setup can't manage BF3 on ultra spanned, but i don't settle for less then 60 Vsync, there are also still many problems with BF3 and spanned displays

[Deleted]

I'm afraid an Eyfinity / Nvidia Surround setup is still not main stream enough to be properly optimized for most games. If i was looking back, I feel that while when its all running smoothly, the Setup is really cool, but ultimately their are very few games supporting and couldn't recommended it to anybody else.