Hmm, I've read through this thread twice but I am still confused as to what I need to make my setup work:
My old setup was like this (nvidia 8800 GT and 8400 GS):
1st connection, 22" LCD monitor on DVI of 8800gt
2nd connection, 17" LCD monitor on DVI of 8400gs
3rd connection, 46" LCD TV on DVI of 8800gt (had a 25' HDMI [TV end] to DVI [Computer end] cable)
Both the 1st and 3rd connections are duplicates (clones) of each other. The 2nd connection is a desktop extension for when I'm at my desk and need more desktop space.
So now that both those cards are long gone and replaced with my 5850, I need to do something like this:
1st connection, 22" LCD monitor on DVI of 5850
2nd connection, 17" LCD monitor on DVI of 5850
3rd connection, 46" LCD TV on ???????? of 5850 (now has a 25' HDMI [TV end] to HDMI [Computer end] cable that I spent $45 from monoplace.com on...)
Both the 1st and 3rd connections should be duplicates (clones) of each other. The 2nd connection should be a desktop extension.
I had at first tried the 3rd connection with an HDMI connection which did not work and I then discovered that the HDMI port is shared with one of the DVI ports, so without much research I just picked up a cheap $13 CDN DP to HDMI adapter on eBay (passive I'd imagine) which also does not work with the 46" TV (well, it works, but CCC won't let me activate 3 monitors at once still).
So, after reading this thread a few times, I think I have these two options, and would like someone to let me know if I am right about these two options:
1) Remove my 25" HDMI cable that I just put in last week for this 5850 for my 46" TV in the other room and put back my DVI --> HDMI 25" cable that I had before with my Nvidia 8800 GT and 8400 GS cards (grr, ~2 hour job, but I'm willing to do it) and get a cheap passive DP to VGA adapter for the 17" (2nd) connection [this is just a desktop extension that I use for work occasionally). The 1st 22" connection will be on DVI and the 3rd 46" TV will be back on a DVI --> HDMI connection to my TV.
...or...
2) Just get an certified-to-be-working (
http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx ) active DP to HDMI dongle and plug it in and away I go.
There's no way I can use an AMD certified passive dongle with my setup, right? It has to be a more expensive active dongle?
The funny thing is I have an old ATI Radeon X1300 that I would LOVE to use for just the 17" monitor, BUT, the darn thing, when installed, stops Battlefield Bad Company 2 (and likely other games) from even starting, likely because there are no Windows 7 x64 certified drivers for it (WDDM 1.1 or whatever) from ATI or MS (I think it only does Vista's WDDM 1.0)... and my Nvidia 8400 GS card's fan is shot so it doesn't spin and the 8800 GT has already been sold
🙁
Anyways, if anyone could just help clarify my two options that would be great.
And also, if someone could tell me the CHEAPEST place to get a known-to-be-working DP to HDMI active dongle or a DP to VGA (passive?) dongle in Canada that would be great... willing to use eBay too, not in a huge rush...
Thanks in advance!