Eyefinity awesomeness questions

[N.Broekhuijsen]

This summer I am contemplating replacing my GTS 250 512MB with a ATI HD5870 1024MB, and then buying an additional two screens, (3 including the one I already own), and setting up a nice 3x1 eyefinity setup.

All three screens will be identical: Samsung P2250.
FullHD screens, with one VGA and one DVI port.

I know I will be plugging two screens in the DVI ports, and those will be fine, but the third monitor needs another TDMS clock, and to plug it in with DVI I would need an active adapter.

I do not have enough funds to add an active adapter.

I do not mind plugging one of the screens in via VGA (the one closest to the computer for shortest cable length, max quality) (in the Displayport plug), but I am getting mixed reports as to whether DP to VGA can be done with a passive adapter, or whether it also requires an active adapter. Can somebody please confirm whether this is possible if they have done it?

Furthermore I am worried about having a powerful enough power supply:

Currently I have a cooler master Realpower 520 watt modular power supply, and the minimum on the ATI site is specified as 500 for single-card, and 600 for crossfire.

Now it SHOULD be enough, but I am now running some power hefty components on top of that already:

Phenom 2 965: 125 watt TDP
GTS 250: 144 watts, (but will be replaced)
WD green HD: close to 0 watts
and all the standard mobo goodies,

at a glance it seems fine, but I am importing the video card from the Netherlands to Bahrain, and here it is quite hard to get cheap components, so I want as little to go wrong as possible. Call me paranoid.


I hope that clarifies my situation and worries

Thanks already,

xbeater!

PS: on pricing I can get the two monitors here for 69 Bahraini dinar a pop, so twice that and in euro's is about 290 euro. The video card in NL is about 360 euro, but after taking off taxes, (I can do that since im exporting it) 360 - 19% = 291 Euro. A passive DP to VGA adaptor is about 20-30 euro, So in the end we are are looking at about 600-610 euro total cost. Quite cheap considering the degree of the upgrade... expensive considering you can build an entire rig for that money.... My budget is about 650 - 700 euro, but I would really love to keep costs down as much as possible, but in one case I might need to spend more to get the active DP-DVI adapter, and in the worst case I will stick with one monitor and solely upgrade the GFX card. (and then probably a 5850 instead).

PPS: I have very good technical knowledge, so feel free to use tech terms, I will understand.

Sorry for the long rant, please forgive me for making you read all this.

 

[WR2]

I do not mind plugging one of the screens in via VGA (the one closest to the computer for shortest cable length, max quality) (in the Displayport plug), but I am getting mixed reports as to whether DP to VGA can be done with a passive adapter, or whether it also requires an active adapter. Can somebody please confirm whether this is possible if they have done it?

It should work for you. Check this prior forum thread: [Solved] Displayport to DVI adapter for Eyefinity
Several reports of DP to VGA working.

It's the CM Real Power M 520W, correct? 408Watts (34Amps) of +12V is a bit on the low side but should be adequate. And CM M520 is certainly better quality than an average 500W and ~30Amps +12V PSU the specification would cover.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

ok so to sum up what I need to get:

one Ati Radeon HD 5870 1024MB
Two P2250 LCDs
One Passive DP-VGA adapter

and that is then pretty much guaranteed to work.

(sorry I am importing a few of these things, so I want to be SURE that I am not forgetting anything since the moment I get on the airplane it will not be another 6 months until I am back)


Thanks a LOT WR2!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

It'll work but it's finicky.

Read the threads attached to that one and read-up on it, VGA works, but you sometimes get a display crash (the one DP-VGA locks up and goes to black) or else you get crash to desktop or you may have to try a few times before it will correctly detect the display & eyefinity.

There are are ways of helping this, and alot of people enjoy the heck out of it, but be aware of the finickiness of the solution.

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

Yeah I heard that it's a bit finicky.

As long as the productivity times everything works, no major crashes im fine with a bit of experimentation.

If it becomes too horrible to stand Ill get an active adapter, otherwise ill just wait for newer drivers which will probably bring a few more fixes.