Eyefinity setup - Supported number of monitors

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zeddius

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Aug 23, 2011
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Hi, could use some help with eyefinity.

I have just bought a second Radeon HD 5970 so i will pair these through crossfire (using a P55A-UD6 gigybyte MB).

Each GPU has support for 3 monitors. The question is, i may wish to use 4 monitors in a 3x1 displau group pluss 1 extended, which basically is 3 in a row with a fourth monitor above the center monitor (inverted T).

The question is, can i connect 3 monitors to 1 GPU and 1 to the last GPU, or doesnt this work with eyefinity.

On the AMD webpage there is a configuration tool for this, and if i input the desired monitor configuration it recommends a 6xxx series card. I dont know if this is because the 6 series card has support for 4 monitors on a single GPU, or if it is because i cant connect the monitors as desired above through two 5970s in crossfire.

Hopefully someone will be able to help me with this.

Cheers
 
AMD's web page suggested the 6xxx series (Eyefinity6 HD 6870) card because it's the latest (only?) card that can handle more than three monitors in Eyefinity. All other cards max out at three monitors.

Note that two cards in Crossfire will not give you six outputs. The graphic power of the second card is utilized by the first, but you cannot use it's outputs. However, since you're only looking for a four monitor solution, you can use a second (non-crossfired) graphics card in your system for the fourth monitor.

-Wolf sends
 
Thank you for the reply.

I only have room for 2x GPUs on my motherboard, meaning i cant add a 3rd GPU card for connection of a 4th monitor. However, i have a solution which may work. Inputs would be appriciated.

I can cancel the order for the 2nd 5970, and order a 6970 instead. What i then hope to do is crossfire the 5970 and 6970, which i belive should be possible. That way i can connect 4 monitors to the 6970, while the 6970 will utilize the 5970 GPU power.

So the question is:

1) Can i crossfire a 5970 and 6970
2) If yes, will a crossfire of these 2 products result in a noticeable reduced performance?
 
I only have room for 2x GPUs on my motherboard, meaning i cant add a 3rd GPU card for connection of a 4th monitor.
Click to expand...

Based on what you're saying, the only way you're going to be able to achieve a Crossfire system with more than three monitors attached is by getting two Eyefinity 6 graphic cards.

My recommendation would be to cancel the order for the second HD 5970 and go with a lesser card (like the HD 6670) in a non-Crossfire set up.

-Wolf sends
 
I am planning on using the 4x monitor system for gaming, specifically battlefield 3. I would guess that in order to have any hopes of running the game with 4 monitors i need a crossfire setup with decent cards.

I am guessing, but i think that a single 6x series card (except 6990) will not be able to power 4 monitors.

Would 2x 6970 be enough perhaps?
 
As long as they are Eyefinity 6 cards (six outputs on one card), then yes, 2x 6970s would be enough.

Back tracking a bit, you said you didn't have room in your system for three graphic cards, but the GA-P55A-UD6 has three PCI-Ex16 slots (granted the third at x4). What do you have installed in your system that you cannot use the third PCI-E slot?

What I'm thinking is staying with your original order of the second HD5970 which installs into PCI-Ex16 slot 2 and Crossfire for your 3x1 Eyefinity gaming display. Then install a lesser card in the third PCI-Ex16 (x4) slot for the fourth monitor. Given the monitor configuration you provided earlier, I'm assuming you want the 3x1 monitors for gaming and the 4th monitor for chat/surf/etc...

-Wolf sends
 




2 would be better but just to be clear....you can do that with one......


and just as a side note....you can use all available ports on either card with cfx
 


Atm i have a x-fi card installed on that last slot.

However, after reading abit here and on other forums it would seem that i cant configure the 3x1 + 1 extended configuration the way i want. What i can achieve is 3x1 for normal eyefinity gaming and the extended one would be used for desktop applications while gaming. If the extended monitor (above center) can only be used for desktop applications , i think i will stick with 2x 5970 in crossfire and 3x1 monitor eyefinity setup. (5970 CF beats 6970 CF its seems like).

My wet dream, in gaming, would be to have the 3x1 monitors act as standard eyefinity setup during gameplay, wereas that extended monitor above centre could show a different view. For instance while flying (in bf3) , you could set up that fourth monitor to always show rear view.
 
Just be careful that you don't run out of memory with the 1 GB per chip cards. Two 5970's with 2GB RAM each will perform a lot worse than two 6970's with 2GB RAM each after a certain amount of pixels need displaying.
 
I can belive that.

Should i be worried though, that 2x 5970 in CF wont be able to run for instance battlefield 3 in eyefinity ?
 
It depends on your settings and screen resolutions again. If you haven't been seeing a lot of problems up till now you should be ok, but I'm not sure you will get a lot out of that second card due to lesser scaling with 3 and 4 way crossfire and memory potentially being the main bottleneck.
 
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