• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

MultiMonitor (3) with HD 5850 Without eyefinity?

D

dsa44

n00b
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
15
Ok, I understand the basics of eyefinity, and for a 3 monitor setup, you need to use 2 DVI (or 1 DVI and 1 HDMI) PLUS 1 on the DP. However, I don't need a setup for gaming and don't need a unified desktop across all three screens.
All I need is 3 functioning monitors that I can "extend the windows desktop" onto.
Right now I have one monitor on the onboard MB VGA, and the 2 other monitors on an oldy but goody nvidia 8800GT.
The onboard VGA output is getting very wavy, (not the monitor, which is fine on 2 other machines)
So I have an old ATI HD5850 lying around that I could hope to configure for 3 monitor out. So do I need to use one of the monitors on the DP (even with an active adapter)? I am thinking yes, but thought I would ask before I tear the thing down.
Thanks in advance.
 
yeah i believe you need an active dp converter or dp monitor even for extend. Good news they are not $100+ like they once were :)
 
yes, you will need an active dp adapter for the 3rd screen on a 5850 as there are only 2 TMDS clocks

GCN 2.0 only needs a passive adapter, as they included a 3rd TMDS clock. Or 3 legacy ports, if you can find a card that has 3.
 
If the monitors are identical, you may be able to connect all three via HDMI/DVI. I run such a setup on a Sapphire 5850 with three HP L1925 monitors under Linux (with the open source drivers).

 
Thanks guys. Eyefinity works fine in Win7 with the HD5850 using Dvi-Dvi-and DP. I got a cheap DP-VGA active adapter from Kingwin at microcenter for $20.
Too bad it does not work in XP. I still dual boot due to legacy business apps on XP and have to switch one monitor back to the bad onboard vga port cuz XP won't support 3 monitors on one card. It will with two separate cards, but I guess y'all knew that.
Probably could have saved a big headache by just getting a cheap old plain pci hi-res addon vga card. Live and learn.
Thx
 
Eyefinity is just AMD's fancy term for making 3 displays appear as 1 to the OS. Same with nVsurround. Independent monitor function is basically a requirement for Eyefinity, not the other way around.
 
dsa44 said:
Ok, I understand the basics of eyefinity, and for a 3 monitor setup, you need to use 2 DVI (or 1 DVI and 1 HDMI) PLUS 1 on the DP. However, I don't need a setup for gaming and don't need a unified desktop across all three screens.
All I need is 3 functioning monitors that I can "extend the windows desktop" onto.
Right now I have one monitor on the onboard MB VGA, and the 2 other monitors on an oldy but goody nvidia 8800GT.
The onboard VGA output is getting very wavy, (not the monitor, which is fine on 2 other machines)
So I have an old ATI HD5850 lying around that I could hope to configure for 3 monitor out. So do I need to use one of the monitors on the DP (even with an active adapter)? I am thinking yes, but thought I would ask before I tear the thing down.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

For the 5850, the third display has to be DP. If the resolution is 1920x1200 or lower you can use the passive adapter.
 
qbanb8582 said:
For the 5850, the third display has to be DP. If the resolution is 1920x1200 or lower you can use the passive adapter.
Click to expand...

Still need active. If it's lower than 1200p, you can use the $25 single link active adapter instead of the $100 dual link adapter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top