• 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.

Need Eyefinity Non-Gaming Advice

C

Commander Suzdal

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
2,134
In my day-job, I have a programmer who already uses a dual display in his regular work. He wants to go to four monitors, such that two are facing guests in his office and showing a duplicate image of the pair facing him.

1. To drive four monitors in a system with only one PCI-E slot, I'm guessing an Eyefinity card is my best option?

2. I gather after a little preliminary Eyefinity shopping on NewEgg that many cards are really only set up for three monitors--they have two DVI ports, one DisplayPort and one HDMI port, but you can't use the DP and HDMI simultaneously/independently. So what are your suggestions for an economical card with true 4-display support?

3. Does Eyefinity support the user's desired config where you have two monitors mirroring an extended-desktop dual display? Or would it be either all duplicate/all independent?

Thanks for any help. I could just muddle through the less-than-helpful manufacturer's descriptions etc., but I'd love to hear the real deal from someone who's been down this road before.
 
IMO just get a 4850x2. It's an older card but it has 4 DVI outputs and they can generally be had pretty cheap. This should let you do what you want with the least amount of hassle and no displayport adapters.

Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360406613019
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
GotNoRice said:
IMO just get a 4850x2. It's an older card but it has 4 DVI outputs and they can generally be had pretty cheap. This should let you do what you want with the least amount of hassle and no displayport adapters.

Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360406613019
Click to expand...

Although it might have more than two outputs the 48xx series of cards cannot support more than two displays unless you disable crossfire. Can you even do that with a 4850x2? There are several 5xxx/6xxx cards that will support 4-6 monitors.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
N1GHTRA1N said:
Although it might have more than two outputs the 48xx series of cards cannot support more than two displays unless you disable crossfire. Can you even do that with a 4850x2? There are several 5xxx/6xxx cards that will support 4-6 monitors.
Click to expand...

The 4850x2 is specifically built to be able to handle 4 displays and there are no issues doing so.
 
GotNoRice said:
IMO just get a 4850x2. It's an older card but it has 4 DVI outputs and they can generally be had pretty cheap. This should let you do what you want with the least amount of hassle and no displayport adapters.

Example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360406613019
Click to expand...

GotNoRice, thanks for the suggestion. If possible, though, I'd like something smaller and that doesn't require a 650W PSU. This is going into a Dell Optiplex mini-tower. I'm already planning on upgrading the stock PSU, but would like to keep that part of the budget within reason. If I remember correctly, the monitors he has now have DisplayPort inputs and we could make sure that the second pair do also, if that helps improve my options with less complications.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
just get two cheaper cards that have 2x dvi outs? no need to crossfire them if not gaming
 
Commander Suzdal said:
In my day-job, I have a programmer who already uses a dual display in his regular work. He wants to go to four monitors, such that two are facing guests in his office and showing a duplicate image of the pair facing him.
Click to expand...

Rather than the Radeon series, have you considered AMD's professional cards such as the ATI Firepro 2460?

Are there any specifics we should know? Like half-height or 10-bit colour?
 
darren700 said:
just get two cheaper cards that have 2x dvi outs? no need to crossfire them if not gaming
Click to expand...

it needs to fit in a single pci-e slot so my guess is his board doesn't have a second pci-e x16 slot.

price wise chithanh's suggestion is the best. if you need more gpu power there is also the 6 DP 5870 but i'm sure the prices and availability suck for those still.

as far as question 3 goes, you can run them as 3/4 displays that act as a single display or you can run them extended so each display is independent.
 
It really depends on what you are doing as to which cards you use. We use a bunch of Quad monitor systems at work and for them we have the Nvidia Quadro NVS 420:

http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/...16DVIPB?mv_pc=pricegrabber&tts=20111122122126

They retail for around $450. It has been rock solid for us for all kinds of setups.'

If you are on a tight budget which it sounds like you are, you can also go with the AMD 6000 series cards, they should support up to 5 monitors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top