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R9 290X Eyefinity (VGA)

D

Durvelle27

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Ok i was contemplating going eyefinity with some monitors i already but it didn't dawn on me that the R9 290 (X) no longer supports VGA and all the monitors i have are. Is it possible to use a DVI to VGA adapter and force analogue or am i screwed.
 
If your R9 290X is like mine it only has DVI-D so no analog capability and the adapter won't even fit.
 
AMD has opted to reduce costs and simplify their board design by removing the analog components that make VGA possible. Now, I do understand why they did it; designing a PCB around keeping noise off of analog signal lines is a pain in the ass... but doing away with it means losing a feature that's VERY important to some people.

Best you'll be able to do on-the-cheap is use an active DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter. An active adapter will transcode the signal in real-time, and it includes its own DAC to generate the analog signal. You can find DisplayPort-to-VGA adapters for less than $10 on Amazon. Problem is, most of them max out at 1920x1200 @ 60Hz, and none of them support HDCP. You're going to have to do some research to find one that can handle proper CRT refresh rates (upwards of 96Hz), but I don't know of any DisplayPort-to-VGA adapters that handle HDCP.

Edit: The only adapter I can find that clearly specs itself for handling 120Hz output is the 3DFury (which is an HDMI-to-VGA adapter). You can find it here, priced at $399: http://www.hdfury.com/shop/3dfury/hdfury-iv/
The 3DFury is also the ONLY option for adapting to VGA at 120Hz that supports HDCP. Without support for HDCP, all protected content (BluRay, Netflix, etc) will fail to play.

If you're connecting to LCD monitors and only need 60Hz, the older HDFury II will suffice. It also keeps HDCP intact while adapting HDMI to VGA, and is priced at $239: http://www.hdfury.com/shop/videoprocessors/hdfury-ii-advanced-kit/
 
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Unknown-One said:
AMD has opted to reduce costs and simplify their board design by removing the analog components that make VGA possible. Now, I do understand why they did it; designing a PCB around keeping noise off of analog signal lines is a pain in the ass... but doing away with it means losing a feature that's VERY important to some people.
Click to expand...
This is just opinionated spin^^

Here are the actual facts, from an announcement made nearly 4 years ago: http://newsroom.intel.com/community...digital-display-technology-phasing-out-analog


SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 8, 2010 – AMD, Dell, Intel Corporation, Lenovo, Samsung Electronics LCD Business and LG Display today announced intentions to accelerate adoption of scalable and lower power digital interfaces such as DisplayPort and High-Definition Multimedia Interface® (HDMI) into the PC.

Intel and AMD expect that analog display outputs such as Video Graphics Array (VGA) and the low voltage differential signaling technology (LVDS) panel interface would no longer be supported in their product lines by 2015. HDMI has increasingly been included in new PCs for easy connection to consumer electronics devices. DisplayPort is expected to become the single PC digital display output for embedded flat panels, PC monitors and projectors.

DisplayPort and HDMI allow for slimmer laptop designs, and support higher resolutions with deeper color than VGA – a technology which is more than 20 years old. Additionally, as laptops get smaller and their embedded flat panel resolutions increase for more immersive experiences, the power advantages, bi-directional communications and design efficiency benefits of DisplayPort make it a superior choice over LVDS, the previous standard for LCD panel inputs.

Intel plans to end support of LVDS in 2013 and VGA in 2015 in its PC client processors and chipsets.

“Modern digital display interfaces like DisplayPort and HDMI enhance the consumer visual PC experience by immersing them with higher resolutions and deeper colors -- all at lower power -- to enhance battery life for laptops,” said Eric Mentzer, Intel’s vice president of Strategy, Planning and Operations for the Visual and Parallel Computing Group. “By moving to these new interfaces, Intel is able to focus investment on new innovations to enhance the PC experience rather than having to solve challenges of supporting legacy analog interfaces on our latest silicon process technology and products.”

AMD plans to begin phasing out legacy interfaces, starting with the removal of native LVDS output from most products in 2013. The company also plans to remove native VGA output starting in 2013, with expansion to all AMD products by 2015. This would mean DVI-I support will be eliminated in the same timeframe.

“Displays and display standards are rapidly evolving, with new features such as multi-display support, stereoscopic 3-D, higher resolutions and increased color depth quickly moving from early adopter and niche usage to mainstream application,” said Eric Demers, AMD’s chief technology officer, Graphics Division. “Legacy interfaces such as VGA, DVI and LVDS have not kept pace, and newer standards such as DisplayPort and HDMI clearly provide the best connectivity options moving forward. In our opinion, DisplayPort 1.2 is the future interface for PC monitors, along with HDMI 1.4a for TV connectivity.”

While the large installed base of existing VGA monitors and projectors will likely keep VGA on PC back panels beyond 2015, leading PC makers are in strong support of this transition. The DisplayPort connector interface provides backwards and forwards compatibility by supporting VGA and DVI output via certified adapters, while also providing new capabilities such as single connector multi-monitor support.

Moving to the latest digital standards like DisplayPort enables customers to preserve backwards compatibility with installed equipment while taking full advantage of the latest advances in display capabilities, configuration options, and features,” said Liam Quinn, chief technology officer, Dell Business Client.

“We live in a digital-rich world and display technology must keep up with the explosion of digital content,” said George He, chief technology officer, Lenovo. “By transitioning to digital display technologies like Display Port and HDMI customers can not only enjoy a better computing experience, they get more of what’s important to them in a laptop: more mobility, simplified design with fewer connectors, and longer battery life.“

Leading display panel manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics LCD Business and LG Display also are in strong support of this transition.

Samsung Electronics LCD Business is already supporting this transition with embedded DisplayPort notebook panels, which we have been shipping since March of this year,” said Seung-Hwan Moon, vice president of engineering, LCD Business, Samsung Electronics.

“LG Display is fully prepared for this future transition. We already have different sizes of LCD panels with eDP out in the market to fulfill various needs of customers.“ said Michael Kim, vice president of IT Product Planning Department at LG Display.

The strong value proposition of scalable and low power digital display interfaces for PC users coupled with industry innovation around these interfaces should accelerate overall adoption of the newer display technologies for PCs.
Click to expand...

The reason you still see monitors being sold with D-Sub and DVI-I is because the display manufacturers are cheap. I find it utterly ridiculous to see 1080P displays with a single D-Sub connector being sold in 2014.
 
Durvelle27 said:
I don't mind that but how would I go about connecting 3
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You need 3 VGA displays?

You'd need to use an MST hub like this one or this one, in addition to three Displayport-to-VGA adapters.

Lorien said:
This is just opinionated spin^^
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No, it's not, I've done PCB design work...

Sure, it's a legacy interface, but that doesn't change what I said. Removing the VGA pathway reduces costs and almost universally makes the final PCB design simpler and cheaper. There is no contesting that.

Edit: And I'm not playing favorites here. Everyone's VGA quality has been slipping as of late (where it's still supported), as PCB designers begin paying less and less attention to noisy component placement relative to analog video signal traces. In most cases (when using modern graphics cards), you're now better off using a 3DFury to convert HDMI to VGA if you need picture-perfect VGA output. We're well past the point where VGA quality was put front-and-center.
 
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Is it possible to do

DVI to HDMI

ux_a08051900ux0026_ux_c.jpg


than HDMI to VGA

$_57.JPG
 
Durvelle27 said:
Is it possible to do

DVI to HDMI

http://m4.uxcell.com/photo_new/20080519/c/ux_a08051900ux0026_ux_c.jpg
Click to expand...
That adapter is DVI-I, which means it will not physically fit into the DVI-D port on an R9 290X.

Sorry, but that's not going to work...

Durvelle27 said:
than HDMI to VGA

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/qGsAAOxyaURThqI5/$_57.JPG
Click to expand...
That's a passive adapter, which requires that the video card have internal support for VGA (so that when the adapter is connected, pins can be reassigned dynamically). The R9 290X also doesn't support such functionality.
 
Unknown-One said:
That adapter is DVI-I, which means it will not physically fit into the DVI-D port on an R9 290X.

Sorry, but that's not going to work...


That's a passive adapter, which requires that the video card have internal support for VGA (so that when the adapter is connected, pins can be reassigned dynamically). The R9 290X also doesn't support such functionality.
Click to expand...

I know that its not DVI-D it was just an example and the one i saw is active not passive
 
hajalie24 said:
I see no reason why an active hdmi to dvi adapter won't work
Click to expand...
Never said an active HDMI or DVI adapter wouldn't work :p

I'd honestly recommend using an MST hub + 3 matched DP-to-VGA adapters, though. You're asking for trouble by mixing and matching...
 
You're going to end up spending more money on adapters than just buying 2 more monitors that match what you currently have. VGA is purely analog, there is no analog output at all on the 290, thus you have to do some sort of active adapting which gets expensive.
 
I just went ahead and bought 2x Active HDMI to VGA and Active DP to VGA adapters. Came out under $20 from Amazon
 
Good luck. Not sure how well such a weird jumble of adapters will end up working, but I guess we'll see.

Be sure to report back :D
 
Can those adapter send over 60hz? I got a really nice Sony 24inch CRT I want to keep using but I cant find a HDMI to VGA adapter that can send over 60hz.
 
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