Really need a new card for 3 displays..please help!

P

Priddle

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Jun 15, 2010
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I currently have a Asus EAH3450 and a EAH4550 using the ATI chipset....ugggg.

I run my primary desktop display using DVI off the 4550 and my HDTV located in another room is off the HDMI port.

I have a Lilyput 10" display next to my desktop display that I use as an extended desktop connected to the 3450 via VGA. I only use it to put a bandwidth monitor on, or MSN etc

I am having ATI driver issues whereby I can go weeks without a problem but all of a sudden switching sources to and from my TV will disable DirectX. dxdiag says the Draw, 3D and texture are all Not Available. I run XBMC for Windows to my TV and that needs DirectX to run. Sometimes a reboot brings it back, or I have to uninstall and clean the Asus ATI drivers off it and reinstall. I have tried 3-4 different versions of the Asus drivers and I get the same problems. Its p*ssing me off so much now that I would like to just get one card that can display to all 3 monitors that actually works, and the card control interface works too. CCC often won't save scaling settings to my TV and its a racket to get that to save permanently.

Any advice is appreciated. My budget is flexible but over $200 is pushing it. I also do not do any gaming. But a 1080p 24hz and audio via HDMI to my TV is important. The 3450's HDMI sucks. The 4550 has a good picture via HDMI I'll give it that.

Thanks
 
the radeon 5750 is the best video card for an htpc for the money, you may need to set up to a 5770 for eyefinity support.

but you sound like you just need to reformat your pc and get all your drivers nice and clean.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I installed Windows 7 back in July and it wasn't long after that I was having problems. So I can't attribute that to old driver installs. If I had to reinstall everything again I think I'd freak lol

I forgot to mention I do have Win7 x86 running on a Core 2 Quad with 4megs of ram, q6600 processor.

Eyefinity is not really required based on what I understand it is. But I'll look into it....thanks again
 
eyefinity is required if you wish to use 1 video card to power all 3 monitors.

otherwise you will need 2 video cards.
 
To clarify, because what the said is not exactly correct. Eyefinity is simply the marketing term AMD uses for there method to run a game across multiple monitors by having it treat it has 1 larger screen.

If you simply wish to run a traditional 3 monitor setup for non gaming it does not directly relate to eyefinity. If you wish to use a single GPU, you simply need one that can output to 3 screens. Most Radeon 5000/6000 can do this has they have the ability to output 2 signals via dvi/hdmi and a third via Displayport.
 
you can spot HIS HD 6850 for $140 shipped at ebay NIB

that would be a much better choise for the eyefinity and new fetures :)

Best of luck
 
I would shoot for an HD 6850 & call it good; if you can find an XFX close to $200 I snag that & enjoy gaming.
 
Stop suggesting a 6850 for eyefinity. OP said he does no gaming and one output is going to go to his TV. Aka, no triple monitor gaming, and no gaming even.
 
Can he just put another cheap video card since Win 7 supports heterogeneous graphic cards?
 
fullback100 said:
Can he just put another cheap video card since Win 7 supports heterogeneous graphic cards?
Click to expand...

I already have 1 cheap and 1 semi-cheap video cards. They are not DirectX 11 compatible. My DirectX problems were happening again last night and I was using the PC at the time...the TV was off. I uninstalled all the drivers AGAIN and installed 8.711 from July that I recall came up as digitally signed my Microsoft. Even the newest driver release doesn't come up as signed. It seemed to work ok for the rest of the night when I later watched XBMC on the TV. DirectX was still enabled this morning.

It just so happens my brother has the same 4550 card and is having the same issues. I didn't realize his problems he has told me before is what I am experiencing.

I checked my Event log and WDDM seems to be a problem as well, whether it is the cause or is affected by the DirectX problems, I don't know.

I don't game. All I want is one card to extend the desktop to two monitors in addition to the main display.

Thanks again for the replies.
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
Stop suggesting a 6850 for eyefinity. OP said he does no gaming and one output is going to go to his TV. Aka, no triple monitor gaming, and no gaming even.
Click to expand...

I definitely would not suggest a 6850 for 3 monitor eyefinity gaming, but for accelerated desktop work, maybe throw in some basic CAD work or charts, it's nice.


Y.
 
I agree with the above posters, a 6850 is an easy solution. The only downside is the need for a display port to whatever adapter to use your 3rd display. I got an Accel adapter from Amazon (in my comment) and it works flawlessly. I personally run 2 HIS 6870's and they are wonderful. It just seems to me a single card solution would awesome for what you want to do.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm going to look into the 6850 as Option 1 and the 5770 as Option 2.
 
Ah you people are all thinking ati vs nvidia or something hummmm ?
Their was a time a long long time ago were their were many players on the video card topic .not so much anymore though ...
Matrox survived the video card wars by going full industrial.
they got pushed out of the mass joe\jain market by ati vs nvidia, 3dfx was just stupid and died and many of the rest just couldn't keep up though theirs bin some odd exceptions that happened over the years.

You know Matrox makes triple head video cards right?
link

And yes Matrox is still around though they don't make gamer cards.
this card supports >>8<< monitors \ one card
Matrox_M9188_16monitor_setup.jpg
matrox-octal3.jpg

matrox-octal1.jpg
 
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if you are having a problem with ati cards then why not get two cheapo nvidia cards. I don&#8217;t think an ati card with eyefinity is a good idea since none of his monitors have a display port unless the adaptor is cheap enough
 
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