Eyefinity reality check

[iamezza7]

Well its been quite a few months since the 5800 series came out and the drivers have matured a bit so I'm looking to buy a 5850 soon. I mainly play racing sim games and my ultimate goal is to run 3 monitor eyefinity so I can have good peripheral vision while driving in cockpit mode.

With a single card you need either an active displayport adapter which from what I can see are still $100US or more OR a monitor with native displayport. Newegg as an example has 246 monitors on their site and a whole 1 monitor with displayport (and it is an expensive 22" PVA panel). Newegg has no Displayport adapters on there whole site.

It seems like running 5770's in crossfire would be the better option to get cheap eyefinity support.

Is there any way to do eyefinity on a single card cheaply yet?

 

[Rebel44]

Just buy monitor with display port from somewhere else...
If you want cheap 24" with DP look for HP LA2405wg. HP LP2475w is good for those who want S-IPS 24" with DP.

 

[iamezza7]

Just buy monitor with display port from somewhere else...
If you want cheap 24" with DP look for HP LA2405wg. HP LP2475w is good for those who want S-IPS 24" with DP.

Both those are rather expensive. What I would really like is to add 2 cheap 22" or smaller monitors to my already reasonably good quality 22". It doesn't look like this will be possible without an expensive adapter.

 

[SmCaudata]

Not sure what you mean by "cheap" and I didn't look up the prices on those HPs to see what they run but they were 24" IPS so I'm guess much more than these listed below.

Dell has a bunch with display port.

Dell P2210 $239 right now regular price. TN panel. Display port. It's also a Premium Panel so if a pixel dies under warranty (3yr base) they cross ship you a refurb and you send in your old one.

Dell P2210H On sale for $209 right now. TN panel. Display port. 21.5" though, not 22. It is NOT a premium panel. I has a USB hub though.

Dell P2310H is $249 for a 23" TN panel.


That's all I noticed a quick run through their site. I'd go with the first one I listed because it is 22" and it has the premium panel on it.

While IPS/PVA panels significantly better for color when not looking directly at them, the horizontal effect on color is not nearly as bad as the vertical, so they will still suffice as peripheral panels. You could also look for a used monitor. I have an old gateway 2185W that works well for me and it has a PVA panel in it.

 

[Rebel44]

Both those are rather expensive. What I would really like is to add 2 cheap 22" or smaller monitors to my already reasonably good quality 22". It doesn't look like this will be possible without an expensive adapter.

expensive? HP LA2405wg is only 210€ (plus tax) here.

 

[Skott]

The cheapest way to go Eyefinity is to use smaller monitors that will require less GPU power. 19" or 20". The thing is that it gets to a point where a single bigger monitor is better overall than three small rinky dink monitors. Personally, I'm not going less than 22" but thats just me. I like the larger 1680x1050 res monitors.

3 LCD Eyefinity setups are not for the low budget gamers. For example I looked at buying two more 22" LCDs and a 5870 ( I wouldn't go lower for 3/22") and I figured I would need $900-$1000 invested just for that. I was looking at good 22" monitors too. I won't buy cheap quality crap. Now if you move up to 24" or larger you are going to spend a lot more money obviously for the LCDs. You'll need more GPU power too IMO. You will need dual card setups for high end gaming on three big LCDs. I decided to hold off for a while and see what happens with Eyefinity and what nVidia comes up to compete with it. Gives me a chance to save. I'm hoping nVidia creates competition to force the 5870 cards down in price.


Remember to do your research when it comes to Eyefinity. Its not the same as buying a single game monitor.

 

[Zensal]

An easy fix for the DP to DVI problem is to screw DVI and just buy a passive DP to VGA adapter. ~$20 bucks and your just out a little time to calibrate it correctly.

 

[Lonyo]

The main problem isn't Newegg not stocking DisplayPort monitors, it's Newegg not listing DisplayPort properly.

There is only one monitor listed when you search for "Displayport", and you can't specify DisplayPort as an element when you search for monitors, but if you search for LA2405WG, you get a DisplayPort monitor, as Rebel44 states, and it's for sale on Newegg.
It's not the same as the single monitor (the LP2275w) which shows up when you search for DisplayPort.
Newegg has more than 1 DisplayPort monitor for sale, it just doesn't actually let you search for DisplayPort monitors, which is the fault of Newegg and not DisplayPort or ATI or you.

So yes, it probably is possible to do Eyefinity reasonably inexpensively, but not if you use Newegg to try and find the products you want. You're going to have to do some digging for what might be cheap, and then check whether Newegg has it or not, or use a different site totally and forget Newegg and their incompetence.

 

[Skott]

I looked at some of the LCDs mentioned here and this is what I have discovered by googling and surfing around for info and reviews. The Dells that SmCaudata listed are average quality at best. Not bad but not great when it comes to gaming and movies. Just average. They seem to suffer a bit in grey scaling according to CNET. Also the P2310H is 1900x1200 res and not 1680x1050.

It gets worse. The LP2275w and the HP LA2405wg didn't get very good reviews at all. In fact many seem to complain about the HP LA2405wg as having some serious issues. I wouldn't touch these two at all unless I knew for sure their problems have been fixed.

Of these mentioned here I'd probably would go with the Dell P2210 if you just wanted two side monitors to go with a better main (center) one. Otherwise keep looking for something better.

 

[iamezza7]

Thanks for the info guys, seems there are more displayport panels out there then I thought. Hopefully more manufactures will start to make them soon.

I just used newegg for an example because it has a huge range, but it seems there search feature doesn't work properly.
I had also searched all my local stores and turned up nothing.

I'm really only interested in TN panels (preferably 22") since my main concern is gaming and the most important thing for that is response time, colour accuracy isn't as important.

 

[Tempered81]

get your cheap 22"ers and one of the two first validated passive adapters on this list. all good for 1680x1050

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx

B087B-001B

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Stop playing racing sims? Problem solved.

 

[McLovin]

Stop playing racing sims? Problem solved.

Obvious troll is obvious

 

[NoQuarter]

http://www.displayport.org/consumer/?q=content/devices#pcmonitors

The displayport.org website has a (afaik) complete list of displayport native monitors. The cheapest I have seen are the Dell P2210H 22" and Dell P2310H 23". If you go through the Dell small business site instead of the home consumer site you can often find those 2 monitors for $40 less, if it's not right now you can just wait till it is again.. I picked up the P2310H for $187 from Dell.

The best compromise between cheap and quality monitor I would say is the NEC EA231WMi 23" 1920x1080 IPS panel, can find for about $300-$330 and since it's an IPS panel I think it's better to buy this instead of a $150 monitor and $100 adapter.

NEC also has a 22" 1680x1050 but I think it's a TN panel.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Obvious troll is obvious

I'm sure racing sims are fun and all, but they're an even bigger waste of time than standard games which don't really benefit from eyefinity. So to spend the cash on an eyefinity setup for the sole reason of enhancing racing sims seems like a rather large waste of resources. If you like racing so much, do it for real.

If it was for flight sims than I wouldn't have said anything. At least there's some substance in those.

That's my reality check to the OP, but to each his own I guess.

 

[NoQuarter]

I'm sure racing sims are fun and all, but they're an even bigger waste of time than standard games which don't really benefit from eyefinity. So to spend the cash on an eyefinity setup for the sole reason of enhancing racing sims seems like a rather large waste of resources. If you like racing so much, do it for real.

If it was for flight sims than I wouldn't have said anything. At least there's some substance in those.

That's my reality check to the OP, but to each his own I guess.

..So you don't like racing sims so no one else should like them either? And you're also claiming Genre A of a time wasting hobby is more.. wasteful.. than Genre B of the same time wasting hobby?

Anyway.. Multi-monitor setup enhances every game I've played it with. Besides the immersion, I was just playing the Just Cause 2 demo and saw a dude on my left monitor shooting at me I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

 

[iamezza7]

I'm sure racing sims are fun and all, but they're an even bigger waste of time than standard games which don't really benefit from eyefinity. So to spend the cash on an eyefinity setup for the sole reason of enhancing racing sims seems like a rather large waste of resources. If you like racing so much, do it for real.

If it was for flight sims than I wouldn't have said anything. At least there's some substance in those.

That's my reality check to the OP, but to each his own I guess.

Bit of a douche much? Maybe I should say all your hobbies are a big fat waste of time.

So flight sims have substance but racing sims don't hey?

Have you ever played GTR2 or iracing with max details with a Logitech G27 wheel or better? I can tell you there is a lot of substance right there. A Logitech G27 with a good game has BETTER feel through the steering wheel then your average car with power steering these days.

Not to mention that driving is a life skill, you can easily transfer skills learned in a good racing/driving sim to real life driving. It teaches you what to do when things go wrong, when the rear end breaks loose or the front ploughs wide or the brakes are locked etc.

And lastly it is entertainment. Why spend money going to the movies, buying a TV, going to a concert etc. or any form of entertainment? We don't need any of those, so are they just a waste of time?

Yes I like racing, I would love to race in real life but the fact is racing is extremely expensive even at a fairly low level, unless you have sponsors to pay for everything. I can get a decent PC with all the accessories needed to race for $1000, this would get you basically no where in real racing.

The whole point of this thread was to see if I could get eyefinity without spending a tonne of money, and the answer appears to be yes.

 

[Madcatatlas]

He DID say "but to each his own, i guess"!

Other than that id have to agree with iamezza7, especially for those who dont actively drive cars in real life, a driving/racing simulation is another thing that will improve their understanding and be of help when they someday find themselves at the edge.
Ofcourse we are talking ALOT of driving to automate certain "lifesaving" manouvers, but it all adds up.