Help: Radeon 7870 and 4850 together? (not crossfire)

[cviturawong]

Hi All-

Here is my current situation. I have a computer running 2 4850s in crossfire. They work well except at higher resolutions where the 512mb of ram cause problems. I am looking to upgrade and will probably go with a 7870. The issue for me is that I currently have a 50 inch TV connected to my 4850s which ONLY has analog inputs. Unfortunately, it seems that the 7870 is incapable of outputting an analog TV signal. My proposed solution is to get a 7870 and keep one of the 4850s installed in a non-crossfire setup. My monitors will be connected to the 7870 and the 4850 will be dedicated to outputting to my analog TV.

Is this feasible? Will the catalyst drivers detect and accept both video cards?

Ideally, I would like my analog TV (run by my 4850) to mirror one of the monitors run my by my 7870. Will catalyst integrate the displays such that this is possible?

I know that the easy solution here would be to replace my TV, but as it is a rather large screen, replacing it is a bit more than I'd like to spend at the moment. Thanks for you help!

 

[Yuriman]

I believe most 7870's can use a DVI to VGA adapter, my new 7850 has the analog pins on the DVI port.

I assume it'll work, but the 7870 does use a different driver than the 4850 as it's moved into the legacy category and gets bi-yearly updates now.

 

[cviturawong]

Right, the DVI-I can output analog signal, but I believe without some sort of dedicated encoder (the 4850 had what amd called its Xileon encoder for TV out) the analog signal cannot be used by a TV. My TV does not have a VGA input...only RCA, S-Video, and composite.

 

[KingFatty]

Well... you could use this as an excuse to upgrade the TV to one that will accept a digital input... maybe a 70+ incher?

 

[cviturawong]

hahaha...tempting as it is, i'm trying to be a (semi) responsible spender here.

 

[raghu78]

you could try the DVI to RCA adapter.

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-DVI-...dp/B000Q6RL9Q/

if it does not work better get a TV with HDMI support.