Is the displayport required for Eyefinity?

[perdomot]

Interested in a 5770 card that has two dvi, 1 hdmi and 1 display port. The two dvis would be for my two pc monitors and the hdmi would be perfect for my hdtv. Would this be ok or do I have to get a dongle for my second pc monitor? Thanks.

 

[smithkt]

I believe using the HDMI output disables one of the DVI connection. To use three monitors you need to use the displayport. There is a list of approved adapters on the amd site:

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

 

[solofly]

This might interest you...

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461673

 

[perdomot]

Thanks for the info. Can't figure out why they don't include the dongle in the box but make you pay an extra $100. They know people are going to want the 3 monitor set up and then they make it difficult to implement it.

 

[gorobei]

Thanks for the info. Can't figure out why they don't include the dongle in the box but make you pay an extra $100. They know people are going to want the 3 monitor set up and then they make it difficult to implement it.

because a number of people were fortunate/smart enough to buy a monitor with dport enabled input like the Dell 2408wfp, Dell u2410, hp 2475, nec EA231WMi. They have no need for an adapter which would add $100 to the cost.

also as dport becomes more common on cheaper monitors, the need for adapters will diminish. It is only the people who are hanging on to older monitors that will need the adapter dongles.

 

[smithkt]

They are also supposed to be working on validating additional dongles to make cheaper options available.

 

[Seggybop]

Does anyone know offhand if most cards will support 3x DVI without any exotic adapters or weird haxery (beyond what the card comes with)?

 

[Itchrelief]

Thanks for the info. Can't figure out why they don't include the dongle in the box but make you pay an extra $100. They know people are going to want the 3 monitor set up and then they make it difficult to implement it.

I think you answered your own question.

 

[ther00kie16]

i think some of the lower cards will have versions without displayport. i know i saw one preview of a 5400 card with vga, dvi and hdmi.
if you want gaming however, you may want to see what fermi can do if you don't want to go with displayport

oh and it was mentioned that eyefinity will be supported even on those entry level cards.

 

[ViRGE]

i think some of the lower cards will have versions without displayport. i know i saw one preview of a 5400 card with vga, dvi and hdmi.
if you want gaming however, you may want to see what fermi can do if you don't want to go with displayport

oh and it was mentioned that eyefinity will be supported even on those entry level cards.

IIRC, even the low-end cards had to have a DP output for Eyefinity.

 

[Piotrsama]

Thanks for the info. Can't figure out why they don't include the dongle in the box but make you pay an extra $100. They know people are going to want the 3 monitor set up and then they make it difficult to implement it.

That's the reason, you don't include a 100$ accessory that most people won't use because they don't have 3 monitors.

And BTW, that's a budget card, so they have to cut price at all costs.

 

[ther00kie16]

IIRC, even the low-end cards had to have a DP output for Eyefinity.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17537/34/

Even a 5670 with eyefinity and hdmi instead of dp: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=309

 

[gorobei]

IIRC, even the low-end cards had to have a DP output for Eyefinity.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17537/34/

Even a 5670 with eyefinity and hdmi instead of dp: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=309

um. no.

first off, fudzilla is not a real source when all they are doing is copy and pasting the press release. the 5670 you link to on sapphire's page lists " I/O Output: DL-DVI-I, DP, HDMI " . yes it does eyefinity, but it is a DP(displayport) card.

second, reviews of the new low end cards by anand indicate that only dport versions allow eyefinity and the vga/dvi/hdmi cards only support 2 monitors(hence not really eyefinity). even sapphire's site points out the difference.http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/media/?psn=0004&articleID=2606

One model has the output configuration of Dual-Link DVI, DisplayPort and VGA. This model will support three monitors in ATI Eyefinity mode with a suitable DisplayPort monitor or active display adapter. A second model will offer the alternative output configuration of DVI, HDMI and VGA, allowing the use of HDMI enabled monitors or digital TVs to be directly driven with both video and sound signals over a single HDMI cable.

 

[blanketyblank]

I've heard you can get a cheaper display port to VGA dongle if one of your monitors supports VGA input. It's not a perfect solution, but from what I've read it seems to work.

 

[ther00kie16]

blah... didn't recognize the different between the 2 5670s at first.
however, they do have a 5570 with vga, dvi and hdmi that boasts eyefinity but could be wrong: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=317

anand didn't actually test a hdmi version so the article's assertion is only based off of what ATI says. i remember reading that these cards are capable of 4 video outs actually. i wonder if they hard wired some of them to eyefinity function, hence the requirement of displayport for eyefinity. seems like a poor way of doing it but oh well, i got a laptop recently so i'm not interested in any high-cost graphics anytime soon.

 

[ViRGE]

blah... didn't recognize the different between the 2 5670s at first.
however, they do have a 5570 with vga, dvi and hdmi that boasts eyefinity but could be wrong: http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=317

anand didn't actually test a hdmi version so the article's assertion is only based off of what ATI says. i remember reading that these cards are capable of 4 video outs actually. i wonder if they hard wired some of them to eyefinity function, hence the requirement of displayport for eyefinity. seems like a poor way of doing it but oh well, i got a laptop recently so i'm not interested in any high-cost graphics anytime soon.

It's not a hardwiring thing; the issue is clock sources (AnandTech covered this quickly in their 5870 Eyefinity 6 preview). 5000 series chips don't have enough clock sources to drive 3 non-DP monitors, which is why you need DP for Eyefinity.

If you look at the Sapphre page, it doesn't mention Eyefinity in its feature set. The version of the card with DP does.