If this is TL/DR there is a summary of my questions below.
Ok, first of all, I think I was a bit hasty and got caught up in consumer fever (sigh)
I specced out my new computer a couple weeks ago with the MSI R6950. Had read good reviews, seemed to be a nice card for the price, eyevision if I ended up wanting a crazy amount of monitors.... Ok, then a couple days later I went to Frys to look at monitors, LOOK being the operative word, cause all my parts were being shipped and I didn't have em yet. I was thinking of your basic, decent, 23.6/24" TN monitors in the $150-200ish range.
Well I got there and in a frenzy of the moment (stupidity)/some gullibility (I get antsy for some reason with the sales guys watching me
) I ended up walking out with two of the BENQ XL2410T 120 Hz monitors ($800, yes I went temporarily insane). I was thinking "Sweet, 120 hz, smoother EVERYTHING"
Granted gaming was the central focus at the time but the idea of smoother desktop/etc etc was cool too and played into why I got two of them.
So now the troublesome part.
My video card has ONE dual link DVI and ONE single link DVI (cursesssss) that means one display is running at 120hz and one at 60hz.
I didn't even think of this when buying the video card because I wasn't thinking of 120hz displays (otherwise I would have gone NVidia prolly). It just simply would not have mattered (though why the heck cant ATI/AMD cram two dual links in there? they USED to have it from what I can see... and NVIDIA has it!?) .
So I was looking into using HDMI and YAY my card has a 1.4 HDMI which supports 120 hz (so I've been told, correct me if I'm wrong), awesome, I'll just hook up my 2nd monitor with an HDMI.
BUT WAIT!
My BENQ XL2410T only supports HDMI 1.3? What the crap? Again this is all google research, if I'm wrong please enlighten me. Does this mean it wont support 120 hz? (my google-fu fails me on this) Now granted I haven't bought an HDMI cable yet to test this, I'm TRYING to be patient and research this all out before buying again. (fool me thrice...)
My other thought was that since my video card does support v1.4 HDMI (I checked on AMD's website) if all else fails could I maybe get an HDMI to DVI adapter and hook my monitor up that way?
So I've begun this thought process. If I can't run monitor #2 at 120hz (which really seems to makes it pointless to own two of them) maybe I should return it (ugh $60 restock fee per monitor) or sell it on craigslist or something and get a monitor more like the Viewsonic VP2365wb (just a quick search for IPS monitors of similar size/price) . Thats a 23" IPS panel for about $300 and I can pick it up locally (I guess I could buy online but I hate waiting for shipping). That would give me an awesome secondary screen with all the benefits of IPS (I do plan on doing graphical things that would benefit) and it would be at 60 hz, big deal, single link DVI no problems. I don't think I'll be doing any dual screen gaming so the super duper 120hz main screen would be enough. (Heck maybe I'll fall in love with IPS and replace BOTH screens?!)
And lastly, I think I could still return my video card to Newegg and get an NVidia of comparable class that has two dual link DVI and also eat some restock fee, yay waiting for shipping again.
So the bottom line is:
TWO 120hz monitors, ONE dual link DVI, one 1.4 HDMI on an HD6950. :'(
Does an HDMI 1.3 input on a monitor work with 120 Hz? Does an HDMI 1.4 output from a video card send 120 hz? I've been looking online for hours and still haven't gotten a 100% yes or no.
Would it work to go from my version 1.4 HDMI to an adapter to a dual link DVI cable to the DVI input on the monitor? I think I've seen all the parts I would need online but I'm still wary of such a mish-mash of cables/adapters. visual representation: | HDMI on video card | -> | hdmi male to dual link DVI female plug | -> | typical dual link DVI monitor cable plug. |
I think would rather eat the 60$ restock fee and get a $300 IPS panel than buy one of these http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=6904&seq=1&format=2
And lastly, I think I could still return my video card to Newegg and get an NVidia of comparable class that has two dual link DVI and also eat some restock fee and leave the monitors as is.
YES I'm indecisive and prone to snap judgements to get past the indecisiveness. Thus this whole post
Ok, first of all, I think I was a bit hasty and got caught up in consumer fever (sigh)
I specced out my new computer a couple weeks ago with the MSI R6950. Had read good reviews, seemed to be a nice card for the price, eyevision if I ended up wanting a crazy amount of monitors.... Ok, then a couple days later I went to Frys to look at monitors, LOOK being the operative word, cause all my parts were being shipped and I didn't have em yet. I was thinking of your basic, decent, 23.6/24" TN monitors in the $150-200ish range.
Well I got there and in a frenzy of the moment (stupidity)/some gullibility (I get antsy for some reason with the sales guys watching me
) I ended up walking out with two of the BENQ XL2410T 120 Hz monitors ($800, yes I went temporarily insane). I was thinking "Sweet, 120 hz, smoother EVERYTHING"Granted gaming was the central focus at the time but the idea of smoother desktop/etc etc was cool too and played into why I got two of them.
So now the troublesome part.
My video card has ONE dual link DVI and ONE single link DVI (cursesssss) that means one display is running at 120hz and one at 60hz.
I didn't even think of this when buying the video card because I wasn't thinking of 120hz displays (otherwise I would have gone NVidia prolly). It just simply would not have mattered (though why the heck cant ATI/AMD cram two dual links in there? they USED to have it from what I can see... and NVIDIA has it!?) .
So I was looking into using HDMI and YAY my card has a 1.4 HDMI which supports 120 hz (so I've been told, correct me if I'm wrong), awesome, I'll just hook up my 2nd monitor with an HDMI.
BUT WAIT!
My BENQ XL2410T only supports HDMI 1.3? What the crap? Again this is all google research, if I'm wrong please enlighten me. Does this mean it wont support 120 hz? (my google-fu fails me on this) Now granted I haven't bought an HDMI cable yet to test this, I'm TRYING to be patient and research this all out before buying again. (fool me thrice...)
My other thought was that since my video card does support v1.4 HDMI (I checked on AMD's website) if all else fails could I maybe get an HDMI to DVI adapter and hook my monitor up that way?
So I've begun this thought process. If I can't run monitor #2 at 120hz (which really seems to makes it pointless to own two of them) maybe I should return it (ugh $60 restock fee per monitor) or sell it on craigslist or something and get a monitor more like the Viewsonic VP2365wb (just a quick search for IPS monitors of similar size/price) . Thats a 23" IPS panel for about $300 and I can pick it up locally (I guess I could buy online but I hate waiting for shipping). That would give me an awesome secondary screen with all the benefits of IPS (I do plan on doing graphical things that would benefit) and it would be at 60 hz, big deal, single link DVI no problems. I don't think I'll be doing any dual screen gaming so the super duper 120hz main screen would be enough. (Heck maybe I'll fall in love with IPS and replace BOTH screens?!)
And lastly, I think I could still return my video card to Newegg and get an NVidia of comparable class that has two dual link DVI and also eat some restock fee, yay waiting for shipping again.
So the bottom line is:
TWO 120hz monitors, ONE dual link DVI, one 1.4 HDMI on an HD6950. :'(
Does an HDMI 1.3 input on a monitor work with 120 Hz? Does an HDMI 1.4 output from a video card send 120 hz? I've been looking online for hours and still haven't gotten a 100% yes or no.
Would it work to go from my version 1.4 HDMI to an adapter to a dual link DVI cable to the DVI input on the monitor? I think I've seen all the parts I would need online but I'm still wary of such a mish-mash of cables/adapters. visual representation: | HDMI on video card | -> | hdmi male to dual link DVI female plug | -> | typical dual link DVI monitor cable plug. |
I think would rather eat the 60$ restock fee and get a $300 IPS panel than buy one of these http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=6904&seq=1&format=2
And lastly, I think I could still return my video card to Newegg and get an NVidia of comparable class that has two dual link DVI and also eat some restock fee and leave the monitors as is.
YES I'm indecisive and prone to snap judgements to get past the indecisiveness. Thus this whole post
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