Triple display with ATI 5870, 3 DVI monitors?

[nanpin]

Help please! I am fairly competent but a bit out of touch since my last full PC build was years ago.

I have three monitors to drive, all have DVI inputs only.
1x Dell 30" and 2x Samsung 24" monitors.

currently I drive them using 2 nvidia cards (8800 GTs and a GTS250)

I am building a new PC using intel x58 motherboard, probably core i7 920 to start, then 6 core monster later.

I want to have only one graphics card, and am thinking of
ATI Radeon™ HD 5870

BUT the spec says I can drive 3 monitors but one must be from the display port out on the ATI card. My monitors only have DVI in...

can I get a display port to DVI adaptor and run with my three current monitors?

Or am I looking at the wrong graphics card?

usage is for watching financial markets (so I have loads of open windows all over the screens with graphs etc.) and watching video on the 30". I might play a game very occasionally but I don't care about game performance.


Thanks for your input

Ed

 

[NoQuarter]

All of the Radeon 5xxx line support 3 monitors but the third MUST be on DisplayPort or be using an active DP->DVI adapter (~$100) or any DP->VGA adapter (~$30).


If cost of adapters is an issue I would compare the quality of your display on VGA vs DVI on the hardware you have now since the monitor controller and VGA cable length play a large role in how well it looks and decide from there which adapter to get.

Also if you don't care about game performance I would just get something like the Radeon 5670 and use the saved cash on the adapter.

 

[nanpin]

Thanks vm for the information.

I am having trouble understanding why I need an active adaptor.

e.g., this one: http://goo.gl/LHVI (link to amazon page for Accell B087B-001B UltraAV DisplayPort/DVI-D Adapter) seems to do the job.

The active ones seem to be for Dual DVI connections, but I would use this for one of my samsung 24"s which is a single DVI connection.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Monoprice DisplayPort to DVI Cables

 

[NoQuarter]

The reason for the active adapter is technical. The GPU only has 2 clock signal generators and each DVI/HDMI connection needs 1 clock signal. DisplayPort uses a clockless packet-driven data stream so needs nothing extra from the GPU.

An Active adapter has a chip that takes the DP signal, unpacks the data stream and generates a clock signal for DVI consumption.

A Passive adapter only rewires the connection and tells the GPU that it's really a DVI connection and to hook it up with a DVI signal. Since the GPU can't provide a 3rd DVI signal it won't work. (It would if you only had 2 monitors hooked up of course!)


Hope this clears up why its needed.

 

[nanpin]

Aha I see what you mean.

It is still a little confusing, since a product such as this: http://goo.gl/V9iz (link to Accell cables manufacturer page for product which is $22 on amazon) claims "Active technology" on the webpage.

but the same company's $100+ adaptor for dual link DVI conversion also claims active tech and has ATI eyefinity certification, unlike the cheaper model. Which does not say it wouldn't work. I guess if it did it would say so in big letters on the homepage...

 

[NoQuarter]

Yea, there is a lot of confusion about how things are labeled and described right now. I don't know why they claim 'Active Technology' on that part, afaik it won't work but I never read up on which specific adapters have been tested since I just bought a DP monitor instead, I just know DVI = $100 and VGA = $30 or they don't work lol

You may want to check this site:
http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx and look for 'Active' adapters.

Also look through this thread:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=16942&p=167236#p167236 and read the forums there and ask questions about it. They have done a lot more testing and exploring options at WSGF.

 

[MarcVenice]

Don't care about gaming performance at all? Grab a HD 5770 and a active adapter. The HD 5770 will runs 3 screens, and it will run a bit more then the occasional game on one of your 24"-monitors.

 

[nanpin]

OK I am learning pretty quickly...

glad I asked the question.

Thanks for the replies guys.