5 Monitors on one machine?

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:08 pm

Is the ATI 5750 card able to operate 3 monitors independently? Iâ€™ve found some conflicting information, and Iâ€™d like a sanity check before spending any money.

I currently have an old fanless Gigabyte Radeon x800xlcard controlling 2 monitors. My motherboard has two PCI-e slots. If I put a 5750 card in the other PCI-e slot, would I be able to operate 5 monitors on my machine? What's the maximum resolution of the displayport?

I am thinking about purchasing Powercolorâ€™s fanless 5750 card, which has two DVI outputs, one HDMI, and one displayport. If I understand correctly, the displayport can operate independently of the two DVI ports. I understand that I could buy a displayport-to-DVI adapter and attach a third monitor.

I do lots of data work and need lots of desktop space. I don't really need heavy 3D graphics power. I see that Powercolor is coming out with a "green" version of their fanless card, which is reported to use even less power, but it's not available yet. I also saw the read about the 5670 card, but it's not available yet either.

Thanks in advance!

Jason Lewis

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:36 pm

Take a look at this review:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/10/ ... 50_review/

Relevant part:

"ATI Eyefinity is fully supported on both video cards, that means a max resolution of 3x 2560x1600 all the way down to the $109 Radeon HD 5750. You also get all the connections on both video cards as the Radeon HD 5800 series, including two DVI ports, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort."

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:00 am

Thanks for the link. I will also be using a variety of monitor sizes and resolutions. I have repeatedly read that Eyefinity requires that all monitors have the same resolution. However, this AMD page clearly shows a setup with multiple resolutions and orientations. It looks as though the same resolution requirement may only apply to 3D gaming situations. Windows desktop appears to be much more flexible. My old Radeon x800XL card works just fine with mixed resolutions in Windows XP, though it will only let you play a 3D game on a single monitor. I'm perfectly fine with that.

Another clarification: I have read that the HDMI port is shared with a DVI port. The other DVI port and displayport are independent. Therefore, if both DVI ports are used, then the third display much be connected to the display port.

Jason

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:50 pm

Update: This hasn't gone well.

I'm using XP. Eyefinity doesn't work with XP.
The drivers for each card appear to be incompatible with each other. Drivers which work for the x800xl cause a BSOD when the 5750 card is installed, and the drivers which work for the 5750 cause a BSOD when the x800xl card is installed. I had hoped that they would be compatible with each other, since both are ATI/AMD cards.
Someone in another forum has stated that using three monitors with one card is not possible under XP. I haven't confirmed this.

I have been able to get the 5750 to run 2 monitors with mixed resolutions (1920x1200 and 1600x1200) just like with the old x800xl card. I could have done this without buying anything.

It's starting to look like:

I'll need to buy another modern card in order to use 4 monitors. (Even this isn't certain with XP.)
I'll need to also upgrade the OS if I want to access 5 monitors.

My cheap and easy upgrade may have crashed and burned.

Jason

Post by **CA_Steve** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:40 pm

well, the sorta good news is that you could buy the new 5670 for $100.

Or, maybe a low end 4330/4350 would work ~$30-50.

Or, wait a couple of months for the low end of the 5xxx cards to come out for their 4330/4350 equivalent.

That will bring you up to 4 monitors, anyway.

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:49 am

I'll be watching future cards closely. If I purchase anything else, it will almost certainly be fanless. I recently bought the Powercolor fanless 5750, and I see that Powercolor recently came out with a "green" version of the fanless, which I suppose has better power management.

I'll take a peek at the low end 4330/4350 cards and see if I see anything cheap and fanless.

petecool · Post by **petecool** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:42 am

There is no such limitation as "2 cards per device" in Windows XP. We use dozens of quad-vga video cards (Matrox) at work without issues. So you should be able to use a third monitor is you get a Displayport to DVI, or HDMI-to-DVI adapter (if a max resolution of 1920x1200 is enough for that monitor)

That won't help with the driver incompatibilities, though

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:22 pm

I just ordered an Asus 4350 card from NewEgg for $21.98 (after $15 rebate). This should hopefully allow two more monitors.

I also ordered a Displayport-VGA adapter. I'll report back the results on using this thing under XP. I realize that there is nothing inherently limiting in XP that would prohibit 3 monitors with one card, though the AMD documentation and the AMD forums give confusing information about using the Displayport with the 5000 series cards. See
link here.

...ATI Eyefinity Technology with DisplayPort connectivity...

...Driver version 8.66 (ATI Catalyst â„¢ 9.10) or above is required to support ATI Eyefinity Technology and to enable a third display you require one panel with a DisplayPort connector....

Eyefinity isn't compatible with XP, though I'm not quite sure whether Eyefinity is required in order to use the displayport.

Using a Displayport-VGA adapter may be a crapshoot, depeneding on your monitor's resolution. In the link here, someone from AMD is saying that the VGA support via displayport wasn't really tested.

The capability was built-in to SunSp*t but as things got closer and closer to launch we had to focus on what we knew we could deliver (within that time-span). Where things ended up w.r.t VGA was that there were so many possible resolutions, refresh rates, older displays, etc. that we punted and declined to specify scenarios that could use VGA. There are modes in SunSp*t that are useful, but the number of possibilities vastly exceeds our ability to verify they all work.

There are "opportunities" to experiment and discover what does and doesn't work.

nomoon · Post by **nomoon** » Thu Jan 21, 2010 7:07 am

Update: 1/21/2010

I'm up to 4 monitors now that I've replaced the x800xl card with the 4350 card. However, I haven't been able to get the fifth monitor working via the displayport (w/VGA adapter) on the 5750 card. I can see the monitor in Catalyst 9.12, but I get the following error when I try to enable it:

DisplayPort Link Failure
The system has detected a link failure and cannot set the requested resolution and refresh rate on your DisplayPort display. Your display might not support the requested resolution or there may be an issue with the cable connecting the display to your computer.

I don't know whether this is a problem with XP, or whether it is related to my DP-VGA adapter and my monitor. I've seen on this thread where someone was able to get his 22" monitor to work through his displayport, but he got the same Link Failure message whenever he connected his 19" monitor. I've tried a 19" (4:3) and a 20" (4:3) without any luck. Maybe the $100 active DP-DVI adapter would work, but it might not if the problem is due to XP.

Jason