Triple-Screen Set-ups

Not true. You can add a completely pathetic second card, which doesn't even have to be nVidia (but it does make more sense as you don't need 2 sets of drivers), if you want more screens. You only need SLI if you want parallel computing.
 
IceBone said:
Not true. You can add a completely pathetic second card, which doesn't even have to be nVidia (but it does make more sense as you don't need 2 sets of drivers), if you want more screens. You only need SLI if you want parallel computing.
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Uh, it's 100% true. SLI is required for their triple screen solution (outside of one card which hacks its way passed that). Why would nVidia's own site lie to you about the Surround triple monitor requirements?

What you are talking about is SoftTH which is a whole different ball of wax.
 
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I have Eyefinity and I don't have a ACTIVE adapter. I have two on DVI and one with a DP-VGA cable(from monoprice.com). I can't see a DVI vs VGA difference, but to be sure, I put the VGA one as a side monitor. The DP-VGA cable was cheap too. I had a DP-VGA adapter, but it didn't work that well. The cable is perfect.
 
Cellos88GT said:
Btw what monitors do you guys plan on running with? I'm really tempted to buy a 24" Dell UltraSharp for monitor #1 and then some reg Dell 24" LEDs for monitors #2 & #3.
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I'd be running a Dell 30" 16:10 (2560x1600), a Westinghouse 24" 16:10 (1920x1200), and an Acer 23" 16:9 (1920x1080). Screw consistency. :p
 
GT VIRUS said:
You need an ACTIVE adapter for Eyefinity or any monitors above 2. Which are not $6. Cheapest one i can find in australia is $50
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Sapphire made some good and fairly cheap DP->VGA active adapters, I've got one of those for ?24 about a year ago. Pretty hard to find though.
 
GT VIRUS said:
You need an ACTIVE adapter for Eyefinity or any monitors above 2. Which are not $6. Cheapest one i can find in australia is $50
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Thanks for the heads up on that one.
 
Shentar said:
I have Eyefinity and I don't have a ACTIVE adapter. I have two on DVI and one with a DP-VGA cable(from monoprice.com). I can't see a DVI vs VGA difference, but to be sure, I put the VGA one as a side monitor. The DP-VGA cable was cheap too. I had a DP-VGA adapter, but it didn't work that well. The cable is perfect.
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There's no such thing as a passive DP to VGA adapter. All, all DP to VGA are active. So you have an active adapter. :)

http://www.displayport.org/cms/sites/default/files/downloads/DisplayPort_Technical_Overview.pdf

http://www.displayport.org/consumer/?q=content/faq
Q: I am the owner of a new 27" iMac, which I was planning to use as a high- resolution display for an HDMI equipped Blu-Ray player. I have purchased the DP-to-HDMI adaptor after being advised by Apple technical that it would function as an input, but having tried it, discovered that the device will only OUTPUT. My question is, why won't the adaptor pass signal the other way, and what is the adaptor doing if it's not powered, and it's tiny, that it can't do backwards?

A: DisplayPort-to-HDMI adaptors and DisplayPort-to-DVI adapters are very simple and only operate one way. For instance, when a DP-to-HDMI adaptor is connected to a PC that supports DP++ (multimode) capability, the PC senses the presence of the adaptor and sends HDMI signals over the DisplayPort connector rather than DisplayPort signals. No signal conversion is performed by the HDM adaptor. HDMI signals are merely passed through. The unique DisplayPort adaptor capability enables the PC to connect to a variety of displays via the DisplayPort connector including HDMI, DVI, and VGA. VGA adaptors are more complex and perform active signal conversion from DisplayPort to VGA. These adaptors also operate only one way. Unfortunately, HDMI does not support conversion to other display formats as does DisplayPort.
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der_jackal said:
There's no such thing as a passive DP to VGA adapter. All, all DP to VGA are active. So you have an active adapter. :)

Oh now you are just twisting hairs. :) My understanding was that passive adapters didn't use a chip to convert the signals, but an active one did. My VGA doesn't have a power source, so I assumed it was passive. I learned something new.. probably forget it tomorrow though :)
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Shentar said:
der_jackal said:
There's no such thing as a passive DP to VGA adapter. All, all DP to VGA are active. So you have an active adapter. :)
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Oh now you are just twisting hairs. :) My understanding was that passive adapters didn't use a chip to convert the signals, but an active one did. My VGA doesn't have a power source, so I assumed it was passive. I learned something new.. probably forget it tomorrow though :)
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You do actually have a power source. :) Display Port provides a power source through the, well, port. ;)

How DisplayPort Supports Video Adapters
? Built-in adapter support
? DisplayPort source provides power for video adapter (1.5W)
? Adapter type identified and controlled by AUX channel

That's why all the single link active DVI / HDMI adapters don't have any additional power requirements. But the 500mA pushed through the Display Port isn't enough to drive the Dual Link adapters, hence the need for an additional USB power supply.
 
IceBone said:
Not true. You can add a completely pathetic second card, which doesn't even have to be nVidia (but it does make more sense as you don't need 2 sets of drivers), if you want more screens. You only need SLI if you want parallel computing.
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I'm guessing you're thinking about just driving three monitors, not triple-screen gaming. But that solution isn't even going to work if you're using Windows Vista or 7. The new driver model is set so that you can only have one display driver, so if you plug in cards from different manufacturers only the card set as primary in the BIOS will work. You can add a puny card to drive an auxiliary display, but it has to use the same driver as your primary card, which more or less means it has to come from the same manufacturer.
 
Dr.Kamiya said:
I'm guessing you're thinking about just driving three monitors, not triple-screen gaming. But that solution isn't even going to work if you're using Windows Vista or 7. The new driver model is set so that you can only have one display driver, so if you plug in cards from different manufacturers only the card set as primary in the BIOS will work. You can add a puny card to drive an auxiliary display, but it has to use the same driver as your primary card, which more or less means it has to come from the same manufacturer.
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I'm not sure about this. Here's my experience:

Back on the Windows 7 RC I had an old Pentium III box lying around, so I installed it to try it out. This computer had two video cards: Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 and Nvidia Riva TNT 2. Yes, I'm serious. Windows Update actually found a driver for the Geforce and it worked as expected. There of course was nothing available for the Riva but it picked up a Generic VGA driver which worked fine as a secondary display.

So, it is at least somewhat possible to run two graphics drivers, but I don't know if that only worked because one of them was generic, or because Windows was still pre-release, or what.
 
thevictor390 said:
I'm not sure about this. Here's my experience:

Back on the Windows 7 RC I had an old Pentium III box lying around, so I installed it to try it out. This computer had two video cards: Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 and Nvidia Riva TNT 2. Yes, I'm serious. Windows Update actually found a driver for the Geforce and it worked as expected. There of course was nothing available for the Riva but it picked up a Generic VGA driver which worked fine as a secondary display.

So, it is at least somewhat possible to run two graphics drivers, but I don't know if that only worked because one of them was generic, or because Windows was still pre-release, or what.
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Exactly, Windows 7 / Windows Vista WDDM does not prevent you from running different gpu / gpu family video cards. There are issues with which version of the WDDM the card is using though.

Dr.Kamiya said:
You can add a puny card to drive an auxiliary display, but it has to use the same driver as your primary card, which more or less means it has to come from the same manufacturer.
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Nope, there are thousands of people running SoftTH under Windows 7 / Windows Vista with some podunk card using a different driver than their primary card. And thousands more who use GPUs from the same maker (i.e. nVidia) but the cards use different drivers - such as Quadro drivers and the GeForce drivers
 
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You couldn't have two cards from different makers in Vista, but you can in 7. I have had setup like that myself.
 
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