Span 4 HD displays to show 4K videos

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cppc

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Hello all,

I'm looking for a graphic card (or two of them) which can help me span 4 full HD (1080) displays into 1 big screen in order to show several 4K resolution videos. Ideally it should be able to run 4K videos at 60 fps!

I read around that the NVIDIA can only span 3 displays, so is there any solution if using NVIDIA? I also noted that some ATI/AMD cards can span 4 monitors but information about that is quite limited. So I want to double check if they can help span 4 full HD displays. I also need the card to be able to decode H.264 videos. So if you guy know any solution for my problem, please recommend it to me. Thanks.

Btw, I have around $1000 to spend though.
 
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cppc, please see this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/315300-33-heck-eyefinity

Eyefinity has a lot of weird quirks about it. In summary:

Your assumption with the 6970 is wrong. You will have to have ALL 4 monitors connected to the FIRST video card. You will need a card that has a MINIMUM of 2 Displayport adapters.

The 6970 does indeed have 2 mini displayports. However, mini DP -> DVI adapters, ACTIVE ones (not passive, those won't work for what you need) aren't that expensive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815309008&cm_re=displayport_adapter-_-15-309-008-_-Product

They're $27each. Buy two.

Having two 6970's in crossfire is still good in order to support that HUGE resolution, so don't rule that...

cppc

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Ok, so I did a bit more search and found that the Eyefinity thing can do it. Now I'm up to 2 options: One Radeon 6990 or 2 Radeon 6970. I have several concerns for each of these options:

1. One Radeon 6990:
- Surely span 4 displays (HD) into 1 big screen.
- Only 1 DVI port and 4 mini display ports. So I have to buy converters from mini display port to DVI. I heard here and there that that thing is not very stable and the good one is very expensive (~ $100).
- Price. Even though it is still within the range of money I could spend, but if I have to buy more converters then it will be too much.

2. Two Radeon 6970:
- I read in some reviews that two Radeon 6970 perform better than one 6990, with less price.
- Each has 2 DVI ports so I don't have to worry about converter.
- However, whether the Crossfire think (to connect these two cards) can help me span 4 displays is still not clear. I couldn't find a clue for this issue.

Please help me with advice. I appreciate it.

Thanks
 

borisof007

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cppc, please see this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/315300-33-heck-eyefinity

Eyefinity has a lot of weird quirks about it. In summary:

Your assumption with the 6970 is wrong. You will have to have ALL 4 monitors connected to the FIRST video card. You will need a card that has a MINIMUM of 2 Displayport adapters.

The 6970 does indeed have 2 mini displayports. However, mini DP -> DVI adapters, ACTIVE ones (not passive, those won't work for what you need) aren't that expensive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815309008&cm_re=displayport_adapter-_-15-309-008-_-Product

They're $27each. Buy two.

Having two 6970's in crossfire is still good in order to support that HUGE resolution, so don't rule that out, just know that all 4 monitors have to be connected to the first video card. When you crossfire, you're essentially taking two GPU's and making them act as one. So any GPU intensive work should have an increase in performance with crossfired cards.
 
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