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Eyefinity setup HELP

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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I'm having a massive panic attack. I just spent over 2.5 grand on gpu and monitors. I bought two msi lightning 7970 gpus and a total of five dell u2412 1920 x 1200 monitors.

I've been reading about how to set this up as a eyefinity 5 group and realized that the gpu's only come with 4 display ports and 2 DVI.

I also read that when you mix dvi and display ports you get tearing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this for real? am I screwed? How do i connect my gpu's to my monitors without tearing or any issues.

Thanks guys for the help.

More about : eyefinity setup

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I run 2x DVI + 1 Display port (native, no adapter) HD 6950

I've had zero tearing issues with 3 monitors, no experience with 5. I suspect you'll be quite happy with the setup though, nice cards and monitors. It doesn't take much effort to get everything setup in CCC, just remember to save a couple of presets or you'll be spending way to much time rearranging 5 monitors every time you turn eyefinity on and off.

Thanks for your reply man. But if what you say is true, then how come the internet is littered with reports of tearing when you mix dvi and display ports. With the main accused issue of different timing between the different types of display. How is it that it's a random chance some people get it and some people don't. My stuff is coming in a week and if there's tearing i'm going to be so disappointed.

on a side note why do $500 gpus come with anything but display ports i don't understand.
Monitor Expert

Could you not go DVI to HDMI and keep it all digital still?

Also, is the tearing thing a known documented bug or something someone said somewhere on a forum. You don't know what monitors they used, whether a driver update fixed the problem, if they used cheap mini-displayport to displayport to hdmi to dvi to vga adapters, etc.
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Monitor Expert

No before you panic you are just fine with your setup you do need to run a display port connection for the central monitor and 4 dvi connections for the other four although I'm sure you could get away with using hdmi as well.

Tearing typically occurs when there is a larger amount of stress is placed on your system that your cards have a hard time keeping up with. However, I don't think you will have to worry about this. You have the horsepower to handle 3 screens pretty handily.

Just remember you need the central monitor with a display port connection. The others don't particularly matter. I really like how the display port connection works. I have a ASUS PB238Q it came with a display port cord and display port has a higher bandwidth lane if I'm not mistaken.

If you run across any issues just come back and there are people here to help you :)  Just keep in mind that if you run into issues with 5 monitors it will more then likely be memory based although 3 gigabytes should be fine.

Got this off wiki
Comparison with HDMI

Although DisplayPort has much of the same functionality as HDMI, it is expected to complement the interface, not replace it.[3][4] DisplayPort can emit an HDMI signal through the use of a passive adapter connected to a port that is designed for dual-mode.

The DisplayPort specification defines the standard as royalty-free, while HDMI charges US$0.04 per device with an annual fee of $10,000 for high volume manufacturers.[34] HDMI Licensing counters the "royalty-free" claim by pointing out that the DisplayPort specification leaves open the possibility of charging for implementation.[35] DisplayPort has more than twice the bandwidth at 21.6 Gbit/s[36] (17.28 Gbit/s with overhead removed) as opposed to HDMI's 10.2 Gbit/s[37] (8.16 Gbit/s with overhead removed). It also has the ability to share this bandwidth with multiple streams of audio and video to separate devices.[38]

DisplayPort in native mode lacks some HDMI features such as xvYCC color space capability (added in DisplayPort version 1.2) and Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) commands, which allow the control of multiple devices through a single remote;[39][40] VESA asserts that CEC commands can be transmitted over the AUX channel if needed.[38] HDMI uses unique Vendor Specific Block structure which allows for features such as additional color spaces. However, these features can be defined by CEA EDID extensions.

I also use DVI and display port in my setup and have no issues with tearing, I think you will be fine, take a deep breath lol. My setup is with a gtx 680 and 3 u2412m monitors.

Bigshootr8 it dose not really matter what monitor is hooked up to display port or dvi, I've run it with display port on a side monitor and then tried with it on the center monitor... makes absolutely no difference.
Monitor Expert

The reason for displayport is that for very large single screen resolutions, HDMI can't handle the bandwidth and this displayport is needed, so if you want to have 4 screens at like 2500-4000 resolutions, HDMI starts to fail.

interesting. Thanks. wow it would appear half the forums I've been reading at have no clue what they are talking about. I had a suspicion the tearing was due to not having enough horsepower. And only under those conditions would mixing dp and dvi ports matter.

Thanks!! My system is coming along. my first water-cooled/overclocked dual gpu eyefinity 5 setup. :D 
Monitor Expert

ClaymoreNo47 said:
interesting. Thanks. wow it would appear half the forums I've been reading at have no clue what they are talking about. I had a suspicion the tearing was due to not having enough horsepower. And only under those conditions would mixing dp and dvi ports matter.

Thanks!! My system is coming along. my first water-cooled/overclocked dual gpu eyefinity 5 setup. :D 



I'm sure BF3 with everything on MAX at like 9600x1080 is going to stress any single card out there. lol.

I take it this is your first Eyefinity setup, way to jump in with both feet.

I could be wrong but I think a large % of people running eyefinity are using displayport adapters. I've never read anything on the topic but logically I think there's got to be some kind of lag or interaction with the card to convert the connection.

I have 3 displayport monitors now, but like most you have to figure out how to justify getting rid of perfectly functioning slightly older monitors just to gain a single input option and avoid having to buy an active adapter. DVI's going to be around for quite awhile longer I suspect.

bigshootr8 said:
Pics or it doesn't count :p  I tease you should post when you are done if you are able to would be cool to see.



oh yeah when i'm done with my baby, i'm gonna post it anywhere that has to do with water cooled pc. Besides costing an arm and a leg, i think 4.5 grand-ish. I was at least able to justify most of it. I do alot of graphic/animation work (huge resolutions talking several gigs in a single image and I have multiple images open at once), and play alot of video games. When a client comes over, i just thought it would :D  close the deal better when they know their *** is in good hands.
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