Help with Eyefinity and adapters!

[Charith Arachchi]

First off I just wanted to say that I love Tom Hardware and have been hitting these forums up for answers to tech issues all the time. First time poster, and looking forward to being involved!

So yeah, I finally went for a 3rd monitor to add to my workstation and got excited and purchased one of the Accell mini displayport adapters to get the 3rd screen running on my HD 6870 with Eyefinity.

I thought I had bought a mini displayport to DVI adapter, as my monitors only have DVI and VGA inputs. Unfortunately in all the excitement of picking up a few other components for upgrades, I ended up buying a mini displayport to HDMI adapter!

I just got it today, and honestly would rather just try to get this running as is, rather than having to make a return or just purchase a new adapter outright. I did find this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/eForCity+-+HDMI+TO+DVI+CABLE+10FT+10-FT+Compatible+With+TV+PC+MONITOR+COMPUTER+-+Black/4659716.p?id=1218500983799&skuId=4659716&st=hdmi%20to%20dvi&cp=1&lp=6

And that looks to have the right connectors on it to go into the adapter I have now, and connect to the DVI port on my 3rd monitor. My concern is that there might be issues with either it not working at all, or causing issues with Eyefinity.

Does anyone have any advice or experience with any of this? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I figured that I'd run out and pick it up later tonight, unless it's definitely not a good idea.

Thanks! :]

 

[AdioKIP]

DVI and HDMI are both digital signals, the only real difference is that HDMI also carries sound. Since they're both digital, you can useually interchange from one to the other with no problems using a cable like you showed (HDMI to DVI). I use an HDMI to DVI cable in my 4 screen setup with no issue, BUT I dont have it connected to the displayport first. From what I understand though it shouldnt matter, once the displayport adapter converts it to HDMI at that point the video card or monitor shouldnt know the difference if you're using an HDMI to DVI cable. I'd give it a try, and if it doesnt work you can always return the cable to bestbuy.

 

[Charith Arachchi]

DVI and HDMI are both digital signals, the only real difference is that HDMI also carries sound. Since they're both digital, you can useually interchange from one to the other with no problems using a cable like you showed (HDMI to DVI). I use an HDMI to DVI cable in my 4 screen setup with no issue, BUT I dont have it connected to the displayport first. From what I understand though it shouldnt matter, once the displayport adapter converts it to HDMI at that point the video card or monitor shouldnt know the difference if you're using an HDMI to DVI cable. I'd give it a try, and if it doesnt work you can always return the cable to bestbuy.

Awesome! I'm going to snag one tonight and I'll post later to report how it turns out. Just to clarify from before, my plan for the overall setup is:

Monitor 1: DVI output > DVI cable > DVI monitor input
Monitor 2: output from VGA marked DVI port > DVI to VGA adapter > VGA cable > VGA monitor input
Monitor 3: mini displayport > mini displayport to HDMI adapter > HDMI to DVI cable > DVI monitor input

Sooooooooooo that all makes sense, right?

 

[AdioKIP]

Yes it makes sense and should get all monitors running, but am not sure how EyeFinity will like going to an analog signal (VGA). IF you cant get EyeFinity running I would suspect this would be the culprit but you wont know until you try.

 

[Charith Arachchi]

Yes it makes sense and should get all monitors running, but am not sure how EyeFinity will like going to an analog signal (VGA). IF you cant get EyeFinity running I would suspect this would be the culprit but you wont know until you try.

Well it looks like there's still an issue. When I set it up like how I mentioned before, only 2 monitors will work at one time, but not all 3 at once. And I can switch between all 3 monitors as far as which 2 are running, but whenever I try to extend the desktop to the 3rd monitor it says "Unable to Save Settings" and doesn't allow it.

I did a bunch of reading, and apparently there's some problems with using a passive mini displayport adapter if I'm also running the 2 other monitors into "legacy connections" like DVI or VGA. The word I've gotten is that I HAVE to get an active display port adapter. Is that right?

Right now I've got the passive mini displayport to HDMI adapter and an HDMI to DVI cable that as of right now seem unneeded. I know I can return the cable, but the adapter was bought on eBay so I'm not sure if it's worth it to try to return it or maybe I could just repackage and sell it there too.

I also found some people that mentioned using a mini displayport to VGA adapter works because it doesn't need the power to do the conversion that the active adapters use the extra USB connection for?

I could really use some guidance here, as I don't want to keep on buying and returning things without knowing for sure if it's the right way to set it up :/ So any suggestions or links to good deals would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Charith Arachchi]

I just wanted to take a minute to update this and let anyone know who's having the same troubles, that I got it working with this setup:

DVI > DVI
DVI > DVI to VGA adapter > VGA
Mini Displayport > MDP to VGA adapter > VGA

It took me some time to figure it out, but apparently it HAS to be an active Mini Displayport adapter, and as it turns out the VGA models are all active by design! Some people mentioned that the VGA signal is a little worse than DVI, but between the 3 monitors I really can't tell the difference.

So it works! And if anyone is on the fence about getting Eyefinity... DO IT! It's transformed my gaming experience, and even with my HD6870 I'm loving it. The next step is to move into an HD7950 or HD7970 if I can get a good deal on one...