Hardware & Technical Eyefinity died tonight...

Sandmann

Sandmann
The 2 year old "active displayport-DVI adapter" that I use to run one of my three monitors gave up the ghost today... right in the middle of a shootout with an NPC at Freeport. Of course, it HAD to be attached to the centre monitor, didn't it? Of course I died in short course (or so I hear) and turned off the compu ter to diagnose the problem. None of the usual retail suspects actually SELL these adapters - well not anywhere near where I am - so I've had to order one from ebay and wait till next week to get it.

This leaves me with a single monitor - yes, I could do it with two instead of three but that would put the centre of the display right on the bezel, not ideal. So here I am again, back in single monitor land and I have to ask, HOW DO YOU DO IT? It's like I'm suddenly peering through a square tube with no peripheral vision! Yuk! On the plus side I've been able to bump the graphics back up to "high".. I've had them set on "low" since Beta 2 came out as the frame frame has been suffering. It's a small consolation prize - oh well. I wonder if Occulus Rift users ask themselves the same question of multimonitor users?

Anyway, the centre monitor now has a direct connect to the graphics card's DVI port with no funky adapters to die at a crucial moment. Lesson learned. So I'm back to space trading to try to pay off the loan for the numerous exploded Cobra's while bounty hunting at Freeport. Expensive hobby, that.
 

Ravenov

Ravenov
Totally know what you mean, i tried running with just one screen the other night to see if it reduced the jerky supercruise near planets thing (it didn't) and if it made super dense asteroid belts any more playable (not really, 30fps on 3, maybe 40 on 1 screen) ... but it felt like I was wearing blinkers.

I know that the FoV means that you don't actually see *that* much more with 3 screens, i think it's about what you would see on half a screen stretched out to either side, but it makes such difference in practice.
 

Toscaner

T
sorry to hear and welcome back in one monitor land :p

i have 2 (the second is just 19"), so obv just using one and i'm really thinking about getting 2 new ones - you just pushed me one inch further to that decision :)
 

sabrex449

sabrex449
when 144hz comes down i might add another 2 but its a mess if we get cheap 60hrz left and right i will get a headache
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
Toscaner said:
sorry to hear and welcome back in one monitor land :p

i have 2 (the second is just 19"), so obv just using one and i'm really thinking about getting 2 new ones - you just pushed me one inch further to that decision :)
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Glad to be of service... perhaps I should buy shares in a monitor company. :)
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
Asp Explorer said:
Sometimes re-flashing can bring back a dead adapter - worth a try at least!

It's worked on my b101b before.
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Ahhh you meant graphics adapter didn't you? Wrong sort of adapter... I'm talking about one of these:

showa_img.asp


The graphics adapter's brand new - ED made me trade in my old HD6870 for an R9-280X. Haven't regretted it yet. :)
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
That is exactly what I mean, except mine is DP-VGA. DP adapters can be re flashed, a firmware upgrade for it might bring it back to life.
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
Asp Explorer said:
That is exactly what I mean, except mine is DP-VGA. DP adapters can be re flashed, a firmware upgrade for it might bring it back to life.
Click to expand...

Really? Wow, that's new. More info required please.. how does one? :)

I suspect it's broken, I've been getting "failed link" messages for a while now and it finally went kaput for good today, and when I went to the shop I got this from to replace it they told me they no longer carried them as the ones they had weren't reliable. I've got a new one coming, but if I can rescue this one that'd be even better. :)
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
robbyp said:
Its possible to fight with one monitor, but I'm on the slippery expensive slop to three.. :)
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Talking about slippery, expensive slopes, monitors are kinda like tattoos... it's hard to stop at one, and the more.you have, the more you want. I've been trying to resist upgrading my multi monitor stand with another level and buying 3 more screens and a couple of displayport hubs for a 2x3 display... or possible just two more and turning them all vertical for a 1x5 display.

Please.. someone take away my credit card! :)
 

mahoon

mahoon
Sandmann said:
The 2 year old "active displayport-DVI adapter" that I use to run one of my three monitors gave up the ghost today... right in the middle of a shootout with an NPC at Freeport. Of course, it HAD to be attached to the centre monitor, didn't it? Of course I died in short course (or so I hear) and turned off the compu ter to diagnose the problem. None of the usual retail suspects actually SELL these adapters - well not anywhere near where I am - so I've had to order one from ebay and wait till next week to get it.

This leaves me with a single monitor - yes, I could do it with two instead of three but that would put the centre of the display right on the bezel, not ideal. So here I am again, back in single monitor land and I have to ask, HOW DO YOU DO IT? It's like I'm suddenly peering through a square tube with no peripheral vision! Yuk! On the plus side I've been able to bump the graphics back up to "high".. I've had them set on "low" since Beta 2 came out as the frame frame has been suffering. It's a small consolation prize - oh well. I wonder if Occulus Rift users ask themselves the same question of multimonitor users?

Anyway, the centre monitor now has a direct connect to the graphics card's DVI port with no funky adapters to die at a crucial moment. Lesson learned. So I'm back to space trading to try to pay off the loan for the numerous exploded Cobra's while bounty hunting at Freeport. Expensive hobby, that.
Click to expand...


I ran three monitors on eyefinity for years. HD6870s in Crossfire. First couple of years I ran them in landscape with a desktop area of 5040 x 1050. I then switched to the superior portrait mode of 3150 x 1680 as below:

13866635584_09bb7e30c1_c.jpg


Then I sold the monitors, upgraded to one half-decent graphics card (R9-270) and switched to a 40" TV running at 1360x768. Sounds crazy right? I'm so pleased with it. After years of fiddling with this, finding a fix for that and generally spending half my life trying to get something to run as it should or as I wanted it to, I now just fire it up, whack all settings to Ultra and enjoy that 60fps goodness. No more fans screaming as they try to cool 2 GPUs running at 80 deg C, no more messing about with or putting up with any small annoyances.

I can honestly say I thought it would be a huge disadvantage to have such a small amount of screen real estate and I can honestly say after a very short time I don't even notice it. ED is fantastic on this TV. All my games are fantastic looking and it's so much less hassle. I've even added a smaller 22" monitor to the side of the main screen for running browsers etc.
 

Stressfest

Stressfest
That's good to know. I've just built a system with a Radeon R2 290 in it and was toying with the triple monitor setup but had at the back of my mind the TV thing.. Definitely food for thought.

Currently using an old Acer P223W at 1680 x 1050 but yearn for something a little more flash :D
 

Sandmann

Sandmann
Yeah there's a lot to fiddle with and tweak to get it just right but when it works it's great. I also use MS Flight Sim, and used to play World of Tanks (are we seeing a common theme here?) and the wide setup is great for seeing that much more of the world around you.

I considered setting up the monitors in portrait but it'd be a pain for using a normal desktop so I haven't. Ideally what I'd like to do is keep the outer left and right 21" monitors but turn them to protrait and have a larger central monitor in landscape so I'd still get my peripheral vision thing going on, but the main display would be a lot biogger. Not sure if Eyefinity can handle different orientations & resolutions though, and you'd have to find the right centre monitor who's height and vertical resolution was the same as the out monitors width and horizontal res.
 
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