Widescreen Gaming Forum

Can one 5870 power three monitors on SoftTH or do I need to pick up a second graphics card.

I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution. Currently I am running two 8800 ultras in non-sli mode, where one powers the 30" and the other one powers the two 20" displays.

I am running an evga 750i ftw mobo, with vista 64 ultimate.

So my question is, to run SoftTH can the 5870 run the whole thing or do I need to get another ati card? If I need to get another ati card I think a 5770 would be more than adequate.

Thanks for any input.

Don't know if one 5870 would be enough, but if you plan to stick to your PLP configuration I would wait and see how Nvidia's Fermi turns out. It is expected to be faster than the 5870 and you could keep one of your 8800s as the secondary card, or go for a dual core and use one card. There may also be a chance that SLI will work with SoftTH through CUDA.

I don't think you should go ATI now with the idea to switch from SoftTH to Eyefinity once PLP is supported, as that will probably take another card generation from the looks of it.

Don't know if one 5870 would be enough, but if you plan to stick to your PLP configuration I would wait and see how Nvidia's Fermi turns out. It is expected to be faster than the 5870 and you could keep one of your 8800s as the secondary card, or go for a dual core and use one card. There may also be a chance that SLI will work with SoftTH through CUDA.

I don't think you should go ATI now with the idea to switch from SoftTH to Eyefinity once PLP is supported, as that will probably take another card generation from the looks of it.

Well I already pulled the trigger on an xfx 5870, so we will see in the next week or two when I get it and the dvi adapter. I don't mind buying the 5870 or maybe even a 5870x2, because I know that I can turn around and sell them if I am not satisfied.

I will keep my ultras as backup, from the looks of things it is going to be very hard to get your hands on a gt300 and 5870 and 5870x2 for the next couple of months, so what I get really will depend on what is available.

What I do know is the only game I really play, over flanders fields, yields me only 24fps with my current ultra setup and I need at least ten more frames, so hopefully the 5870 can push me there

Also, I am tired of the heat management with the two ultras, I got a full size walmart house fan blowing into the side of my case currently lol but that is what it takes to cool two 90nm cards!

[H]ardOcp ran 3 x 30" off a 5850:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461673

So I assume that a 5870 should be able to run your setup.

[H]ardOcp ran 3 x 30" off a 5850:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461673

So I assume that a 5870 should be able to run your setup.

There is no question that it will run my setup. The question is can I get away with ONLY USING 1 CARD to run SoftTH! SoftTH specifies two graphics cards, but is that specification only there because prior to the ATI 5000 series, we only had two DVI out ports for two monitors on a graphics card.

I dont wanna spend the money to buy a second crappy ati card if I dont have to.

I don't think anyone's tried it yet. I guess you're the guinea pig... ;) 8)

Why cant someone, it's just a matter of installing SoftTH and putting the 5870 in extended mode.

_________________
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I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution.

Why do you say your monitor setup is not compatible with Eyefinity?

It will work if your 3 monitors support one same resolution. You can set your 20s to their maximum resolution and use this same resolution on your 30 and stretch it to maximize the screen. It will not be as perfect as using 3x30 or 3x20 monitors but it will work as long as one is connected with displayport or active displayport to DVI.

So my question is, to run SoftTH can the 5870 run the whole thing or do I need to get another ati card? If I need to get another ati card I think a 5770 would be more than adequate.

Thanks for any input.

As PS said, we need a guinea pig. At least to get it confirmed.

However, the possibility is there. You can connect several screens with different resolutions and alligments outside of Eyefinity. There are 3 seperate outputs that can work simultaniously if you use DP as one of them. I haven't connected more then 1 screen to my 5870 for the moment, but if I right-click on the catalyst icon in taskbar, I get 3 sections for configuring output. Not two as with my 4870X2.

Perhaps someone can confirm this for you here that already have 3 screens? Pivoting two of them to portrait should break Eyefinity, so if it still works with softTH, we have a go. :)

[quote]I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution.

Why do you say your monitor setup is not compatible with Eyefinity?

It will work if your 3 monitors support one same resolution. You can set your 20s to their maximum resolution and use this same resolution on your 30 and stretch it to maximize the screen. It will not be as perfect as using 3x30 or 3x20 monitors but it will work as long as one is connected with displayport or active displayport to DVI.

If I run my gateway outside of its native 2560x1600 resolution i get input lag really bad because the built in scaler gets really pissed.

Besides, yea I could do what you say, but it would be a real PITB to have to rotate my portrait monitors back to landscape mode and on top of that it would look really stupid all around. This setup doubles as my work space and I need them in portrait to review legal documents, etc.

If SoftTH has proven anything to me its, that eyefinity could easily accomodate different screens and resolutions, but they choose not too at this time. Hopefully down the road in the near future they open eyefinity up to use different res folks!

Well I will be the experimental pig, but I need to find a place where I can find that display port to DVI adapter...apparently its harder finding one of those than an actual 5870 lol