Hi, alx,
Okay, I bit the bullet (again), and picked up the Apple version of the adapter. I had previously purchased the mini-std cable a week ago or so anticipating this. Of course then I purchased the $30 dedicated plug for the USB adapter. So, $105 + $20 + $30.
It took me about 4 hours last night to finally get an Eyefinity desktop at 5760x1200 (3-28" LCD's). I have owned numerous high end video cards from both nVidia and ATI. I've rarely had driver issues with the nVidia stuff, but this Eyefinity situation (w/adapter) is a mess.
I don't know if it's the card, the driver, or the adapter, but there is virtually no consistency that I can find. In desperation, I finally set up two different profiles, one for the 5760x1200 desktop, and a second with (3)1920x1200 desktops with the primary screen center (my center screen is the DP->DVI screen).
The driver simply doesn't have a clue what's going on, and after a reboot, I head for and select the "Eyefinity" profile that I had created, and it simply didn't save the information, or only saved a portion of it. So at this point, every time I boot up the computer, I basically rebuild the group. And the system randomly decides what resolution and configuration to boot into, I've seen probably 4 different variations with no changes on my part, simply on reboot. Sometimes when I select profiles, it doesn't respond at all.
This is an Asus 5850 card. I dumped the Asus "smartdoctor" and just started monitoring temps and fan with the ATI Overdrive screen. Keep in mind this system used to have an 8800GTX furnace in it. I opened the side of the case and positioned a house fan on it. The idle temp with default clocks is 59 degrees C. When I step out of a simulation that pushes the card, it's frequently at 80-85 degrees C, with the autofan control pushing the fan at a mighty 30% (tops maybe).
This last month has been quite an ATI fiasco. Frustrated.
I'll end with this, once I finally did get the 5760x1200 running, in simulation, it's quite phenomenal, and even the 5850 has little shortage of horsepower. Regarding the minimal performance drop, I am amazed at how well this card scaled from (1) screen to (3) screens. That's a lot of extra pixels to push, but really wasn't much of a problem for this card. The classic ATI driver fiascos, though, sheesh.
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