Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi! New member here, I will be as detailed and to the point as possible.

We recently purchased a display wall with 9 Samsung 460UT-B Panels (http://www.samsunglfd.com/product/featu ... Cd=460UT-B) in a 3x3 configuration at my workplace. They are native 1366*768 but will handle 1920x1080 just fine.

The controller we purchased with them was not what we had it mind and only allowed us to input DVI images or video in 4:3 in a sort of PIP mode up onto the screens. The built in video wall feature from Samsung allows us to use the 9 screens as one large screen but the whole thing works at 1080p so as you can imagine its quite low resolution for the size of the setup.

My question is could we run a system with two Eyefinity 6 cards and create a unified desktop with 4 (2x2) of the screens in the top left corner, leaving the other 5 panels around it as individual monitors used with extended desktop?

I suspect we may not be able to exceed 6 monitors total for a single computer, if this is the case would it be feasible to run 2 computers one with the 4 panels in an eyefinity config as a single high resolution setup and then a second with an eyefinity card controlling the other 5 displays in a non eyefinity (extended desktop, individual screens) setup? Using something like Synergy or Microsofts Mouse without borders (http://blogs.technet.com/b/next/archive ... rders.aspx) to move between the two desktops.

Our goal is to display several full screen applications and webpages like server and network monitoring tools around on the separate desktops and a larger feature like a live TV feed or animated webpage on the 2x2 eyefinity screen.

I don't think the screens support DP daisy chain because each only has a single DP input. Would we need a display port hub in either of these configs or could we just run a cable to each screen's displayport into the eyefinity card's mini display ports? We are also open to other ideas on how to drive these screens if there are better options than Eyefinity for us.

Thanks in advance multi monitor gurus!

They do have DP input?
Then you should be able to plug them all from one E6 Card.
I think 3x3 was a valid eyefinity setup.... Not sure though.
If you get 2x DP-MST Hubs you have 2->6 + 4 on the Card.total of 10 DP.

I'm not sure if you can create an eyefinity setup from 2Cards in the same computer... At least in Crossfire it doesn't work.

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We gonna send it to outa space!

If you would like a 2x2 and individual surrounding displays in your 3x3 display configuration, then you may use most AMD Eyefinity cards to create a 2x2 with 4 of the monitors, each running at 1080p, you may then insert another GPU, like an AMD E6 card, that will power your remaning 5 displays, or even 2 lesser cards driving 3+2.

This would be relatively simple to setup with as little as 2 AMD eyefinity cards

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| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

Thank you for this confirmation, so I am correct in thinking that as long as the cards are not in crossfire they can each run displays of their own and total more than 6 for one single windows system, while eyefinity is limited to making a single display out of any 6 screens?

Totaly, windows will support many monitors, You are only limited by your ability to implement the hardware to support it.

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| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

What is the end-use of the 3x3 grid? Are each display being used individually, or do you wish for them to be a full 3x3 span? 3x3 span is possible but it's going to require 3 Matrox TH2G DP and a 1x3 Eyefinity span hybrid setup.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Since we will not be gaming on it and rather showing off webpages or other content I would like to have an eyefinity 2x2 screen that we can display featured content on in the top left corner of the 3x3 then have 5 individual screens around it each able to display full screen apps or webpages.

In the end one giant screen would be fine so long as we get a decent resolution, right now the built in samsung option is displaying 1080p as one giant desktop so you can imagine everything looks rather large.

Should I even consider MST hubs?
http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/produc ... b-1-3.html

It sounds like these would be similar to the THTG mentioned, could we get say one HD 7990 6GB and three of these hubs and create the layout we want inside of the AMD software?

I read a few places where people had issues with the Matrox TH2G hybrid setup but that may be related to full screen gaming issues and not effect us.

Again we want to go with whatever solution is the most reliable and if that is creating one large display with MST hubs or the Matrox TH2Gs then we are fine with that.

Another question I had, anyone know of any software solutions that will save the workspaces that we have open so that upon reboot the applications get restored to certain monitors?
I was looking at using autohotkey and maybe creating a script to open each thing and take it full screen but if there is a software made for this I would rather purchase it and support the devs and make my life easier.

Hey mate, i have done exactly this myself and the easiest way to do a single 3x3 video wall is to use 3x TH2Go units (get the DP version) BUT when displaying 1680x1050 the monitor must support 59Hz and 1920x1080 @ 50Hz so make sure the displays are compatible. Lower resolutions will display @ 60Hz. (ie: 1440x900, etc..)

Also another product to look up is Mview (They do the same products and more and at a very similar price), these guys are really helpful if you got questions. Just email them and they will get back to you (I was really impressed)
http://www.mviewtech.com/index_en.asp
These guys are even on the forums here too....

So get 3 units and setup a 1x3 eyefinity group. Everything will work great this way (Some games will detect the eyefinity group and stretch the fov vertically - I know you dont want to game..) A single 7970 will work fine if not gaming but yeah a 7990 will be much better . But a 7970 should handle movies and youtube, etc at fullscreen.

A FREE software solution exists but currently is restricted to dx9 and d3d applications with minimal setup if you get the screens organised correctly first. Lookup SoftTH it can do cool stuff (Check out my 15 monitor setup). Once again it can only be used by certain apps, VLC works if you force d3d mode. If you are interested in this just ask...

But I think the best user friendly solution is 3xTH2G dp edition units or 3xMview units in a 1x3 eyefinity setup.
Either way you are looking around 300-350 AUD (Im Aussie...) each. This will create a single large screen and will be the most user friendly.

***IMPORTANT: A single pc can only support 2xTH2G units simultaneously so with 3 you may not have full bezel compensation (Also they must be the same model!) so I would personally recommend contacting Mview about the bezel compensation (And use eyefinity for bezel comp between the 3 3x1 display groups). I hope some of this info helps....

Oh and put up pics when your done

PS: Eyefnity is the best solution for your situation but will only support 6 max, anymore screens will need softTH and that will require some macguyvering.... Nvidia will only support 3x1 setups.

PPS: MST hubs are still in infancy and either way will only bring the total number of displays up to 6. These are needed where a single card has less than 6 outputs or if you want to eliminate tearing due to different outputs such as DVI with DP. So i would avoid these in my personal opinion.

PPPS: Xfire works fine with eyefinity (for me anyway) I had 2x7970's running a 3x3 video wall (Was using the 9 monitors in the center of my 15 setup). Farcry3 was pulling around 35-40 fps @ 3840x3072 on high settings.

Thanks for the reply simroz I might be barking up the wrong tree but we went with a single system with 2x PowerColor 2GB Eyfinity 6 Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition cards and i'm hoping to run them individually via the mini display ports straight into our screens Display ports like above. I am wanting to run 4x on the first card and create one big screen out of them and then use the other 5 into the 2nd card and configure them individually.

I will look into the software and I will post pics for sure

This worked out pretty well, port one on one of the cards was messing up so I moved that screen down to port 6 and it was ok. Eyefinity was sorta a PITA to setup because it keep showing the monitors disabled so i had to put them into extended groups to get them to all show up then create the eyefinity group and let it blow away the extended desktop stuff. One of the screens has a big line of dead pixles so we are waiting to get a replacement in.






I will post some pics of the screen setup once we get the bad one replaced.