Widescreen Gaming Forum

Take this 7870, for example: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC
It has 2 x MiniDP, 1 x DVI, and 1 x HDMI. With only two non-MiniDP ports, I wouldn't be able to use all four for the 3+1 setup?

Would Work! 2 Display via Adapter on MiniDP Port, 1 on DVI and 1 on HDMI (or via HDMi->DVI Adapter)

And how about the XFX Double D FX-787A-CDFC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
It has 2 x MiniDP, 2 x DVI, and 1 xHDMI—three non-MiniDP ports like you mentioned, so I would be able to have my 3+1 setup, correct?

Would also work IF you use 2 Display via Adapter on MiniDP Port, 2 on DVI OR 1 DVI and 1 HDMI !

Is any card manufacturer better than any other?
Is it more about customer support than product quality?
Is any company's products best avoided?

Well, there are "Reference Design" and "Custom design" Graphic cards out there! Reference means AMD designed the card and XFX, Asus, Sapphire or who else just bought the card and put a sticker on them! Custom design means that the Manufacterer designed the card himself! So for example Asus DirectCU II cards, or MSI Lightning Series ! they most of the time use better materials and a different fan. (there are also cards in Reference Design with different Fans! For Example XFX dual dissapation!)

Customer support? You only need that wehen a GPU goes defect! and normaly it shouldn't! so "product quality" only affects Custom design Cards, all refernece design cards are 100% equal to each other!

Uh, "best avoided".... depens on the model, there are better and worse cooler/fans out there. XFX Dual dissapation isn't that good on HD7970 Cards, but might do a good job in HD7870 !

Does the factory OC make a big difference from doing it yourself? (The Sapphire one I linked above is overclocked from 1000/1200 to 1050/1250. I understand the 7870 has a fair amount of room for overclocking.)

The only difference is that 1. This clock is guaranteed! and 2. you dont lose waranty!
IF you overclock yourself you will lose waranty! (but AFAIK they cant prove that you overclocked, and normaly cards don't break from overclocking!)

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Haldi, dude. Thank you. You are a font of knowledge and wisdom.

(I hope the other members of WSGF don't mind me being a total rep slut, but I'm very grateful!)

I'm looking into some reviews that compare the various models, but if anyone has any recommendations of one model vs. another (brand and OC), I hope y'all will let me know!

Thought I would follow up and report that I ended up purchasing the XFX HD 7870 DD, and am very, very happy that I did. It cost $60 more (plus another $60 for the MiniDP adapters), but it was well worth it.

As I said before, the Galaxy MDT GTX 570 is fine for multidisplay production work (and single screen gaming), but it is not suited for surround gaming. Galaxy's MDT is really just a jury-rigged solution, and pales in comparison to Eyefinity. Having a truly native 5760x1080 resolution and the ability to hot-key between desktop presets is just awesome. I have a few presets set up, and am able to flip between three-screen Eyefinity, standard three-screen, and then both of those with and without my little 12-inch Wacom Cintiq enabled. Bezel compensation is the icing on the cake.

So, to anyone considering a Galaxy MDT, be warned—it's not the same as Eyefinity!

Thanks again to Haldi (and Davros) for sharing his knowledge and advice.

Glad to see you happy.

Well, nowadays ppl will buy GTX670 or such, and not old hardware like a GTX570! (at least i hope so^^)


P.S, about Hotkeys and Presets, if you set an "Application" to start with changing, you can take "C:UsersHaldiAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsThemesHaldi.theme" (modify it so that it fits for you ;) ) and then it does automatically change from Eyefinity Tripe Screen Wallpapers to Normal Wallpapers for Extended Monitors, if you have a TripleScreen Wallpaper Theme created before!

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Well, nowadays ppl will buy GTX670 or such, and not old hardware like a GTX570! (at least i hope so^^)

Actually, the GTX 580 is the best GPU available in Galaxy's Multi Display Technology (MDT) line—so I guess they're just not making these MDT cards with the latest tech (no 600 series available yet).

P.S, about Hotkeys and Presets, if you set an "Application" to start with changing, you can take "C:UsersHaldiAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsThemesHaldi.theme" (modify it so that it fits for you ;) ) and then it does automatically change from Eyefinity Tripe Screen Wallpapers to Normal Wallpapers for Extended Monitors, if you have a TripleScreen Wallpaper Theme created before!

Awesome tip. So it doesn't really have to be an application (exe)? I'll make some wallpapers and try that! Thanks!