Widescreen Gaming Forum

1. I have 4 screens, do all the stock 7950-7970 cards support a configuration where I use all the outputs.

I see all cards have 1-DVi, 2 Mini-DP, 1 HDMI.

I already have 2 Mini Dp to DVI cables, if i get an HDMI to DVI cable, would i be able to connect 4 DVI screens @ 1920 * 1200 (passive)?

2. Help me make a decision, im about to pull the trigger on a 7970 or 7950, but as I read more and more reviews I think the 7970 maybe doesnt make any sense, the 7950 seems really easy to OC to perform to the same level as a 7970.

I play games at 5760 * 1200, If i need to spend an extra $100 I will, but im not sure at the moment.

I really dont want to make the same mistake I did previous gen, I got one 6950 because of the same reasons as above but it wasnt enough for my setup so I ended up buying another 6950 for crossfire but i have had really bad experiences with it (microstuttering, etc), i pretty much have to play BF3 with everything set to low @ 1080p because of stuttering or other jerkiness.


Thank you for your help WSGF

1. No.

You're using Cables and not active adapters? IF you use one of your mini DP to DVI cable it will use one TDMS signal, You only have two! so either DVI or HDMI slot will get deactivated!

If you use an Active mini DP to DVI Adapter that should run fine!


2. If you can OC a HD7950 to the Performance of a HD7970, then why not buy an HD7970 and OC to way more performance ? Always depends on how much money you want to spend!

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

1. No.

You're using Cables and not active adapters? IF you use one of your mini DP to DVI cable it will use one TDMS signal, You only have two! so either DVI or HDMI slot will get deactivated!

If you use an Active mini DP to DVI Adapter that should run fine!


2. If you can OC a HD7950 to the Performance of a HD7970, then why not buy an HD7970 and OC to way more performance ? Always depends on how much money you want to spend!

Thank you for your answer.

My problem is that I only have 1 Active DP to DVI cable, it was really expensive!!!, can I get a mini-DP to DP adapter and then chain it to my Active DP to DVI adapter? Would that still use too many TDMS signal?

So my setup would be like this:

1 monitor to DVI
1 monitor to passive Mini-dp to DVI
1 monitor to mini-dp to Dp then connected to an Active DP to DVI
1 monitor with a passive hdmi to DVI

Would this work? Thank you!!!

My problem is that I only have 1 Active DP to DVI cable, it was really expensive!!!

You're referring to the old active adapters that run on USB power, right? Well, the new single link active adapters work fine and only cost about 25 ~ 30 bucks.

1 monitor to DVI

Possible

1 monitor to passive Mini-dp to DVI

Nope, you must buy an active single link adapter

1 monitor to mini-dp to Dp then connected to an Active DP to DVI

Don't know, but not recommended.

1 monitor with a passive hdmi to DVI

Possible.

_________________
Music is my life. You are my music.

To achieve 4 monitors you will require 2x active DP > DVI/HDMI/VGA adaptors.
As Moose points out, you can pick these up for much cheaper than before.

Then connect like so...

GPU | DVI > DVI | Monitor
GPU | HDMI > DVI | Monitor
GPU | active m-DP > DVI | Monitor
GPU | active m-DP > DVI | Monitor

You may go from mini-DP > full DP > active adaptor > DVI, I use a old belkin active adaptor that is full DP size so I use an adaptor to go form large to small DP.

_________________
| 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 all your help.

This is the adapter I own:

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=98_106&item_id=032997

Would that work?, it doesnt mention if its active or not thats why im wondering, I already own 2 of these adapters and it would be awesome if I could just reuse them for the 7000 series. BTW im usign them right now for my 2 * 6950, I have a monitor in each card using this adapters and they work fine, what im trying to do is move away from Crossfire to a single card while retaining this:



Right now is really annoying as everytime i want to use the 4th screen I need to disable Crossfire.

I also noticed that they have this one listed which is twice the price:

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=98_106&item_id=034891


My guess is, if i need to buy 2 of the adapters in the second link (the $40 one), I might as well just grab a cheap old ATI card to drive the 4th screen, would be way cheaper, $30 vrs $80

Is that what I should do?

Sadly the first link you posted is a passive adaptor, the 2nd link you posted is an active adaptor.

You will require 2 of the active adaptors as per my previous post.
You could of cause inset another card and run them from that, that is entirely up to you.

Think tho, the extra card will use power, which you will pay for in the long run on your electric bill, so the decission is yours.

Personally I would be more inclinded to get the adaptors.

BTW any chance you could upload that desktop background somwhere? I do like x]

_________________
| 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 |

Hard decision to make..

Thanks for all your help, im completely clear about what I need now.

I will be uploading the wallpaper as soon as im back home :) Thanks again.

2. Help me make a decision, im about to pull the trigger on a 7970 or 7950, but as I read more and more reviews I think the 7970 maybe doesnt make any sense, the 7950 seems really easy to OC to perform to the same level as a 7970.

Both cards have the same chip (Tahiti). The difference is that the 7970 has 4 more compute units (32 vs 28). The performance difference isn't big anough to justify the 100 dollar price difference though. Since the 7970's have higher binned chips, they should on everage overclock a little higher (using the same voltage); maybe 30-50mhz or so. I would recommend buying an OC version of a 7950 from either Sapphire or Powercolor since those cards have great custom coolers.

_________________
Philips BDM4065UC(3840x2160) Acer Z35(2560x1080@200hz); 980 Ti Hybrid @stock ; 6700K 4.6ghz (1.35v)/D15; 16GB 3200mhz; Asus Maximus Ranger VIII; AX860; 1TB 960 EVO; 750GB 840 EVO; Teufel Concept D 500; Sennheiser HD6XX; Windows 10 (latest build)

Sorry for the wait, here is the wallpaper:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6773096194_6e5dced1a0_o.png