Widescreen Gaming Forum

As a shot in the dark, I went ahead and ordered the Accell adapter from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Accell-UltraAV-B087B-002B-DisplayPort-Dual-Link/dp/B002ISVI3U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260540284&sr=8-1) after my Dell-ordered Bizlink produced the infamous "sleep mode" bug (http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17012).

While the Accell and the Bizlink appear to be made by the same company (http://www.accellcables.com/press/press_01_03.html), for some reason the Accell adapter is working on my particular monitors - whereas the Bizlink/Dell one did not.

My only purpose for posting this is to say: Try the Accell if you can't get the Bizlink working. There is, apparently, some internal difference in the two (perhaps a different firmware version - who knows?). Be warned, however, that there have been reports of the Accell adapter doing the exact same thing (randomly putting the monitor to sleep).

I'd also like to apologize to ATI for my earlier frustration. Clearly, there's some issue with these adapters.

The issue is with the signal strength tolerance from the Graphics card to the adapter. So either different firmware or a different GPU BIOS would help if the timings are different. The problem is that you can't manually flash the firmware on Apple Dual link adapters. I am not sure about the Dell adapters. You can flash the ATI BIOS though.

It's good that your problem is fixed. Try to find the firmware details or revision of your current adapter.

ATI is still slightly to blame for implementing a weak signal strength on their graphics cards and not testing it with certain configurations. Otherwise we would have heard about this Black out issue before from people using these adapters for their mac books and other products.

The issue is with the signal strength tolerance from the Graphics card to the adapter. So either different firmware or a different GPU BIOS would help if the timings are different. The problem is that you can't manually flash the firmware on Apple Dual link adapters. I am not sure about the Dell adapters. You can flash the ATI BIOS though.

It's good that your problem is fixed. Try to find the firmware details or revision of your current adapter.

ATI is still slightly to blame for implementing a weak signal strength on their graphics cards and not testing it with certain configurations. Otherwise we would have heard about this Black out issue before from people using these adapters for their mac books and other products.

Thanks for that cogent explanation. I am hoping that, by the time they have Eyefinity working with CrossfireX, most of these problems will have been solved. Now that I'm able to play with Eyefinity, it's made me realize that a single 5870 is marginal at best for extreme resolutions like 5040x1050.

I'd be happy to simply have 3840x720, but I'll need to creat some custom monitor inf's apparently.

I'm surprised your finding that resolution to be an issue. I have the 5850 running 5760x1200 (on a system much slower than yours) and the raw speed is quite amazing. Eyefinity has its glitches, but for me, horsepower hasn't really been one I could complain about.

Accel adapter so far so good here. I tried the DP to VGA adapter first with no luck, but so far[i][/i] the Accel is working great.

I'm surprised your finding that resolution to be an issue. I have the 5850 running 5760x1200 (on a system much slower than yours) and the raw speed is quite amazing. Eyefinity has its glitches, but for me, horsepower hasn't really been one I could complain about.

. Well, what games are you running?
I'd like to see what your in-game settings are so we could compare apples-to-apples.
Try Crysis Warhead with everything on Enthusiast if you want a lovely slideshow. Dirt 2 can't handle any antialiasing with settings above Medium (horrible stuttering as you overwhelm the framebuffer apparently). World in Conflict DX10 also stutters pretty badly if you try 4x MSAA and set everything to High.

I'm not surprised really. A single 5870 struggles to give 60fps on these games at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out. At 5040x1050 it's just overwhelmed.

What worried me the most is that you really need 2gb for framebuffer at these resolutions. Once you start turning up the AA, that 1gb gets used up quickly.

I run Dirt 2 with everything on High and get 40 + FPS using a 5850. You don't really need AA at such huge resolutions I tried to notice the difference on Left 4 dead 2 between 8xMSAA and 2xMSAA and I couldn't at 5040 x 1050.

Thanks for that cogent explanation. I am hoping that, by the time they have Eyefinity working with CrossfireX, most of these problems will have been solved. Now that I'm able to play with Eyefinity, it's made me realize that a single 5870 is marginal at best for extreme resolutions like 5040x1050.

I'd be happy to simply have 3840x720, but I'll need to creat some custom monitor inf's apparently.

My 5870 is perfectly playable and this is with a resolution of 6144x1152. Just turn off AA or if you must, don't exceed 2xAA. You're asking for a world of hurt with 4xAA or higher at these extreme resolutions. The only game that doesn't maintain 30fps at maximum settings is Crysis. Everything else runs fine even with 2xAA. Those that dip below 30fps, I just disable AA (which for me only provides marginal improvement). Having the Eyefinity experience with no AA or only 2xAA is just so much greater than having a single monitor with 8xAA going that I'd happily make the sacrifice.

Maybe its time to start a sticky with any adapter known to work, hm? Though confirmation first, would be prudent.

Yeah, I'm holding off on making anything official until a lot more testing is done. The various solutions floating around seem flaky at best - we need many more people to confirm that this Accell adaptor works 100% where the others do not.
Until then, if the people having flickering issues can afford it, give the Accell a go, without changing anything else about their setup/software to make it a fair test.

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