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Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
https://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=26499		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  PTG_Chef_uk [ 02 Aug 2013, 16:49 ]
Post subject:  Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
Hi all, noobie here.

1 x 26" 1080p tv
1 x 22" 1680x1050 LG Monitor
1 x 19" 1280x1024 Zerox Monitor


I've managed to get the first two to work ok and the drop to 1050 is hardly noticeable but if i were to go down the 3 monitor route would I notice a bigger difference dropping to 1024?

Also, the tv is connected HDMI>DVI, The LG DVI-DVI, and I was going to use this active mini-display port for the Xerox (http://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Mini-D ... omputers_3). Would that work?

Cards are two MSI 6870 HAWKS as well. So what do you think? Am I better off sticking with the just the tv in 1080p or will the 3 monitors that add to the immersive-ness beat the drop in res?

Thanks in advance.
Author:  Nox Deleo [ 03 Aug 2013, 11:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
I had to do the same sort of thing (for the same reasons) with a 32" 1080p TV and 2 old 20.1" 4:3 TFT's. I run them at 4080x768, and it's just fine for me. I don't notice the squashing on the outer monitors, since they're just peripheral vision, and it still gives a really great sense of immersion, even misaligned without any sort of bezel compensation. That said my outer monitors are the same, so not sure how noticeable the difference will be for you...I suspect you'll be fine.
Author:  Jackal Frost [ 03 Aug 2013, 14:22 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
PTG_Chef_uk wrote:
Hi all, noobie here.

1 x 26" 1080p tv
1 x 22" 1680x1050 LG Monitor
1 x 19" 1280x1024 Zerox Monitor


I've managed to get the first two to work ok and the drop to 1050 is hardly noticeable but if i were to go down the 3 monitor route would I notice a bigger difference dropping to 1024?

Also, the tv is connected HDMI>DVI, The LG DVI-DVI, and I was going to use this active mini-display port for the Xerox (http://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Mini-D ... omputers_3). Would that work?

Cards are two MSI 6870 HAWKS as well. So what do you think? Am I better off sticking with the just the tv in 1080p or will the 3 monitors that add to the immersive-ness beat the drop in res?

Thanks in advance.


I'd try as hard as you can to get another monitor that will match one of the two, doing triplehead with one mismatched monitor is fine, but three mismatched monitors would drive me nuts. That said, triplehead is like pizza, shitty pizza is still pretty damn good pizza, :D
Author:  suiken_2mieu [ 04 Aug 2013, 07:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
thelolotov wrote:
PTG_Chef_uk wrote:
Hi all, noobie here.

1 x 26" 1080p tv
1 x 22" 1680x1050 LG Monitor
1 x 19" 1280x1024 Zerox Monitor


I've managed to get the first two to work ok and the drop to 1050 is hardly noticeable but if i were to go down the 3 monitor route would I notice a bigger difference dropping to 1024?

Also, the tv is connected HDMI>DVI, The LG DVI-DVI, and I was going to use this active mini-display port for the Xerox (http://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Mini-D ... omputers_3). Would that work?

Cards are two MSI 6870 HAWKS as well. So what do you think? Am I better off sticking with the just the tv in 1080p or will the 3 monitors that add to the immersive-ness beat the drop in res?

Thanks in advance.


I'd try as hard as you can to get another monitor that will match one of the two, doing triplehead with one mismatched monitor is fine, but three mismatched monitors would drive me nuts. That said, triplehead is like pizza, shitty pizza is still pretty damn good pizza, :D

This is also my experience. At a party, I and two other of my friends had recently got HDTV's. A 32" 1280x720, 42" 1920x1080, 50" 1366x768 and we ran eyefinity (I believe we were playing UT3). It looked terrible, but it was fun as hell.
Author:  PTG_Chef_uk [ 05 Aug 2013, 18:03 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
Cheers guys, mostly positive response to give it a go so I will. Will go and order the active display port adapter now and will keep my eye out for a cheapy 22" to pair up with th LG :)

Finally does it matter which port is used for which display? Or can that be controlled and maintained by CCC?
Author:  PTG_Chef_uk [ 10 Aug 2013, 18:34 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
Ok, got the cable this morning and have been setting it up. Unfortunately it hasn't been smooth :(

Whilst all 3 monitors were picked up and creating the display group worked. I started to get some weird anomalies.

The first was one of the side monitors would be sliced in half like a Venetian blind:

Image

It would also shift about splitting the display in two halfs on the wrong sides:

Image

Now, somehow I have fixed those two issues but can't figure out what I did to do it so if you know, any ideas what setting i changed so I know in case it happens again?

The only problem I am left with now is a flickering of sorts (when on desktop) on two monitors, one especially. It doesn't happen when nothing is going on, but when I move the mouse, the screens will flicker briefly. Quite annoying. Any ideas on that one?
Author:  simroz [ 13 Aug 2013, 12:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
Firstly, "That said, triplehead is like pizza, shitty pizza is still pretty damn good pizza, :D".....LOL, LOL, LOL.

With the display port adapters they can be annoying, occasionally i get a random screen (I have 15 in my setup) displaying red instead of black, this was an active dp adapter.

Does the monitor/ tv support the refresh rate? 60hz, 59hz, etc...?

I know this isnt the case but, Drivers up to date? (13.4 or 13.8 beta with xfire support)
Microsoft .net 4.0 installed? (couldnt hurt to install this)
What res are u running across the 3 screens?
Author:  Nox Deleo [ 13 Aug 2013, 15:15 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
I occasionally get only half a side screen. Half is black or weird striped colours, other half is squashed but fine. Not sure if you've got something similar there, and not sure the cause either (maybe the adapter as simroz says - I think my DP->DVI screen is the occasional troublemaker). The quick-fix for me is to use the win+p shortcut to knock it into another mode, then back to eyefinity (duplicate in the switcher).

As for the flickering, have you overclocked your GPU at all? If so, you've probably been bitten by this: http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22189
Author:  billberet [ 13 Aug 2013, 18:03 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
try to stick with the same monitors. it's the only way to have consistency and uniformity.
and you don't have to get anything expensive, my monitors are 27" and only cost me around $250 each.
Image
Author:  PTG_Chef_uk [ 14 Aug 2013, 20:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: Poor man's Eyefinity Setup, any point?
Yes, 59hz and 60hz are both supported as is 30 yuck.

That link has also helped. AMD Overdrive is indeed the culprit :D but it doesn't matter if its on or not weirdly. Whenever the PC is rebooted I have to enable or disable Overdrive to stop the flickering. Not one setting works after a reboot. I can live with that though as I only turn the PC on once each day and now that its all working pretty flawlessly, I have to say it's amazing. So glad I went for it :)

Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated.
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