6 monitors.....can I and how?

[suzook]

ok hoping I can get some help

I am in the process of putting togther a 6 monitor set up which is moving from my home office to our new work building

I current have for monitors:

Dell U3014 X 4 2560x1600

Dell 2713H X 2 2560x1440

I am looking to run all six monitors at full native resolution

Can someone suggest a video card that would be capable of handing this

I see the 7990 but that has 4 dp and 1 dual dvi

thank you for the help

[simroz]

First thing is what will you use it for? gaming (performance) or business/web (functionality)???
You will only need a 7990 for gaming performance, otherwise a 7870 eyefinity 6 edition will be enough.
http://www.powercolor.com/Global/produc ... asp?id=415
(just an example of a 7870 e6 card)
You can crossfire this with another 7870 NON eyefinity 6 card for more performance (4gb total VRAM)
The reason is that WHEN CROSSFIRING THE OUTPUTS ON THE SECOND CARD ARE DISABLED (sorry for the caps but I found out the expensive way.... (Also there are micro stutter issues in some games with xfire)

The 7990 will need a Club3D MST (multi stream transport) hub to run 6 monitors
http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsec ... ng=english

I do not know where to get these but a few ppl here have purchased from amazon/germany...
BUT to run them together as a single display (Eyefinity) you need to run the same res (2560x1440 per screen)
The 7870 e6 will do this as display port will support up to UHD (4k by 2k) per display
YOU WILL NEED A MINIMUM OF 4 ACTIVE MINI DP > DVI ADAPTERS FOR THIS TO WORK
(Unless the displays have display port inputs)

Another card which you could consider is the Asus 7970 DC2 top
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/HD7970DC2T3GD5/
BUT you will only be able to do 1920x1080 as one output is DVI-D and the other DVI-I (This card goes in to 6 monitor mode when u switch the onboard BIOS to the other position im pretty sure...)

PS: Im not sure if you want to run eyefinity....? But still the 7870 e6 will power all these displays, say a 2x2 group plus 2 extra sceens? Is this what your aiming for? (And u can still xfire for more grunt...)

EDIT: (This shows the possible eyefinity configurations)

eyefinity setups.jpg (57.64 KiB) Viewed 6479 times

[suzook]

Simroz

I appreciate the very informative reply. That really helps. A few more questions

First off, no this is business only

so I guess the 7870 is the way to go but here is thing.
I would have to run all the monitors at 2560x1440?
For the 30 inch monitors that isnt native and to me would look funny?

I was really hoping to run the four U3014 at native and the 2713 at 2560x1440

I dont need all the monitors to be one big desktop. They can be extended.

[suzook]

I found these two options.

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Product ... rid_pt_0_2

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Product ... rid_pt_0_0

The 7750 is nice as it requires me to not upgrade my 500 psu.

Since I only want to extend the desktop, not have them be one big one do you think this would work while allowing
all of the monitors to run at native resolution ?

[simroz]

Nice, I have never seen that 7750 e6 card here in Australia. That should do just fine and you should be able to run all the displays at their native resolutions. Just setup the displays how you want physically, then in CCC (catalyst control center) you can arrange them to suite in windows. (Make sure to use CCC and not windows to arrange them) Literally you can setup a monitor array however you want if simply extending the desktop, here is an example of what is possible:

eyefinity group example.jpg (7.39 KiB) Viewed 6484 times

where 1,2,3,4 is one resolution (2560x1600) and 5,6 the other (2560x1440) Ooops, pic are the wrong sizes...lol
So all crazy setups are possible and resolution should not be a factor. (sorry I don't have access to any of my pcs ATM, but I'm certain the layouts are ok just not 100% on the resolutions) Because its not an eyefinity group it should all be fine.

[suzook]

thank you again for the help

I ended up ordering the 7860 just to give me some headroom. At such high resolutions I am sure the card is going to get a work out

[simroz]

EDIT: Different resolutions will work fine

edit.jpg (45.86 KiB) Viewed 6476 times

I didn't see that before......Ahhh the fine print...lol

[suzook]

good find

I actually found out I can do the regular 7870 which has 2 dp out's and daisy chain the rest since they also have dp.
This means the card goes from $370 US to $230 and I do not lose and processing power.

Sweet

[Delphium]

This should be of interest to you...
http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24334

A number of cards with 6 DP outputs that will handle the resolutions you require.

Would recommend connecting all monitors directly via displayport.

[suzook]

Delphium

Thank you for the link. I went ahead and cancelled the other card and will do the 7870 with 6 dp.

[Haldi]

good find

I actually found out I can do the regular 7870 which has 2 dp out's and daisy chain the rest since they also have dp.
This means the card goes from $370 US to $230 and I do not lose and processing power.

Sweet

Cannot do! Daisychain DP1.2 supports 4x1920x1080@60Hz. Running 3x 2560x1600 will be a problem. (12mpix vs 8mpix) Same happens if you connect that Club3D MST Hub.
E6 card is the better solution.

[suzook]

thanks for all your help everyone 7870 eyefinity 6 arrived and all is good now !!!!!!!!

[Delphium]

[Svardskampe]

thanks for all your help everyone 7870 eyefinity 6 arrived and all is good now !!!!!!!!

Love the ecclectic setup.

Btw, consider something like ultramon . It extends the windows taskbar across all screens and completely usable like it was natively windows.

Spoiler:

very secretly, it's also highly pirate-able to check first if it suits your needs before buying it. But it also has a 30-day trial