Widescreen Gaming Forum

This is another question that has been glossed over...does using Catalyst 9.10 enable EyeFinity on older cards in some form? Anyone with the last few series of cards care to try and see if at least 2 displays will be able to do EyeFinity? Also do any of the older cards also have that 3rd DP port, or is that a new thing also? Looking on Newegg it looks like some 4000-series cards have a similar port out that is like the 5000-series but replaces one of the DVI with VGA. Wonder if they're engineered differently on the port out clock allocations. Maybe someone could try 1 DVI, 1 VGA and 1 DP (active adapter). This test would probably only be limited to someone who already upgraded to a 5870 and has an old 4890 laying around. Would be interesting to know the answer though as to give people more potential EyeFinity options.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

IIRC Dave said no, it's 5000 series exclusive.

Whether that means it's 5000 series exclusive due to software limitations or hardware limitations, I do not know.

IIRC Dave said no, it's 5000 series exclusive.

Whether that means it's 5000 series exclusive due to software limitations or hardware limitations, I do not know.

Sort of silly imho. Any old Raedon card should be perfectly capable of 2-port EyeFinity. Not that I doubt him, but will someone try 2 screen EyeFinity on an older card anyways to see if it does work? :wink:

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

IIRC Dave said no, it's 5000 series exclusive.

Whether that means it's 5000 series exclusive due to software limitations or hardware limitations, I do not know.

I think it's more software then hardware.

business wise i can understand why they would not put eyefinity on the 4xxx cards.

[quote]IIRC Dave said no, it's 5000 series exclusive.

Whether that means it's 5000 series exclusive due to software limitations or hardware limitations, I do not know.

I think it's more software then hardware.

business wise i can understand why they would not put eyefinity on the 4xxx cards.Yeah this, why make it available to older cards when they can sell you a new one? Dave Baumann seems adamant that DP is and enabler of this, so maybe the lack of DP on older cards is a problem....?

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

Dave Baumann seems adamant that DP is and enabler of this, so maybe the lack of DP on older cards is a problem....?

What he's adamant over is 3+ ports working...and truth be told, he is correct that if you want more then 2 ports working this DP port method works.

I see no reason why they should exclude 2 screen EyeFinity from -- to borrow a term from him -- "legacy" cards. To borrow another term from him, it could be done as "value added" for free. There is no extra hardware needed to pull it off. Just need for Catalyst drivers to see the 2 available screens in use and use them. :wink:

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

yeah I wasn't thinking of dual head, I'd rather single screen than that!

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Dipping bags at Mach1.9

[quote]Dave Baumann seems adamant that DP is and enabler of this, so maybe the lack of DP on older cards is a problem....?

What he's adamant over is 3+ ports working...and truth be told, he is correct that if you want more then 2 ports working this DP port method works.

I see no reason why they should exclude 2 screen EyeFinity from -- to borrow a term from him -- "legacy" cards. To borrow another term from him, it could be done as "value added" for free. There is no extra hardware needed to pull it off. Just need for Catalyst drivers to see the 2 available screens in use and use them. :wink:

I don't see why Dual screen shouldn't work on legacy cards.
(are there any pre 5xxx ATI cards that support 3 monitors at once? ) or even triple screens on legacy cards.

if SofTH can get triplehead working why can't ATI (or Nvidia) do that for the matter.

SofTH do it through the PCIe bus I wonder of ATI/NVidia can do it internally through the card.

I KNOW it's possible but they won't do it for cost vs profit reason.

if SofTH can get triplehead working why can't ATI (or Nvidia) do that for the matter.

SofTH do it through the PCIe bus I wonder of ATI/NVidia can do it internally through the card.

I KNOW it's possible but they won't do it for cost vs profit reason.

The simple answer to that is "where is the profit in it?" If they would have seen profit in it, it would have been done by now. Historically, ATI and nVidia have had their blinders on focused on multi-GPU to single display. It took all this time for ATI to even see marginal profit in it...enough to offer it finally on a driver level.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

FWIW, I was told at the launch event that legacy hardware cannot support EF technology. What does that mean specifically? I don't know. The answer I got did come across to me with an "it will never happen" tone of finality, though.

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