GF100 Port Out Configuration?

[BHawthorne]

Anyone have a decent port out picture of the back of the card? I found this one but it's at an odd angle. Is that a HDMI port or is that DisplayPort?

[Dave Baumann]

I believe thats Mini-HDMI.

[Anprionsa]

Oh boy, does that mean we will have a little battle with DP and HDMI? :hide

[Dave Baumann]

In what way?

[Skid]

From what they said on toms hardware it sounds like there are only two outputs on the test card they took to CES, I say this because toms hardware says that the first card was rendering the left and center while the second was rendering the right. There was also no mention in toms hardware if the cards were running in SLI mode or not, artical below:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Nvidia-3D-Surround,news-32529.html
I've not had time to properly dig around yet so what I've read on toms hardware is all I know atm.


Hang on a second, what's an ATI Rep doing snooping around a sub forum for Nvidia new tech :P

[BHawthorne]

Hang on a second, what's an ATI Rep doing snooping around a sub forum for Nvidia new tech :P

IMHO, he's just as welcome as anyone else. My take on this is it's a win-win situation where game devs will finally have to listen and adapt thier gaming engines to work with odd aspect ratios and wide FOV. Seriously, instead of battling about this stuff, Matrox, ATI and nVidia should all agree on a few set standards for surround-gaming and come up with a logo to put on boxes that show compatability levels.

While ATI didn't invent surround-screen gaming, they took the risk in forcing it mainstream. :wink:

[bowenac]

In what way?

In every way shape and form. We will now have the ability to run Multi Monitor setups with out having to deal with DP and flickering screens. Something I thought someone said was not able to be done. Now I hope ATI looks into this because I think they would benefit from this.

One might say well yea but you have to run SLI. Ok fair enough but that is still a cheaper solution then having to buy DP monitors when there are hardly any out and yet they are very expensive or have to buy a Validated http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx $100 adapter that still produces flickering.

So from the money people save by not having to go the DP monitor route they can get 2 cards or 3 cards for tri sli and this would still be cheaper. The savings on monitors alone could be enough to buy all of your cards even if you went tri sli. It has already been said this will work with current 2 series cards. So it would be a included in a driver update.

So in the end it is cheaper and easier.

[Skid]

[quote]Hang on a second, what's an ATI Rep doing snooping around a sub forum for Nvidia new tech :P

IMHO, he's just as welcome as anyone else. My take on this is it's a win-win situation where game devs will finally have to listen and adapt thier gaming engines to work with odd aspect ratios and wide FOV. Seriously, instead of battling about this stuff, Matrox, ATI and nVidia should all agree on a few set standards for surround-gaming and come up with a logo to put on boxes that show compatability levels.

While ATI didn't invent surround-screen gaming, they took the risk in forcing it mainstream. :wink:

Think of it this way, an ATI Rep not only replied in a thread about Nvidias new card, but was trying to answer the OPs question, I might be mistaken but I've not seen an Nvidia Rep in this sub forum yet ;)

[bowenac]

[quote][quote]Hang on a second, what's an ATI Rep doing snooping around a sub forum for Nvidia new tech :P

IMHO, he's just as welcome as anyone else. My take on this is it's a win-win situation where game devs will finally have to listen and adapt thier gaming engines to work with odd aspect ratios and wide FOV. Seriously, instead of battling about this stuff, Matrox, ATI and nVidia should all agree on a few set standards for surround-gaming and come up with a logo to put on boxes that show compatability levels.

While ATI didn't invent surround-screen gaming, they took the risk in forcing it mainstream. :wink:

Think of it this way, an ATI Rep not only replied in a thread about Nvidias new card, but was trying to answer the OPs question, I might be mistaken but I've not seen an Nvidia Rep in this sub forum yet ;)

I think it is awesome that a ATI rep was in here. Anyway I don't think his statement was at all trying to answer the OP question but I think he was refering to

"In What Way"

to the guy that asked

"Oh boy, does that mean we will have a little battle with DP and HDMI?"

Which I already answered for Dave how I see it haha.

[Dave Baumann]

One might say well yea but you have to run SLI. Ok fair enough but that is still a cheaper solution then having to buy DP monitors when there are hardly any out and yet they are very expensive or have to buy a Validated http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx $100 adapter that still produces flickering.

So in the end it is cheaper and easier.

That sort of depends on the starting point; if you're starting from the point of having 3 DVI panels in the first place then may it is cheaper (though if its an SLI solution and the card need to be matched, then maybe not). If you are a new user with only 1 or two panels in the first place then you need to spring for the cost of the additional panels anyway and DP panels are not necessarily more expensive than DVI/HDMI only panels and you can start with a single GPU on Eyefinity.

However, I don't really see that as a "battle" between DP and HDMI. Given what has been discussed so far it look like the HDMI on the Ferm boards are used in exactly the same way as the HDMI we've shipped with most of the HD 5000 series so far (although Fermi will need a MiniHDMI to HDMI cable / adapter as well), but the HD 5000 series extends the single card functionality with DP as well, and the capability of the additional displays on a single card via DP.

[Skid]

[quote]One might say well yea but you have to run SLI. Ok fair enough but that is still a cheaper solution then having to buy DP monitors when there are hardly any out and yet they are very expensive or have to buy a Validated http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx $100 adapter that still produces flickering.

So in the end it is cheaper and easier.

That sort of depends on the starting point; if you're starting from the point of having 3 DVI panels in the first place then may it is cheaper (though if its an SLI solution and the card need to be matched, then maybe not). If you are a new user with only 1 or two panels in the first place then you need to spring for the cost of the additional panels anyway and DP panels are not necessarily more expensive than DVI/HDMI only panels and you can start with a single GPU on Eyefinity.

However, I don't really see that as a "battle" between DP and HDMI. Given what has been discussed so far it look like the HDMI on the Ferm boards are used in exactly the same way as the HDMI we've shipped with most of the HD 5000 series so far (although Fermi will need a MiniHDMI to HDMI cable / adapter as well), but the HD 5000 series extends the single card functionality with DP as well, and the capability of the additional displays on a single card via DP.

Have Nvidia actually said anything about what display connector configurations they are going to use on there GF100, I know the boards they have taken with them to CES aren't strictly speaking there final release version.

I've also just reread what toms hardware said about it and they said the surround setup required two cards in SLI mode, so that this point it sounds like it will be a requirement to have two cards to get 3 screens working.

[bowenac]

[quote]One might say well yea but you have to run SLI. Ok fair enough but that is still a cheaper solution then having to buy DP monitors when there are hardly any out and yet they are very expensive or have to buy a Validated http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx $100 adapter that still produces flickering.

So in the end it is cheaper and easier.

That sort of depends on the starting point; if you're starting from the point of having 3 DVI panels in the first place then may it is cheaper (though if its an SLI solution and the card need to be matched, then maybe not). If you are a new user with only 1 or two panels in the first place then you need to spring for the cost of the additional panels anyway and DP panels are not necessarily more expensive than DVI/HDMI only panels and you can start with a single GPU on Eyefinity.

However, I don't really see that as a "battle" between DP and HDMI. Given what has been discussed so far it look like the HDMI on the Ferm boards are used in exactly the same way as the HDMI we've shipped with most of the HD 5000 series so far (although Fermi will need a MiniHDMI to HDMI cable / adapter as well), but the HD 5000 series extends the single card functionality with DP as well, and the capability of the additional displays on a single card via DP.

Your argument about springing for extra panels goes both ways most people are not rocking 3 panels.

Uhhh you sure about that show me a DP monitor that is as cheap as a standard DVI monitor please I would love to see one. All the ones I have seen that are 24" are around $600. I got my DVI/HDMI monitor for $189.

Also this is "SAID" to be capable on older cards as well through a Driver Update. So it could still be even cheaper then buying one HD5000 series card.

And Fermi would not need the extra mini to HDMI to me it looks like regular HDMI but that is besides the point you would use standard DVI considering it is the same as the HDMI port.

And can you explain the following a little further
"but the HD 5000 series extends the single card functionality with DP as well, and the capability of the additional displays on a single card via DP."

How do you figure what is so good about DP right now, I am not talking about in the future because in the future if everything goes DP these cards will be old and newer and greater things will be out by the time that happens. But as of now all I am having is trouble still because of "DP" now I really wish ATI would go with this design and enable triple screen to be used on 2 cards with out the need for DP I would buy a second card if that happened it would solve everyone's problem I am sure or a driver update.

[bowenac]

[quote][quote]One might say well yea but you have to run SLI. Ok fair enough but that is still a cheaper solution then having to buy DP monitors when there are hardly any out and yet they are very expensive or have to buy a Validated http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx $100 adapter that still produces flickering.

So in the end it is cheaper and easier.

That sort of depends on the starting point; if you're starting from the point of having 3 DVI panels in the first place then may it is cheaper (though if its an SLI solution and the card need to be matched, then maybe not). If you are a new user with only 1 or two panels in the first place then you need to spring for the cost of the additional panels anyway and DP panels are not necessarily more expensive than DVI/HDMI only panels and you can start with a single GPU on Eyefinity.

However, I don't really see that as a "battle" between DP and HDMI. Given what has been discussed so far it look like the HDMI on the Ferm boards are used in exactly the same way as the HDMI we've shipped with most of the HD 5000 series so far (although Fermi will need a MiniHDMI to HDMI cable / adapter as well), but the HD 5000 series extends the single card functionality with DP as well, and the capability of the additional displays on a single card via DP.

Have Nvidia actually said anything about what display connector configurations they are going to use on there GF100, I know the boards they have taken with them to CES aren't strictly speaking there final release version.

I've also just reread what toms hardware said about it and they said the surround setup required two cards in SLI mode, so that this point it sounds like it will be a requirement to have two cards to get 3 screens working.

I had talked to someone that went to the conference that talked to them and they said it was using the two DVI on one card and one DVI on the second card.

As you can see in this pic on the projector setup.
Those look like DVI to me :rockout




Also yes so far you will need to run it in SLI but like I already said that is still a cheaper solution then buying DP monitors. DP monitors are not cheap and for most people that have 2 monitors already they don't like the idea of miss matched displays. Or they go for the active adapter that soooooo many people are having issues with still.

[Dave Baumann]

Have Nvidia actually said anything about what display connector configurations they are going to use on there GF100, I know the boards they have taken with them to CES aren't strictly speaking there final release version.

Publically, not that I've seen. However, even though its not released they will have had time to work on the PCB side of things, and the images coming out so far seem to point to a consistent layout and board design.

I've also just reread what toms hardware said about it and they said the surround setup required two cards in SLI mode, so that this point it sounds like it will be a requirement to have two cards to get 3 screens working.

Yes, it seems to be fairly unequivocal about that. Given that they announded support for GT200 products, then it pointed to an SLI system in the first place; obviously that didn't necessarily hold true for Fermi, but why would you go the the trouble to doing all the software work for this system on the old products if you are going to supercede it with an entire hardware based system on Fermi? Toms article appears to confirm that its the same for both, which would also suggest that the display hardware / mechanism for Fermi is similar to GT200.

[bowenac]

[quote]Have Nvidia actually said anything about what display connector configurations they are going to use on there GF100, I know the boards they have taken with them to CES aren't strictly speaking there final release version.

Publically, not that I've seen. However, even though its not released they will have had time to work on the PCB side of things, and the images coming out so far seem to point to a consistent layout and board design.

I've also just reread what toms hardware said about it and they said the surround setup required two cards in SLI mode, so that this point it sounds like it will be a requirement to have two cards to get 3 screens working.

Yes, it seems to be fiarly unequivocal about that. Given that they announded support for GT200 products, then it pointed to an SLI system in the first place; obviously that didn't necessarily hold true for Fermi, but why would you go the the troube to doing all the software work for this system on the old products if you are going to supercede it with an entire hardware based system on Fermi? Toms article appears to confirm that its the same for goth, which would also suggest that the display hadware / mechanism for Fermi is similar to GT200.


Exactly so that means it would be using the existing DVI ports instead of a DP port like in the picture I posted above.

[Skid]

I had talked to someone that went to the conference that talked to them and they said it was using the two DVI on one card and one DVI on the second card. Also yes so far you will need to run it in SLI but like I already said that is still a cheaper solution then buying DP monitors. DP monitors are not cheap and for most people that have 2 monitors already they don't like the idea of miss matched displays. Or they go for the active adapter that soooooo many people are having issues with still.

Thats not the point I was making, currently you can't have 3 monitors attached to Nvidia cards and have them running in SLI mode they have to be running in independent mode. But by the sounds of it running it in Surround requires that the cards be in SLI mode. Althought I'm not sure if what Nvidia implement will be better then using a TH2G with the cards in SLI mode, but at least you'll not be forced to 1680x1050 monitors.

The other thing I'm interested in is if I've be able to use my HDMI port as well now in SLI mode, otherwise I have to disable it if I wanna play a DVD on my TV.

[Dave Baumann]

Exactly so that means it would be using the existing DVI ports instead of a DP port like in the picture I posted above.

Yes, never was it suggested otherwise....?

[bowenac]

[quote]I had talked to someone that went to the conference that talked to them and they said it was using the two DVI on one card and one DVI on the second card. Also yes so far you will need to run it in SLI but like I already said that is still a cheaper solution then buying DP monitors. DP monitors are not cheap and for most people that have 2 monitors already they don't like the idea of miss matched displays. Or they go for the active adapter that soooooo many people are having issues with still.

Thats not the point I was making, currently you can't have 3 monitors attached to Nvidia cards and have them running in SLI mode they have to be running in independent mode. But by the sounds of it running it in Surround requires that the cards be in SLI mode. Althought I'm not sure if what Nvidia implement will be better then using a TH2G with the cards in SLI mode, but at least you'll not be forced to 1680x1050 monitors.

The other thing I'm interested in is if I've be able to use my HDMI port as well now in SLI mode, otherwise I have to disable it if I wanna play a DVD on my TV.

I imagine it would be cloned from one of the DVI port's.

And again I think this is going to be capable through a Driver update just like how they enabled Physx on the older cards. Just my thoughts though so don't quote me haha.

[bowenac]

[quote]Exactly so that means it would be using the existing DVI ports instead of a DP port like in the picture I posted above.

Yes, never was it suggested otherwise....?


Oh I was just supporting my thoughts even further of not needing DP is all.

[BHawthorne]

[quote]Have Nvidia actually said anything about what display connector configurations they are going to use on there GF100, I know the boards they have taken with them to CES aren't strictly speaking there final release version.

Publically, not that I've seen. However, even though its not released they will have had time to work on the PCB side of things, and the images coming out so far seem to point to a consistent layout and board design.

I've also just reread what toms hardware said about it and they said the surround setup required two cards in SLI mode, so that this point it sounds like it will be a requirement to have two cards to get 3 screens working.

Yes, it seems to be fairly unequivocal about that. Given that they announded support for GT200 products, then it pointed to an SLI system in the first place; obviously that didn't necessarily hold true for Fermi, but why would you go the the trouble to doing all the software work for this system on the old products if you are going to supercede it with an entire hardware based system on Fermi? Toms article appears to confirm that its the same for both, which would also suggest that the display hardware / mechanism for Fermi is similar to GT200.

They probably just took SLI Matrix mode and tweaked it a bit for mainstream. My money is it's a SLI Matrix "Lite" with some features locked out. This solution sounds like a better integrated SoftTH using CUDA mode.