4850x2 4xDVI -TH2G alternative?

Lord^ · Post by **Lord^** » 03 Nov 2008, 07:09

Hi

Im new here as you can see, i did some searches but couldnt find anything regarding this card.

I currently only have 2 24" monitors but im constantly thinking about getting a third one-

Thing is, after reading up on TH2G and its pro's and con's. It not being able to do 3x1920x1200 is a huge bummer for me, as it of course makes non-gaming usage out of the question.

So i did some research and found out that the 3780x2 has 4xdvi, and now the newer 4850x2, while theyre not cheap in my neck of the woods (Norway) its definitely more affordable than a TH2G+Videocard. Gaming is not a huge deal for me but id at least like to try some triple screen gaming, and ill even settle for a lower resolution than 3x1920x1200, but paying for what a TH2G costs when i potentially can do without it doesnt make sense to me.

Which leads me to my real question. Ive tried to use ATI's 'one-huge-desktop-mode' called horizontal span mode, for reasons beyond my wildest imagination its limited to only 3200x1200, in other words unacceptable. This could just be that i have a very cheap video card (ati 3450) but i assume its the same for all cards.

Now, would anyone know whether or not either the 3780x2 or 4850x2 with the 4xDVI is designed to handle horizontal span across all (or in my case 3) DVI ports? But more importantly will the resolution be 5760x1200 or a measly 3200x1200? If yes to the last question, would any of you happen to know why?

Go easy with me if these questions are stupid...

Thanks in advance ;)

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 04 Nov 2008, 20:21

There is currently only really 2 ways to do TripleHead gaming ...

Matrox TripleHead2Go or SoftTH ...

Info on both is in this thread ... http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/7651

Welcome to the forum ... 8)

Lord^ · Post by **Lord^** » 04 Nov 2008, 21:51

Heh. Kinda what i thought. Thanks.

Figure ill just go for SoftTH, seems like the rational choice.

You can bin this thread now :p

Post by **Paddy the Wak** » 04 Nov 2008, 22:30

You might like to take a look at this ... http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/

8)

Post by **maherie** » 05 Nov 2008, 09:41

good question though, really good question, anyone here have this card?

ripcurl · Post by **ripcurl** » 16 Jan 2009, 19:45

yea its really weird that no review says anything about crossfire with 4 displays. They don't even try it. Even bigger question: if softTH can manage it, why can't they implement decent drivers that do the same (and perhaps faster)

Anyways, enough here a info bit for ya:
What I can see that the card has a PCIe bridge chip.
This means that of the 16x PCIe slot, 8x will go to 1 chip and 8x will go to the other. It will behave just like having 2 seperate cards in your system.
This means that results on 4850x2 or 2x 4850 will be identical.

Post by **Tamlin** » 18 Jan 2009, 12:52

:welcome
Moved to proper section. :)

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 19 Jan 2009, 00:46

It not being able to do 3x1920x1200 is a huge bummer for me, as it of course makes non-gaming usage out of the question.

Don't get this bit at all???

MrCrowley · Post by **MrCrowley** » 19 Jan 2009, 01:24

Only one more thing, with dual gpus and SoftTh only one gpu is used by SoftTh, so performance of 3780x2 CF will be the same or slightly lower than a single 3780, because only one gpu is Â´seenÂ´ by SoftTh, but the drivers are managing two gpus (more burden into cpu).

The best choice for SoftTh is a powerful monogpu graphic card (two outputs to be used) + another auxiliary card for an aditional output.

Widescreen Gaming Forum