Widescreen Gaming Forum

Can one 5870 power three monitors on SoftTH or do I need to pick up a second graphics card.

I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution. Currently I am running two 8800 ultras in non-sli mode, where one powers the 30" and the other one powers the two 20" displays.

I am running an evga 750i ftw mobo, with vista 64 ultimate.

So my question is, to run SoftTH can the 5870 run the whole thing or do I need to get another ati card? If I need to get another ati card I think a 5770 would be more than adequate.

Thanks for any input.

Don't know if one 5870 would be enough, but if you plan to stick to your PLP configuration I would wait and see how Nvidia's Fermi turns out. It is expected to be faster than the 5870 and you could keep one of your 8800s as the secondary card, or go for a dual core and use one card. There may also be a chance that SLI will work with SoftTH through CUDA.

I don't think you should go ATI now with the idea to switch from SoftTH to Eyefinity once PLP is supported, as that will probably take another card generation from the looks of it.

Don't know if one 5870 would be enough, but if you plan to stick to your PLP configuration I would wait and see how Nvidia's Fermi turns out. It is expected to be faster than the 5870 and you could keep one of your 8800s as the secondary card, or go for a dual core and use one card. There may also be a chance that SLI will work with SoftTH through CUDA.

I don't think you should go ATI now with the idea to switch from SoftTH to Eyefinity once PLP is supported, as that will probably take another card generation from the looks of it.

Well I already pulled the trigger on an xfx 5870, so we will see in the next week or two when I get it and the dvi adapter. I don't mind buying the 5870 or maybe even a 5870x2, because I know that I can turn around and sell them if I am not satisfied.

I will keep my ultras as backup, from the looks of things it is going to be very hard to get your hands on a gt300 and 5870 and 5870x2 for the next couple of months, so what I get really will depend on what is available.

What I do know is the only game I really play, over flanders fields, yields me only 24fps with my current ultra setup and I need at least ten more frames, so hopefully the 5870 can push me there

Also, I am tired of the heat management with the two ultras, I got a full size walmart house fan blowing into the side of my case currently lol but that is what it takes to cool two 90nm cards!

[H]ardOcp ran 3 x 30" off a 5850:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461673

So I assume that a 5870 should be able to run your setup.

[H]ardOcp ran 3 x 30" off a 5850:http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1461673

So I assume that a 5870 should be able to run your setup.

There is no question that it will run my setup. The question is can I get away with ONLY USING 1 CARD to run SoftTH! SoftTH specifies two graphics cards, but is that specification only there because prior to the ATI 5000 series, we only had two DVI out ports for two monitors on a graphics card.

I dont wanna spend the money to buy a second crappy ati card if I dont have to.

I don't think anyone's tried it yet. I guess you're the guinea pig... ;) 8)

Why cant someone, it's just a matter of installing SoftTH and putting the 5870 in extended mode.

I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution.

Why do you say your monitor setup is not compatible with Eyefinity?

It will work if your 3 monitors support one same resolution. You can set your 20s to their maximum resolution and use this same resolution on your 30 and stretch it to maximize the screen. It will not be as perfect as using 3x30 or 3x20 monitors but it will work as long as one is connected with displayport or active displayport to DVI.

So my question is, to run SoftTH can the 5870 run the whole thing or do I need to get another ati card? If I need to get another ati card I think a 5770 would be more than adequate.

Thanks for any input.

As PS said, we need a guinea pig. At least to get it confirmed.

However, the possibility is there. You can connect several screens with different resolutions and alligments outside of Eyefinity. There are 3 seperate outputs that can work simultaniously if you use DP as one of them. I haven't connected more then 1 screen to my 5870 for the moment, but if I right-click on the catalyst icon in taskbar, I get 3 sections for configuring output. Not two as with my 4870X2.

Perhaps someone can confirm this for you here that already have 3 screens? Pivoting two of them to portrait should break Eyefinity, so if it still works with softTH, we have a go. :)

[quote]I am running an oddball 20x30x20 PxLxP monitor configuration that eyefinity will not support and I use SoftTH to play my flight sims at 4960x1600 resolution.

Why do you say your monitor setup is not compatible with Eyefinity?

It will work if your 3 monitors support one same resolution. You can set your 20s to their maximum resolution and use this same resolution on your 30 and stretch it to maximize the screen. It will not be as perfect as using 3x30 or 3x20 monitors but it will work as long as one is connected with displayport or active displayport to DVI.

If I run my gateway outside of its native 2560x1600 resolution i get input lag really bad because the built in scaler gets really pissed.

Besides, yea I could do what you say, but it would be a real PITB to have to rotate my portrait monitors back to landscape mode and on top of that it would look really stupid all around. This setup doubles as my work space and I need them in portrait to review legal documents, etc.

If SoftTH has proven anything to me its, that eyefinity could easily accomodate different screens and resolutions, but they choose not too at this time. Hopefully down the road in the near future they open eyefinity up to use different res folks!

Well I will be the experimental pig, but I need to find a place where I can find that display port to DVI adapter...apparently its harder finding one of those than an actual 5870 lol

I really don't see why Softth won't work on the 5870

I'll be the guinea pig if you want. but I have no idea how softth work too well

I got a bunch of some older and newer 3D games

if someone can send me a preconfigured file for UT2004 or UT3
I can try it.

but does Softh work in Windows 7? I know it was made for XP and DX9

Well I will be the experimental pig, but I need to find a place where I can find that display port to DVI adapter...apparently its harder finding one of those than an actual 5870 lol

I ordered mine from sewelldirect.com and should receive it in the next few days. It's the one from Accell

http://www.accellcables.com/products/DisplayPort/DP/dp_dvid.htm

I really don't see why Softth won't work on the 5870

I'll be the guinea pig if you want. but I have no idea how softth work too well

I got a bunch of some older and newer 3D games

if someone can send me a preconfigured file for UT2004 or UT3
I can try it.

but does Softh work in Windows 7? I know it was made for XP and DX9

I am using softh 1.09 with Win7 64 and HD5870 and it's working fine but I have only tested it with 2 screens yet. I personnaly don't really like the product, it's a real pain to get it work correctly and I am not sure it's using the graphic card to it's full potential. I was able to run it correctly with older DX9 games (LFS and Rfactor )but was never able to get it work with NFS Shift... The framerate however drops dramaticaly in LFS... maybe I am not configuring it correctly but anyway as I say it's a real pain... I cannot wait to receive my displayport to dvi adapter to set Eyefinity on 3 screens...

I am using softh 1.09 with Win7 64 and HD5870 and it's working fine but I have only tested it with 2 screens yet. I personnaly don't really like the product, it's a real pain to get it work correctly and I am not sure it's using the graphic card to it's full potential. I was able to run it correctly with older DX9 games (LFS and Rfactor )but was never able to get it work with NFS Shift... The framerate however drops dramaticaly in LFS... maybe I am not configuring it correctly but anyway as I say it's a real pain... I cannot wait to receive my displayport to dvi adapter to set Eyefinity on 3 screens...

When you get your adapter, can you try SoftTH with it? Meaning all running off of you one 5870.

[quote]
I am using softh 1.09 with Win7 64 and HD5870 and it's working fine but I have only tested it with 2 screens yet. I personnaly don't really like the product, it's a real pain to get it work correctly and I am not sure it's using the graphic card to it's full potential. I was able to run it correctly with older DX9 games (LFS and Rfactor )but was never able to get it work with NFS Shift... The framerate however drops dramaticaly in LFS... maybe I am not configuring it correctly but anyway as I say it's a real pain... I cannot wait to receive my displayport to dvi adapter to set Eyefinity on 3 screens...

When you get your adapter, can you try SoftTH with it? Meaning all running off of you one 5870.

Absolutely I will ... it may be a workaround to be able to use 2 differents resolutions. I am using 2 sides 19 (1280x1024) and 1 center 21.6(1680x1050).

For the moment however I was not able to get it run properly without setting my 21.6 monitor to 1280x1024 like my 19s ... probably config issue. But once I get Eyefinity working with the adapter I will probably never use Softh again as running my 21.6 monitor in 1280x1024 isn't that bad and it's definitely much simpler then using Softh.

Anyway it's just a question of time before I get 3 identicals monitors...

Thanks Bleco!

I will do some other tests later but for now it does not seem to work...

It cannot detect Id 3 (left)

0.000 SoftTH: SoftTH v1.09 by Kegetys (D3D8)
0.000 SoftTH: Module: C:Program Files (x86)LFSd3d8.dll ("C:Program Files (x86)LFSLFS.exe" )
0.032 SoftTH: Loading configuration C:UsersblecoSoftTH.cfg
0.032 SoftTH: Loading configuration C:Program Files (x86)LFSSoftTH.cfg
0.219 SoftTH: sideExtraWidth autodetected as -368 (1680x1050 / 1280x1024)
0.234 SoftTH: Added auto resolution 1680x1050 60Hz
0.234 SoftTH: Activating Win32 hooks...
0.000 STHook: Hooks: Attached
0.266 SoftTH: Direct3DCreate8 (ver 220)
0.593 SoftTH: Adapter 0: atiumdag.dll, ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series with SoftTH v1.09 by Kegetys (D3D8)
0.624 SoftTH: Adapter 1: atiumdag.dll, ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
0.656 SoftTH: Adapter 2: atiumdag.dll, ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
0.656 SoftTH: Added mode 4304x1050 f16
0.718 SoftTH:
0.718 SoftTH: Forcing process affinity (0xFF -> 0xFF)
0.718 SoftTH: CreateDevice 1680x1050 60Hz 22bf 77df 8/0ms
0.718 SoftTH: Focus window: 'Live for Speed'
0.718 SoftTH: Requested mode 1680x1050 not triplehead
0.718 SoftTH: 1 backbuffer(s): 1680x1050
0.718 SoftTH: SwapEffect 1, PP Flags 00000000, Behaviour Flags 00000080
1.264 SoftTH: Storing function pointers...
1.264 SoftTH: Empty device reference count: 1
1.264 SoftTH: Standard mode: 1680x1050
1.264 SoftTH: Releasing surfaces...
1.264 SoftTH: Releasing devices...
1.280 SoftTH: Video memory used: 6.73MB
1.295 SoftTH: InitStuff done
1.295 SoftTH: CreateDevice return (1680x1050)
33.307 SoftTH:
33.307 SoftTH: Reset main device (4304x1050)
33.307 SoftTH: Releasing additional surfaces
33.322 SoftTH: copySurf: Releasing shaders & buffers...
33.322 SoftTH: Triplehead mode requested (4304x1050 60Hz), enabling TH
33.322 SoftTH: Using application set antialiasing (level 8/0).
33.431 SoftTH: Reset OK
33.431 SoftTH: Cannot retrieve monitor info for device 3 (left)

And here is my config file:

deviceIDLeft=3
deviceIDright=2
secondaryWidth=1280
secondaryHeight=1024
secondaryRefresh=60
secondaryFormat=RGB32
uploadMethod=blit
forceAffinity=1
borderSize=0
sideExtraWidth=auto
noHotkeys=0
noOSD=0

lensCorrection=0
lensCorrectionEdge=0
hideNondefaultDevices=0
forceHorizontalFOV=0
forceResolutionWidth=0
forceResolutionHeight=0
force16bitDepth=0
sleepBeforeRead=2
useMultihead=0
delayedPresent=1
autoSquash=0
altResetBehaviour=1
d3d8dll=auto

doHooking=1
doScaleMouseCoordinates=0
doScaleFromLeftScreen=0
doScaleWindowRects=0
doScaleClientRects=1
mouseXoffset=auto

1680x1050x60
auto

Well that sucks, did you try setting the device ids to auto?

maybe try another game too, for example I cannot get Il2 to recognize my left monitor for the life of me, but over flanders fields has absolutely no problem working.

I tried it with Rfactor and LFS

I tried also putting both ID's to Auto... result: the software seems to see both sides screens (Softth Logo on both blinking like crazy) and center monitor becomes black ... That was however only doing it when all 3 monitors were set to the same resolution. If I used 2 differents res then the game just crashed all the time...

So maybe there is a way to do it... But for the moment I will stick to Eyefinity which works perfectly. And by the way the Accell adapter works like a charm... plug and play, perfect display without any kind of blinking or corruption...

Bleco, your efforts are greatly appreciated. Yes go back to your eyefinity goodness and let us gawkward monitor sods, suffer it out lol.

Ah, I just know that I am gonna end up having to buy another graphics card :(