Widescreen Gaming Forum

I've had the HD 5870 since the day it came out. In the beginning it worked fine, and for most of the time, running my three monitors at 5760x1080. My DisplayPort monitor would occasionally flicker and/or turn off. Generally, I could restart my PC and it would come back.

After a while, the flickering and monitor shutting off got really rare. Hardly ever had any problems with it and I hadn't downloaded any drivers or did anything to mess with it. Well, I got greedy and I wanted to run an HDTV from my PC as well as have my current three monitors in an Eyefinity group. I got an HD 5770 (for free from a friend, believe it or not!) and I threw it in. Well, it screwed everything up big time. I could never get it to do a "3 + 1" setup and I tried and tried and tried. I wound up taking the new card out and I finally was able to get my Eyefinity group back in order but my DisplayPort monitor hasn't been the same since. It basically lasts about five seconds after a boot, reboot, or from a sleep and it just shuts off or flickers on and off and on and off. I have tried and tried and tried drivers and everything else I could think of and/or read about online.

Now, what I would like to know is if there is something besides Eyefinity out there that is the same concept of Eyefinity. Does nVidia have something? I'm willing to buy another card, regardless of brand, or do whatever I have to do to have a WORKING setup. I'm sick of having a perfectly good monitor just turned off, which it has been turned off for several months now.

Thanks, ya'll

Does nVidia have something?

Yep, Nvidia Surround (2D and 3D) :

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-surround-technology.html

Thanks for the reply. I've been kinda' on the outs as far as new PC stuff. I built my PC in October 2009 and I was more or less up on all the latest and greatest stuff. Since my PC has been more than satisfying, with the exception of my flickering/shutting off DP monitor, I haven't been doing any research or anything on new products.

Anyhow, I looked up that nVidia card and it certainly looks like it's priced reasonably. I see in the specifications that it has two DVI connections and one mini HDMI. My monitor has HDMI. Can I simply use a $5 mini HDMI to HDMI adapter? Or is this the same scam as ATI with having to have the active DisplayPort to DVI adapter?

Also, not to be too greedy, but is there something that could EASILY do a three monitor group plus fourth, separate monitor/TV? Right now all I really want is to have my three monitor group back in business, but if I'm about to get a new card I may as well ask if there is something out there that can do 3 + 1 without having to jump through hoops and/or have constant problems.

edit: Something else I forgot to ask...

...As far as overall performance, how does the nVidia card compare to the 5870? I've seen a few reviews but nothing that's simple and that makes sense to me. Is there a review of where someone has a PC, puts in a 5870, logs some numbers and data, removes the card and puts in a 560 and does the same and then compares? Those kinds of reviews make sense to me.

Thanks for giving me hope!

NVIDIA Surround, Matrox TH2G and SoftTH are your other options. All of them have their downsides just like AMD Eyefinity does. I've yet to see an ideal solution to multidisplay and doubt I will until Microsoft implements it at an OS level with DirectX (and I seriously doubt that'll occur in DX12).