Widescreen Gaming Forum

I want a new gfx card but i dont know how to use it with my 3 screens in eyefinity mode, so here is my problem

I want to buy a gigabyte 7970 gfx card and it had 1 dvi and 1 hdmi and 2 minidisplay ports

See the pictures in link

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4102#ov

My 3 screens is samsung syncmaster 245B and each screen uses the white dvi port.
So i can plug 1 screen to the dvi port and my tv to the hdmi and then i guess i need somekind of adapter from dvi to minidisplay ports

What adapters di i need and please enlight me some more on this card regarding eyefinity.


Atm i use ati 5870 card with 2 dvi ports and 1 adapter from displayport to dvi

http://www.multi-monitors.com/product_p/b087b-002b.htm

But i cant use that adapter in the gigabute 7970 card because it dont have displayports, but mini display ports.
So i need new adapter but dont know what to choose

Well either an active mini-DP version of the adapter you have now, like this one:
http://www.multi-monitors.com/product_p/b087b-003j.htm

Though you can get them way cheaper than that one if you look around. Otherwise a DP > mini-DP cable on your existing cable should also do the trick (something like this http://images.tradekool.com/177258300/Mini-Displayport-Male-To-Displayport-Female-Adapter.jpg).

So hope i understood you correctly, 3 pc screens and tv:
You have one screen on your dvi, tv on hdmi and the other two pc screens will need to use the above active adapter. Bottom line is you can use any combination of up to 2 "old" connections (dvi/vga/hdmi) and need displayport for the third and up and if you're going to use adapters for those, they need to be active adapters. Bearing that in mind you can plug them in basically any way you want.

I see

I am still unsure and cunfused about these ports and adapters

So i connect 1 screen to the dvi and then i need 2 of these ?
http://www.multi-monitors.com/product_p/b087b-003j.htm
( just cheaper )

How about this ?
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B087B-006B-DisplayPort-Single-Link-Certified/dp/B004071ZXA

And what does it mean actice/passive ? single / dual link ??

To explain the active and passive adaptors there is some basic fundamental knowledge required of graphics cards and video signals...

Video signals such as VGA, DVI and HDMI all work by using a carrier signal generated by a clock to transmit the Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal and Vertical sync information down the cable.
Displayport however does not use a clock carrier signal as all data sent via displayport is in packets, very much like a network connection with packets of data.

The vast majority of graphics cards provide 2 clock generators / carrier signals, which allow us to connect 2 displays without issue.

In order to use a 3rd display we must use either a Displaport compatible device or if we have only VGA/DVI/HDMI displays available, then we must use an active adaptor, the active adaptors essentially contains a clock gen/carrier signal chip, which is required to be able to connect to VGA/DVI/HDMI.

A passive adaptor does not contain this clock gen carrier signal chip as passive adaptors are to be used when passing the carrier signal from the graphics card, an example of use for a passive adaptor is with the likes of the AMD 5870 E6 card, which sports 6x mini-DP outputs, the first 2 ports may use passive adaptors with the clock gen carrier signal provided by the graphics card, the additional 4 outputs must then use active adaptors.
Or, like the 7970 using DVI + passive DP>DVI + active DP>DVI for your 3 outputs, of cause DVI + HDMI + DP works too.


As for single vs dual...

DVI Single Link = Max resolution of 1920x1200@60hz
DVI Dual Link = Max resolution of 1920x1200@120hz or 2560x1600@60hz

By the sounds of your setup you will need an active adaptor as you linked to.

I hope you found this information helpful.

That second one should do fine. It kind of depends on what you want to connect, i couldnt make out for sure if you want to only connect your three computer screens, or also a tv. If you only want to connect the three screens you only need one adapter:
one dvi, one hdmi with a simple hdmi>dvi adapter (hdmi is basically dvi with extras like sound) so you can get a simple cable with an hdmi connector on one end and and a dvi on the other. Plus that active adapter you linked

Or if you want to connect the tv:
one dvi, hdmi for the tv, and then the other two using two of the above active adapters.

An active adapter converts a true displayport signal into DVI/HDMI/VGA/whatever else. Passive adapters are merely a cable to go from displayport to DVI/HDMI/VGA/w.e. The video card detects the monitor as such, and outputs the required signal (DVI/HDMI/VGA)..

Difference between single link and dual link is that single link can only go up to a resolution of 1920x1200 or lower. Dual link can also go higher than that. Your screen is 1920x1200, so single link will suffice.

exelent answers thanks