Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hoping some of you Eyefinity experts can help me.

I am in the process of building a stock trading workstation for myself. I would love to have 2 rows of 5 monitors
each (one above one below) to manage all the information I need to monitor. I have zero experience building a
large monitor array like this. My current setup uses 2 monitors, one VGA one DVI off the same video card.

I have been reading up up AMD's eyefinity technology and I am considering buying 2x Firepro W600 graphic
cards to run the 10 monitors off one pc. I will use the displayport connections.

Can I create one large desktop across all 10 monitors? I dont need to run a program across more then one monitor.
I would prefer if I maximize a a program it stays in the monitor its in unless I drag it elsewhere. Aka just extend the
desktop across all 10. Do I need Eyefinity to do this? I've read it only supports 6 monitors. How can I get around the
6 monitor limit if I need it?

I dont plan on any 3d stuff.. just basic 2d charts and graphs. Strictly a work computer. I will be using windows 8.

Is 2x Firepro W600's the smart choice ? Should I be looking at another model?

Thanks,
Mike

malice95,

It would appear that you have done some homework already, so just to confirm some of your questions...

malice95 wrote:Can I create one large desktop across all 10 monitors?

Sadly not, Eyefinity is limited to a maximum of 6 monitors in a group.

malice95 wrote:I would prefer if I maximize a a program it stays in the monitor its in unless I drag it elsewhere. Aka just extend the
desktop across all 10. Do I need Eyefinity to do this?

Correct Eyefinity is not required to be able to connect 10 displays and have them working independently, aka Extended mode, applications would full screen to the monitor in which they reside, however not all programs will remember their last open/close position, meaning that you will need to sometimes move the application onto the monitor you desire each time you launch an application.
However as I say, some applications will remember, others will not.

There is a tool that could be used to script the opening of programs so that they automatically open at the required position, although the tools name eludes me right now.

malice95 wrote:I've read it only supports 6 monitors. How can I get around the
6 monitor limit if I need it?

Eyefinity may only support 6 monitors in a group, however it is possible to expand on this to support additional monitors via external hardware to split the video signal to 2 or 3 monitors, such hardware devices like the Matrox Dual Head 2 Go or Zotec DP to dual HDMI

Note that with these devices, from a single Firepro W600 you could drive 12 monitors and you could make this 1 giant display with eyefinity should you wish, however each of the 6 outputs would be driving 2 displays in a pair, any application that is maximized, will maximize on that monitor pair, not a single monitor.
A potential way around this would be to use AMD Hydragrid (youtube demo) where you create your custom grid, then get applications to attach to the grid.

There is also the option of Displayport 1.2 MST compatible hardware, such as monitor hubs and monitors that support daisy chaining.
With DP1.2 it is possible to drive 4x 1080p displays from a single output port, each display is seen as an independent monitor, although this allows you to have many extended monitors off a single card, it does not work around the issue of Eyefinity with 6 displays limitation.

malice95 wrote:I dont plan on any 3d stuff.. just basic 2d charts and graphs. Strictly a work computer. I will be using windows 8.
Is 2x Firepro W600's the smart choice ? Should I be looking at another model?

These cards would work well for you given the tasks you are planning to use them for.

I hope this answers some questions and shows you some options for going forward.

Regards
Delph.

Depending on the price of a W600 card (or the mainboard?)
You might be cheaper with two Club 3d MST hubs. You have 6x miniDP output, -2 for hubs = 10 Outputs in total.

But this seems like a "business" project so you have a big budget?

There is also this Thread here on WSGF about the MST Hub
http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=25524
It seems there 'might' be problems but the support is working on it.

But Delphium said everything important

Delphium wrote:

malice95 wrote:Can I create one large desktop across all 10 monitors?

Sadly not, Eyefinity is limited to a maximum of 6 monitors in a group.

OP was referring to extended desktop. Yes, this is possible. And with extended, windows handles it nicely where if you maximize a window, it stays on that monitor, no need for any management software (like having to run Matrox Powerdesk, ATI Hydravision or Nvidia Smartmaxapp-or whatever its called, to manage a spanned desktop via nvidia surround or ati eyefinity)

I have had 6 across 2 and 3 GPU's (using AMD+Intel and Nvidia+Intel GPUs), and have personally seen 18 display systems running 3x AMD GPUs with 6 outputs on each card. You can also use MST hubs with displayport connections.

If you aren't doing any crazy rendering and such that needs a FireGL type card, a consumer Radeon card will be plenty.

WIndows 7, IIRC, has a display limit of 10 in Display Properties. However, there are 3rd party programs that allow more than 10.

Post pics when you are done!

This is what I am picturing.