5870 Displayport to DVI, non Dell Working!

[TeeJayPee]

Hey all,
Been reading around alot about this displayport to dvi problem with the 5870. Just bought a dsp>dvi converter adapter from startech.com, just to see if i could get the dsp>dvi working, and yes it does. Running only ONE monitor & having it connected via the dsp>dvi adapter works fine. Now I don't know about using this with eyefinity, but i'm guessing if the adapter works with the one monitor, then maybe when i put the other two on the dvi ports & use this dsp>dvi adapter, all should work fine. So, hopefuly, we don't have to buy (which we can't here in Canada anyways) the $100 Dell adapter, and I really don't freeking get why Dell won't sell that up here in the first place.

Now, this adapter does 1920x1080, full hd, and since i'm kinda new to all this stuff, i'm guessing that maybe the problem might be when I bump up the resolution to 5760x1080 that this adapter won't handle it? According to the tech guy that I spoke to at startech.com, and explained the eyefinity situation, he said that he knew of people using it in that configuration & it worked.

The reason i don't have eyefinity hooked up yet with this adapter is purely & simply that i'm waiting to see if Samsung actualy does ship thin bezel displayport eyefinity monitors in December like some of the articles i've read say they will. I don't want to rush out & buy monitors now, if monitors designed for eyefinity are soon to be released. Then i'll take the plunge. Cause no doubt 3 of these are gonna cost at least a grand.

So, again, the startech.com dsp>dvi adapter works, at least with my one monitor hooked to it. It aint from Dell, doesn't cost $100 and is available in Canada

The link to the Samsung Eyefinity situation/rumour is: Samsung to launch a six monitor setup for AMD Eyefinity technology - Bright Side Of News*

Things look promising, I sorta jumped on this and ran out & bought my 5870 as soon as it came out & I could get my hands on one, probably should have waited, but hey, c'est la vie. I can't wait to game in a 3 monitor setup, all the vids i've seen of it look amazing, even with those damn 30" Dell monitors & their big bezels.

[CMetaphor]

My guess is that with Only the DP hooked up its borrowing a clock from one of the unused DVIs to create and appropriate signal for use with your passive DP-DVI adapter. The problem is when you're running Eyefinity, there are no clocks left to create the DVI signal on the DP connector, so the active adapter will be required then to create it, since a passive version cannot.

[TeeJayPee]

You may be right. It's a small expense & i allready asked them if i could send it back if it doesn't work.
But, i'm thinking if only one of the monitors is on the dsp>dvi adapter & they are all set to 1920X1080, shouldn't it work?
or is it the fact that i'll be sending out a 5760x1080 signal from the card that will make the adapter crash?

[CMetaphor]

Originally Posted by TeeJayPee

You may be right. It's a small expense & i allready asked them if i could send it back if it doesn't work.
But, i'm thinking if only one of the monitors is on the dsp>dvi adapter & they are all set to 1920X1080, shouldn't it work?
or is it the fact that i'll be sending out a 5760x1080 signal from the card that will make the adapter crash?

Again, the 5870 only has two "circuits" capable of creating a DVI signal, whether its used by the DVI ports, HDMI, or DisplayPort, you only get Two. So, if you're already using both DVI ports on the 5870, the DisplayPort will not work without an active adapter, there just isn't anything left on the card to create a DVI signal.

If you really don't like active displayport adapters, then either don't go multi-monitor, get a triplehead2go (lol) or wait for the Eyefinity6 edition card to come out, which will have (I Believe) 4 such "circuits" which can be used with 4 passive adapters, the last two will still have to be active if you want 6 monitors.

[TeeJayPee]

damn damn & damn :)

[CMetaphor]

It's all right here:
Eyefinity Clarification Thread Q&A

[TeeJayPee]

Damn those AMD/ATI Guys! They better not be out having beers & celebrating the new gaming "crack" they've addicted us to. They better be out there getting us some Solutions!
:)