Comments on: ATI, Eyefinity and Three Displays

By: james cortez

james cortez — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:29:22 +0000

im doing 3 monitor just have to wait for the hdmi cable i ordered and ill have two 17in monitors with a 19 inch:D

By: Tamra Redic

Tamra Redic — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 08:05:16 +0000

very good article and Nice support article.

By: David

David — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:59:36 +0000

Hi Loyd,

I just spoke with ATI GPU support, and they told me that the new 5000 series cards have 3 DACs with 3 LUTs, so they have the ability to load an independent ICC profile for up to 3 monitors. He mentioned that the older generation ATI cards supported Dual LUTs, and now the new generation cards are moving forward with that in mind.

Would you be able to confirm that these new graphics cards are supporting 3 LUTs by successfully loading an independent ICC profile to each of your 3 monitors?

Many Thanks,
David

By: Loyd Case

Loyd Case — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:07:33 +0000

I believe you can have separate profiles for separate displays, though that seems to confuse Photoshop a bit.

By: Loyd Case

Loyd Case — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:06:43 +0000

Yes, you can use three monitors in standard Windows extended desktop mode. In fact, that’s how I originally set up the three display system in the article.

When you maximize a window (when you’re running in extended desktop mode), it simply maximizes to the current display. If you’ve got them grouped into a single surface, it maximizes across all three.

There’s a secondary consideration — ATI’s Hydravision software, that allows you to configure multiple desktops. I need to explore that a bit more.

By: David

David — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:41:55 +0000

Also, with the new 5870/5850 does anyone know if this card along with Windows 7 will allow independent ICC color profiles to be assigned to a total of 3 monitors. My assumption is that only one ICC profile will be applied to the primary monitor and that profile will be shared with the other two monitors. If in fact it is possible to use three separate ICC profiles at the same time, then I could calibrate all three monitors which would be really cool…having one color calibrated display is enough, but it’d be a nice perk if the new cards can manage this…

By: David

David — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:20:13 +0000

I am considering the ATI 5870/5850 and will be running 3 HP LP2475W monitors. I am wondering if I can use the middle monitor as the main monitor and the other two monitors as extended desktop space? Is it possible to just use this new ATI 5870/5850 with 3 monitors in normal extended desktop without grouping the monitors into one large display? I really just need the capabilities of 2 normal graphics cards, but would love a single card solution.

Thanks,
David

PS. When you maximize windows on a normal extended desktop, do the windows just maximize to the screen they are on? What I am hoping is that I will have the option to just use extended desktop, where the applications will maximize just to the screen they are on, and as well, when I want to use a “single” large display spanning the 3 monitors for google earth, photoshop or other programs , I can easily switch over to Eyefinity.

By: Max Heim

Max Heim — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:42:25 +0000

Heck, I used to run 3 monitors on my Mac Quadra 700… bonus if you can remember what year that came out…

By: Loyd Case

Loyd Case — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:11:46 +0000

All the displays would need to be the same resolution, so you can group them into a single surface. But why would you want to? The bezels would be annoying. (Though for a video wall, that could be interesting.)

I think the newer GPUs, plus a good CPU, can handle it… but haven’t tried it.

By: Mike Lin

Mike Lin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:38:15 +0000

Interesting – I hadn’t thought to look at a 4:3 monitor, with everything pretty much widescreen these days. 1600×1200 would provide even more real estate.

Lloyd – do you think there’s any cpu/graphics card combos that could run h.264 1080p movies fully stretched out across all 3 monitors at full frame rate? That sort of thing brings my system to its knees, but I don’t have the latest and greatest stuff.