Widescreen Gaming Forum

I've been running a 3 screen setup for over a year now. I've used SoftH to get a few games runnig but anyone who has used SoftH knows how limted the support is and how much of a pain it can be to setup. When ATI announced Eyefinity it was like a wet dream. Finally be able to have triple-monitor support using one card and having it be compatible with alot more games/apps. Only problem was the cards and adaptors have been in short supply.

Earlier today I got an email from newegg saying they had the asus 5850 in stock. I got the email about 4:30, by the time I got on the site at 6:30 they were once again sold out. I happened to check tiger and found a Vistiontek (my prefered brand, my last 5 ATI cards have been visionteks and I've had no problems, but the lifetime warranty is nice), and they hadnt jacked up the price like on other sites. I debated for about 30 minutes before placing my order. 30 minutes after I placed my order the item is showing sold out on Tiger so it looks like I got lucky and got one just before they were sold out....

Even after getting lucky on the card I knew I would still need the DP adaptor which is out of stock everywhere. It seems like I got lucky once again, checked the thread on the DP adaptor that is stickied and amazon happened to have 2 of them in stock. I immediately ordered so I'm hoping I will get one of the 2 that showed as in stock rather then getting it delayed.

I'll keep everyone informed how my setup and build goes. Right now I'm running 2 4850's (usually keep crossfire disabled). Any advice or things I should know before setting everything up. I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 a week ago. I'm hoping I can just remove to the old ati drivers, removing the old cards, inserting the new one then reinstalling the drivers.

If anyone has any advice on getting things setup let me know, i'm hoping it will be as straight forward as any other video card...

Any advice or things I should know before setting everything up. I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 a week ago. I'm hoping I can just remove to the old ati drivers, removing the old cards, inserting the new one then reinstalling the drivers.

If anyone has any advice on getting things setup let me know, i'm hoping it will be as straight forward as any other video card...

Pray. Sacrifice chickens. Reboot.

Installing the card was easy for me, but getting the 5040x1050 desktop was not so easy. Every now and then it seems to lose it settings and starts up in a bizarre combination, and takes half an hour of stuffing around to get it to work.

Sometimes I miss my Triplehead2go.

But hey, hopefully your luck continues!

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i5-2500K @ 4Ghz ° Asus P8Z68 ° GTX670 Windforce OC ° 8GB DDR3 RipjawsX ° 4x Viewsonic VA2703 ° Logitech G15 / G5 / G27 ° Razer Vespula ° TrackIR 5 ° Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS

That seems to be the normal for any advanced setup in CCC. When I first got my 4850's, I went thru he!! trying to get them to stay configured the way I want. A year later I still cant get it to properly save a profile with crossfire enabled and one monitor running, then another with no crossfire and all 3 monitors. I've fooled with ATI Cards / CCC long enough that I should be able to get it figured out.

I did get lucky, the card shows as out of stock now but tiger sent me a shipping confirmation so I must have gotten one of if not the last one. Should have it no later then monday. Still waiting on confirmation for the adaptor though...

To be fair, the analogue TH2Go had some... odd... quirks when it was new. I know no one ever wants to hear the words "give it time" but having launched it, there really isn't much of a way that ATi can abandon EyeFinity... :)

I definitely agree with you Paradigm Shifter... My 4850's got better over time as the drivers matured, had less issues with CCC. I know being an early adoptor I am going to experience some growing pains but thats part of the fun to me...

Heres to keeping my fingers crossed on the adaptor, last night it said they had 2 in stock when I ordered, this morning I havent received a shipping confirmation yet and its saying 2-3 weeks on the site now. I'm hoping mine was one of the 2 they say they had...

I know being an early adoptor I am going to experience some growing pains but thats part of the fun to me...

If my early experience is anything to go by, you'll certainly get your fill of fun!

At the moment I have zero faith in Eyefinity as a sure-thing. I had to present a demo to a customer today and after rebooting the PC several times to make sure it was working ok before they arrived, sure enough when it booted with the customer, it went all stupid on me again.

Soon though, hopefully, soon...

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i5-2500K @ 4Ghz ° Asus P8Z68 ° GTX670 Windforce OC ° 8GB DDR3 RipjawsX ° 4x Viewsonic VA2703 ° Logitech G15 / G5 / G27 ° Razer Vespula ° TrackIR 5 ° Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS

[quote] I know being an early adoptor I am going to experience some growing pains but thats part of the fun to me...

If my early experience is anything to go by, you'll certainly get your fill of fun!

At the moment I have zero faith in Eyefinity as a sure-thing. I had to present a demo to a customer today and after rebooting the PC several times to make sure it was working ok before they arrived, sure enough when it booted with the customer, it went all stupid on me again.

Soon though, hopefully, soon...

LMAO, now you're trying to scare me... The "Little Faith" I hope you only mean as current. I'm buying in thinking that ATI is going to continually improve it over time...

Well, gotta love tiger direct, ordered it at 7p.m. wed. used free shipping and they've already shipped and sent me the UPS tracking which indicates it will get here Friday... Still no confirmation on the adaptor though :-(

Without the adaptor I can only power two monitors, debating on leaving in my two 4850's til I get the adaptor or installing the 5850 and leaving in one 4850 (not crossfired)... Any input on the subject?

Got Lucky again, I must have gotten 1 of the 2 adapters in stock. Amazon sent me a shipping comformation at 12:56 a.m. today, should have the adaptor by Wed. Got the video card today. I'll wait til I have the adapter to install the card so I dont have to bother keeping one of my 4850's running. Wish me luck...

Guess my luck really held up. Got the adapter today. Took about 30 minutes to uninstall the drivers, remove my old 4850's, install the 5850, reinstall drivers and get EyeFinity setup. Hawx looks amazing and runs great, crysis warhead runs great as well. I'll fool around with it more later but so far the only issues I've had are CCC not saving and activating profiles right but it only takes about 2 minutes to establish my monitors correctly for EyeFinity or normal desktop use.

I only just got my profiles working, and the trick was to use the DP monitor as the monitor in use when in singlescreen mode. This means the DP monitor never gets turned off.

As soon as the DP monitor gets turned off, its game over for me. So I made my centre screen the DP monitor as it's the one I want to use in single screen mode.

I also have to hotkey three times in a row to return to Eyefinity mode from singlescreen which is a known bug and should be fixed down the track.

Hope that helps somewhat, frustrated me no end.

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i5-2500K @ 4Ghz ° Asus P8Z68 ° GTX670 Windforce OC ° 8GB DDR3 RipjawsX ° 4x Viewsonic VA2703 ° Logitech G15 / G5 / G27 ° Razer Vespula ° TrackIR 5 ° Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS