pouët.net

guys,
does anybody have any experience with using a single graphics card (or an SLI setup) to power multiple outputs - specifically 3 or more full HD res projectors? Is there anything on the market that can handle it?
Ideally I'm looking for something that can handle all those outputs as one massive framebuffer - 7680x1080 - in dx9.

anyone done anything like this before? :)

Just take a look to the new 58xx ATI cards, with ati eyefinity technology (3 monitors with one card... just google for eyefinity, good luck)

yep, eyefinity - ive seen the techspecs, but has anyone actually tried it in practice?

ATI Eyefinity (for the 5000 series) springs to mind. All the normal cards can handle 3 outputs - seperate or as one big framebuffer.
However, one of them has to be displayport (only 2 clockgenerators on card) - but can be converted by a $100 active dp-dvi adapter, but maybe it'll work with a cheap passive one for "just" fullhd. Waiting for my $12 dp-hdmi adapter to arrive for testing it out ;)

Haven't tried with a multi display framebuffer myself yet (my screens are all of different size) but seems pretty straightforward from the reviews.

psycho: thanks, i was wondering about the ports. any idea about what you need to do 4, though?

smash, what the HELL are you doing?

I think I once read that you can just put 2 of them cards into your PC, and you get 6 displays

Ask our coder Pro/Nuance if they use several machines to power their 360 degree tower simulations or if they also use machines that handle more than two displays...don't know...but he could know...

bartman: IIRC the more-than-6 demos have been coded with seperate framebuffers - ie. no general support.
The 6-display demos have been on the special 6*minidp edition (5870six or whatever) which is still not released.

Is it necessary to use a single card? I know people who've done this, but using multiple video cards (with 2 outputs per card if I remember right, 6 or more displays per computer).

psonice: if it was using crossfire/sli to connect those cards it could be alright, but not as separate gpus - i need them to come up as one d3d device (although they could be multiple swap chains).

Guess it has to be eyefinity then, i've not heard of anything else at least. I vaguely recall seeing that eyefinity lets you run >3 displays (maybe 6?) as a single surface (so I suspect DX would see it as a single device too).

Will we get to hear about this at some point? Sounds like fun :)

if you want multiple graphic cards, then don't enable SLI. It will disable the outputs of your secondary graphic card...

you should also check display port, there are professional cards with up to 4 display port connectors... since they're smaller....

unc: that one's a bit slow tho.. seems like a pretty low end gpu.

and btw, ati eyefinity enables you to drive up to 6 monitor outputs from a single card. http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/ATI_Eyefinity_Technology_Brief.pdf .

then maybe this one (NVS 420)

the NVS ones are all low-end I think.. aren't they meant for people needing 2d with lots of screens?

yea, i know - i just want to know _which_ card can actually do that (given the most number of outputs on one card is 3) and whether anyone's actually tried it..