Does it do the same thing? I believe it converts to DVI-D Single Link, up to 1920x1200@60Hz. It cost me $20(AUD). It might be a cheaper way to go for Eyefinity folks.
I don't have the Apple single-link adaptor, but my understanding is that it's passive. Bear in mind that Apple is only driving 1 monitor by default (which may very well be DP), so they have at least 1 free set of TMDS transmitters to drive a passive adapter.
They're still passing the buck to the end-user with these dongles. I don't understand why they don't just add another TMDS clock-gen for another pair of display outputs for cards they want to market as 3 display capable? How much more could this possibly cost? We've been stuck on 2 TMDS outputs for idk how long (pretty sure my GF4 Ti4200 was the first card I had that was able to output 2xdigital outputs over DVI, and it cost more because of it).
DP adoption is going to remain slow until they either bundle these active dongles for free, include more TMDS capable outputs, allow for multi-card display output in CF like Nvidia does with SLI, or convince more monitor makers to include DP support. Because as it is now, even thise single-link adapters won't support displays that require DL-DVI like 2560x1600 or 120Hz 1920x1080 displays.
Personally, I think if ATI wants DP to really take off, they need to go with the extra TMDS clock-gen which would allow them to just put all DP outputs on their cards or a mix of DVI and DP outputs. Then they can just use cheap passive DP to DVI or DVI to DP adapters for legacy devices if they so choose.
It will cost them more to implement, but surely it would be cheaper than even the $30 it would cost for this half-baked single-link solution.
The reality of it is however that most monitor makers are not going to bother with DP unless there are cards that actually support it, and Nvidia clearly isn't behind DP for whatever reasons ranging from valid to tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. The HT market isn't either, as they obviously have vested interest in HDMI.
As a die hard CRT user with an Army of Sony GDM-FW900's, GDM-F500r's, and GDM-F550's, I find the lack of analog adapters a serious disappointment for all analog video aficionados.
Yeah, I find that newer video cards (the ones with DVI-I, so onboard analog) are skimping pretty heavily on analog filtering these days. Obviously the manufacturers figure it'll be cheaper to go with a lighter weight filter, since hardly anyone uses a CRT any more. Unfortunately to drive my 2 FW900s side by side I needed an nvidia 9xxx series, since there was some 4096x4096 limitation on my old card, and with those FW900s on full res I need 4608 horizontal pixels.
Basically every card I've had since my GeForce 3 (w/ my Viewsonic p95f+) has been a step down, as far as analog performance.
Directed at nexox and viperv990 I have a Sony Artisan GDM-F520C, and I am curious about your thoughts of graphics card I should use to support it. I am currently using a GTX 260 Core 216 and I have a 8800 GT that I could use. Any thoughts on analog quality? By the way, try the HD Fury or HD Fury 2 DACs, they go from DVI to D-sub and screw directly onto the monitor. It looks pretty awesome for 1080p, I must admit. Anyways, I'd like to hear from somebody who knows about analog quality on video cards. Honestly, I would love an aftermarket DVI to analog converter from ATI or NV if it was of high quality.
and in theory everyone on the market should work. The problem is that some of them just don't provide enough power from the displayport connection that sometimes you get artifacts on the screen.
The problem is that many users all ready have a pair of perfectly good DVI or VGA monitors and just want to add a 3rd for Eyefinity, not go out and buy a whole new monitor setup.
Dell now has a wide range of monitors with built in DisplayPort support. Even their cheaper models are beginning to offer displayport. And I've had great experiences with Dell monitors in the past - top notch quality and reliability.
If you build an Eyefinity array out of them, you won't need any adapters!
Also, +1 for multi-resolution setups... that would be awesome.
These little puppies plug in to be able to split the DVI port signal out to multiple monitors? All the pics shown show one DVI sized connection and one USB looking connection. How is this hooking up?
And lowly me with my 4870 is wondering if he can take his current dual 1600x1200 setup and add a third widescreen on the end for desktop space/sharing on the server or if this is still an impractical solution that will hav emy card begging for release when I try and start up a game on one of the monitiors......
Since these won't do 2048×1152, it looks like I'm still waiting for a GOOD active dual link adapter.
Basically there's two models on the market now, the Accell (and a bunch of identical Accell clones including Dell's part) and the Apple adapter. Apart from the high cost, both of these have some serious problems. The Accell is fine, as long as you don't mind your screen flashing on and off all the time. When it works it looks good. I tried feeding it power from a hub or a usb phone charger power brick to no avail. Within a half hour of use the thing spends more time off than on. The Apple has all sort of analog looking snow in the image, plus some people are reporting it also suffers from blackouts. And also it's mini-displayport, so in my case I'd need an addition displayport to mini-dp cable adpater.
Or AMD could figure out how to port the video out the two DVIs on a crossfired card. I mean, just have the second card render that part of the display. How hard could it be? I'd love to get a second 5770 and just use those ports. And then AMD gets my money, not some adapter company.
Where can I buy these Mini-DP -> DVI adapters????? All I see is the Sapphire one but it is for 5000 series with DP output!!! Where is the Mini-DP one pictured in article available?
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jackstar7 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
This is fantastic news. I want to start using eyefinity and this will help.Now if AMD can sort out multi-resolution setups I'll be a happy camper.
gcor - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
I've been using one of these for about a year now: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/ADoes it do the same thing? I believe it converts to DVI-D Single Link, up to 1920x1200@60Hz. It cost me $20(AUD). It might be a cheaper way to go for Eyefinity folks.
Ryan Smith - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
I don't have the Apple single-link adaptor, but my understanding is that it's passive. Bear in mind that Apple is only driving 1 monitor by default (which may very well be DP), so they have at least 1 free set of TMDS transmitters to drive a passive adapter.chizow - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
They're still passing the buck to the end-user with these dongles. I don't understand why they don't just add another TMDS clock-gen for another pair of display outputs for cards they want to market as 3 display capable? How much more could this possibly cost? We've been stuck on 2 TMDS outputs for idk how long (pretty sure my GF4 Ti4200 was the first card I had that was able to output 2xdigital outputs over DVI, and it cost more because of it).DP adoption is going to remain slow until they either bundle these active dongles for free, include more TMDS capable outputs, allow for multi-card display output in CF like Nvidia does with SLI, or convince more monitor makers to include DP support. Because as it is now, even thise single-link adapters won't support displays that require DL-DVI like 2560x1600 or 120Hz 1920x1080 displays.
DanNeely - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
Kyle Bennett over at HardOCP has hinted that they will for the 6xxx series cards.chizow - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
Sorry, which solution did he hint would be added?Personally, I think if ATI wants DP to really take off, they need to go with the extra TMDS clock-gen which would allow them to just put all DP outputs on their cards or a mix of DVI and DP outputs. Then they can just use cheap passive DP to DVI or DVI to DP adapters for legacy devices if they so choose.
It will cost them more to implement, but surely it would be cheaper than even the $30 it would cost for this half-baked single-link solution.
The reality of it is however that most monitor makers are not going to bother with DP unless there are cards that actually support it, and Nvidia clearly isn't behind DP for whatever reasons ranging from valid to tin-foil hat conspiracy theories. The HT market isn't either, as they obviously have vested interest in HDMI.
DanNeely - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
Just that the DP issue would change. I suspect you're right that the fix will involve an extra clockgen.Googer - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
As a die hard CRT user with an Army of Sony GDM-FW900's, GDM-F500r's, and GDM-F550's, I find the lack of analog adapters a serious disappointment for all analog video aficionados.ViperV990 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
They do sell active DP->VGA adapters.If you'd like to do some research, this might be a good place to start: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtop...
nexox - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
Yeah, I find that newer video cards (the ones with DVI-I, so onboard analog) are skimping pretty heavily on analog filtering these days. Obviously the manufacturers figure it'll be cheaper to go with a lighter weight filter, since hardly anyone uses a CRT any more. Unfortunately to drive my 2 FW900s side by side I needed an nvidia 9xxx series, since there was some 4096x4096 limitation on my old card, and with those FW900s on full res I need 4608 horizontal pixels.Basically every card I've had since my GeForce 3 (w/ my Viewsonic p95f+) has been a step down, as far as analog performance.
AnAnandUser - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
Directed at nexox and viperv990I have a Sony Artisan GDM-F520C, and I am curious about your thoughts of graphics card I should use to support it. I am currently using a GTX 260 Core 216 and I have a 8800 GT that I could use.
Any thoughts on analog quality?
By the way, try the HD Fury or HD Fury 2 DACs, they go from DVI to D-sub and screw directly onto the monitor. It looks pretty awesome for 1080p, I must admit. Anyways, I'd like to hear from somebody who knows about analog quality on video cards. Honestly, I would love an aftermarket DVI to analog converter from ATI or NV if it was of high quality.
AnAnandUser - Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - link
I meant GDM-C520, my mistake. Any thoughts?nubie - Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - link
I have seen a CRT with DVI.ViperV990 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
What took them so long?shamans33 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
I'm interested in information concerning displayport to vga (d-sub). Does the adapter need to be active for vga (d-sub) as well?Roland00 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
and in theory everyone on the market should work. The problem is that some of them just don't provide enough power from the displayport connection that sometimes you get artifacts on the screen.CrimsonFury - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
The problem is that many users all ready have a pair of perfectly good DVI or VGA monitors and just want to add a 3rd for Eyefinity, not go out and buy a whole new monitor setup.Drag0nFire - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
Dell now has a wide range of monitors with built in DisplayPort support. Even their cheaper models are beginning to offer displayport. And I've had great experiences with Dell monitors in the past - top notch quality and reliability.If you build an Eyefinity array out of them, you won't need any adapters!
Also, +1 for multi-resolution setups... that would be awesome.
sbradford26 - Monday, August 30, 2010 - link
I found one...http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B087B-005B-DisplayPor...
chitralsony - Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - link
This is good news. I want to start using eyefinity and i hope it will helpfullNinjahedge - Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - link
Pardon my confusion on this guys.These little puppies plug in to be able to split the DVI port signal out to multiple monitors? All the pics shown show one DVI sized connection and one USB looking connection. How is this hooking up?
And lowly me with my 4870 is wondering if he can take his current dual 1600x1200 setup and add a third widescreen on the end for desktop space/sharing on the server or if this is still an impractical solution that will hav emy card begging for release when I try and start up a game on one of the monitiors......
TIA!
CptTripps - Thursday, September 2, 2010 - link
Ok, at $30 I can ow use any (3) monitor I want. I might actually go eyefinity now.Jellodyne - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 - link
Since these won't do 2048×1152, it looks like I'm still waiting for a GOOD active dual link adapter.Basically there's two models on the market now, the Accell (and a bunch of identical Accell clones including Dell's part) and the Apple adapter. Apart from the high cost, both of these have some serious problems. The Accell is fine, as long as you don't mind your screen flashing on and off all the time. When it works it looks good. I tried feeding it power from a hub or a usb phone charger power brick to no avail. Within a half hour of use the thing spends more time off than on. The Apple has all sort of analog looking snow in the image, plus some people are reporting it also suffers from blackouts. And also it's mini-displayport, so in my case I'd need an addition displayport to mini-dp cable adpater.
Or AMD could figure out how to port the video out the two DVIs on a crossfired card. I mean, just have the second card render that part of the display. How hard could it be? I'd love to get a second 5770 and just use those ports. And then AMD gets my money, not some adapter company.
geogan - Monday, December 20, 2010 - link
Where can I buy these Mini-DP -> DVI adapters????? All I see is the Sapphire one but it is for 5000 series with DP output!!! Where is the Mini-DP one pictured in article available?