three external monitors and ultradock

Hello, I have an x200t and I will to have three monitors displayed at the same time.

I currently have an 2560x1440 and 1920x1080 monitors. I wish to have another 2560x1440 monitor added.

What video card should I get? And because I have an ultradock for my x200t, does the video card connect through the ultradock or to my laptop??

 

At the moment you need any graphics card that has ATI Eyfinity feature, others cannot drive more than two displays at once.

Since you are asking, I assume that ultradock features PCI-E slot? You might want to check Vidock too. Perhaps it could run those latest generation video cards with three monitors.

 

u'll need an ATI 5870 eyeinfinity card.. and a big PSU..

 

will 5770 eyeinfinity get the job done? I can't afford 5870 yet. I only need 3 monitors not six.

 

well there is a cheaper 5870 which is not eyeinfinity but can take 3 monitors or something... the 5770 will do if ur not gaming on 3 external screens

 

actually 5770 does support eyefinity, as does the standard 5870. the 'eyefinity' edition supports 6 monitor eyefinity rather than 3.
only possible hitch with eyefinity is you need one monitor through displayport.... and also it will be one massive wide desktop rather than 3, but i am pretty sure windows has support for 3 or more monitors in 'non-eyefinity' as long as the card has the capacity to output that many.

edit: and its spelled eyefinity not eyeinfinity or eyfinity

 

That is the problem, all the previous GPU generations (for normal consumers at least) can only run two monitors at the same time. Windows does not affect this, it's a hardware limit.

Before eyefinity, only way to have 2+ monitors was adding more GPU's in the mix.

I've ran four monitors on my shuttle box, 2 with integrated x1250 GPU and 2 with HD3650. Mixing manufacturers usually ends in disaster

 

eyefinity cards have 3-6 outputs so i assume it will work in non eyefinity mode, but as i only use one monitor i am only guessing.

 

will the x200t's cpu will able to cope will all the stress of running 3 to 6 monitors with 5770 or 5870?

 

i would have thought more stress would be on the gpu, but theres one way to find out...... try it

 

I am not entirely sure, but I thought eyefinity needs three identical monitors? ViscousXUSMC runs an eyefinity setup, he would be able to shed some light on this.

 

I think it needs 3 monitors of the same resolution, i dont think they need to be identical.

You system should be able to run eyefinity although would probably stuggle with games because im sure the high resolution would would make the dual core CPU struggle.

 

try it?

this is a massive investment we talking about here.

ati 5870 eyefinity $800 AUD

3 x U2711 at $999AUD each = $3000 AUD

various other parts such as psu and vidock = est $ 100 AUD (rough I guess, I have no idea)

manpower (for a noob like me it might take me a lot of research and trail and error) = est 30 hours, can't really put a price on time since this is not work.

total = est $4000 AUD to just try it would be a big risk.

I need to certain that if I buy all these component and invest the time, the project has to work. I went to 4 of my local computer stores, none of the people their have had any experiences setting up external video cards for laptops, guess have to rely on you guys.

I don't game, I need to run 3 monitors for work, market monitoring and office 2010. Although SC2 would be a bonus but not at all necessary.

 

If you're really serious about doing this setup, i believe that your cpu will be a bottleneck.

 

I see, is there a laptop on the market at the moment that have ability to connect and run 3 monitors at resolution at or above 2560x1440 for each monitor?

 

just saying, with the money you are planning on putting into this you could get a rather nifty desktop... and have the laptop you already have for mobile use aswell. I doubt you would be planning on shifting the laptop + 3 monitors + external gpu everywhere, so i assume it will be kept on a desk etc, just get a cheapo desktop, you could catch a bargain used one or even make your own one new for not too much. plus, it will perform better.

 

There is no "eyefinity mode", it means the ATI technology to have more than 2 monitor outputs.

Most probably no, those I've seen so far like Asus G73 can have two external monitors and third is the internal one. Best bet would be high-end business laptops with docking stations and newest ATI GPU's. Unfortunately that translates into "not cheap".

If he's running just Office and similar on multiple displays, CPU power is not an issue.

 

yes but by that i meant i don't know if it is able to run with 3 different seperate desktops with seperate resolutions as it were, rather than one giant wide one at massive resolution

 

ATI Eyefinity Technology - Frequently Asked Questions

It seems to be same as always. If you want to have same cloned image on all displays, they need to be of same resolution. Extended desktop works mixed with different resolutions.

 

that's it.... extended desktop. i'm not sure if it works 3 way with extended desktop is what i meant.

 

If it works with 6 monitors, why wouldn't it work with just 3

 

I have never built a desktop before. Plus I want to use one computer for all my work and study. I thought it may be cheaper to built vidock set up and 3 monitors for both work and home, and use my laptop as the sole computer. That way I can carry all my files with me with take the risk of some steal my files while I'm not at work.

will this get the job done?

 

Village Tronic Oceania sales
ViDock 2: High Performance Dual Display Notebook Expansion

That HD5770 is well suited for the job. Check Vidock availability from the reseller at above link.

Since you haven't yet bought the displays either, make sure you get compatible monitors. As ATI Eyefinity Technology - Frequently Asked Questions states, you need either native Displayport monitor or an active adapter that is almost as expensive as the card itself.

 

you aren't understanding me ¬¬