That's good enough for me. I'm going to go under the assumption they also have to be the same resolution, but I'm going to just Google it instead of continuing to ask you JFGI'able questions.

*bump* For $390.72, ordered my new 6950 and two DisplayPort to DVI-D single-link adapters:

1x ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD6950 2GB PCI Express 2.1 x16 Video Card. Retail Box
1x *ATI Eyefinity Multi-Display Validated* Accell UltraAV DisplayPort to DVI-D Active Single-Link Adapter, Model: B087B-005B
1x PowerColor Active DisplayPort to Single-Link DVI-D Adapter, Model: PC-ACTIVE-DPDVI

Why did you buy two different adapters instead of just 2 of the same adapter?

Probably to evaluate the performance of both? Or because those were the two best deals?

I'd like to say it was the first, but it was the second. They only had one of the $27 one left in stock, so I got one of the $27 ones and one of the $30 ones. This will allow me to power my four current monitors or three and my projector at once, and I can get more adapters as needs require.

Most of this topic: tl;dr
My suggestion for monitors is this for 4:

Code:


And this for 5:

Code:

I like the two by two setup in general, but I feel that it give the worst of both worlds. For gaming, your crosshair is smack-tab in the middle of a + of bezels, and for movies, things are equally awkward. With my current 4x1, I can at least use the leftmost three for movies and games, which puts the center of the action in the center of the middle monitor, and everything else out towards the edges. I think that this is a nice setup if I was only doing coding on my home computer, though!

You could alternatively do 3x3, or 3x2 if you were so inclined but you'd be insane. However, you don't always have to use every monitor, as well. (In addition, I don't see much of a problem with the crosshairs on an FPS with that set up).
Also:

Three by three would actually be pretty amazing, but I lack the space, the electricity (both in supply and money), and the money to buy all those monitors. I can think of some nice jigsaw arrangements that would work, some of which include a vertical 27" monitor in the mix somewhere, but the problem then is losing the EyeFinity multiple-monitor gaming/movie advantage. I'll have to keep experimenting once my graphics card arrives tomorrow and see what might work before I decide I need more monitors.

3x3 requires an insane amount of GPU power to drive as well (if you are gaming across all 9, that is), not to mention you will need to resort to things like Triple Head 2 Go, which sucks for non-gaming uses.

3x1 landscape is ideal for Eyefinity (some like 3x1 portrait, I'm not a fan). Personally I would *love* to setup 5x1 portrait eyefinity using projectors. No bezel and gives high res (esp for projectors). Even just using cheaper 1280x720 projectors would give you 3600x1280

I'm starting to wonder what one 27" portrait and 3x1 landscape 22" would look like. That might work...

The 6950 has arrived! However, as I feared, all is not well (which is oddly similar to something I experienced when I tried that other giant AMD/ATI card I used to have, remember? The 5970?). I have the two power headers necessary plugged in (one three pin, and one four-pin, which is really a three-pin with an extra pair that sprouts off of it). I have a bare minimum of USB, 2x DVI, power, and ethernet connected. I have my happy Antec 620W supply. The machine starts, powers off for about a 2-second count, then powers on and stays on. However, no video at all, and no lights on my keyboard or mouse. I notice a tiny red light on the new graphics card when the computer is off that turns off when the computer turns on; some kind of standby indicator? I have an Asus P5Q Deluxe motherboard, if that's a possible factor; anything in the BIOS I might need to set with an old card installed first? I suspect mobo issues, but I'm very hesitant to go ahead with mobo/CPU/RAM upgrades without knowing if my new graphics card and current PSU would work nicely.

Update the BIOS and then reset it to factory defaults.

If that doesn't work, try unplugging the card's power connectors and turning it on - iirc you should see an error on your monitor that the power isn't connected, which would at least indicate that everything is working.

My only concern is that the last time I tried their "EZFlash" program, I bricked one of the two BIOS chips (bricked? Is that the right word?), so I swapped it with the spare. I'm concerned that if I mess up this one too, I'm basically out of BIOSes and have a paperweight board. Thoughts on that? If you know of any way for me to fix the backup BIOS chip before I flash the known-working one, that would be nifty.

I'm pretty sure you can flash the backup one from the EZFlash thing, or the other option is to hot swap the chips. Once you boot up with the good one, then swap them and flash the bad one.

Yeah, I'll try to use EZFlash to restore the backup chip first, good idea. Also, out of curiosity I unplugged power to the card and turned on the computer again. It did the same power on/off, 2-second pause, power on, which tells me that the cycle is something motherboard-based, not PSU-based, which makes me slightly happier. Also, the red LED on the card stayed on instead of turning off when the computer switched on, which implies to me that it's a "not enough power from aux connectors" LED, and the fact that it turns off when the computer turns on means good things, further suggesting a mobo compatibility problem.

Also do you have another PCI-E slot you could try, maybe the one you have it in now is causing some of your issues?

Heh. Yes, I do, a PCI-e x8/x8 slot instead of the PCI-e x16 slot I'm using, but it's fewer than three slots away from the divider bordering the PSU, so I can't fit the 6950 there. I'm going to swap back to a silly little 9400GT for a few minutes and play with the BIOS.

I know with my P5Q PRO they wanted you to remove the CMOS battery as well as setting the Clear CMOS jumper after a BIOS flash. It of course didn't mention this in the manual and I only found this out after thinking I had a bad flash and calling their tech support.

o.0

I've never bricked a BIOS flashing it. Trying being less of a n00b

Try resetting the BIOS to factory defaults before flashing, maybe you've just got something configured weird in the BIOS.