ATI / AMD Eyefinity- Eyefinity is a hardware based solution. Only supported on Windows Vista and newer. Eyefinity requires only a single ATI card series 5xxx or above. Depending on the card, supports 3, 4, 5 and 6 monitor configurations. You can use a mix of 16:9 and 16:10 Aspect Ratio Monitors. You cannot mix 4:3 with 16:9 or 16:10. Supports 120Hz monitors with restrictions.

Requires some connection hardware

Eyefinity FAQ - Eyefinity requirements and monitor configuraton support

What you need.

• Three monitors - same size or as close as you can get them
• AMD/ATI card with Display Ports (mini or full sized) and DVI
• ACTIVE Display Port adapter

How do I get Eyefinity setup?
You must be running Windows Vista or Windows 7. You must have an ATI/AMD card from the 5xxx series (e.g. 5870) or the 6xxx series (e.g. 6950). All ATI cards series 5xxx and above will have at least three usable outputs on the cards. There will always be at least one DVI port and one Display Port (DP) or mini Display Port (mDP) output on the card. Some cards have HDMI in place of a second DVI. Please check the card before you go any further. The Sapphire HD 6950 FLeX card allows you to run Eyefinity without the need for active display port adapters. Sapphire also offers 6870 and 6770 FLeX edition cars with the same functionality. This is only true for Sapphire Flex edition cards.

If you buy one of the Sapphire HD 6950, 6770 or 6870 FLeX editions you can just skip to the Monitor configurations section as the next section does not pertain to you. Again, this is only true for Sapphire Flex edition cards. Otherwise the majority of the 5xxx series cards will have one mDP / DP and two DVI outputs while the newer 6xxx series will have two mDP, and two DVI.

Make sure you know what Display Port connectors you have, this will dictate what active adapters or additional cables you may need to buy;

DisplayPort
Mini DisplayPort

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT BIT: You are required to have one monitor connect by; at least one active Display Port adapter (converts mDP/ DP to HDMI or VGA or DVI) OR a monitor that has a DP input.

If your monitor has a DP input and your card has only a mDP output, check with the card manufacturer about getting an mDP adapter if it was not supplied.

Do I really need an active adapter?
It is 100% required to enable 3 or more monitors in Eyefinity that you have an active mDP or DP to DVI or HDMI adapter or a monitor with a DP input.

I have an Eyefinity 6 Edition card. Do I still need an active adapter?
Even if the card is an Eyefinity 6 Edition (6 mDP ports), unless you are using native DP monitors, you are still required to have an active adatper.

I've heard about people using passive adapters to get Eyefinity going, how can that be?
The VGA passive adapter myth (or if you prefer the: There is no such thing as a passive DP to VGA adapter). Everybody claiming they have been able to get a passive DP to VGA going linked back to an active adapter. You cannot seamlessly convert digital to analog without a DAC. That DAC is an active DAC on the dongle. Since DP to SL-DVI / HDMI requires no signal conversion (as pure digital sources) they can have Passive Adapters. But Eyefinity requires those connections to be active as well when running more than two monitors from a single card. This has 0 to do with resolution and 100% to do with how ATI uses the clocks on the board and the DP to drive the other two ports. There is no link to this mythical $3 / passive adapter, but regardless, the Display Port technical specification themselves do not support passive DP to VGA connections.

VGA NOTE: If you have monitors that only support VGA, make sure your card has two DVI outputs or enough Display Port outputs to handle the VGA monitors. HDMI to VGA requires very expensive cables that have reliability issues.

What active adapters work?
Recommended adapters (these have been validated by fellow iRacing users as working). Fellow iRacers have used the following adapters and validated that they work across both 5xxx and 6xxx series cards. Single Link DVI adapters and cables will only support resolutions up to 1920x1200 and a maximum refresh rates at or below 60Hz at that resolution. The HDMI output on older cards does not support 120Hz - meaning, GTX295 cards with three outputs will not run 120Hz monitors.

If you are running monitors that support Resolutions larger than 1920x1200 (such as most 30" computer monitors) and / or refresh rates above 60Hz (example, the new 120Hz monitors) you must use Dual Link DVI cables.

Sapphire DP to Single Link DVI Active

Accell mDP to Single Link DVI Active (Acell Cables in the U.K. are sold under the StarTech name and have been validated to work.)

Accell DP to Dual Link DVI Active (Acell Cables in the U.K. are sold under the StarTech name). Does NOT support output for 120Hz / 3-D monitors

Accell mDP to Dual Link DVI Active (Acell Cables in the U.K. are sold under the StarTech name). Does NOT support output for 120Hz / 3-D monitors

PowerColor DP and mDP to Single Link DVI Active

C2G LFD Accessory Kit - DisplayPort

Apple mDP to Dual Link DVI Active - Supports output for 120Hz / 3-D monitors

Accell UltraAV B101B-003B DP to VGA Active Adapter

Accell mDP to VGA Active Adapter

People may experience issue with active mDP/DP to VGA depending on their hardware (monitors, graphics cards, etc). Active VGA adapters can also cause Issues on 5xxx series can happen even with the approved adapters. I am still trying to track down a list of issues, their root causes and any possible work arounds. If your card also has an HDMI output, you can use that in lieu of a DVI output. But be warned - there can be issues creating a grouping when using an HDMI connection. But regardless, it is required that one monitor is connected to the mDP / DP output on the card for configurations with more than two monitors. As noted above, this can be via a native DP connection, or an active mDP / DP converter.

Monitor configurations

Can Eyefinity run on different size monitors?
Eyefinity can be run on monitors of different sizes; Keep in mind - the bigger the difference in size the worse it's going to look. In a triple monitor setup, the configuration must have two monitors of same size and support the same resolution. Eg. 20" - 22" - 20". You can use a mix of 16:9 and 16:10. You cannot mix 4:3 with 16:9 or 16:10. In this configuration: The two 20" monitors support 1680x1050, the 22" supports 1920x1200. Eyefnity will use 1680x1050 as the base resolution for all monitors. This configuration will not allow you to bezel compensate in the Eyefinity control panel. You can still bezel compensate in iRacing - see link to guide below. This configruation will use the smallest maximum resolution from the monitor group. E.g. 1680x1050. So the maximum spanned resolution in landscape mode will be 5040x1050.

Can Eyefinity run on monitors with different refresh rates?
Eyefinity can be run on monitors with different refresh rates. In a triple monitor setup, all monitors will be run at the lowest common refresh rate. A 60Hz - 120Hz - 60Hz will be run at 60Hz. You can still bezel compensate in iRacing.

UPDATE - AMD Eyefinity Driver Version 11.10 will allow bezel compensation via the Catalyst Control Center (or whatever they are calling it today) on monitors with mismatched DPI values. Bit it still requires monitor size, resolution and refresh rates match.

Does Eyefinity support 120Hz?
Yes, but it's complicated.

Yes, but only in specific scenarios;

The card must be a newer 6xxx series with at least two mDP or Display Port outputs or 5xxx series Eyefinity 6 Editions (these are cards that only have 6 mDP outputs). All other 5xxx series cards will not work for 120Hz. On 6xxx series cards, both mDP / DP outputs must be using active mDP/DP to DL-DVI adapters (it's only been verified that the Apple mDP to DVI-DL are working so far). 6xxx series cards running 120Hz must be configured using two active mDP/DP to DL-DVI and only the top DVI port. The lower DVI port on 6xxx series cards will not allow you to run 120Hz. On 5xxx series cards, all mDP to DVI connections must all be using active adapters. Configurations other than the above will not run 120Hz monitors. Regardless of what you read.

Can Eyefinity run on two monitors?
Eyefinity can be run on two monitors. This isn't an ideal setup as the monitor bezels will be dead center in the line of sight. There is no way to force the image to perspective adjust in order dominate one monitor. The image is centered according to the spanned resolution.

Can Eyefinity run on more than three monitors?
Eyefinity can support configurations up to 6 monitors with specialized hardware. 6xxx series cards with two or more mDP outputs and two DVI outputs or Eyefinity 6 Edition cards that have 6 mDP outputs or A Multi-stream Transport HUB and monitors that support Display Port version 1.2. Eyefinity does not support Portrait Landscape Portrait monitor configurations (PLP).

3+1 configuration is supported (three in an eyefinity grouping, the 4th stand alone). This requires cards with more than 1 mDP / DP output on the back. It is possible to get 4 screens to run on a 6970 graphics card. You can run a 3x1 group for the iRacing screen, and a secondary as the top screen which allows applications such as ispeed or merhaut to run at the same time. There seems to be very little frame rate drop doing so as well.

If you have a 6970 and an old extra monitor around, it would only cost you a second display port adapter. You can run anything on the top screen as it shows the windows desktop while iRacing so if you had any third party apps or a webpage you wanted up while racing, you could do it.




iRacing bezel correction guide
Don't run your bezel corrected resolutions.

Measure the horizontal width of the actual viewing area and put that in for "Visible width excluding bezel".

Measure the total width of your monitor from edge to edge and put that in for "Monitor width including bezel".

Measure the distance from the center screen to your eyeballs and put that in for "viewing distance".

Measure the angle of the outboard monitors to the center one and put that in for "angle between center and side screens" (probably 45 degrees).

Set your resolution for 5760x1080

Select "number of screens" for 3

Check the box for "render each screen separately".

Click "done" and restart the sim. You may use millimeters instead of inches. Follow these instructions and you will be perfect.



iRacing will do all of the bezel compensation for you so there is no need to use the ones that Eyefinity produces.

What if I have monitors that have really big resolutions? Something above 1920x1200?
Single Link DVI adapters and cables will only support resolutions up to 1920x1200 and a maximum refresh rates at or below 60Hz at that resolution. You must use Dual Link cables / adapters if you are running monitors that support monitor resolutions larger than 1920x1200 (such as most 30" computer monitors) and / or fefresh rates above 60Hz (example, the new 120Hz monitors)

Does iRacing support CrossFire?
The actual question is does CrossFire support iRacing. CrossFire requires an application profile which directs the drivers to divide work in the manner best suiting the graphics engine of the game. At this time there is no application profile. There are also existing issues within the iRacing graphics engine that need to be addressed to optimize Multi-GPU environments. iRacing engineers are working on fixes. ATI / AMD and iRacing are working on resolving this.

Create an Eyefinity grouping