HD 5870 locked at 60HZ or not

[Zeus...]

Hi guys

The HD 5870 seems a great GPU, but can it run a 120Hz monitor eg Samsung SM2233RZ or ViewSonic VX2268wm

As I plan up get one of these 120Hz monitors.

Thanks in advanced

Zeus

[Chickenfeed]

Yes it can. Any modern card for that matter should support 120HZ over HDMI/DVI.

[Zeus...]

some folk seem to be having some issues here (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2338638&FTVAR_STKEYWORDFRM=&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear) :(

[shiznit93]

this is very bad, I was just about to order the 5850 but I'm not giving up 120hz support, I had the Viewsonic vx2265wm for a while and the Samsung 2233rz is on the way. Guess I'll wait a bit longer and get a cheap gtx 285.

[Helloworld_98]

you do know those monitors only work at 120hz in 3D mode?

and since ATi doesn't have 3D mode it will just be 60hz, same with nvidia unless you get their 3D kit.

[shiznit93]

you do know that I already had one and that it worked fine at 120hz in 2d mode at every resolution? back to troll school.

[shiznit93]

Yes it can. Any modern card for that matter should support 120HZ over HDMI/DVI.
not entirely true, dual-link dvi can carry 120hz signal up to 1920x1080 I believe, and hdmi 1.3b can too, but the pins of the second link on a dual-link dvi / hdmi cable are not connected to anything on the hdmi end. Which means there is no way to feed any screen with an hdmi input a 120hz signal of decent resolution coming from a dvi source. And afaik the only two non-crt screens that can take a true 120hz signal are the Viewsonic vx2265wm and the Samsung 2233rz.

[Zeus...]

Done quite a bit of reading around on this.

120Hz works in 3D and 2D - suppose to give very smooth frame rates in 2D and very little lag. in 60Hz mode there no better than the rest of the 60Hz monitors. In 12months time most gamers will be on 120Hz IMO - But you will need a second GPU if you use a duel monitor setup as you need to use a Duel-DVI cable. So think ahead before you get that next mobo ( extra slot to put in a cheap GPU- ofc you u r SLI np)

the 3D isnt necessary to benefit from these monitors - one of my m8s on IRC has just got a 120Hz monitor and he is very pleased with it as he is finally happy to use a LCD monitor instead of a CRT - needless to say he plays alot of FPS games where the little edge makes a big difference.

All ATI cards have an issue with games with 'The way its meant to be played' eg UT3, batman . They can't run AA as Nvidia cards do and have to force 'AA' to run which uses up more GPU power. Nvidia hasn't let ATI have access to the code so Games with the 'Nvidia logo' will probably all have this issue.

So the ATI may be a great card but being a big UT3 fan, I think ATI is going to be a nono.

Hopefully its just a driver issue - other wise if the 5870 cant do 120Hz whats the point of Dx11 as the Nvidia GPUs all do 120Hz np (unless its a really old GPU ofc)