Samsung S27A950D - capabilities with Display Port

[Kyprioth]

Hey guys, I realise that this monitor is really new and that only a handful of people have thus far gotten their hands on them, but there is some info I'm interested in obtaining and I won't know if any of you can help unless I ask.

The Samsung S27A950D has 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 Display Port input. The Radeon HD 6990 cards in my upcoming build have 1 DVI and 4 mini Display Port outputs. I have a Monster 1000HD (17.8 GBps bandwidth) HDMI cable, but with my graphics cards, it's most likely going to have to be funnelled through a Display Port 1.2 adaptor, which I believe is a lot lower bandwidth (around 11 GBps or so).

My first query is, what kind of bandwidth does a 1080p (3D mode) display require? Is it going to go faster than 24 frames with a Display Port adaptor on my cable? I can't remember where I got 24 frames from, I remember reading it somewhere as being one of the drawbacks of 3D at 1080p.

Secondly, I've read that at this time, AMD's HD3D mode doesn't work with crossfire enabled (I'm not sure if that's just over Display Port connections, or in general). Some forums and reviews claim this is because of the catalyst drivers not yet supporting it fully, and others say it's the TriDef software. Some say it's both. Apparently the monitor's built in 2D - 3D conversion works with crossfire, but that it looks wavy and less clear than HD3D mode. Also, apparently, games like Avatar with native 3D modes work fine with crossfire enabled.

Does anybody have any info regarding crossfire and Display Port support for HD3D? Will the dual GPU mode on just one of the 6990's work, or is that still counted as crossfire? Do any of you have recommendations on the best way for me to get good 3D gameplay with this monitor (other than get different graphics cards or a different monitor, the cards are already purchased and a different monitor isn't going to change the issue of cable bandwidth). Are my facts about Display Port bandwidth wrong at all?

I guess I can always go down to 720p if there isn't a cable capable of smooth 3D frames at 1080p, but theres a reason I'm asking about all of this on Xtremesystems .

On a semi-related note, Monster cable have a lifetime upgrade guarantee, which essentially means if you find any software or hardware that requires greater bandwidth than your current monster cable is capable of, you can trade it for a better one. If it turns out there's a 3D mode that takes more than 17.8 GBps, I might be able to change up to one of their M2000HD cables rated at 21 GBps

Regardless of whether theres a way to enjoy smooth 1080p 3D on this monitor, I'm still considering it purely for the 120Hz 2D

Anyways, sorry for rambling on, even if nobody has answers for me, I look forward to hearing any of your comments, opinions, or ideas.

Cheers.

EDIT - I found this and this on the Monster cable website, apparently they both rate at 14.8 GBps.

[jkr266]

First off, please for the love of god never buy a monster cable again, it provides literally NOTHING over the 1/4 the price cable hanging next to it. Second that display port adapter has plenty of bandwidth, 1920x1080 120Hz is ~8gbps. Since your monitor supports display port your best bet is to just buy a cheap DP cable since I do not believe you will be able to use an actual 120Hz refresh rate ove HDMI.

[DesertFox]

Why would you use either hdmi or displayport when it's got a dvi connection, the whole reason I'm interested in this is because of the dvi port. Is that not the best option.

[phantomferrari]

DisplayPort version 1.2 was approved on December 22, 2009. The most significant improvement of the new version is the doubling of the effective bandwidth to 17.28 Gbit/s

that is from wikipedia. displayport 1.2 has ALOT more bandwidth than hdmi 1.4. it would be much better choice if you want to do 1080P 3d at decent frame rates. like others have said monster cables are way overpriced for what they do. the cable might claim to have 17.8 Gbps but im curious how they tested that considering hdmi 1.4 (whichever the newest letter variant theyre on) cant even come close to using that much bandwidth

i also didnt know that there were displayport 1.2 monitors on the market yet, interesting. as long as you have a displayport 1.2 monitor and graphics card you should be fine for 1080p 3d. as for the crossfire support for amd 3d i cant comment on that. they dont make their own 3d drivers. (which is one of the biggest complaints against them) companies iz3d and DDD make amd's 3d drivers. id say go to their websites and ask them directly what you want to know. hope that clears things up

[micromini]

Hi,

I have a weird small problem with this monitor and hope someone can verify it.

I have connected this monitor to my computer via Display Port

When I install the drivers for the monitor and choose Display Port it comes up in device manager as Samsung S27A950D -Display Port

But if the computer wakes up from sleep I hear a windows sound (same sound that when you plug in a usb device in your usb) the screen flickers once and goes back to generic display in device manager.
So basically every time my computer wakes up from sleep the monitor "reinstall itself" as generic display!

anyone ??

[Dacipher]

Have you tried the 11.9 drivers see if that fixes it? I'm awaiting arrival of the same monitor, how do you like it?

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 11.9 Windows release includes:

New Features:

AMD HD3D support enhancement
· Enables AMD HD3D technology support on DisplayPort panels, such as Samsung 750 and 950 series 3D displays.
· Enables existing Stereo 3D displays, such as the Viewsonic V3D241wm-LED monitor and 3D projectors.

[WeaponX]

So if you have a Nvidia GTX 580, you're basically SOL with this monitor? Even with a DVI to DP adapter, Nvidia drivers won't support it anyways?

[micromini]

Found out my problem!

I had to enable repost vga bios on s3 resume :-)

no more flickering and install sound on wakeup.

[Chruschef]

So if you have a Nvidia GTX 580, you're basically SOL with this monitor? Even with a DVI to DP adapter, Nvidia drivers won't support it anyways?

yup, this monitor favors the AMD side of things. Acer's 3D 120hz offering is better for nvidia cards.


@OP, just use the display port cable included with the monitor. It has more than enough bandwidth for 3D applications at full resolution. Do you really think that 3D requires 16GB/s bandwidth?