PC Drivers & Software

[mdfe]

Hi,

I want to create a multimonitor system connecting 5-12 monitors in Ubuntu 18.04 as my personal workstation. My plan is to buy several cheap pcie graphic cards on ebay, putting them into a system with three pcie x16 slots. I don't need much gpu power since this is not a gaming/cad system but one to work/surf. I am eyeing for several old HD 5870s (1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x Mini Displayport), connecting them via adapters to VGA/DVI capable monitors. I have trouble finding any recent information on the internet if this still works in 2018 with the amdgpu driver on Ubuntu 18.04. I don't want to buy before I am sure it works. One card alone is sure to work from what I can gather, but two and especially even three together?

Hence my question: Are several old radeons (5870s for example) on an amdgpu driver for multimonitor still supported on Ubuntu 18.04? Does anyone have such a configuration running on Ubuntu 18.04? What configuration worked for you? I know that the newer cards work even better, but cheap is what I am going for. I know that old nvidias work with multiple cards by experience, but radeons?

Possible configuration I thought of for my case:

3x Radeon 5870s (=3 cards * 4 outputs = 12 monitors)

Asus Crosshair IV mainboard (three pcie x16 slots)

Old 19" Monitors with DVI/VGA, all of the same model/type

Ubuntu 18.04

Would be very thankful for any answers,

mdfe

[goodplay]

The cards are legacy status, no 18.04 drivers.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-hd/ati-radeon-hd-5000-series/ati-radeon-hd-5870

[Hardwood]

Just thinking about the old days here..

You want to have a wall of monitors where you can drag windows to any monitor and spot.. right? So that's extended monitors.

I don't know if you can drag windows across gpus though. I would be cool if you could.

anyhow..

I know Eyefinity needs active adapters but I'm not sure about extended screens on the same card.

Even though I use 3 screens, I use native cables (no adapters) so I can't be sure whether extended needs active adapters or it's just eyefinity.

you'll have to get informed about passive/active adapters if you're going to use DP to DVI or VGA.

Google amd 5870 active adapters

There used to be a member on Rage3D who built monitor walls as a job. You might want to search around there.