ATI Radeon 5870 2GB 3X2 Eyefinity Gaming Experience @ [H]

I've always thought 3x2 would suck, but it's nice to have it confirmed. I realize it's so impractical for over 99% of gamers it's not even worth the time and resources to set it up; but I would love to see a 3x2 projector session. Maybe AMD will do it just for kicks. :)
 
xjmtx said:
My last question, I gather is a tough one to get (my wife was going on about something while I was trying to type it). Say I decide to purchase three 30" LCD monitors (2560x1660 resolution) and set it up in 3x1/1x3 setup, is the expansive pixels at 7680x1600/4800x2560 going to be too taxing to use max setting in the "eye candy" for recent gaming (AA, AF, Bloom, etc) I ask because the games you had were taxed hard with 22" screens in a 3x2, so i'm guessing that the same games would be taxed equally hard on 30" screens, would you agree?

If so, then putting six 30" screen in 3x2 formation would require say a crossfire setup to be able to produce a "playable" experience...
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Just going to depend on the game. We had to back down eye candy a pretty good deal on this single GPU card, so to answer your question, if I were going to do a 3x2 with 30" displays, I would count on using dual if not quad-GPU setup.

Cobalt35 said:
Hmmmm... Kyle is talking about Metro 2033 at around 17 minutes in and how one of the DX11 functions is causing problems. He says both nVidia and ATi have the same problem. The only nVidia DX11 card is Fermi... guess you're doing some testing huh? :D
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Cannot confirm nor deny that statement but you will know the 26th at 7:01PM EDT.

RagingDragon said:
So 3x2 and 2x2 are no good due to centre bezel. Like several others, I'd love to see 5x1 portait mode.
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I would not go with a Xx2 setup due to the displays unless all I played was flight sims. And then I think it would still bug me.

CaptNumbNutz said:
Kyle-

Is it possible to setup 3x2, then only use the lower 3 monitors to game on?
Basically the lower 3 be an Eyefinity Group, and the rest be secondary monitors? That way you could still utilize all 6 monitors. For example have things like system monitors, widgets, music, browser windows, movies, etc., etc, going on the top 3 monitors while your gaming on the lower 3.
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Absolutely you can do this. You would have your 3x1 EF surface then your other displays in extended mode.


CaptNumbNutz said:
Another possible Eyefinity arrangement that should be explored...
2 on top, 3 in the middle, 1 at the bottom...Perfect for a hard-core flight sim. It seems like an odd arrangement, but if mounted properly, it would work. Basically the lowest panel would be your instrument panel, the middle one would be forward sight, and everything else would be peripheral vision. This one is more likely a pipe-dream though...
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You might be able to do that using SoftTH, but EF will not support it natively.

JonnyK said:
are they planning on adding support for 3x1 +1 setups with these 6 port cards? I was thinking it would be cool to have 3x1 and then 1 above the center monitor for either extra peripheral vision upwards, or just having your windows desktop still showing while playing in eyefinity.
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You cannot extend the EF surface to that configuration, but you can have a "sidecar" such as this.

HardOCP_Eyefinity_DreamStation.png


You could use the top monitor to view anything on the desktop while gaming.

And just for the record, we specifically asked AMD for this 5x1 config in October of last year. It is finally being focussed on now in AMD engineering. It IS coming.

crowat said:
Dam 2x3 bezels look terrible... Also, how does DP convert to HDMI? Sorry, I am a complete noob when it comes to multi-displays
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HDMI and DVI are bascially the "same" but HDMI can carry sound. So to go from HDMI to DP in EF you will still need an active dongle. Same with DVI.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
the problem with anything over 3x1 is that there are very FEW games that even support a 90 degree FOV let alone 120+ FOV.. try playing CODMW2 on a 5x1 eyefinity setup.. you will want to take a bat to your system.. until game devs support wide screen resolutions like 3x1 correctly anything larger then that will look horrendous and unplayable..
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This is not an issue now with too many games. As this moves forward and with NVIDIA coming into the fray hopefully in a month or so, we will only see out of the box multi-display gaming grow quickly. It is not hard for most game devs to implement.

DrDeathGNJ said:
Ya know as soon as HD TV's can bang out more then 1920x1080p and go to super resolutions like PC screens all this multidisplay stuff is going to go right out the window I think. Its going to happen which is not a bad thing. I mean instead of buying six screens just go buy a 50 or 60 inch wide screen and use that for your PC! hehe
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You may be waiting quite a while for that, but I am all for it.

bradltl said:
Have you tried:

1. Using projectors?
2. A driving / racing game?
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1. Here is 3x1 projectors we did at the HardOCP event in Dallas last year. We were using MW2, and widescreenfixer was not out yet, so it is streched a bit. Still impressive.

2. Done a lot on 3x1, I still don't like the bezels but I like to drive with a cockpit view too. Bumper cam and 3rd person is not so bad though.
 
Ahh damn bezels.

I can't wait till they start producing 5760x2160 monitors.
 
Kyle,
I've got one question unanswered and maybe you went over it in the video but I'm having issues streamin on my work laptop at the moment. I have been under the impression that the X-fire 5870 1gb setups and current 5970's run out of memory but still had processing power left over when 3x1 1920x1200 setups are used with addition AA/AF settings are used. Did you have a chance to prove that this statement was either true or false but running X-fire 5870 2gb's with the previously mentioned monitor setup? I'm just hoping that 2 5870 2gb's would allow additional eye candy to be used then either a normal 5970 or X-fired 5870 1gb's. Not just a few extra frames but to the point that AA can be raised or something similar.
 
Call me Old School, but I will stick to gaming on my 60" lcd rptv with lower resolution for a while yet! When/If I ever win the lottery, I'll just have someone build me a gaming wall of bezel-less monitors!! Of course by then there will already be monitors like that on the open market!
 
Yo,

Next time you get a chance hit up those good folks that have input to making monitors, to give us a heads up on designing "New Flexible bezel Monitors" aka you can take the plastic off one side so 3x1 or 3x2 will be seamless, since we now have cards for big screens, just need monitor manufactures to step up their game and give us flexible bezel so they can be mesh connected so their is little to no center view issues as we obviously see here.

Bash those monitor MFG's in the head and tell em to speed up the bezel mesh monitors for us -p.


Nice article looks like a fun card, 12 monitor xfire craziness anyone - lol

KT
 
...and then your expression at the end (just finished the vid) also says it all.

Thanks for this though, it's a wonder at all that you can run anything on rez so high but if the bottom line matters at all, ati managed to make it happen.
 
I'm still pretty far away from the upgrade to a 3x1, but I still can't wait to see a working 5x1. What I like to dream of is having 9 monitors in a decagon shape, so that you get 324 degrees of vision, but that's just me being silly. :3
 
Sounds like the card is delayed because they discovered that you can't use more than 4 monitors in Windows 7.

All the demos you've seen with more monitors have been either running Vista or XP.

WDDM1.1 in Windows 7 only supports up to 4 monitors, so a patch will have to come directly from Microsoft in order to allow for 5 or 6 monitors....
 
@Kyle Great review, I'm digging these video posts. Hope we see more. What is that monitor mount/stand system you're using?


Also to anyone... does Eyefinity work for different size monitors? I have a 30'' flanked by two 24s. I'd like to do 3x1 with the 30'' in the middle.
 
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I always thought that the bezel issue would be a problem. I can't wait to see a 5x1 setup. I feel that if it works, this will be the selling point for most gamers. Kind of makes you wonder if they could of saved some money in production if they only went for 5 ports, as these cards seem to target the gamer market anyway. Good review as usual, Kyle.
 
No, all displays must be the same resolution.

a 30" and two 20" on the side in landscape would be a great setup for gaming.....

murderMonitors.jpg]
 
Omegas said:
I have been under the impression that the X-fire 5870 1gb setups and current 5970's run out of memory but still had processing power left over when 3x1 1920x1200 setups are used with addition AA/AF settings are used. Did you have a chance to prove that this statement was either true or false but running X-fire 5870 2gb's with the previously mentioned monitor setup?
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We are still under embargo on that information. We will NOT have an article on launch day due to us having driver issues for two weeks the E6, that have now been fixed. But we have some other content we are working on for Friday.

Pkirk618 said:
kyle, ur expression at the start says it all :)
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Pkirk618 said:
...and then your expression at the end (just finished the vid) also says it all.

Thanks for this though, it's a wonder at all that you can run anything on rez so high but if the bottom line matters at all, ati managed to make it happen.
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I think these videos work better with no script. You don't get as smooth a dialog, but I think we give a better "real" experience.

shawnoen said:
Sounds like the card is delayed because they discovered that you can't use more than 4 monitors in Windows 7.

WDDM1.1 in Windows 7 only supports up to 4 monitors, so a patch will have to come directly from Microsoft in order to allow for 5 or 6 monitors....
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You are correct, Win 7 does not support it natively beyond 4, but AMD has fixed that for its cards. Done deal. This video was Win 7 64-bit.

Zefram0911 said:
@Kyle Great review, I'm digging these video posts. Hope we see more. What is that monitor mount/stand system you're using?


Also to anyone... does Eyefinity work for different size monitors? I have a 30'' flanked by two 24s. I'd like to do 3x1 with the 30'' in the middle.
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Monitor stands - atdec.com - They are kinda flaky though. You would be better off having an arm built yourself. :\

EF requires the monitors be the same resolution and the same Hz.
 
The old adage about a picture being worth 1,000 words truly applies here. It's a lot easier to see why the gaming experience sucks in the 3 x 2 by simply watching moving video. If it was simple a text article or even an article with still pictures, you would get a great deal of argument about the suckage being "just your opinion." As it is, I agree with everything you said. Thanks for taking the time to do such a lengthy video.

But, I think the 5 x 1 will simply kick some serious ass, and looking forward to THAT video review.
 
I noticed that aside from batman it was all FPS games... will you be doing other games such as racing, flight sims, action games like devil may cry 4, etc. ?

Also, will you guys be comparing the performance of the 2GB card vs. the 1 GB 5870 on a 3x1 setup?
 
BoogerBomb said:
From what I understnad it would take a pretty good technological leap to significantly reduce bezels due to the actual connections for the panel being located under the bezels. They would have to figure out how to almost eliminate them to make it worth it and for such a highly niche market probably wouldn't be worth their time.

I don't know if its been asked before but if you use adapters could you hook up 6 projectors to the card? Yeah it would be stupidly expensive but hey no bezels!!
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Maybe we all have to wait for AMOLED or Super AMOLED monitors to get rid of the bezels.
 
Proxy said:
As an FPS gamer a 3x2 setup would kill the experience for me. 3x1 would be about as high as I would go.
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Plus you would be able to run at higher in game settings instead of having to disable so many check boxes.
If I want to look at console settings, I fire up the XBOX or PS3.
 
crowat said:
After taking another look at the 3x2 setup and all those bezels I think it looks worse than playing the game on a single 30 inch monitor... First person shooters are simply unplayable.

Now does the extra 1GB ram on the card enable you to turn on more "eye candy" in 3x1 or at 2560x1660 or 1920x1200?

Are you going to focus on eyefinity or do a more encompassing review?
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Paragraph 1 as well as covered in the video intro and outro.

Just to be clear, this is not our review of the ATI Radeon 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 video card that will soon be available. This is however a look at what sort of gaming experience you should expect if you were using one to push six displays.
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Intel_Hydralisk said:
I noticed that aside from batman it was all FPS games... will you be doing other games such as racing, flight sims, action games like devil may cry 4, etc. ?

Also, will you guys be comparing the performance of the 2GB card vs. the 1 GB 5870 on a 3x1 setup?
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No on those games. Sorry, have other things to cover and I think I have seen enough 3x2.

Yes in the review. EF will make it into that review for sure.

Kowan said:
If I want to look at console settings, I fire up the XBOX or PS3.
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I hear that.
 
Looking forward to the review where you guys can take the time and compare the 2GB to the 1GB on a 3x1 setup. :)
 
Kowan said:
Looking forward to the review where you guys can take the time and compare the 2GB to the 1GB on a 3x1 setup. :)
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me three

It would be fun to see some actual benefit from a 2GB configuration.
 
shawnoen said:
No, all displays must be the same resolution.

a 30" and two 20" on the side in landscape would be a great setup for gaming.....

murderMonitors.jpg]
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Agreed, I run this setup on my personal system, and sadly, I cannot use Eyefinity. I find this to be the PERFECT setup for me, for desktop and would be the PERFECT setup for me, for gaming.
 
On the issue of the Bezels, I just want to say that I think ATI is definitely ahead of the technology curve here with Eyefinity technology. The fact that the MONITORS are now playing catch up to the video cards, is new. Now we are wanting better LCDs, better panels, better technology, and displays with little or no Bezel. This shows that Eyefinity is thinking ahead, and PUSHING technology innovation in things like Displays. I like.
 
NoOther said:
Kyle, is is possible to have a 3x3 setup where each row of 3 is going through TripleHead2Go and running the same resolution? So effectively the ATI card should only see 3 monitors, each of the same resolution stacked one on the other. This might help with the middle bezel not being as much of an issue and still give you a lot of real estate. OR...you could have a 6x3 system, where each vertical section goes through TripleHead2Go and eyefinity just sees 6 monitors side by side... I realize this is a bit expensive to do for a review, but sounds like it could be possible in theory?
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I would GUESS that would work. Send me pics when you get that up and running! :D
 
Great job Kyle. I think You are right he bezel really gets in the way. Now all we need are bezeless monitors or one monitor with that crazy resolution. i think eyefinity is for very wealthy people to begin with. I got one 25.5 inch samsun monitor. and if I ahd extra money I'd put an SSD into my PC. I wonder what kind of frames one would get on GTA4 witht he settigns maxed out using that 2GB eyefinity card.
 
Another drawback about the 3x2 setup is you get a third less peripheral views over the 3x1 which negates the benefit of eyefinity for playing FPS and driving games.
 
Nice review and good video. It seems disappointing somehow that with 3x1 versus 3x2 you go from having 2 sets of bezels in the way of your image to having 7 bezels. 2 on the bottom row, 2 on the top row and 3 dividing top from bottom. I would love to see some performance numbers if possible kyle :D. Can you tell us how the 5870 2GB performs with say 3 monitors /w aa versus the 5870 1gb with say 3 monitors /w aa? IE, How much does the 5870 shine in situations were we might be close to having a memory bottleneck?

nVidia's supporters current claim to fame seems to be claims that nVidia has released a series of benchmarks for the GTX 480 in which 'We rule the 2560x1600x8xAA bracket!! in perfomance numbers!' but I suspect that the 5870 2GB card might challenge that rule.
 
Can anyone tell me what the review LCDs are? I wanna do a 3x1 setup so i assume TNs would be ok.
 
I suppose this should be obvious but am gonna ask it anyway. When you want to Xfire one of these 6 port cards are you gonna have to use another 6 port card or will you be able to use any other HD58xx card? I'm not asking about the "recommended" choice but if it will work with any other HD58xx card. Just curious.

BTW... great video as always and I look forward to the Thermaltake/BMW case build. Man that thing is sexy.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Agreed, I run this setup on my personal system, and sadly, I cannot use Eyefinity. I find this to be the PERFECT setup for me, for desktop and would be the PERFECT setup for me, for gaming.
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That..... is a setup I could get use to. Although honestly, I'm not sure I'd run it with eyefinity. Or at least not on all games. I'd be much more tempted to run soemthing like an MMO on the main screen, web browser on the left, and messenger windows (icq/trillian/etc) and vent/team speak on the right. FPS/racing I could see eyefinity though.
 
Kyle,

Thanks for showing us the 3x2 setup, tho I'm sure quite a few of us already knew the middle bezel would be a big Foxtrot Yankee for gaming. Seems as a 5x1 setup in portrait mode would be the best setup for this card.

Also, knowing you had to bring down graphics options to get it running fluidly, what's the difference between 5 and 6 panels tho. Is dropping that last panel enough to raise some graphics options?
 
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