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

I'll say it again, I know nvidia is implementing this as well but seriously people hsould just buy a 2560X1600 30" monitor and put it infront of there face, thats enough screen real estate. Why would anyone want these bezels ??

Nice vid though.
Thanks for it
 
Kyle, do you think there will be any possible way to drive a 5x1 portrait 30" monitor setup in this generation of cards? I'm thinking that two 5970 4GB cards would be needed, but I've seen more than one complaint that two 5970s together at eyefinity resolutions can actually be even worse than just using a single one. Apparently this is because the crossfire bridge connector does not have enough bandwidth to handle resolutions higher than 2560x1600 (in total). Any thoughts on that?

Edit: I realize that 5x1 portrait isn't supported right now. But assuming it will be sometime this year...
 
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I'll say it again, I know nvidia is implementing this as well but seriously people hsould just buy a 2560X1600 30" monitor and put it infront of there face, thats enough screen real estate. Why would anyone want these bezels ??

Nice vid though.
Thanks for it
because some people want a WIDER more immersive view. I wish they made 21:9 monitors as that would be a nice bezel free compromise between a regular set up and eyefinity setup.
 
I'll say it again, I know nvidia is implementing this as well but seriously people hsould just buy a 2560X1600 30" monitor and put it infront of there face, thats enough screen real estate. Why would anyone want these bezels ??
perhaps because it costs 1/2 as much money to buy three 20-23" monitors as opposed to one 30"
 
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.

No, you don't have to use another E6, but with a vanilla 5870 you would cut your frame buffer to 1GB on each 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?

Cutting your pixels by 16% on the same displays. So yes you would pick up some performance, but bottom line is that running more than 3 displays is going to be taxing on ANY single GPU card currently. I think 5x1 is going to be more in the realm of CFX or 5970 for eyecandy.

I'll say it again, I know nvidia is implementing this as well but seriously people hsould just buy a 2560X1600 30" monitor and put it infront of there face, thats enough screen real estate. Why would anyone want these bezels ??

I actually have a very personal experience right on this topic. I went from a single 30" to 3x1 24" display. Then one of the displays punked out on me and I had to go back to gaming on the 30" for a while. I hated it. I felt robbed.

I have the luxury of setting up my personal gaming rig any way I want (one of the perks of the job) and I use 3x1 Eyefinity.

Kyle, do you think there will be any possible way to drive a 5x1 portrait 30" monitor setup in this generation of cards? I'm thinking that two 5970 4GB cards would be needed, but I've seen more than one complaint that two 5970s together at eyefinity resolutions can actually be even worse than just using a single one. Apparently this is because the crossfire bridge connector does not have enough bandwidth to handle resolutions higher than 2560x1600 (in total). Any thoughts on that?

Edit: I realize that 5x1 portrait isn't supported right now. But assuming it will be sometime this year...

Short answer no. Going to need two GPUs at the least and then that is still going to be pushing it with newer games and dialed up Eyecandy.

Nice review Kyle. It looked tedious. Thanks for the hard work.

Actually it was, not a lot of fun-time. :| With this one anyway, which is not usually the case.
 
my 3 monitors which TBH have great black levels, colours, motion and a really decent 2048 x 1152p res in total inc rip off VAT and shipping were £485 !

not exactly a lot for 6144 x 1152p with bezel management

the cost of a 'decent' 30" is twice as much and i have a greater pixel density than a full 1600p mac screen !

10126 pixels / sq. in. for 30"
Pixel Density: 10441 pixels / sq. in. for my 23"

very crisp

and remember i have 3 of them ;)

also the gfx card to run most games a decent settings (not max) is a 5770 at £120 or a 5850 at £200

i could get two 5850`s and OC them and get huge performance with my 3 monitors and a DP adapter (seen as the monitors all came with DVI leads :) ) for £1000 !

same price as a decent 30" monitor

---------------

i must add i do have a high quality calibrated 84" DLP 1080p Projector and the problem is you are blowing up the same image as on a 19" 16:9 screen... where as with eyefinity you keep extremely good pixel pitch AND get a huge real world view to cover what your eyes see.

its not for everyone but one large screen is not the same in 16:10 or 16:9 as three screens in landscape... never, will be
 
perhaps because it costs 1/2 as much money to buy three 20-23" monitors as opposed to one 30"

Cost effective yes. But as anyone with a 30" monitor will testify, once you go 30", you don't ever want to go less. It is so much desktop real-estate.

I was looking at finding some way to have go with the 3x22" or 3x24" for gaming and the 30" for everything else but I don't have the room right now.

I agree with Brent, his setup is the best for everyday use.
 
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Hey Kyle, not that I will ever afford a kit like this but, if you could play SupCom2 with a dual 3x1 setup similar to the dual monitor feature I'd think that it could be a great advantage. You might want to pass that onto any powers that be if you have one's ear

.02 deposited

/going to be there for the Fermi release at PAX... got my heckle-hat on already

can't wait to try and drop the AMD/disabled Physx question on some unsuspecting PR guy in a public environment.. as far as I can seeit is not listed anywhere that it is not supported with a competitor's in as a primary graphics on the geforce boxes... I might be missing it
 
Cost effective yes. But as anyone with a 30" monitor will testify, once you go 30", you don't ever want to go less. It is so much desktop real-estate.

I was looking at finding some way to have go with the 3x22" or 3x24" for gaming and the 30" for everything else but I don't have the room right now.

I agree with Brent, his setup is the great for everyday use.

Yeah I agree. I've been using a single 30" monitor for only about two weeks now and I won't ever go back. I think for now a 3 x 2560x1600 landscape setup is the best that can be managed with this generation of cards (and even then probably with very minimal eye candy). I'll be really happy, though, once cards are fast enough that I can have a 5 x 1600x2560 portrait setup. That would be the best setup I think.
 
I dont see the goodnesss in that at all.


Notice the middle hor bezel, Thats the one you notice, the vertical ones is hardly noticable compared.

Beezels are not so annoying in real life, I dont own eyefinity group, or i dont use it, tested but i dont play games, and my laptop doesnt have 3 display outputs :S which is at that place.

using a 42" tv for my chatting, surfing, music, the daily stuff, can hook up the eyefinity when i wanna play some games =).
Not a gimmick, easy.

6 screens, gimmick.havnt tried in reallife, but really i can see the stuff you talk about, hides to much in the centre! RTS would be lovely on them tho.
 
Great review Kyle!

Does anyone know the release date and cost for the 5870 Eyefinity 6? I've read that Sapphire has one coming to the market - anyone know of any other manufacturer(s)?

Has anyone seen this video on youtube? Its a Powercolor 5770 Eyefinity 5 card running Dirt2 in a 5x1 with 22" LCD's (most likely in Crossfire) - I wonder if its real, based on Kyle's comments that AMD is working on support for a 5 x 1.

However, Powercolor has released a press release about support for different configuration for gamers, including 5 x 1.

http://www.powercolor.com/eng/News.asp?id=1005

Kyle - any chance of seeing a review on the Powercolor 5770 Eyefinity 5?
 
It occurred to me after reading more of the posts that OCing the card wasn't really brought up. I know that in the passed, screen tearing/GSOD/poor display performance would occur just by enabling the OC with eyefinity enabled. I would imagine that the friday review would have some mention of OCing the card with 6 displays to (hopefully) up the possible eye candy options.
In my personal experience just enabling the ATI overdrive features to increase just the fan speeds (not overclocking!!!), I experienced severe screen tearing and stuttering issues (it was at this point when I put the scythe SCVSG-1000 coolers on both of my 5870s so I could get better cooling). Do you know if the screen tearing with eyefinity has been fixed with later driver updates, have you tried OCing ANY of your eyefinity setups? Did you see a benefit or was the 1gb buffer holding back performance?

(side note: Did anyone else get the feeling they felt like they were watching, Bruce Wayne, watch security footage of Batman down in the batcave on that 6 panel setup...sorta like...the irony?)
 
I agree, that 3x2 is stinky.

What I'd like to see is if the 2 GB memory improves 3x1 EyeFinity.

If I could crossfire 2 2GB cards and be able to run any game full out in 3x1, that would be the ticket.

I am very much sold on EF, but the cards do run out of gas even at 3x1.
 
I am very much sold on EF, but the cards do run out of gas even at 3x1.

the 58xx cards run out of gas on 1 display setup too dude! remember if your single display l4d2 experience is 150fps then if you get that in a 3x1 landscape it's 50fps PER screen totaling 150fps. while the 58xx series cards are beastly with their performance, they too get maxed out on single screen setups.
 
the 58xx cards run out of gas on 1 display setup too dude! remember if your single display l4d2 experience is 150fps then if you get that in a 3x1 landscape it's 50fps PER screen totaling 150fps. while the 58xx series cards are beastly with their performance, they too get maxed out on single screen setups.

What on earth are you talking about?

The 58xx cards certainly don't run out of gas on a single screen.

The FPS displayed in an Eyefinity setup is not measured per screen and then totaled. If l4d2 is showing 150fps in an eyefinity setup, that is 150fps on each screen. 1 frame in an Eyefinity group is the total area, not one screen.
 
this may not work for gaming (3x3 maybe better) but it looked damn impressive when u first fire up that vid! :)
 
Nice vid as usual mate, what is your opinion on a 3x3 setup? I know video cards arent going to handle that for a long time, but wouldnt that fix the imersion problem? and be awesome, FOV would be amazing.
 
Nice vid as usual mate, what is your opinion on a 3x3 setup? I know video cards arent going to handle that for a long time, but wouldnt that fix the imersion problem? and be awesome, FOV would be amazing.
3x3 would basically be going right back to 16:9/16:10 so you would lose the main point of eyefintiy which is the increased fov.
 
bezels = fail. I think the sweet spot for this tech is 3 landscape displays - the bezels don't seem too distracting in that config.
 
Not sure if this has been brought up before, but has anyone tried 2/1/2 set up with the center montior in a verticle position... is it even possible? Might be a way to get the best of both worlds if it would work.
 
^ It is possible, but not supported with in the current software.
 
sigh... another dream crumbles in the face of reality...

Next dream - hit the lottery and get 6 projectors!
 
Has ATI given you any heads up when they might add some more unique/custom/interesting combations of resolution options to Eyefinity? I'm really looking forward to when it's possible to do 1 landscape centered with 2 portrait monitors for the side-monitors. If not, do you know whereabout this lies on their list of priorities? I know 10.4 is suppose to be bringing some 3D solutions from various third parties so would we need to likely wait to 10.5 or later to see unique setups regarding eyefinity resolutions?

Answered by the "Father of Eyefinity" back in October.

pLp is on the list of desired features, but it does have some significant technical challenges. There are other features which we feel are of more immediate interest to the user community, such as bezel management and Crossfire support for EF. No feature will be implemented, at least not within the short term, that compromises the HD immersion experience. That includes features which would impose a notable performance impact.

To translate. Ain't gonna happen any time soon.
 
I've searched for bezeless monitors and their resolutions just don't cut it for now. Hopefully soon. I think I have to agree with Kyle's opinion that a 3x1 setup is probably best for FPS gaming. I can see myself distracted very easily with any bezels so maybe I should wait for bezeless monitors.
 
I think i would be happy with just 2 projectors, 1080p , this would give great performance for most games and be quite immersive at the same time !!
 
I'm glad you got Vimeo to work. They wouldn't let me sign up months ago and I don't know why... viddler was pissing me off because the video doesn't download fast enough for it to play smoothly. I'm much more satisfied with Vimeo downloading at full speed so the video plays back well.


Also nice avatar on vimeo, lol.
 
You gotta do a 9 monitor setup (3 x 3) so the center isn't a damn bezel :O
 
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