What’s Old Is New Again with Eyefinity

radiohedwig said:
This site is really starting to sound like an advertisement for ATI. I really don't see the point in countless eyefinity articles.
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Don't really see the point in your post, but anyways...

Eyefinity for me in 2 days! :)

I guess you can't really take a screen shot of this, but I would've liked to see the games with the bezel in the them. Just to see what it looks like, preferably UT3. ;) Guess I'll find out on my own in a few days, anyways.
 
Spare-Flair said:
1600x900 is a 16:9 resolution.

1600x854 has 46 fewer lines of vertical resolution than 1600x900 but the same number of lines in horizontal resolution.

Therefore, is it not actually slightly vertically shorter than 16:9 while being just as wide horizontally? Maybe we are confusing our length/width terms?
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Well, yes it's slight shorter vertically than 16:9, but we are only dealing with ratios, so whether you say it's slightly shorter vertically or slightly wider horizontally is the same thing. When you consider what the game will display a 16:8.5 display adds more content to the sides it's a wider FoV and the screenshots will show more than a 16:9 display though.. I was just arguing that the screenshots weren't 16:10 but were in fact 16:8.5.

Course this is why they call some games hor+ and some vert-. In a hor+ game you can easily see a 16:8.5 ratio as 'wider' than a 16:9 because it adds content to the sides, whereas a vert- game you'd see a 16:8.5 ratio as 'shorter' than a 16:9 because it removes content from the top and bottom

Before I got my Eyefinity setup I put Lotro into windowed mode and shrunk the vertical as much as I could to see what it would look like at 48:9 ratio.
 
The confusion is phide stated that 16:10 is wider then 16:9. It is the other way around.
My second sentence is that the original pics are "essentially" just 16:10 or there about, and offer no advantage when down sampled. Sorry for not being extra clear, but there are two separate statements.
 
funkydmunky said:
The confusion is phide stated that 16:10 is wider then 16:9. It is the other way around.
My second sentence is that the original pics are "essentially" just 16:10 or there about, and offer no advantage when down sampled. Sorry for not being extra clear, but there are two separate statements.
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Yea I agree, also edited my last post a little, I was just disagreeing whether they were truly 16:10 images. But I definitely agree the screenshots don't convey anything special about Eyefinity since they are so near to the aspect ratio of a single screen.
 
Meocene said:
gotta say, it surprises me how much attention eyefinity gets, and how little 3Dvision receives
I've seen em both in action and it's just no contest, 3Dv blows eyefinity away when it comes to immersion, which kyle often states as the key thing eyefinity brings to games
When i play a game using eyefinity the bezels niggle, FOV usually feels a little off and is occasionally shot to pieces, the image is fragmented
i play a game in 3D: ... absolutely. freakin'. amazing...
the whole scene just comes to life

i suppose that's the problem really: how do you effectively demonstrate it?
the free red/cyan version of 3Dv probably isn't helping
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I've been using an Eyefinity setup for about a month now and it has been a great experience. Some games require a few tweaks, but I really don't notice the bezels once you are in the game. I'm not sure you can replicate that "In-the-zone" feeling of playing a game in a store. I know whenever I play a game in a store I try to appear as "chill" as possible, and immersion is the last thing on my mind. I can see how putting on the 3D glasses in a store would force you to notice the effect (and hence make it seem more significant).

I'm sure 3D is an amazing technology, and I wish I could try it, but the monitor requirements (120Hz) and having to wear those dorky glasses really put me off. As a person that wears glasses normally, the though of having to wear an extra pair on top of that sounds horrible. It also means others can't watch the game whilst you play. Additionally, the triple-monitors from Eyefinity have aided my productivity whereas 3D Vision would not.

If 3D vision were not an Nvidia-only-cake, didn't require 120HZ monitors, and didn't need those glasses I'd think about getting it. As it is, I'm quite happy with my purchase of monitors and a 5870.

[H]'s decision to focus more on Eyefinity is a reflection of which system changes the game the most (and for the better?). I can't say I've had the opportunity to try 3D vision, but I trust that they have and their comments on it seem to have been made in earnest.
 
ive played a few games using softTH in 5760 x 1200 and 3600 x 1920 , both offer a different feel to games.
5760 x 1200 makes it easy to be aware of players / things trying to sneak around player (flanking).
3600 x 1920 is the same aspect as 1 normal screen but larger and @ a higher rez , which makes it look better and easy to shoot things far off since they are larger with more detail than just trying to shoot a small dot.
 
King Icewind said:
Don't really see the point in your post, but anyways...

Eyefinity for me in 2 days! :)

I guess you can't really take a screen shot of this, but I would've liked to see the games with the bezel in the them. Just to see what it looks like, preferably UT3. ;) Guess I'll find out on my own in a few days, anyways.
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I don't have a problem with the number of eyefinity articles. Steve and Kyle are clearly excited about it, and they want to discuss it as much as reasonably possible. That is fine as long as they continue to provide good reviews and information on all the other subjects they normally deal with.

No, what makes the site seem kind of farked-up, and like a big ATI commercial is this:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/02/11/dont_buy_global_agenda_editorial

An editorial about a game saying nobody should buy it, and the ONLY reason is the lack of eyefinity support? WTF? At this point in time that is like telling people not to buy a game simply because it doesn't have DX11 support. Both are nice things to have, but both are new enough and unnecessary enough that not having them should have NO impact on how a game is reviewed, and certainly should not result in a "do not purchase ever" article. That article was just ridiculous, and insulting to everyone who visits this site. I have been visiting this site for 7 years, and a member for almost 6, and this was the only article I have read here that had me going.. WTF??
 
arentol said:
I don't have a problem with the number of eyefinity articles. Steve and Kyle are clearly excited about it, and they want to discuss it as much as reasonably possible. That is fine as long as they continue to provide good reviews and information on all the other subjects they normally deal with.

No, what makes the site seem kind of farked-up, and like a big ATI commercial is this:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/02/11/dont_buy_global_agenda_editorial

An editorial about a game saying nobody should buy it, and the ONLY reason is the lack of eyefinity support? WTF? At this point in time that is like telling people not to buy a game simply because it doesn't have DX11 support. Both are nice things to have, but both are new enough and unnecessary enough that not having them should have NO impact on how a game is reviewed, and certainly should not result in a "do not purchase ever" article. That article was just ridiculous, and insulting to everyone who visits this site. I have been visiting this site for 7 years, and a member for almost 6, and this was the only article I have read here that had me going.. WTF??
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Well, the reason they protested it wasn't because the game wasn't going to have Eyefinity support but because the devs were actively against the feature calling it unfair or whatever. It's one thing to not spend dev time to add a feature and another to force it off in principle. It's basically no extra dev time to do ultra-wide resolution support it's just a choice you make when setting up the viewport.. allow it to extend without an arbitrary cap, or add an arbitrary cap. If they were really protesting games because they didn't have Eyefinity support a prime target would've been Mass Effect 2..

UE3 is hor+ until it hits an arbitrary cap then switches over to vert- and starts reducing the viewport once you pass 1920x1080, that's actually more work than just letting it continue on hor+
 
Spare-Flair said:
This was an interesting article but I'm not sure what you are trying to demostrate. Correct me if I am wrong....
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Article? What article?

I made a news post about what I was doing this afternoon...having fun playing old games on an Eyefinity set up.

Holy cow you guys...:eek::confused:
 
IceTeaGX said:
How about GTA4?
It's an older game, but quite a load on your system.
I would like to see how it runs with the 5870 in basic and eyefinity setups.
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i dont think there is a card in this world that has enough video memory to run GTA4 at any decent settings with eyefinity.. thats the one problem with that game is that your limited by the total amount of video memory you have since the game loads every single friggin texture on the video memory.. but 2 5870 2GB cards might give it a good run for its money.. but who knows..
 
Steve said:
Article? What article?

I made a news post about what I was doing this afternoon...having fun playing old games on an Eyefinity set up.

Holy cow you guys...:eek::confused:
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^^^^ FTW for old game replay value. heck ive considered going to buy games ive already beaten on console just to play them on eyefinity

jbailey said:
Yet another "eyefinity is cool" update
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yes eyefinity is awesome, maybe save up your money and get a rig so you can talk with us about how cool it is :D
 
phide said:
The aspect ratio is only 1.87:1. Not exactly all that different from 16:9 (i.e. 1.78:1), really. What's the total resolution?
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+1

I can achieve much the same effect by plugging my pc into my 40 inch TV and sitting too close to it. Sure the res is a bit lower but then res isn't everything, and I don't have huge black bars breaking up my screen.

Landscape however - yes I can see the point, that is showing me something I haven't seen before, not the same thing looking a bit sharper.
 
I think we haven't seen enough articles on Eyefinity, so I'll take the minority view. Who doesn't like raw computer pron? I know I do.

Frankly, I'd like to see an in-depth article on set-up and expected performance of the varying different video cards in the 5 series vs. monitor size and resolution. Not everyone has the bucks to buy triple 27's and a 5970. What can the guy who has a 5770 with three 22's expect to see for performance? Perhaps someone who has three 24's and a tight budget...will a 5850 give him a gaming experience worth the trouble even if he turns down a setting here and there? Or is it worth it to spend the extra C-note and go up to the 5870? What about performance in crossfire of the 5770's vs. a 5870? Could you obtain the same performance for a hundred less?

Actually, I think it would be great to incorporate Eyefinity testing into any further articles posted on the 5 series of AMD cards or perhaps new games that are released...this is the type of information I consider usable. Real world information that helps the reader to make the proper choices...but of course this is only my opinion and I know [H] has their limitations...but to consider this sector of the market over saturated in commentary? That's a stretch...from my viewpoint.

With this short discourse, I'll add my own current question about Eyefinity. Why am I not seeing a version of the 5000 series with triple DP connectors? If they can do six, I'd imagine three is a clean sweep? I'm spending the bucks to grab myself triple Dell P2210's with DisplayPort for an Eyefinity set up and the available cards only have one DP connector available? Is it too much to ask for at least one manufacturer to step up to the plate with triple DP connectors?

Steve, I appreciate the offering. I know the first couple of games I load up for a run through will be Quake4 and FarCry.

Best,

Liquid Cool
 
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Steve said:
Over the last year, we’ve covered just about every aspect of Eyefinity gaming imaginable, but it wasn’t until we covered first time Eyefinity gaming experiences that I got to thinking about dusting off some older games to see if they would work with Eyefinity. Surprisingly enough, many of the games I tried worked with very little effort at all. To me, that’s just one of the added benefits of Eyefinity, older games feel new again thanks to a little high-res triple screen goodness.


I use a Radeon HD 5850 on a Windows 7 64-bit box. The screenshots were taken in 3x1 configuration (portrait mode) and resized for easier viewing.
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This is true of every monitor upgrade you do though.
 
radiohedwig said:
This site is really starting to sound like an advertisement for ATI. I really don't see the point in countless eyefinity articles.
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These guys just have a [H]ardon for eyefinity right now.

When nvidia creates somthing cool this place will turn into another Nzone.

Wait and see;)
 
Where were you "[H] sold out to ATI" girls when all the PhysX articles were thrown around?

Triple portrait has a similar config to what we're used to traditionally, but a bunch more pixels to throw around. Imagine doing sniper business in an Operation Flashpoint or ARMA game with that? It'd be a lot of help. (Headaches kept me from running OPF in 1920x1440 on my old CRT, 1600x1200 was better for the online rounds of it.)
 
Ristogod said:
I really wish it was as simple as you guys make it out to be. But I've invested in Eyefinity and so far it's been the worst experience I've ever had. The only game I'm interested in playing right now is Battlefield Bad Company 2. If I play the game using a single monitor it works just fine. As soon as I try Eyefinity, it fails. I've wasted a tremendous amount of money on the suggestions you guys have been giving and the technology doesn't work.

Here are my threads I've started about it.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33961699

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1510879

I'm completely out of ideas on how to get this to work stable. It simply doesn't work.
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I tend to agree with you in some respects: the fact that most people need an active displayport adapter that is basically a crapshoot whether it will work or not (two I've tried with all the suggested fixes still flicker); a good many games still not supported, and others halfway supported; broken crossfire support in some games; display groups inexplicitly changing.

On the other hand, this is a relatively new technology (at least as integrated on ATI cards) and there have been some real improvements in support since launch. When working correctly, I'm in full agreement with [H] staff that it provides a second-to-none gaming experience.
 
sbuckler said:
+1

I can achieve much the same effect by plugging my pc into my 40 inch TV and sitting too close to it. Sure the res is a bit lower but then res isn't everything, and I don't have huge black bars breaking up my screen.

Landscape however - yes I can see the point, that is showing me something I haven't seen before, not the same thing looking a bit sharper.
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I agree with this. Three of my last four monitors have been HDTVs. First a 37" 720p. Fairly low resolution, but the immersion was amazing. I wanted 1080p, but it was very rare for it to "break the reality" and make me stop and say, "Gee, this isn't immersing at all, because it doesn't have enough pixels." I upgraded to a 40" 1080p, but it had overscan issues so I ended up running that at 720p too. After I moved, I didn't have the PC by the TV anymore, so I bought a 2333SW (23" 1080p). It was sharper, but I couldn't stand the tininess of it (heh, yeah, a 23" widescreen being tiny). I switched back to HDTV and now use a 32" 1080p.

Yes, it's lower resolution, but it's still amazingly immersive. Using a single large screen means that I don't have to deal with bezels or special requirements in games. I do lose out on adjustability (portrait vs. landscape) and the extra pixels, but I save money on the hardware and require less software. Keep in mind that it's a crappy iPhone pic of a screenshot, but this post has an example of gaming at 720p on my 40" HDTV.

I guess I'm just getting old, because Eyefinity just doesn't appear to offer that much over a large display for me. I've seen videos of the ultra-wide setups for racing games, and it looks pretty sweet. But running WoW on 3x24" in portrait mode gives you essentially a 42" HDTV, plus extra pixels and bezels. Meh. I don't see the current 3D solutions taking off either, due to the previously mentioned stupid glasses and/or limited monitor choices.

Something like Johnny Lee's head tracking would be amazing though. Imagine actually leaning your head over to peek around a corner for the enemy. I think that adds a huge level of interactivity, whereas Eyefinity and standard 3D simply make things look a little better.
 
Steve said:
Article? What article?

I made a news post about what I was doing this afternoon...having fun playing old games on an Eyefinity set up.

Holy cow you guys...:eek::confused:
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Hey man, I fully appreciate what you did.
I've reloaded HL2 and all the episodes, COD: WaW, FarCry(original) just to "see" what I didn't "see" the first time. Far Cry (original) is too stretched out, but almost EVERY other game runs like it was meant for EF.

I am a true EyeFinity fanboy......no doubt about it.

I am not sure what to make of the guy who's having all the trouble with BadCompany2, I have run through the SP twice and played countless MP hours all with butter smooth gameplay. All I did was edit the file to change my FOV to 65.

I play everything in landscape, 3x1, 24".

I liked the screen shots, thanks.:D
 
The Crysis screen shot still amaze me most.

Its the only one that's close to realistic
 
Steve said:
Are we just talkin about one game? I'd be upset too if I shelled out $$$$$ to play one game and it doesn't work with Eyefinity. What do the developers / tech support have to say about it? I have no idea what to say if you are basing your whole experience on one game though. :(
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I have a full-time job, in addition to that I also farm crops and raise hogs. I also am involved with crop insurance. I have twin 4 1/2 year old boys. So I'm busy.

I had been playing BFBC2 without issue. I bought into Eyefinity. Since then, the game crashes all the time. It's virtually unplayable.

Does Eyefinity work in other games? From the little bit I've found time to play, yes. But I simply don't have the time to test extensively. I've been focused on trying to get the one game I do play to work. But as soon as I turn on Eyefinity, its just a matter of time before it's going to crash. It usually happens within 20 minutes or less. Often it happens in just a few minutes. It almost always crashes when I die and it goes to the spawn screen.

I realize there are plenty of people out there playing the game with Eyefinity without issue and as soon as I say it doesn't work for me, they feel the need to ridicule me rather than offer some type of suggestion in resolving the issue. Good for them. They're winners.

But no matter how many times they explain to me that they have it working fine, it never seems to fix my issue.

I'm in the process of testing my PC for stability. I'm also going to try some more games. But like I said before, it's a matter of finding time.

Meanwhile until I actually see it working stable on my system, I refuse to accept it's a working technology, and I will not say otherwise.

So to anyone willing to actually offer suggestions on how to resolve the issue, thank you. But if you just want to refute my claims and try to undermine my credibility, please just ignore me and go on your own way.

Also, I haven't found a way to contact ATI directly about the matter. I submitted a claim on driver feedback, but there was no type of way to track or get a response back. I'd like to work directly with someone at ATI to figure this out.
 
Ristogod said:
I have a full-time job, in addition to that I also farm crops and raise hogs. I also am involved with crop insurance. I have twin 4 1/2 year old boys. So I'm busy.

I had been playing BFBC2 without issue. I bought into Eyefinity. Since then, the game crashes all the time. It's virtually unplayable.

Does Eyefinity work in other games? From the little bit I've found time to play, yes. But I simply don't have the time to test extensively. I've been focused on trying to get the one game I do play to work. But as soon as I turn on Eyefinity, its just a matter of time before it's going to crash. It usually happens within 20 minutes or less. Often it happens in just a few minutes. It almost always crashes when I die and it goes to the spawn screen.

I realize there are plenty of people out there playing the game with Eyefinity without issue and as soon as I say it doesn't work for me, they feel the need to ridicule me rather than offer some type of suggestion in resolving the issue. Good for them. They're winners.

But no matter how many times they explain to me that they have it working fine, it never seems to fix my issue.

I'm in the process of testing my PC for stability. I'm also going to try some more games. But like I said before, it's a matter of finding time.

Meanwhile until I actually see it working stable on my system, I refuse to accept it's a working technology, and I will not say otherwise.

So to anyone willing to actually offer suggestions on how to resolve the issue, thank you. But if you just want to refute my claims and try to undermine my credibility, please just ignore me and go on your own way.
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I posted this in your thread, no response.

So curious question...Does it crash when you are playing with two monitors on?

Also, are you using an Active Display Port adapter? If you are, is it getting too hot? I doubt that would make it crash, however.

Or, are you attempting Eyefinity with a passive adapter?

Sorry if you've already been asked!
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Oh, and why is everyone beating up on Steve. He didn't do anything. :D
 
I think that the fact that eyefinity doesn't work on every game is oddly kind of part of what makes it exciting to go back and try older games. Loading up a game on Steam, crossing your fingers as you go to the display options. I was pretty excited that Titan Quest, whichI had just got around to playing finally, worked in Eyefinity, since I didn't notice it on the supported list and its pretty old.
 
I'm finding it very difficult NOT to pull the trigger on a new system with EyeFinity right now. I just really want to see what nVidia comes out with to compete with ATI and see if that drives the price down on everything else.
 
Have u tried running the game and eyefinity with administrator privileges? I find if some games especially like RAM then dumb windows UAC will cause problems and crash them because it considers the memory hog game a threat to the system, of course without any user feedback.

So I created a VB script to bypass it on a program by program basis.
 
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sirmonkey1985 said:
i dont think there is a card in this world that has enough video memory to run GTA4 at any decent settings with eyefinity.. thats the one problem with that game is that your limited by the total amount of video memory you have since the game loads every single friggin texture on the video memory.. but 2 5870 2GB cards might give it a good run for its money.. but who knows..
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bgtscr6sm.png


I can't keep it at 16x for the bigger scenes, but most of the time it's fine. Set to 8x I can chug along all day with those settings and never experience a hick-up. I've got over 200 hours into GTA4 and about 30 into the DLC's, so I've been through plenty of the game to know if there were any real problems.

It's super compressed, but here's a video I made while running with those settings, in one of the areas of the game that have a LOT of detail:

http://www.newoldie.com/forumpics/bgtvid1.wmv
 
funkydmunky said:
The confusion is phide stated that 16:10 is wider then 16:9. It is the other way around.
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I didn't say anything to that effect.

phide said:
No, they must be 16:10 displays. The final aspect ratio is 1.87:1 — slightly wider than 16:9.
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Three 16:10 displays in portrait mode = final aspect ratio of 1.87:1, slightly wider than 16:9 (1.78:1). I don't think it's that confusing.
 
Bamboo said:
These guys just have a [H]ardon for eyefinity right now.

When nvidia creates somthing cool this place will turn into another Nzone.

Wait and see;)
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I know, the 5xxx series was out for 6 months and people were complaining that all the hype was about ATI.. well of course it was, it was the only thing new in town. I'm sure once those 3d Surround drivers come out there's gonna be some hype, I'm excited about it myself even though I can't afford an SLI 3 120Hz monitor setup :(


Oldie said:
GTA 4 is AMAZING with eyefinity and it works very well. I've got some screens of my own setup in this thread here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035597480#post1035597480
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Hmm I was considering grabbing this for $7.50 off D2D this week.. pretty sure I'll have to do that.
 
Oldie said:
bgtscr6sm.png


I can't keep it at 16x for the bigger scenes, but most of the time it's fine. Set to 8x I can chug along all day with those settings and never experience a hick-up. I've got over 200 hours into GTA4 and about 30 into the DLC's, so I've been through plenty of the game to know if there were any real problems.

It's super compressed, but here's a video I made while running with those settings, in one of the areas of the game that have a LOT of detail:

http://www.newoldie.com/forumpics/bgtvid1.wmv
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How do you get AA to even work in the game? I thought forcing it in CCC doesn't work. If i can get some AA I may have to try playing this one in Eyefinity.
 
FranklyShankly said:
How do you get AA to even work in the game? I thought forcing it in CCC doesn't work. If i can get some AA I may have to try playing this one in Eyefinity.
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There is no AA in this game or that screenshot. The only way to get AA going was to use ENBseries which added supersampling to the game. Unfortunately, the latest patch broke the game and pissed off the genius maker of ENBseries and he swears that development for GTA4 is dead to him.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7688/54732022.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2306/56056139.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5452/25265646.jpg

w/supersampling which I can't do anymore since steam autopatched my game so basically I can not play GTA4 anymore.
 
Spare-Flair said:
There is no AA in this game or that screenshot. The only way to get AA going was to use ENBseries which added supersampling to the game. Unfortunately, the latest patch broke the game and pissed off the genius maker of ENBseries and he swears that development for GTA4 is dead to him.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7688/54732022.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2306/56056139.jpg
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/5452/25265646.jpg

w/supersampling which I can't do anymore since steam autopatched my game so basically I can not play GTA4 anymore.
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Oh, I guess Oldie was talking about AF, I was confused. Those screenshots look awesome btw, but sadly without the AA the game doesn't look nearly as good.
 
could someone tell an ignoramus like me what games are in those images :p


I only recognise half life 2 in the bottom left there (and I think unreal tournament next to it?)
 
Borderlands, Crysis, Doom 3, Fallout 3, Half-Life 2, Unreal Tournament 3.
 
I'd like to see HardOCP start to call attention to the stuttering problems that many users are seeing in many different games when it comes to eyefinity + crossfire.
 
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