AMD's ATI Eyefinity Technology Review @ [H]

Just got done watching the review. Good thing I watched it. I was on the fence about buying a 30" to go w/ my 2 20"s, but now I considering 3 24"s instead :D
 
Anybody have an opinion on how CPU power will affect Eyefinity performance? I am getting a 5870 and three 22" LCDs (1680x1050) for Eyefinity, and I am considering upgrading to X58/i7 920 (from the specs in my sig) for this as well.
Thoughts?

Btw the HardOCP Eyefinity review was fantastic! So in-depth and professional!
 
FWIW

I was playing some of the new Wolfenstein 2009 tonight while watching the 8 "cores" on my i7 920 @ 3.8GHz. They were all under 10%. My setup is 3600x1920 (3x1 24''ers in portrait mode).
 
I am debating on whether I should get three of the Dell P2210 (22" 1680x1050) or the Dell P2210H (21.5" 1920x1080). They both cost around $200 and they both come with built in DisplayPorts.

I am kind of leaning towards the 22" because things won't be as small on it, and because 1920x3 will be a lot of pixels for the Radeons to render (not a problem now but maybe in the future).

Any thoughts on that?
 
They should use less power than larger displays and produce less heat.
They won't need as beefy a system to run or take up as much desk area.
I'd suggest the P2210H for it's larger resolution.
 
I really want one of those 2048x1152 samsung 23 inchers, or rather 3. Will this present eyefinity with any problems not being a standard resolution or should it be fine?
 
Ati hit a grand slam with Eyefinty. I'll take landscape over portrait. If I had the money right now, I'd get a 5970 + (3) Dell 2709Ws and then a second 5970 later when Eyefinity works with Xfire.

Batman with Physx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFsQYQnygA&feature=related

Hawx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keVvfJTdC9s

Battlefield 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuM_NvWiNYs&feature=related

Need for Speed Shift: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG2unnJupKM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmMLgU5RMvc&feature=related

Gears of War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8BGCXDCZks&feature=related

Grid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-gfoeWfxOc

Doom ROE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7HL7nZ722s&feature=related

CODMW2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaI2FRKSXwc

WOW, Crysis Warhead, @ CODMW2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mafGSMf9h9M
 
I finally got my triple 22" Eyefinity setup up and running this weekend, and I agree, it is truly impressive for gaming. I needed Widescreen fixer to get Modern Warfare 2 looking good, but once I did, wow it was sick. So two thumbs up.

I will however say though, that Eyefinity/SLS in Windows sucks for productivity purposes. I love the way it works when I have it set up as a regular triple monitor setup with UltraMon with monitor-dependent taskbars, moving windows from monitor to monitor etc. But with all three treated as one large monitor, it pretty much blows.

I am hoping there is/will be a quick way to switch between SLS and regular triple monitor configurations. Deleting and recreating display groups is too much work.

Anyone have suggestions or ideas on this?
 
Finally got eyefinity working, and I gotta say... I'm really disliking ATI/AMD's drivers at this point. Tried different versions, different configurations, and no matter what I did it would just not work. Finally settled on the 9.10s and RANDOMLY enabled monitors and it just "worked". Now I'm afraid to reboot because it will probably reset. Anyways, heres hoping AMD/ATI can get their 'sh together and put out stable drivers.

For now..

 
inotocracy said:
Finally got eyefinity working, and I gotta say... I'm really disliking ATI/AMD's drivers at this point. Tried different versions, different configurations, and no matter what I did it would just not work. Finally settled on the 9.10s and RANDOMLY enabled monitors and it just "worked". Now I'm afraid to reboot because it will probably reset. Anyways, heres hoping AMD/ATI can get their 'sh together and put out stable drivers.

For now..

Click to expand...

Is that the apple displayport adapter? I didn't have any trouble getting the 9.11s playing nicely with my 3 Dell P2310H displays using a native displayport interface. I've read a lot of reports of problems with the apple adapter and a number of them with the Dell active adapter as well.

Glad you got it working finally, though.

Here are some pictures of my eyefinity setup -

Mirror's Edge -





Crysis screengrab - (no, it isn't really playable at this resolution.. but it sure does look good)-




Borderlands -





Dragon Age: Origins in portrait -

 
Last edited:
Yeah, its the Apple one. Its definitely a driver issue. If I downgrade to older drivers, pre-eyefinity, all the monitors work fine. Not until I go to a newer driver and try to create "Groups" does it start having issues. Seems to be working fine now but I have yet to try to reboot. I think I'll just leave my system running until a newer driver comes out :p
 
I'm surprised you got it working..

As I recall Kyle here @ [H] was unable to get it to work with eyefinity.

Edited my post above to fix the links to the pictures.. sorry if I killed anybody with Crysis @ 5760x1080
 
inotocracy said:
Yeah, its the Apple one. Its definitely a driver issue. If I downgrade to older drivers, pre-eyefinity, all the monitors work fine. Not until I go to a newer driver and try to create "Groups" does it start having issues. Seems to be working fine now but I have yet to try to reboot. I think I'll just leave my system running until a newer driver comes out :p
Click to expand...

Nice setup. Strange though, I haven't had any issues with my Apple DVI DP adapter running Samsung 2343BWX monitors. 9.10, 9.11, even the Hemlock beta drivers all work really well with my Eyefinity setup. I haven't had a single instance where it'd boot up with Eyefinity broken.
 
Just noticed something new-- my hover preview windows on the taskbar don't show anymore. Instead of showing a snapshot of the window when you hover over its icon, it shows a list. Thats unfortunate, it was one of my favorite features of Win 7.
 
inotocracy said:
Just noticed something new-- my hover preview windows on the taskbar don't show anymore. Instead of showing a snapshot of the window when you hover over its icon, it shows a list. Thats unfortunate, it was one of my favorite features of Win 7.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I miss that feature. It worked with 2 monitors.. I think windows just can't handle the thumbnail preview for windows that large. It does the same thing when you have so many instances open of a program that you have more than 8 or so preview windows.. so it may be something to do with how much space the thumbnail takes up.. it may be possible to tweak that.. I'll have to look into it.
 
Andrmgic said:
Glad you got it working finally, though.

Here are some pictures of my eyefinity setup -

Mirror's Edge -





Crysis screengrab - (no, it isn't really playable at this resolution.. but it sure does look good)-




Borderlands -





Dragon Age: Origins in portrait -

Click to expand...
You need to take ".th" out of those images. Couldnt understand why someone would post images with a high resolution watermark at a size of about 100x125px
 
inotocracy said:
^ You know they're hyperlinked, right? Just click em and you've got full size.
Click to expand...

Yup.

I don't think folks would be very happy to see a 5760x1080 crysis screenshot stretching out the forum. If I'm wrong, I'll link it directly :)
 
inotocracy said:
Yeah, its the Apple one. Its definitely a driver issue. If I downgrade to older drivers, pre-eyefinity, all the monitors work fine. Not until I go to a newer driver and try to create "Groups" does it start having issues. Seems to be working fine now but I have yet to try to reboot. I think I'll just leave my system running until a newer driver comes out :p
Click to expand...

Andrmgic said:
I'm surprised you got it working..

As I recall Kyle here @ [H] was unable to get it to work with eyefinity.

Edited my post above to fix the links to the pictures.. sorry if I killed anybody with Crysis @ 5760x1080
Click to expand...

inotocracy said:
I accidentally (lol) rebooted, and it still works. Guess I'm good to go.
Click to expand...

I would not suggest the Apple active dongle to anyone. That said, I have one here for sale, $80 shipped in the USA.

inotocracy said:
Just noticed something new-- my hover preview windows on the taskbar don't show anymore. Instead of showing a snapshot of the window when you hover over its icon, it shows a list. Thats unfortunate, it was one of my favorite features of Win 7.
Click to expand...

Mine work fine with native DP and triple DVI that I have tested using the Dell active dongle.
 
Kyle, have you heard anything else regarding AMD approved DP/DVI adapters? Any estimate on when they'll be out?
 
Anyone using the Hanns G 28" LCDS for Eyefinity? I have one right now and think of picking up 2 more. Missed Neweggs deal on Friday, $259.00 shipped free. Its either that or go with 3 23-24" LCDS.
 
teenk said:
Kyle, have you heard anything else regarding AMD approved DP/DVI adapters? Any estimate on when they'll be out?
Click to expand...

Still nothing but crickets on that side of the fence. :(

Tamlin_WSGF said:
+1 on this. I really hope ATI soon will come out with Eyefinity certified adapters, since I plan on buying 3 new screens real soon.

On a side note, there are early reports that a passive adapter from DP->VGA works:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17468
Click to expand...

Wow! I would have not expected that.
 
I just have one question:

Does the Fish eye effect only occurs with games that don't support eyefinity: i.e. HL2 or with every game out there, including Dragon Age?

Thank You.
 
I remember reading a rumour that ATI were thinking about releasing a 58xx eyefinity compatible card that had 3xdvi output instead of the display port. Any more news on that? I run 3x22" CRT monitors (I'm sensitive to image blurring, poor blacks and lag) so DP is even less use to me than most people.

EDIT: Just read this:
Tamlin_WSGF said:
On a side note, there are early reports that a passive adapter from DP->VGA works:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17468
Click to expand...

so it looks like I'm in the money. ATI here I come!
 
Watching this video seriously made happy to start getting back into computers. Amazing idea ATI!!
 
No luck with my 3 soyo 24 inch's with vga to dp adapter (bsod and highest res possible 1600 x 1200). With the DP adaptor on my 24inch Sony crt I can get it to work but only at 3xxx by 1024. My active DVI adaptor got rescheduled to be delivered tomorrow so I guess I will have to see how that goes. I was hoping for triple 24inch crt though. Using this adaptor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812270275 which I think is the same as the directron one.

Edit: I just got it to work, don't know if its because I moved the dvi from one monitor to the next while the computer was on or because even though I have 3 of the "same" monitor one is actually differnt but so far its running haven't got into a game yet though.
 
Last edited:
Is anyone using three 120hz monitors? Does response time change at all running Eyefinity for fps?

I've been thinking about eventually running three 120hz Viewsonics after I get a 5870 soon.
 
Oh My.... I really need to be looking at getting 3 new monitors :O Where will I ever get the desk room for them... Hmm... This may take some thinking. :D
 
rally9x said:
No luck with my 3 soyo 24 inch's with vga to dp adapter (bsod and highest res possible 1600 x 1200). With the DP adaptor on my 24inch Sony crt I can get it to work but only at 3xxx by 1024. My active DVI adaptor got rescheduled to be delivered tomorrow so I guess I will have to see how that goes. I was hoping for triple 24inch crt though. Using this adaptor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812270275 which I think is the same as the directron one.

Edit: I just got it to work, don't know if its because I moved the dvi from one monitor to the next while the computer was on or because even though I have 3 of the "same" monitor one is actually differnt but so far its running haven't got into a game yet though.
Click to expand...

So you got it to run at 19x12? Any of that "flickering" people have been reporting?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top