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

Plus you'd need even more horsepower to push that many pixels.




P.S. Thanks for the heads up on pLp Kyle. Means instead of spreading their focus, Eyefinity will continue to improve on the supported setups. :)
 
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 think so as well!

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.

I saw that big "blgdinger SuX" banner over there and wondered what was up....and BTW, I PAID them their membership fee, so I am sure that did not hurt either. :)

like I told the last guy that mentioned that...

I disagree with you on this to some extent. I use Portrait 3x1, and it does not widen my view, but it creates a wall of high resolution that is immersive as all get out. :)

P.S. Thanks for the heads up on pLp Kyle. Means instead of spreading their focus, Eyefinity will continue to improve on the supported setups. :)

I think they have a better focus now for what you guys need to consider getting into a EF setup. I have been pushing hard. :) Good guys there at AMD, you only have so many resources though.
 
Well done Kyle. Informative video as always.

I came away thinking "no way" would the 3x2 setup be game worthy what with the bezel problem. And, while you didn't talk about cost, the whole display rig would probably cost near $2,000.00 (say $250.00 a pop for each monitor and $400 for the cards and I'm being generous at that), and that's independent of the steep cost for the pc needed to power the display to get it to a game worthy state. Of course if money is no object...
 
I'd rather just use a single decent HDMI 60" 1080P LCD TV instead. No Bezels to deal with. Not as pretty, but you could crank the AA and anso.

Plus, at the end of the day, you can use it to watch Blu-rays, ect. Eyefinity seems to boil down to yet another biggest e-peen contest.
 
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I'd rather just use a single decent HDMI 60" 1080P LCD TV instead. No Bezels to deal with. Not as pretty, but you could crank the AA and anso.

Plus, at the end of the day, you can use it to watch Blu-rays, ect. Eyefinity seems to boil down to yet another biggest e-peen contest.
thats great if all you want is a large screen. one of the main benefits of eyefinity though is the increase in fov over a regular 16:9/16:10 widescreen.
 
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.

whenever i play any game on single display, i'm getting triple the fps that i get run i run 3x1. when i run l4d2, i'll easily hit 150-200 fps on a single display. when i run eyefinity though in 3x1, i'll get on average between 60-80 fps. because it's pushing 60-80 fps PER screen, therefore it is the equivalent to a single display at 150-200 fps.

and there are games that the 58xx series can run out of gas on, i hate to be cliche but even crisis can stutter a little bit maxed on single display on a 58xx card. RE5 can get low on the fps. It CAN run out of gas at max settings, especially with the guys running their displays at the 2560x1600 res, the cards are not infallible, they are just cards not gods.
 
So if 2x3 is a waste for gaming, what is the real use behind 6x panels?

It's not a waste for gaming. I wouldn't choose this setup because the bezels would probably bother me. Other people have been eagerly waiting for this.
 
whenever i play any game on single display, i'm getting triple the fps that i get run i run 3x1. when i run l4d2, i'll easily hit 150-200 fps on a single display. when i run eyefinity though in 3x1, i'll get on average between 60-80 fps. because it's pushing 60-80 fps PER screen, therefore it is the equivalent to a single display at 150-200 fps.

and there are games that the 58xx series can run out of gas on, i hate to be cliche but even crisis can stutter a little bit maxed on single display on a 58xx card. RE5 can get low on the fps. It CAN run out of gas at max settings, especially with the guys running their displays at the 2560x1600 res, the cards are not infallible, they are just cards not gods.
something is terribly wrong if RE5 is slowing down with a 5870 on a single monitor. I easily average 55-65 fps on max settings with 4x AA and 1920x1080 with a much slower gtx260 and 3.8 E8500.


a 5870 gets 105fps at 1920x1200 and 4x AA. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3750&p=9
 
I don't know if it's just me, but it doesn't look like bezel management works in Batman Arkham Asylum
 
This setup is freaking terrible. It's like you're looking out a framed window. I preferred 3 portrait mode setup if that's possible.
 
Are you freaking kidding? That would be the stupidest setup for gaming with the ugly thick bezel right down the middle.
um what?

murderMonitors.jpg]
 
I think gaming on a single 21:9 monitor would be pretty nice. sure at just 2560x1080 its not as wide as many eyefinty setups but it sure is a clean bezel free experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=amrFQ1r6YuM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9pBhrD990M&NR=1

That's how I feel about having that much screen real estate.

Hell, A buddy of mine hooked up his old gaming rig to his 60' TV and I was completely awestruck playing GRID even in low resolution!
 
That certainly looked amazing at that size and resolution, though the bezels are making it bad. I would be really annoyed by them.
 
That's how I feel about having that much screen real estate.

Hell, A buddy of mine hooked up his old gaming rig to his 60' TV and I was completely awestruck playing GRID even in low resolution!
it seems eyfinity is too fish eyed in 3x1 and the bezels are a huge problem in 3x2. now 3x1 portrait looks pretty cool and still adds more width than regular widescreen. the bezels would more of an issue than in standard setup though and many games dont support that portrait set up.

bottom line is I would prefer a single monitor slightly wider than my 16:9 and 21:9 looks interesting. its main purpose was to eliminate black bars from movies and fill the screen but it should make a nice gaming monitor too as you saw in the videos. maybe one day someone will make a 30-35 inch 21:9 monitor but I dont think its likely. :(
 
i cannot agree that it's fish eyed in 3x1. widescreen fix for lots of games helps that, plus i seldom ever turn my head when in 3x1, the side monitors are merely there for peripheral viewing. switching back and forth between single display and multi display i have a great analogy for. it feels like you're wearing a welders face shield. i can see still, but all of my peripheral has been cut off. when i played console FPS, i had to sit within a 6 foot perimeter because the further i backed up, the more ambient stuff got in my peripheral. on the 3x1 setup, it's like having your peripheral given back to you in game. closer to the line, "it was like almost being there". truly it feels that way when you play a properly configured 3x1 setup. IF ANYTHING, i could get down with a 3x2 setup IF and ONLY IF, the top three were say above my head, so if i actually looked up at those screens i saw sky/ceiling/etc...it'd almost be like an omnimax experience, imagine mirrors edge like an omnimax experience
 

Yeah, I didn't read his post properly and he didn't worded properly. I was thinking he meant 2 30" in portrait and I wasn't sure if there are such monitors size that fit with the 30". Even with that setup it's not even a big benefit at all. What you're going to get also is an uneven color calibration.
 
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Yeah, I didn't read his post properly and he didn't worded properly. I was thinking he meant 2 30" in portrait and I wasn't sure if there are such monitors size that fit with the 30". Even with that setup it's not even a big benefit at all. What you're going to get also is an uneven color calibration.
That's okay. Reading my post in context got my point across. It's a setup many have been hoping AMD would add support for.
 
I was waiting for a GSOD.

I couldn't help but wonder if that's what Kyle was trying to say at 20:35 about the initial drivers...

Kyle/Anyone: has there been any thought for 3x2 to have your center of view be in the middle-bottom screen? That way there's no bezel right in your center of view, but you can see more above you? the bottom-middle screen is what you're directly facing already, so it might be realistic?

Seems a better implementation off the top of my head 'til there are 3x3 or 5x3 configurations...
 
I couldn't help but wonder if that's what Kyle was trying to say at 20:35 about the initial drivers...

Kyle/Anyone: has there been any thought for 3x2 to have your center of view be in the middle-bottom screen? That way there's no bezel right in your center of view, but you can see more above you? the bottom-middle screen is what you're directly facing already, so it might be realistic?

Seems a better implementation off the top of my head 'til there are 3x3 or 5x3 configurations...


No, that is not what I "was trying to say." Trust me, I would have said it, if that was the issue. As I have already posted in this thread, I have never seen a GSOD screen with any AMD products. The driver issues we were having were something totally different, and it has been corrected fully in the drivers I used.

Yes, there has been thought about that like I talked about in the video. Moving the reticle or focus of view is being discussed, but I don't think it will be a solution personally.

You guys keep saying 3x3, but the fact of the matter is that you would have to be sitting across the room to use it, and at that point you might as well get a TV.
 
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

+1

Good review, but the real problem is not ATI it's the monitor MFG's. ATI has been steeping up big time for us, it's the damn monitor MFG's that are lagging.

For 2010 we should have much better monitors out...
 
Great review.

I appreciate Kyle always striving for things being precise when doing reviews. Pure information is the greatest hope one can have for review material, and I appreciate that.
 
Great video Kyle. You always seem to keep my (a gamer's) interest in mind first and looking at that 3x2 is a bit concerning. Thanks for telling it like it is.
 
How 'bout 5x1 with the monitors in portrait? Could the 6-head ATi card support that?

Otherwise for gaming, as you have said, I see no good use for it...

I don't think that much extra peripheral would really help, I had thought the same thing.
 
Kyle, I think your thoughts on this setup mirror mine 100%, It's awesome but not really for the gamer. It's like trying to play through a paned window in your house. But wow! What a great technical achievement this is. I hope that the monitor manufacturers come through with thin bezel solutions to help with this, at least in a price point that won't break the bank.

Shane
 
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.

Huh?
Where did you see that written down anywhere.
Three screens are just enabling a higher resolution. One screen 24" = 1920 x 1200, three are 5760 x 1200.......that's what tags the frame rates......they ARE NOT divided by three.
 
Good review Kyle! Hopefully with the new LED/OLED technologies reviews like this can eliminate bezels on Monitors and put the buttons on the back!

POWER TO THE ODD NUMBER!
 
whenever i play any game on single display, i'm getting triple the fps that i get run i run 3x1. when i run l4d2, i'll easily hit 150-200 fps on a single display. when i run eyefinity though in 3x1, i'll get on average between 60-80 fps. because it's pushing 60-80 fps PER screen, therefore it is the equivalent to a single display at 150-200 fps.

The graphics card doesn't really care about how many screens you have, it cares about the number of pixels it has to render. And while three screens is three times as many pixels, performance does not always scale linearly with resolution. Geometry setup does not depend on resolution, vertex and geometry shaders don't either. Texturing lookup and filtering is affected by resolution, but not greatly. Pixel shaders and ROPs are the only parts of the pipeline that are directly affected by resolution.

If you're getting almost exactly 3x framerates on a single display it really says something about the kind of workload demanded in l4d2.
 
The graphics card doesn't really care about how many screens you have, it cares about the number of pixels it has to render. And while three screens is three times as many pixels, performance does not always scale linearly with resolution. Geometry setup does not depend on resolution, vertex and geometry shaders don't either. Texturing lookup and filtering is affected by resolution, but not greatly. Pixel shaders and ROPs are the only parts of the pipeline that are directly affected by resolution.

If you're getting almost exactly 3x framerates on a single display it really says something about the kind of workload demanded in l4d2.

A lot of those things you say don't depend on resolution will be more demanding with a wider FOV, though. More things are visible in an Eyefinity setup, which means more to render.
 
I am not very familiar with the technical limitation of eyefinitiy technology, but is it possible to replace the two middle monitors with one big one like so:
monitor_setup_by_xciter327.gif
 
I am not very familiar with the technical limitation of eyefinitiy technology, but is it possible to replace the two middle monitors with one big one like so:
monitor_setup_by_xciter327.gif

At this time, no. They currently don't support mixed landscape/portrait modes in eyefinity. They also don't seem to support 5x1 either for some reason.
 
I am not very familiar with the technical limitation of eyefinitiy technology, but is it possible to replace the two middle monitors with one big one like so:
monitor_setup_by_xciter327.gif

Why the heck would you want that setup? Why not have 3 in portrait mode? The largest monitor right now is 30" and why have something so small flanking on both side? 22" might fit on both side but you won't be able to fit a 24".
 
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Interesting to see it in action but I fully agree with the bezels right in the way of your natural focus point in games. They either need to make monitors with next to no Bezel or just keep making larger and larger computer monitors. I'd rather hook up my system to a 46" Plama TV or a projector then deal with all that lost viewing space. The 3x1 still has me wanting another two monitors however!
 
Interesting to see it in action but I fully agree with the bezels right in the way of your natural focus point in games. They either need to make monitors with next to no Bezel or just keep making larger and larger computer monitors. I'd rather hook up my system to a 46" Plama TV or a projector then deal with all that lost viewing space. The 3x1 still has me wanting another two monitors however!
a large monitor doesnt give you the increased fov which is one of the main reasons to get eyefinity.
 
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