• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Eyefinity discouragement

O

oldbustedjorn

n00b
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
31
So, a while back I finally obtained the two the things I needed for eyefinity. I was able to get a 3rd 24" (1920x1200) monitor and an ATI 5850. Life was grand.

However, it's upgrade time (finally, I've been under water financially the past few years - thanks housing market!), and I feel like I'm at a major fork in the road.

I want to upgrade my GPU and at face value, the best option seems to be buying one 6970 now and another in a few months. The reasoning is that I can run 3x24" with the one card (like I do now) and then add on for more performance. If I go with nVidia (my prior preference), I have to buy two cards up front. In addition, I really want to replace my one 24" because it doesn't pivot so I can't easily do portrait eyefinity.

Now I've been reading about microstuttering. The tomshardware article that I read only tested up to 1920x1080, and this is largely irrelevant for eyefinity, so I'm wondering what kind of issues I will have with 3x24" on 2x6970.

To be honest, there is a part of me that wants to get rid of all of my 24" monitors and go with a 2560x1600 30" and a single, high-powered GPU (likely nVidia 580 or similar). This is the time to make the decision, because either investment is large and I won't want to change any time soon.

Am I too worried about stuttering? I've heard that 3xATI cards in crossfire is better for stuttering. I suppose I could bite the bullet and get 1 now and 2 later. Am I missing any obvious options here?

Thanks.
 
No issues.
microstuttering might appear under 30fps.
unless you run it that low fps wise, you wont have such issue at all.

I run 6850/6870 with 120hz eyefunity and I adapt my settings in each game depending on how it runs for me, very few games I need to lower settings and I never seen microstuttering myself, although I seldom play many games.
 
Yes, you are too worried about stuttering. 2x6950 plays everything out there just fine at eyefinity resolutions. Look at some [H] reviews to get an idea.
 
Define microstuttering?

I have had any combination of SLi and/or Crossfire since the 6800 (as in nvidia 6800 Ultra)series and i have never seen this illusive "microstutter"

Either configuration, CF or SLi with three 24" monitors would be just fine, stop fretting.
 
Last edited:
I'm running two 6950s in portrait eyefinity and it's been great. Prior to that I ran eyefinity off of a single and dual 5870s. It's been totally worth it. Also, if your 24" monitors are TN you won't want to do portrait eyefinity due to the bad vertical viewing angles.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

I think where I was worried was that I would not be able to get 5760x1200 at decent framerates out of 2x6970's... I'm pretty sure my left and center screens are IPS (Dell U2410 and an older Dell 24"), but the right one was cheap - that is the one I want to replace and it would be replaced with a U2410. They are darn expensive but I love them so much.

End of October is my date for all my upgrades... so pumped!
 
Still loving my 5850; I think I'd be more inclined to get a second card and crossfire them than to upgrade to a new, single card. Problem is, my version of the 5850 has largely been discontinued...how would everyone else proceed here?
 
Don Juan Formaggio said:
Still loving my 5850; I think I'd be more inclined to get a second card and crossfire them than to upgrade to a new, single card. Problem is, my version of the 5850 has largely been discontinued...how would everyone else proceed here?
Click to expand...

I sold my 5850 to a coworker for $160, if yours is a reference model you should easily get $175 on the forum or ebay. Bitcoin mining is still popular (I think) and the 5850 is a great miner.

So, sell your 5850 and buy a 2GB 6950. I noticed a good improvement and it only cost me $75 to upgrade.

I've been telling myself that I'll add another sometime, but by the time that comes around, it seems like a single newer card is the better route. Too many priorities over computer games these days.
 
I guess I'm the one guy that has been disappointed with eyefinity (not from hardware support anymore, that's solid now, but a software side - nothing seems to support either the appropriate resolutions out of the box, or the FOV changes needed to make it not goofy looking). At least, nothing I play does :(
 
lopoetve said:
I guess I'm the one guy that has been disappointed with eyefinity (not from hardware support anymore, that's solid now, but a software side - nothing seems to support either the appropriate resolutions out of the box, or the FOV changes needed to make it not goofy looking). At least, nothing I play does :(
Click to expand...

it was the same issue when widescreen lcds started to get popular. i remember when i got my first widescreen monitor and got frustrated with some of hte games that didn't support it..
 
After having Eyefinity myself last year, I'll get a 30" over three monitors anyday.
Unless you need the extra monitors for work or something I would see it useful. Just for gaming, it was overkill for me.
 
I like my eyefinity setup, but I would strongly discourage using 22" monitors in portrait, it's too narrow.

I think I would trade my 3x22" panels for a 30" screen. But, I don't like having $1000 on an LCD. That's a huge chunk to lose if the screen goes bad after the 3 year warranty is expired.
 
H-street said:
it was the same issue when widescreen lcds started to get popular. i remember when i got my first widescreen monitor and got frustrated with some of hte games that didn't support it..
Click to expand...

This is definitely true. I hope it advances in the future, but for now, it's just not been very useful. I played Portal 2 with it, and that's it - nothing else has worked well
 
WorldExclusive said:
After having Eyefinity myself last year, I'll get a 30" over three monitors anyday.
Unless you need the extra monitors for work or something I would see it useful. Just for gaming, it was overkill for me.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing initially. I went with 3x24" monitors @ 1920x1200 each and 2x 6970 MSI Lightning in CF. I found it to be mostly overkill and the extra monitors did not really add much depth to gaming (IMHO). I don't play any flight sims, mostly FPS, some RTS and MMOs. I also did not like how it worked OK in some games, and was completely broken in others (either bad stuttering, or the HUD was not centered and other weird problems).

I think the deal breaker for me was how it seems that images are stretched in the side monitors, which I could never get used to.

I ended up buying a Hazro 27" 2460x1440 monitor and could not be happier.
 
I did pretty much the same thing. I went Eyefinity last gen and wanted to try nVidia this gen but didn't want to put down the cash for 2 cards up front, so I stuck with ATI and picked up a 6950 to keep my Eyefinity set up and plan to get a second one pretty soon.

I will say for the monitor, I also had one monitor that didn't rotate, and ended up picking up this:
http://www.amazon.com/3M-Easy-Adjust-Monitor-Stand-MS110MB/dp/B0013CD0DI

It works great. I also tried some cheap $20 stand from monoprice and it was not worth it at all.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Either fix the non-pivot mount via replacement and live with it, or get the 30" when you upgrade. I had three 23" monitors, and I felt I wouldn't lose much if I had a 30
single monitor.
 
You can get a monitor arm for eyefinity as some of those have you remove the stands and allow pivoting for portrait or landscape. Neither of my 3 monitors had a pivot function on their stock stand my ErgoT3cH triple monitor arm works fine. There are others out there and this is yet another thing to buy but still I just wanted to let you know of all the options on the table before you decide what to buy.

I have no problems with microstuttering in eyrfinity with crossfire unlocked and beyond 6970 overclocked 6950s. I guess it depends on how sensitive you are to microstuttering. I would recommend 2 Saphire Toxic 6950s if they ever get back in stock at newegg or if you can find them elsewhere. They are the best bang/buck card for eyefinity. A pair of them would be as good as a pair of 6970s and then some. See the review on the homepage here. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/08/29/sapphire_toxic_hd6950_video_card_review
 
I'm actually always surprised when my latest game usually runs eyefinity just fine, without any modding. Sometimes I have to mod a value or two in a text file, but it usually takes less than a minute. The longest it took me to get a game working in eyefinity was maybe 15 minutes when I had to learn how to use a hex editor to modify some hex values.

A 30'' is pretty tempting and definitely saves a small amount of time, but for me it costs a lot more. Portrait eyefinity is actually better than a 30'' once its up and working imo.
 
Sufu said:
They ship to the US. It was not terribly expensive either.
Click to expand...

*edit*

I see it on overclocker's uk site. I was looking on hazro's website.

Do we have to pay the VAT when shipping it to USA? How much was shipping?
 
Last edited:
If you're having Eyefinity problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but microstutter ain't one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top