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Eyefinity on single 5850

R

ryken

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
3,106
Wondering if anyone hear could share their thoughts and/or experiences on running eyefinity on a single 5850. Right now I have the rig in sig (5850, phII 810, 4GB ram) and a 28" Hanns G monitor. Having seen all of the 3 monitor setups around here, I'm starting to ponder this type of setup, but my funds are limited. I'm in school, and only have about $500-550 to spend on upgrades.

I was thinking of going for 3 Dell P2210, P2210h, or P2310h setups. I know they are all TN, but I don't care (I run a 19" TN in portrait on the side of my 28 and the viewing angles and color shift don't bother me). They are all 1920x1080, with the exception of the P2210, which is 1680x1050.

How do you guys think games would perform on this? I mainly play mass effect 2 and TF2 right now, both on maxed settings. I know I won't be able to crank Crysis/Metro 2033, but what about games like BC2, L4D2, or Batman:AA?

Will the smaller resolution monitors help? I'm reluctant to go from one 28 to three 22's, so anyone who has done that, let me know what you think!
 
I'd go with 3x 1680x1050. I ran on a single 5870 at 3x 1920x1080 for a while before going xfire. All games are playable on a single card. All source games run fine no problem (even with anti-aliasing). BC2 will have to step down to medium (that's not a big deal actually since medium looks very close to high). Mass Effect 2 doesn't work with triple wide. Batman: AA will run fine no problem.
 
What about at 1920x1080 (x3) on a single 5850?

Is it possible, with current games using lower(ed) settings??
 
3x 1680x1050 will certainly be easier to drive. 3x 1920x1080 has ~18% more pixels to drive. 3x 1920x1200 (what your 28" Hanns-G is) is 31% more pixels than 3x 1680x1050.

You could always grab 2 more of the Hanns-G 28" (which are TN as well, btw) and run 3 of those if you are worried about going down in size ;) But if you do that you will need a DP->DVI adapter ($100) and at least a hefty OC on the 5850.
 
kllrnohj said:
You could always grab 2 more of the Hanns-G 28" (which are TN as well, btw) and run 3 of those if you are worried about going down in size ;) But if you do that you will need a DP->DVI adapter ($100) and at least a hefty OC on the 5850.
Click to expand...

That puts me at $700 with the adapter, and I don't have the room.
 
Before I parted out, I ran 3 cheapo acer 22" 1680x1050 off a single 5850 card... didn't have any problems. Plus at that rez, I was able to use a DP to VGA adapter for the 3rd screen, worked like a charm. I caught the monitors for 100 bucks each on black friday last year. All source games were maxed, Batman was maxed, I don't play crysis or anything. Maxed AC2 and several others.

I still have the DP to vga adapter if you decide to go that route. Drop me a pm I'm sure we can work it out.

Good luck, it's a blast to do, but it's hot and sucks down alot of power and my AC bill in Phoenix in the summer was high enough. Down to a laptop and I get my gaming jollies just fine with it. Eyefinity was the shit though :)
 
[L]imey;1035985347 said:
Before I parted out, I ran 3 cheapo acer 22" 1680x1050 off a single 5850 card... didn't have any problems. Plus at that rez, I was able to use a DP to VGA adapter for the 3rd screen, worked like a charm. I caught the monitors for 100 bucks each on black friday last year. All source games were maxed, Batman was maxed, I don't play crysis or anything. Maxed AC2 and several others.

I still have the DP to vga adapter if you decide to go that route. Drop me a pm I'm sure we can work it out.

Good luck, it's a blast to do, but it's hot and sucks down alot of power and my AC bill in Phoenix in the summer was high enough. Down to a laptop and I get my gaming jollies just fine with it. Eyefinity was the shit though :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for this! This helps a lot. Especially the batman, source, ac2 input. I'm not too worried about heat in Chicago (at least for 10 months of the year) and the power shouldn't be too much more than a 28" and 19".

Anyone have first hand experience with a 1920x1080 eyefinity setup on a single 5850?
 
I run 3x Dell 2007FPW's on a single XFX 5850 at 5292x1050. See this post for some pictures including some game screenshots. Cost me about $450 total to go Eyefinity. $100 DP adapter from Dell, 2x 2007FPW for about $150 ea from eBay plus shipping. This was much cheaper than buying 3x new LCD's and they all match.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035956249#post1035956249
I don't have any problems with games and I have a lot of them. BC2, JC2, AC2, L4D2, Source games, etc all look great and I average about 35-40FPS with med-high to high setting in all of them. Metro 2033 is sort of odd in Eyefinity due to the mouse movement and you really have to lower some of the setting to medium. Bioshock 2 looks good except for the map screen.
 
I run 3x DELL 2007FP's (4800x1200) in Eyefinity on a 5870. Runs decent. A 5850 should work pretty well too.

The biggest question is: Are you willing to lower IQ settings? Run without any AA?
 
rUmX said:
The biggest question is: Are you willing to lower IQ settings? Run without any AA?
Click to expand...

This is really what I'm trying to figure out. I don't need "max" settings on all games, but I do want everything to look nice. Do you guys prefer the 3 monitors over being able to run everything jacked? Did you notice the lack of AA and "medium" detail when you switched, or were the 3 screens so rad that you didn't even notice?

Also, how do you guys feel about mixing monitors? I was thinking of two E2310h for the sides, and then a P2310h (has DP, but is $40 more and hard to find on outlet) for the middle.
 
Hi,
I have an Eyefinity setup with 3 Dell P2310h and one Saphire 5850 video card. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well as post pictures or videos.
 
Do you guys prefer the 3 monitors over being able to run everything jacked?
Click to expand...
Yes, but it depends on the game. Most of the games I have tried support Eyefinity and the extra screen real estate is totally worth lowering a few options for me at least. 90% of my games are FPS's where the extra screens help. GTA4 is easier to play in Eyefinity since you can see more of the world, esp when making turns driving. I also just spent the last 2 years gaming on my laptop's 8600GSm so I am used to lowered settings. I like it to look good but the story and performance are more important to me.

Did you notice the lack of AA and "medium" detail when you switched, or were the 3 screens so rad that you didn't even notice?
Click to expand...
It hard for me to answer this. I only had my new gaming PC with the 5850 (see my sig for details) for about 2 months before I decided to go Eyefinity. During that time I only played a few games, Mass Effect 2, Assassins Creed 2, Left for Dead 2, and Eve Online. I have since tried AC2 in Eyefinity and only had to lower one setting IIRC, but it didn't matter because the game looked awesome and it was totally worth it to be able to see more of my surroundings in game.
L4D2 looks exactly the same (everything maxed) and performs just as well on either 1 LCD or 3. Bezel Compensation doesn't seem to work for L4D2 though but it is a trivial matter that I rarely notice given the frantic pace of the game. I play Eve Online maxed and in windowed mode so that I can run both of my accounts on a dedicated screen while browsing the net or watching a movie on the third screen. In that regard, Eyefinity was totally worth it.

Also, how do you guys feel about mixing monitors?
Click to expand...
Personally, Mismatched monitors would drive me crazy and you may be more prone to problems with color matching, frequency, aesthetic appearance, etc. This is why I went with buying two more 2007FPW's off eBay and using an adapter. I wanted everything to look the same and minimize potential issues. It was also cheaper for me. If it is cheaper for you to mix the LCD's than getting 3 of the same plus the $100 DP adapter, then it may be better to go with that.
 
Ramirin said:
Hi,
I have an Eyefinity setup with 3 Dell P2310h and one Saphire 5850 video card. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well as post pictures or videos.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum. Please feel free to post some pictures of your setup. We can never get enough here and it is always interesting to see other's setups.
 
Here's a pic

fsx004.jpg
 
ryken said:
This is really what I'm trying to figure out. I don't need "max" settings on all games, but I do want everything to look nice. Do you guys prefer the 3 monitors over being able to run everything jacked? Did you notice the lack of AA and "medium" detail when you switched, or were the 3 screens so rad that you didn't even notice?

Also, how do you guys feel about mixing monitors? I was thinking of two E2310h for the sides, and then a P2310h (has DP, but is $40 more and hard to find on outlet) for the middle.
Click to expand...

I had a 5870 but in terms of quality settings (read: maximum playable settings a la [H] style), it shouldn't be that different than a 5850 (esp. if you OC the 5850, I had a stock 5870). And yes I much preferred 3 screens to turning on AA. In most cases AA is pretty much all you have to turn off. It also taught me that in most games, medium doesn't look that bad. I personally made a judgment call by comparing the IQ and finding the sweet spot. You learn quickly that stuff like ambient occlusion can easily be thrown away since it's very taxing and doesn't add a whole lot. Turning shadows one notch lower also helps in a lot of games and doesn't really change the IQ that much, etc.

I had a 5870 on a single monitor for a few months before going eyefinity and while I was able to run games at 8xAA etc., eyefinity was just something else altogether.

As for mismatching monitors... bezel comp will break, but as long as you have them lined up with the same color settings it should be fine.

Ramirin said:
Hi,
I have an Eyefinity setup with 3 Dell P2310h and one Saphire 5850 video card. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well as post pictures or videos.
Click to expand...
Nice monitors :p
 
Ramirin said:
Hi,
I have an Eyefinity setup with 3 Dell P2310h and one Saphire 5850 video card. I'd be happy to answer any questions as well as post pictures or videos.
Click to expand...

Would you mind taking a couple more pics zoomed back a bit, and with your keyboard or something in the frame for reference?

All your guys' comments are really helpful. I turned BC2 down to medium and turned AA off and honestly could barely tell the difference, so I think I'm going to like eyefinity over having really high settings.

Would bezel comp work with one p2310h and two e2310h models? They look almost exactly the same, except for stand and usb ports. The p2310h is hard to find, but the e2310h doesn't have display port, so if I could find one p2310h on ebay or craigslist, the e2310h's are always on dell outlet.
 
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I have 2 Dell P2310H and 1 Asus VH236H 1920x1080 16:9 monitors. I think the 16:10 aspect ratio is slightly better for Eyefinity than the 16:9 aspect ratio. In landscape 3x16:9 is very wide and short and in portrait they are too narrow. It's not a deal breaker in the slightest but something I ought to have thought of before purchasing. Unfortunately there's not really big enough 1680x1050 monitors and not cheap enough 1920x1200 so I would've ended up with these anyway.


As for adapter you can use a $20 DisplayPort -> VGA adapter with some luck.
 
i have had a crossfire 5850 rig and sold one and now just have one 5850.. i still play the same games and didnt turn any settings down. this includes bad company 2 , tf, and nfs shift. all at max settings running great frame rate. but my rig is at 4ghz so cpu could play a part to.
 
I play all games maxed out with AA with my setup. Valve games run very smoothly with 8xAA, Capcom games the same, I even get over 100fps with Street Fighter 4. I have tested a lot of games and they all run good without having to lower the settings, including FSX which is demands more CPU power than video. I also play MMos like WoW, LOTRO, Aion and Warhammer Online maxed out with AA.
The only 2 games so far that refuse to run at a decent IQ/framerate ratio are the Crysis games and ARMA II.
Here's a link to a video of me playing FSX in eyefinity that I uploaded to my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jScb_qisuZs
 
Nice, I did the same thing as you, 5850 on 3 cheap 22" TN panels. It worked fine, though I did have to turn down a few things sometimes.

To OP, as a rule of thumb (obviously this varies from game to game), a 3x1 setup will be at about half the framerate as a single monitor of the same resolution. You'd think it'd be 1/3 and not 1/2 the fps, but it's not linear like that. Sort of like how, if you notice in review sites, going from 1680x1050 to 2560x1600 is a 2.32x increase in pixels to push, yet performance is not 2.32x worse. Using this as a guideline should tell you roughly how much performance to expect.

Overclocking a 5850 to near-5870 speeds is another thing to consider.

[L]imey;1035985347 said:
Before I parted out, I ran 3 cheapo acer 22" 1680x1050 off a single 5850 card... didn't have any problems. Plus at that rez, I was able to use a DP to VGA adapter for the 3rd screen, worked like a charm. I caught the monitors for 100 bucks each on black friday last year. All source games were maxed, Batman was maxed, I don't play crysis or anything. Maxed AC2 and several others.

I still have the DP to vga adapter if you decide to go that route. Drop me a pm I'm sure we can work it out.

Good luck, it's a blast to do, but it's hot and sucks down alot of power and my AC bill in Phoenix in the summer was high enough. Down to a laptop and I get my gaming jollies just fine with it. Eyefinity was the shit though :)
Click to expand...
 
Currently running eyefinity with one 5850(900/4500)
I can run all the games fine except for bfbc2.
I just upgraded from dual core to quad and gained about 10-15 fps.
will adding second 5850 give me extra fps? I got sad after seeing sli vs crossfire review. Seemed like second card is not helping any.
 
a 5850 is going to struggle with these massive resolutions unless you drop a lot of the graphics settings, or you're playing really old games.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
a 5850 is going to struggle with these massive resolutions unless you drop a lot of the graphics settings, or you're playing really old games.
Click to expand...

Or you are underestimating the card or overestimating the graphical demand of newer games.

I'm running Eyefinity on a single 5870 (which a 5850 can OC to), and it's surprising how much grunt this puppy has. You really don't need to drop as many settings as you might think.
 
kllrnohj said:
Or you are underestimating the card or overestimating the graphical demand of newer games.

I'm running Eyefinity on a single 5870 (which a 5850 can OC to), and it's surprising how much grunt this puppy has. You really don't need to drop as many settings as you might think.
Click to expand...
Yep, the 58xx cards handle high resolutions very well. Quite impressive what one of these cards can do. It gives me hope for 3x30" in the future :D.
 
Ok, I think I got what I need. Thanks to everyone for their help! I'm going to keep an eye out for a good deal on some 23" 1920x1080 monitors. I think I'm just going to get the monitors that I want, and not worry about performance. If I have to turn down settings right now, no biggie. In a year or two, I'll upgrade to something that can drive them at higher settings. Thanks again guys!
 
5700x1200 on a single 5850 (overclocked to 900/1200) works great for me. BFBC2 detail certainly has to be turned down a little bit, but it's worth it.

I had crossfire 5850 originally but sold the 2nd card because of the eyefinity+crossfire FPS stuttering issues.
 
I've also noticed in benchmarks that generally tripling the resolution (from 1920x1080 to 5760x1080) only drops you to 2/3 the fps. So if you get 60 fps in 1920x1080 you'll probably get ~40 fps in 5760x1080.
 
I've also noticed in benchmarks that generally tripling the resolution (from 1920x1080 to 5760x1080) only drops you to 2/3 the fps. So if you get 60 fps in 1920x1080 you'll probably get ~40 fps in 5760x1080.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you also lose AA capabilities...
 
FaRKle0079 said:
Yeah, but you also lose AA capabilities...
Click to expand...

I meant without changing any graphic settings. If you look at benchmarks out there the FPS without changing settings drops to about 60% of single screen FPS when you triple the resolution. Point is it's not near 1/3 the performance like you'd expect if it was linear loss when you tripled resolution and you can roughly guess what you're going to get. You could turn AA off to get FPS back up of course.

There are some games that just crap out if you have AA on at those resolutions though.
 
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