Eyefinity question/rant

*Sigh* polonyc2 simply has no clue how much adding to your peripheral vision helps. I remember when I first got my triple-screen setup, and I wanted to see just how effective it was. I decided to try out GRID with the side monitors both off and on to see how much it helped...the difference was astounding.

I loaded up GRID, selected a the Challanger Concept Car, and put the camera in 1st person (driver-cam), then raced a few laps.

With the side screens OFF, I eventually managed to get myself up to 3rd place.

With the side screens ON, I came in 1st place without any effort at all, on every run.

I then turned the side screens off again (to see if it was just me getting better at the track), I started coming in 4th and 5th again. I couldn't see cars to my left or right, and I couldn't see my rear-view mirrors. It really is like driving with your side windows painted black, massively more difficult.

The extra width also helps in 1st person shooters, where it makes it far easier to spot people creeping up on you from the sides. There's also nothing like having your entire field of vision, three screens wide, full of a mobbing zombies in Left4Dead.

Real Time Strategy (RTS) games are totally different as well, especially in ones like Supreme Commander, that allow you to put a different camera on each screen. You can be looking at three entierly different parts of the map at once, or watch a battle from three different angles. It's amazing.

And you know what? The bezels don't detract from this AT ALL. It'll be even better once ATi has bezel management implemented. I'm using SoftTH, so I already have bezel management, but I can honestly say it doesn't make that big of a difference, because you really don't notice the bezels once you're actually playing.

You still have a wider field of vision (being able to monitor 160 degrees at once rather than 75-90 degrees) than you ever would on a single 16:10 monitor, you're still more immersed, and you still have a game-play advantage.

I think polonyc2 just needs to experience it for himself, in person, and he'll get it...
 
I am with you 100%

I have been racing Dirt 2 a lot sense I got my eyefinity setup and before I got it setup I looked back at some races and I was coming in 3-4 and I raced them again and managed to come in 1st. I think eyefinity might be a little like THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO RACING GAMES..... NO WAIT... GAMING IN GENERAL :D

FPS takes a little getting used to but as soon as I did I started doing much better.
 
I am TERRIBLE at racing games in general, but actually did OK with Dirt 2 in Eyefinity, for the reason sited. SO cool in racing games!
 
The arguments here are going nowhere as one poster said.

If you already have a panel the EASIEST and most correct setup you can have is to have monitors that are as close in spec as possible! I really could give a crap less about the TN versus IPS versus PVA debate. The truth is that even within panel types, and indeed within identical model screens you are going to have some differences in output.

Your best bet is to have screens as close in spec as possible. Even then to get the most out of your setup I'd recommend a tool that can balance the brightness and color output(in the area tested which is usually the center of each screen) of each monitor such as an Eye One Display 2. Pantone Huey Pro only handles the color not the amount of light output.

If you have a top of the line IPS next to a crappy TN that balancing act becomes harder. No matter what your eyefinity experience as far as QUALITY of output is concerned is going to be held to the limit of the LEAST of your displays. Not that you'll necessarily notice while you blaze down a hallway in Modern Warfare 2 with the commando, lightweight, and marathon perks enabled.

Also eyefinity is less of an advantage in fast paced FPS than in other game types because the time-span margin for inaction is narrower. If I turn a corner and I'm able to see an enemy I normally wouldn't have seen that's great, but if that enemy is already pointed toward me I'm dead. If however that enemy is running parallel to me then chances are that they can't see me, though I can see them due to my large field of view, and that's a kill I might not have otherwise have gotten. It's an advantage but not as much as say in a racing or flying game. At the same time I notice the bezel less in that type of game because my two side monitors almost exist solely for peripherally catching movement which needs to get to the center screen as quickly as possible.

As for non-gaming I could never go back to 1 monitor. I love not having to do any switching to be able to have 3 full-screen programs going. This has boosted my programming productivity by a landslide.

Yes we'd all love the have the most BA setups imaginable but for most there's the whole bang/buck and what can I actually afford issues. If quality is the name of your game good for you get the setup that suits you best on the quality/cost ratio you can afford. The most important thing is to remember to get em as close in spec as possible so that there aren't vast differences in output from one panel to the next. Just my 20 cents...
 
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absolutely correct on both counts...and I'm in the image quality over immersion camp myself...immersion is nice but it's not like it affects the core gameplay in any way which is happening in the center monitor 99.9% of the time...the immersion of seeing a wall, some more background trees etc is not something I consider critical
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lololol, I can't believe anybody takes any of your posts seriously. I'm just going to go ahead and call you a troll and be done with this thread. Even if by chance you aren't, you obviously have no clue what you're talking about.
 
It's all relative. A person switching from the onboard graphics from an old Omnibook 6k series would be blown away by the capabilities of an 8800GT. I came from a 15" laptop display with three dozen stuck pixels and literally 60 degree viewing angle - so from my point of view my Acer P243w is mind-blowing. I'm sure if you started from here looking for an upgrade, there'd be much better stuff, but for me this is unimaginably better than where I came from, and I don't have any real desire to push it further, at least for now.
 
My first Eyefinity setup was a 1920x1080 + 1280x1024 (VERY cheap) + 1680x1050 because I had to see it. All TN panels with the widescreen ones set to 4:3 pillarbox and shoved part way behind the 1280x1024, as Eyefinity defaults to the lowest resolution.

You can talk all you want about image quality but once you see the immersion even from that f'd up setup like that it's a whole different experience. So yes even 3 terrible, mismatched, missized panels? Worth It.

The bezels get filtered out by your brain immediately btw. Anyone who thinks the bezels are distracting have only looked at triple monitor in pictures.

The TN panels obviously don't look as nice as IPS but being up to set up triple monitor for ~$500 of TN panels is a far superior gaming experience than 1 IPS panel, and of course $1500 of IPS panels would be even better. And yes I even put an IPS panel into my Eyefinity mix for a while I know the image quality difference.

The only thing you can't do that well with cheap TN panels is Portrait mode. The lower vertical viewing angle is usually pretty bad on TNs so when you rotate to portrait you have much less forgiving viewing angles..
 
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I have to revive this thread...I just read an article today which pretty much states the exact same things I was saying about Eyefinity (and getting blasted by certain members) when I started this thread a few months back...the article is talking about the new 6 screen Eyefinity setups but a lot of the reviewers' complaints echo my own...

"However, like multi-GPUs, we’d also like to point out that we’re hugely in favour of buying a single, large quality monitor rather than many cheap and crap ones. The accurate colours and contrast of a good PVA or IPS panel give a noticeably more interesting, more vibrant and more engaging game than the dull flatness or clearly wrong colours of a bog-standard TN screen. To get a three-screen setup that we’d really want to spend money on is going to get expensive; many people are still going to be more than happy with a single 24-30in high-quality screen and putting quite a bit of the budget into their graphics, CPU or other purchases"

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/03/10/hands-on-with-6-screen-ati-eyefinity/3
 
Except it makes the false assumption that everyone can see the extra colors a PVA or IPS panel offers. Partial color blindness is very common - something like 1 in 5 men have some form of color blindness or deficiency.

Having made the switch from a TN to an IPS myself I can tell you that I absolutely love IPS and wouldn't go back to TN. That said, given the choice between a single IPS (lets say a U2410 or thereabouts) or three TNs - all the same size (which makes them cost comparable) - I would go for the triple TNs every single time. It isn't even close as far as I'm concerned. Hell, 2 TNs blow away a single IPS for my needs.
 
If I hadn't already been using a TN Panel that I was happy with, I'd have gone IPS. I decided to get 3 new displayport capable monitors.

I bought 3 Dell P2310H TN panel monitors and they are pretty good. I wanted to go IPS, but it was a matter of $500 per monitor vs $183 per monitor.

That's a significantly lower barrier to entry for an unproven technology than the higher quality IPS monitors. All told, my eyefinity setup (card + monitors) was $1000 and instead of $2000.

If I find a good deal on IPS displayport capable monitors, I'll probably upgrade.. but for now, these mid-range dell monitors have offered a great eyefinity experience in landscape mode.
 
This is one of the most worthless threads I've ever stumbled across. First, it's not about video cards in the least. Second, no offense polonyc2, but you are an idiot. I'm glad that you have a great monitor. I'm glad it makes you happy. But the difference between one great monitor and multiple "good" monitors is overwhelming. I use my computer(s)... a lot. I've been running a 4 monitor setup for several years and I'm upgrading to a 10+1 setup this next week. I think that probably means my e-peen is larger than yours...
 
polonyc2 said:
I have to revive this thread...I just read an article today which pretty much states the exact same things I was saying about Eyefinity (and getting blasted by certain members) when I started this thread a few months back...the article is talking about the new 6 screen Eyefinity setups but a lot of the reviewers' complaints echo my own...

"However, like multi-GPUs, we’d also like to point out that we’re hugely in favour of buying a single, large quality monitor rather than many cheap and crap ones. The accurate colours and contrast of a good PVA or IPS panel give a noticeably more interesting, more vibrant and more engaging game than the dull flatness or clearly wrong colours of a bog-standard TN screen. To get a three-screen setup that we’d really want to spend money on is going to get expensive; many people are still going to be more than happy with a single 24-30in high-quality screen and putting quite a bit of the budget into their graphics, CPU or other purchases"

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/03/10/hands-on-with-6-screen-ati-eyefinity/3
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Oh look, an opinion!
 
OldPueblo said:
Validated. Do you also believe that only the RAM listed on a memory tested list for motherboards will work and no other RAM? Why do you need so badly for people to believe your opinion is fact?
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calm down OldPuebla...I just reported what I read on another reputable website...people can decide for themselves...it's always good to hear opposing viewpoints before making a purchase decision...this is the spin free zone...fair and balanced reporting :D
 
...about as fair and balanced as a shell game with weighted dice on a seesaw opposite the fat kid.
 
polonyc2 said:
I have to revive this thread...I just read an article today which pretty much states the exact same things I was saying about Eyefinity (and getting blasted by certain members) when I started this thread a few months back...the article is talking about the new 6 screen Eyefinity setups but a lot of the reviewers' complaints echo my own...

"However, like multi-GPUs, we’d also like to point out that we’re hugely in favour of buying a single, large quality monitor rather than many cheap and crap ones. The accurate colours and contrast of a good PVA or IPS panel give a noticeably more interesting, more vibrant and more engaging game than the dull flatness or clearly wrong colours of a bog-standard TN screen. To get a three-screen setup that we’d really want to spend money on is going to get expensive; many people are still going to be more than happy with a single 24-30in high-quality screen and putting quite a bit of the budget into their graphics, CPU or other purchases"

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/03/10/hands-on-with-6-screen-ati-eyefinity/3
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Dude its just an opinion, who gives a crap. This thread does not deserve to be this long nor does it deserve to be revived.

Its really simple...

1. Some people would rather 3x cheap monitors than 1x awesome monitor. I know I would.

2. Other people, like you, would rather 1 awesome monitor than 3 cheap ones.

3. The vast majority of people, and when I say vast I mean about 90% of people, are happy with 1x cheap monitor and wouldn't even consider a high end monitor nor would they consider an expensive graphics card and 3x cheap monitors.

I'm pretty sure people can decide for themselves what they want without being told by some reviewer who clearly falls into group 2.
 
polonyc2 said:
list of Eyefinity validated games

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-software.aspx

why does ATI bury that list deep inside their site?...(that was a rhetorical question)
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Because it isn't buried deep inside their site.

Here is the main Eyefinity landing page (its also what comes up first when you google "ATI Eyefinity"): http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/products/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity.aspx

Look under "About Eyefinity" in the lower center of that page and you'll see "Supported Software", which goes directly to the page you linked to that you claim was buried. One link deep sure as hell isn't buried. One link deep is highly accessible. Heck, that link is even present twice on that page - once in the main content area, and once in the side navigation box.

Also, there are plenty of games that aren't on that list but work just fine. Validated means that it has a centered HUD and the works, and that list isn't comprehensive. Serious Sam HD, for example, works brilliantly with Eyefinity, centered HUD and all, but it isn't listed on that page.
 
polonyc2 said:
calm down OldPuebla...I just reported what I read on another reputable website...people can decide for themselves...it's always good to hear opposing viewpoints before making a purchase decision...this is the spin free zone...fair and balanced reporting :D
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You have far too many angry posts in this thread to tell someone else to calm down. :p
 
Tudz said:
Dude its just an opinion, who gives a crap. This thread does not deserve to be this long nor does it deserve to be revived.

Its really simple...

1. Some people would rather 3x cheap monitors than 1x awesome monitor. I know I would.

2. Other people, like you, would rather 1 awesome monitor than 3 cheap ones.

3. The vast majority of people, and when I say vast I mean about 90% of people, are happy with 1x cheap monitor and wouldn't even consider a high end monitor nor would they consider an expensive graphics card and 3x cheap monitors.

I'm pretty sure people can decide for themselves what they want without being told by some reviewer who clearly falls into group 2.
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QFT.
 
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