Eyefinity/Surround Questions

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Namesis

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
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I am getting a nice bonus this year and looking at going 3 monitors and was looking for feedback/experiences.I heard a lot of raving about it so I would like to giver a try.

I built a new SB-E system this year except the video card so now I am thinking time to upgrade in the new year as new cards hopefully be announced. (hd 5850 right now and it is fine)If not plan b current gen.

I have an old 24' lg (2-3yrs old) and was thinking of a 27 for a main and another 24 for the side. would this cause issues and is it better to have 3X24? (1920x1080)
Since it is old I will not be able to find 2 more identical and since prices have come down a lot why not. Does brand matter for Amd/Nvidia? I searched but only saw bezel correction for 3 identical. (and display port-adapter as well)

It also seems the current high end cards are capable of running 3 monitors with 1 video card so I think I would be ok with a single 7970 or 680/ new release or does it require 2 cards of current gen (and that would mean a new ps as I have a 650w.)

This is the place to come to ask questions and gather feedback. You guys are in the know.
Thanks for taking the time with me.
 
Monitors have to use an identical resolution but Sizes and models can be different, for example 3x 1920x1080 monitors. For AMD you have to use at least 1 DP input with the monitors, so you can use an active DVI to DP adapter if none of your monitors have DP. A single 7970/680 should be enough for most games if you turn down the settings. Also keep in mind that if you go with AMD and use a combination of inputs such as DVI and DP instead of all DP then you may get some tearing, previous drivers fixed the issue but some people still have it.
 
Thnx - my one worry being that the image wont look right if I have a larger monitor in the middle surrounded by the 2 smaller ones.

Recent price drops I can always get a second card later on if I dont think it is enough.
 
I have been running a 5850 for a few years in eyefenity with 3, 19 inch lcd's.
the 19's are 1280 x 1024 and work fine for most games a year or so old.
"Now days that system is for world of tanks and war z i haven't tested it on newer games"

Depending on the res your going to push and what games you playing on it give it a try first.

When i first set it up i used a 24 lcd as the main screen and it lowered the res where it looked like crap mixed with 19 inch lcd's.

I woudl set up eyefinity on my main system but im out of desk space.
 
If you're able to get three of the same size and resolution monitors I'd highly recommend it. some prefer the 20/30/20 PLP set but I'm not sure that can actually play games in eyefinity. Plus I prefer the symmetry of the 3 23" I'm using in landscape.

As for powering the 3, my previous card, a 5770 could not play games at the 5760-1080 resolution, but I would think any of the higher end cards should be able to on lower settings if nothing else. I'm still waiting on connecting adapters but I'm hopeful my new 7870 will be able to hit 30fps at eyefinity resolutions.
 
I've run 5760x1200 with both AMD and Nvidia cards so far. I preferred a single 680 over a single 7970, eyefinity is horrific in my opinioin after trying to live with it for a little while. Everything up to BF3 played fine with a single card, although obviously not with settings maxed out all the time. I did not notice any real visual difference though.

To clarify my problems with eyefinity, the hotkeys are broken and I was consistently having problems with my monitors moving around every time I switched from span to extend, sometimes left and right would swap, other times it would try to extend vertically instead of horizontally, etc. Sometimes one monitor would just shut off and not want to come back on until I reset the array. It was really exasperating because the setup process takes a few minutes every time. Not to mention I was getting severe tearing from the DP adapter I was using for the 3rd screen, which is eye-catching and bothered me a lot.

Surround seems to have less options (and no hydravision) as far as how you want to set it up but it remains the same once I set it, which I appreciate. I do have to go into the control panel to switch from surround to extend but the result is identical each time.
 
Thnx for the feedback I appreciate it.
I may just go for 24's for symmetry sake. I still do really like
the idea of a larger main screen but if it doesnt run well or match up I will rethink it - I am looking over the net to see if it is viable.

I was unaware of the tearing issue - doesnt sound good and the driver issue.
 
i highly recommended getting three of the same monitor, more for appearance reasons though.

i never notice tearing except for loading screens, while gaming i never witness any tearing.
all games run great on my surround setup and i love it.

i just recently decided to go surround, maybe about four months ago.

if your playing demanding games though, be aware of the amount of money your going to need to spend on gpus.
if you want to play bf3 for instance, smoothly your probably going to want three cards.
(cant speak for others, but my bf3 actually on runs best on ultra settings. any lower settings and my gpu utilization goes down. so keeping all settings on ultra, no msaa, 16x aa, i get 90+ gpu usage and better fps than if i was to play on medium settings.)

i have two 4gb 680s and am picking up a third for this reason. two can cut in bf3 on ultra settings but my fps often dips into the 40s, overall the game is playable but i like to never drop below 60fps.

if you can afford it, you will not regret it
 
I will pick up 2 more 24's and use my old 24 as a 3rd think that will do for now to get the feel of it.

As for games - Right now I dont have many demanding games except GW2.
I saw the 7970 for $300 (non ghz) and thought that was a nice deal but if it is better to steer clear of amd in favor of nvdia i will.

I will spend more time looking at the issues online like i did with the monitors which I decided to go with 24's instead of 27'in the middle cause it could be an issue.

I have wanted to try this for a while and since I need to upgrade 5850 soonish might as well go big.
 
LigTasm said:
I've run 5760x1200 with both AMD and Nvidia cards so far. I preferred a single 680 over a single 7970, eyefinity is horrific in my opinioin after trying to live with it for a little while. Everything up to BF3 played fine with a single card, although obviously not with settings maxed out all the time. I did not notice any real visual difference though.

To clarify my problems with eyefinity, the hotkeys are broken and I was consistently having problems with my monitors moving around every time I switched from span to extend, sometimes left and right would swap, other times it would try to extend vertically instead of horizontally, etc. Sometimes one monitor would just shut off and not want to come back on until I reset the array. It was really exasperating because the setup process takes a few minutes every time. Not to mention I was getting severe tearing from the DP adapter I was using for the 3rd screen, which is eye-catching and bothered me a lot.

Surround seems to have less options (and no hydravision) as far as how you want to set it up but it remains the same once I set it, which I appreciate. I do have to go into the control panel to switch from surround to extend but the result is identical each time.
Click to expand...

All of my this.

With AMD I ended up just leaving Eyefinity with bezel correction enabled all the time. Switching anything (including updating from working drivers that I found on Guru3D) would result in weirdness. It wasn't as bad once I moved to projectors because then I didn't need bezel correction. The tearing and artifacting in Windows with the 12.11 driver was horrible though. They call it the Never Settle driver but it might as well have been the "Never look at left screen" driver for me (the left projector was using a DP-DVI adapter).

Edit: Also, buy 3 matching monitors. It would look pretty strange with a 27" flanked by 2 24" monitors. The bezels can sort of be ignored but if things can't move smoothly between the screens I think that would be distracting.
 
Great thanks so much for the input.
It will be 2 new 24's and likely the gtx 680 then.
I was a little worried about only 2gb and small bandwidth on them but the reviews here say it doesnt limit the performance. I did kinda figure that the 3gb higher band 7970 would have been better with the higher display level.
Now it is a waiting game and get them boxing day/uber sales time.

I must admit that the 5850 has been a dynamite card for me and have had no issues with it and if I didnt get the itch to give this a go I would hold onto it a little while longer.
 
Will be interested in your results with the 680. I am in the process of doing the same thing and am also running a 5850 right now. I picked up a 7970 though and have a 3x24" setup. Somewhat discouraged hearing about the DP to DVI tearing. Is this a driver issue?
 
footballcoach said:
Will be interested in your results with the 680. I am in the process of doing the same thing and am also running a 5850 right now. I picked up a 7970 though and have a 3x24" setup. Somewhat discouraged hearing about the DP to DVI tearing. Is this a driver issue?
Click to expand...

No. I think it's related to there being a single frame buffer for the "Single Large Surface" display. That frame buffer is read by the transmit logic on each port of the card. DisplayPort and HDMI/DVI run at slightly different frequencies (in terms of their respective vertical refresh rates). This results in tearing on the monitor that's using a different connector type from the other 2 monitors. For me I was using 2 mini-DP-to-DVI connectors and a straight DVI connector for my Eyefinity setup. I was getting tearing on the display connected with DVI.

If AMD could lock the vertical refresh rates across different connection types then I think the tearing would go away. This requires a clock source change inside of the port logic in the chip and I doubt they can fix it with a driver update (or they would have done it by now).

Edit: FYI: I design chips for a living; including DVI/HDMI/DP receivers and transmitters. There's at least an 80% chance I know what I'm talking about. :)
 
From a strictly monetary sense it is a little disappointing because 7970 can go as low as 300 and sits at about 370.(msi)

The gtx is low at 409 and sits at 450. (zotac)
I am just looking a the aspect if 1 card isnt enough and i buy one myself. hopefully by then prices will have dropped. However if there is less issue with the Nvidia card then the saved aggravation may be worth it LoL.
 
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