• 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 too addicting?

Soulmetzger

Soulmetzger

[H]ard|Gawd
2FA
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
1,334
I've had my eyefinity setup running for about a month now and have issues playing on setups using a single screen. For example, I had a friend come stay with my wife and I 2 weeks ago and we were playing TF2. I let him use my rig with eyefinity on 3 x 24" screens while I played on my wifes single 24" display rig.

My question is, does anyone else feel playing on a single screen is majorly lacking after you've had exposure to eyefinity? Does the thrill of 3 screens fade after awhile or do you crave this from now on?
 
I cry when I am forced at gunpoint to play bc2 on my single 22" as I run softTH and play the vast majority of games over three displays aswell (2x17"+22") :(

BC2 (or should I say PB) simply refuse to play the game though and kick for having multiple direct3D loaded :( :(

I agree with you though, triple displays (or indeed 4,5,6,7etc) is the way to go IMO :D
 
i have a 24-28-24 eyefinity setup, but i don't use the eyefinity setting for gaming. i prefer gaming on one monitor, especially with TF2. the bezels bother me.
 
^ I overlap my centre with left/right monitors (it only sits out an inch further) so I only have one bezel to contend with which is about 10-12mm as opposed to the 20-24mm of both. I barely notice it now :)
 
I couldn't STAND my eyefinity 3x24" setup. Its simply unplayable on so many titles, with major fisheye on the external monitors and in sandbox games the inability to mousescroll or use the side monitors and HUDs pushed to the extreme corners of your peripheral vision (and heaven forbid they are menus you actually need to click like Dragon Age)...
5347212594_552da39632_z.jpg

so.... much.... FAIL!

I would have been happier I think if profile switching worked properly (eyefinity desktop sucks ass, as maximizing spans all the monitors), and if I had managed to get portrait eyefinity going permanently for gaming without being an idiot and dropping one of my 24" monitors in frustration, lol!

Switched to a Dell U3011... a bit pricey, but oh so pure bliss. :cool:

Looks so much cleaner on my desk, no more Adobe CS5 suite GPU acceleration failures, odd jitters playing flash, no more intermittent wrong resolution displayed on the left monitor (probably adapter problem), awesome colors, and all my games "just work". Seen some killer 32" LED-HDTVs that I think would have been a great solution too with an ultra-low profile wallmount so your workspace has nothing but a nice wireless mouse and keyboard that can be moved out of the way, and a good multitouch wacoom you can get with the savings, and @ 1080P the GPU requirements aren't as steep.
 
Just depends on how large are the monitors. A larger single monitor is better than three smaller monitors from my experience.
If you like a certain sized monitor, get three of them to eliminate any buyers remorse. Don't compromise!

I dumped three U2211Hs because the center monitor was too small. I like 24"+ monitors so next time I will get three of those.
 
I use an addon for WoW called bartender, and there are other addons for unit frames/ui elements in that game. So for WoW at least, you can move all your UI elements to the middle screen. Perhaps if multi monitor gaming really takes off, those kind of options will get coded into more games outright or patched into later.

I've been deciding between a single 30" hp and going with three asus 23" 3d 1080p panels. I'm leaning twd three, though most likely in nvidia surround.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Just depends on how large are the monitors. A larger single monitor is better than three smaller monitors from my experience.
If you like a certain sized monitor, get three of them to eliminate any buyers remorse. Don't compromise!

I dumped three U2211Hs because the center monitor was too small. I like 24"+ monitors so next time I will get three of those.
Click to expand...

I don't find it too bad on my 2209wa's but they are 16:10 so they are actually a bit wider.
 
I am tentatively considering having my cake and eating it too: 3x22" + 30".

Need to find a desk that would actually work, though.
 
I'm not flanking monitors with that listed setup. The 30" would be below or above the 22" Eyefinity.

I am flanking my 30" with two 22" monitors in portrait right now, but I wouldn't waste money on those old and overpriced 20" refurb panels just to get matching resolution; it's pointless since there is no PLP gaming support with Eyefinity or Surround.
 
Last edited:
The more competitive you are, the less the eyefinity adds to the experience. For relaxing and having fun, I can see getting addicted to it. If you are chasing ranking on a clan server, etc., I have the opposite experience you do.
 
Is there a way to turn off how it stretched the images on the side monitors? I like it in FPSers but in a game like WoW i would it rather be turned off.
 
Sadly no. How much fisheye effect you get varies from game to game, but it's inevitable to some degree. Something about camera angle/focus, not an expert on it. Increasing the FOV in BC2 lessened the effect for me, but that didn't work elsewhere and it doesn't make sense that it would. Must be subjective.

This is one of the reasons it's better to get a center monitor that's bigger than the flanking ones.
 
Yeah, two things have to happen for eyefinity to be polished IMO:

1) AMD needs to enable PLP support, as this would eliminate the HUD and FOV issues almost entirely, while still giving that wraparound feel.

2) Game developers need to enable multipoint FOVs so that the side monitors have a perfect aspect ratio, and design the titles so that you can move the HUDs or recognize when eyefinity resolutions are being used and move it to the center monitor.

I don't understand why #1 isn't already done, and for #2 I just don't see eyefinity setups having enough market penetration to make that happen. Consoles aren't using it, and even for those that have eyefinity capable video cards, it is going to be a small minority that have the money, deskspace, or desire for three identical resolution monitors.
 
A few things I learned in reading up on eyefinity and nvidia surround that I thought I'd remind people of.

--Nvidia surround does not work without SLI (2 cards in most cases)
--Most nvidia cards are under 2gb video ram and ultra high rez craves ram.

....P-L-P gaming, usually a 30" 2560x1600 lcd flanked by two smaller monitors in portrait mode, can be done on many games by editing the configs to the proper resolutions and running the game in windowed mode. This is not nvidia surround or eyefinity, but multi-monitor/desktop-span windowed mode. Windowed mode does give a performance hit but some say only 5%.
...Windowed mode works on single cards but it is not supported by crossfire. It is supported by SLI. Only one card's power will be used with the ati version even if you have 2 crossfired.

.. mixed mode inputs on non 'eyefinity 6' ati cards results in screen tearing glitches.

I'm trying to figure out my options at this point.......

option 1: a higher end nvidia card and a 30" lcd.. and use my current gtx260 to drive a few side panels that I already own. No surround gaming. 2nd card for higher-end sli windowed mode upgrade path open.

option 2: two nvidia cards in sli (GTX560 2gb ?) 30" lcd + flanking . no dual sli card upgrade path since its locked in here on midrange+ cards

option 3: single higher-end ati card. 30" lcd+flanking lcds. no crossfire upgrade path for P-L-P, but open for 30" screen only gaming if necessary.

option 4: buy two more 28" hanspree TN panels ($250 each) to add to the one I already own. Go with single ati card for now. Can run eyefinity, and crossfired eyefinity later.

I'm prob waiting till march to see whats out and how the prices have lined up by then. I really want at least 2gb ram, and if possible I'd go with a single card to start with. However if I ever went to a dual card setup, it would be stupid to go with ati if i want P-L-P windowed mode gaming. Then again by the time I'd get 2nd card some better single card would be out. Any opinions? :confused:
 
Last edited:
That information is not all that accurate.

1. At least according to what's been reported, you don't get tearing glitches with Eyefinity unless you are enabling Vsync, which is just a silly thing to do in the first place nine times out of ten. If you're getting bad tearing because your FPS is higher than your refresh rate, don't force Vsync, just crank your visual settings until your FPS hovers just below 60. Problem solved.

2. The reason PLP isn't happening is because Nvidia and ATI are not going to waste time. What does PLP require? Two IPS monitors. How many people own IPS monitors? Better yet, how many people own a 30" and are then going to go buy two 20" refurbs, which is the only known matching PLP configuration with modern monitors? Right...

3. While SLI "works" in windowed mode, it runs like ass with crazy hitching. So if you want to drag your window across three screens for PLP, you lose multi-GPU horsepower. That resolution editing also doesn't work in a lot of games. Like anything running the Source engine. Better off trying the new SoftTH if you want to try out that option.

Between the fucking snow and UPS' idiocy, my 27" has not yet arrived, but what I will personally be experimenting with is 22"+27"+22" Eyefinity, while keeping my 30" for games that don't work with it.
 
THOMO said:
^ I overlap my centre with left/right monitors (it only sits out an inch further) so I only have one bezel to contend with which is about 10-12mm as opposed to the 20-24mm of both. I barely notice it now :)
Click to expand...

I see so many just up together, bezel to bezel. I always wondered why more people don't do this.
 
Disturbed_One said:
I see so many just up together, bezel to bezel. I always wondered why more people don't do this.
Click to expand...

Because it doesn't necessarily look right. The monitor whose bezel you chose to overlap sits a little farther away from you relative to the monitor you have moved up a bit to get its bezel do to the overlapping.
 
I overlap the middle over the two sides and have no issues. I prefer it this way to decrease the bezel size.
 
I was posting what I've read. I haven't tried either flavor of surround gaming yet. Any info regarding anything I posted or asked about is appreciated whether it contradicts or not.

I've been trying to read up on a lot of threads, reviews, etc. lately.

One of the sites I read that mentioned most of the issues I brought up in one place is

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264418

While his setup is very extreme, his reports on the various limitations and tradeoffs on the different technologies and cards seemed interesting, and "confirms" or at least re-iterates what a lot of the other pages I've been reading have said.
 
I'm always late to join the latest tech trends, although my good friend runs a 24x3 eyefinity setup and I have checked out bc2 on it . . . but for me it seems to give me a headache and I found my eyes "scanning" too much. The bezels also were annoying. Perhaps it just takes a good amount of getting used to but I still love my 26" t260hd single display so I won't be joining the 3d/eyefinity bandwagon anytime too soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top