Eyefinity Update

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,602
So as you might know, I was pretty darn impressed with ATI Eyefinity Technology that we showcased here lately. In fact we have been very much impressed with everything AMD has done lately on the GPU side of things. But to let you guys know that I put my money where my mouth is, I "upgraded" my own system tonight. I put that word in quotations because honestly, it seems sort of odd even to me to pull out two 4870 X2 cards in a CrossFireX configuration to replace them with one ATI Radeon 5870, but that is exactly what I did, and this shows you exactly what it got me. (Excuse the quality of the pictures, I just snapped them while playing around with the new system.)

Pictures are on the news page.

The first game pictured is STALKER: Clear Sky and the second is Left 4 Dead. I am running three Dell U2410 displays in a portrait 3x1 Eyefinity display group. Both games were easy to get running at 3600x1920 resolution with a bit of patience. I did not have to use any hacks or go to the command line. The biggest issue I had was the Catalyst Control Center crashing twice while configuring the display group. But it seems that the third time was charmed as it then worked fine.

You can obviously see issues with how the bezels throw off the flow of the pixels from screen to screen. Once you get gaming this does not bother me much, but I surely want to see it corrected, the same as Matrox did for its technology. Hit the link for some good animations of what we expect from AMD at the least.

I went with the portrait mode as I want a lot of vertical pixels for editing documents and this configuration allowed me more than the 1600 pixels I had before with the Dell 3007 at 2560x1600. It is going to take some getting used to as I have given up the large continuous vertical span allowed by the Dell 3007, but I think I will adjust quickly.

Base system specs: Intel Core i7 920 at 3.6GHz, ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution mobo, 6x2GB of DDR3 at 1443MHz, and ATI Radeon 5870.
 
Damnit, stop posting pictures of Eyefinity. You are making me look at how I can afford 3x24" monitors. :eek:
 
Cool good luck Kyle, If you want to get rid of that 3007 let me know we got ours with in days of each other :).
 
That is too sweet. Time for an upgrade. :)

Can anyone get this working with an adapter for 3xDVI monitors yet?
 
Shadowssong said:
Cool. That break in the gun would probably drive me insane though!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought the same exact thing, but once you get to playing, you never really see it again. When characters faces are split by the screen it really reminds you it being there and kills the immersion factor. If Matrox can fix it, so can AMD.
 
So you removed two 4870x2 crossfired. One single 5870 out does two 4870x2's?? Is that correct or am I just dreaming?

Obviously eyefinity is the new toy and I am building a new rig with it in mind.
 
Last edited:
Love-Man said:
That is too sweet. Time for an upgrade. :)

Can anyone get this working with an adapter for 3xDVI monitors yet?
Click to expand...

YES! I have feedback from three folks now that are running triple DVI monitors using the "Dell adapter". It is sold under several different names but you can tell as the cases are all the same. I tried it, and it would NOT work with my U2410s, although I did not need it to either. I am going to do some more testing with three 3007 now that mine is off my desk for good and I can use it easily on the test bench.

Talking to AMD more about this today, they explained they have used the "Dell adapter" successfully as well and that the Apple adapter does not work. AMD is working with a vendor to hopefully get the price down to the sub-$50 level and make it a certified Eyefinity accessory.
 
Sweet setup. Having the larger pixel height would definitely help me at work but I sincerely doubt the company would fork over the cash for such a setup. Thanks for sharing! :)
 
Great. I was going to hang on to my kidneys for a rainy day, but looks like I'll have to sell one now! :mad:

Seriously, that is awesome! I hope AMD continues to push this technology both with their drivers, and new hardware in the future. Maybe I'll be able to afford it in it's next generation...
 
XNeKoSX said:
So you removed two 4870x2 crossfired. One single 5870 out does two 4870x2's?? Is that correct or am I just dreaming?

Obviously eyefinity is the new toy and I and building a new rig with it in mind.
Click to expand...

I think what you are seeing here is the experience being more important than the framerate. ;)

AceGoober said:
Sweet setup. Having the larger pixel height would definitely help me at work but I sincerely doubt the company would fork over the cash for such a setup. Thanks for sharing! :)
Click to expand...

I need to build a stand about 5" tall to elevate the displays as they are a bit low for me right now.
 
I would think that a more concave setup would of been used, but I'm assuming most of the time is gonna be spent not gaming and that the monitors are better overall layed out as is.
 
there's no way i could ever play a game with huge black lines running up and down across the screen(s)
 
I am just wondering when Matrox is going to file some kind of obscure patent lawsuit against ATI/AMD now.
 
ocellaris said:
Have you tried just sliding the bezel of the side monitors behind the bezel of the center monitor? That would cut the bezel area in half, seems like the easiest solution for now to at least improve it.
Click to expand...
I thought about that too, but if they are as thick as my 2407... that would add a distraction also and effect how stuff lines up.
 
I assume these are nice monitors, but, Kyle, do you see any color distortion or refresh issues with the monitors this way? Especially the side ones?
 
kuyaglen said:
I would think that a more concave setup would of been used, but I'm assuming most of the time is gonna be spent not gaming and that the monitors are better overall layed out as is.
Click to expand...

Actually I started with them flat, but the brightness difference was a bit off due to the angle of the side monitors so they are actually turned in a bit at the outside; maybe ~8 degrees.

ocellaris said:
Have you tried just sliding the bezel of the side monitors behind the bezel of the center monitor? That would cut the bezel area in half, seems like the easiest solution for now to at least improve it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did this with the 3x1 landscape setup we used for the Eyefinity video, but it was too much with the portrait setup. The depth difference is too much to deal with.

nerv63 said:
there's no way i could ever play a game with huge black lines running up and down across the screen(s)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the note, I will take this as your sign off to never post in an Eyefinity thread again.

UrielDagda said:
I am just wondering when Matrox is going to file some kind of obscure patent lawsuit against ATI/AMD now.
Click to expand...

NVIDIA has been doing triple head for years on its Quadro cards primarily for AutoCAD, so I don't see this issue happening. But who knows.
 
Modred189 said:
I assume these are nice monitors, but, Kyle, do you see any color distortion or refresh issues with the monitors this way? Especially the side ones?
Click to expand...

I am amazed at how blacker the blacks are on these 2410s compared to my old 3007. As mentioned above, had a bit of a brightness issue, but turning the outside monitors in a few degrees solved that for me and quite frankly it felt better overall than leaving them flat.

And I will say this right now, I will get two more when the 6 head card arrives and crossfire it with this one. :)
 
Seriously Kyle you're going to make me have to hide my credit cards from myself. I can't afford two more monitors (spent all my money on my 5870!) But it looks sooooooooooooo good. I think your video showed it best how the bezels wouldn't bother me while gaming.
 
Damn, makes me wish I could afford 3 nice monitors. I'm squeaking by with my one. (Although right now, my gaming PC is plugged into my HDTV...)

I must say, gaming on three monitors is nice. I remember back when (warning: nostalgia mode) Windows 98 first came out and Microsoft supported using as many video cards as you could cram in. I had three cards in my system, and played Flight Simulator 98 across three monitors (one 17" and two 15" CRTs.) The immersion was just incredible; and that was before Flight Sim looked at all realistic. I've played FS-X on two 15" LCDs, but three would be incredible.

Then again, I have a 4870X2, and from your own reviews, in the games I play most, I'd see no speed boost unless I went to a pair of cards. And I just can't afford two more vid cards right now. (Not to mention extra monitors.)
 
TGA said:
I am very interested to see how well you adjust to this setup and look forward to the updates and how your opinion may change over time.

When you say you will get 2 more I assume your taliing about doing a 5x1 in portrait setup correct? Damn I hadn't even given that a thought.

Any idea if a 5x1 in portrait like that might help with the fish eye effect?
Click to expand...

No doubt that I am going to have to adjust to losing the 2560x1600 section of solid pixels, but I will let you guys know how it goes. When I go to a 5x1 portrait setup, I can always put a 3007 back into commission above the 5x1 as an extended display. I was using Photoshop spanned across all 3 screens to edit the pictures I posted and honestly, it was not bad once I spent 10 minutes with it. I think your brain adjusts to it....dunno.

On the fisheye, I don't know, but I would guess the same issue we have with the 5670 pixels wide now with three 30's. With 5x1 you will be talking about 6000 pixels wide or 5400....
 
I'm holding out for 3x24 slim bezels and a Radeon 5890.

That, or a nice riding mower.
 
TGA said:
Any idea if a 5x1 in portrait like that might help with the fish eye effect?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this comes down to the games not supporting a high enough FOV for the crazy wide resolutions you can get on eyefinity. Kyle's setup looks pretty alright, but he's not running 5600 wide. ;)

I do hope there's a fix for it soon, as to me the fisheye problems really detract from how nice gaming like this really is.
 
Kyle,

Any word from AMD/ATI in regards to Eyefinity and Crossfire configurations?
 
Now that we have video cards that are able to push that much pixels, display manufacturers needs to step up and push these cards.

ProductImage_curved.jpg


http://www.necdisplay.com/newtechnologies/curveddisplay/

We need more of these but bigger! :D
 
DAMN YOU KYLE! I have to go knock over a bank now...:(

By the way, do you have any idea when crossfire will work with it? Not to mention those Samsung monitors with the ultra thin bezels?
 
Oh noes Kyle! I was just about to have a 0 balance on my credit card. Here's to another 6 months of paying off 3 new monitors!
 
Man this is awesome looking. I was checking out Zorachus's post about this same subject and I jaw hit the floor! :cool:
 
The video review is what got me to drop 1k+ on my eyefinity setup in the last few weeks. :X It just astounds me to think of the productivity I will achieve while coding with 3 in portrait like you have setup.
 
Oldie said:
Unfortunately this comes down to the games not supporting a high enough FOV for the crazy wide resolutions you can get on eyefinity. Kyle's setup looks pretty alright, but he's not running 5600 wide. ;)

I do hope there's a fix for it soon, as to me the fisheye problems really detract from how nice gaming like this really is.
Click to expand...

Bummer, I mean it doesn't look like something that will bother me very much during gaming. I just thought that maybe since the 5x displays in portrait would "wrap" better for and effect that would be more like a curved display. And that maybe it would be a little more natural looking then what we are seeing in the 3x1 landscape.

Not that I can really see my self buying 2 more of these cheap 19" 16x10 displays I have right now since I would rather get 2 more 19x12 anyway.
 
Last edited:
I honestly don't know the technology... BUT...

Is there a way to make an LCD or (O)LED monitor that has no bezels? Zero edge screen? Is it possible?

Obviously it wouldn't be for the everyday user, since most people need them so they won't break the screen, but for professionals, it might be nice to have the option of bezel-less monitors.
 
Ooh, could even make 1" square monitors that fit together with special couplings and power/data connections. could have a wrap-around or even bubble, or even spherical screen. All depending on the couplers you select and the # of 1" monitors you use.

Also would allow for a double-wide laptop without having the difference in distances, wrap them around to the back on a hinge, or even swing inward toward itself.
 
first off I would like to say that i love that Kyle is still rocking the G15 g1. secondly wow bezels are some serious fail. i really have a feeling that crossfire of these cards is in my future but this is one of the things i would like fixed before i sink the dough into it. but after seeing what matrox did to fix it i have a little bit of hope that ATI's driver guys can get it delt with. now on to other questions i want answered about "eyefinity" possible to use a CRT or a 120HZ panel as the center of 3?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top