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Eyefinity vs 30 inch??

J

jpinks

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
65
Ok I came into a some unexpected cash (bonus, thanks boss). I have a 5870 Sapphire Vapor X. I just got a 25.5 Asus monitor 19x12. I was thinking about trying out an Eyefinity set up, but I just dont know. I play TF2, ME2, JC2, STO, thinking about playing COD2 or BC2. I also play strategy games DoW1-2, Dawn of Discovery etc. My concern is how well this will hold up in a Eyefinity set up for a year or more. I really dont have the time to try and keep up with the latest and greatest on vid cards. I want to use it for a couple of years then upgrade as necessary. Do you guys think these cards in a years time will still be able to handle games at reasonable frames (ie at least 30fps)?? Would I be better off just going with a 30inch? I know Crysis 2 is a year away or so. But Fallout New Vegas is coming this Fall I think. Would there even be an advantage to upgrading to a 5870 2gb? I think the common answer to that is no. I guess I am kinda old school in thinking that FPS is king for alot of games.
 
the middle screen in an eyefinity setup will provide the same view as the 30" LCD. you don't see more with the 30" LCD. things are just displayed bigger.

however, since you say you don't keep up with the latest and greatest in video cards, I would just go for the 30" LCD. I believe eyefinity support is improving, but it sounds like you don't have the time to tinker with getting eyefinity to work when support is finicky.
 
Oh i dont mind tinkering to get it right. I would just be stuck to weekends doing it after the kids are asleep thing :D. The 30 LCD I have in mind is a 2560x1600 so shouldnt the field of view be close to an Eyefinity field of view?
 
I would go for a single 30" monitor. In my many trials with Eyefinity and different configurations, it really takes a dual card setup to run most newer games in Eyefinity. The 2GB model might help in a handful of games, but you're really running out of GPU horsepower with a single card above 2560x1600.

You'll be happier with the single monitor at the IQ levels you'll be able to play. Also, 30" monitors tend to hold their value well -- I bought an HP3065 over two years ago for $750 refurbished and just recently sold it for $700
 
jpinks said:
Oh i dont mind tinkering to get it right. I would just be stuck to weekends doing it after the kids are asleep thing :D. The 30 LCD I have in mind is a 2560x1600 so shouldnt the field of view be close to an Eyefinity field of view?
Click to expand...

the aspect ratio of the resolution being used determines how wide a FOV can be tolerated before fish eyeing occurs.

2560*1600 is a 16:10 aspect ratio

let's assume you have 3 of your 25.5 Asus 1920*1200 LCDs for eyefinity

each LCD displays a 1920*1200 resolution, which by themselves also display a 16:10 aspect ratio.

however, an eyefinity resolution would be 5760*1200, which produces a 48:10 aspect ratio. so the middle LCD will display the same FOV as the 30 LCD, while the left & right LCD will widen the FOV and provide a peripheral vision effect.
 
Well lets put it this way the most common eyefinity setup is 1920x1200x3 which is 7Mpix, a 30" is 4Mpix so you're going to need almost twice the power to keep the same frame rate.

We're already seeing some games become a problem, Metro2033 is a real killer with all its more advanced DX11 effects, I think the only reason this massive jump in resolution has occured is because most games are console ports and dont need a lot of graphics horsepower to run well.

One of my primary concerns when thinking about eyefinity for my own setup was that we're in a sort of graphics defecit for the PC, we've had constant advancement in harwdare but little to none in games, it would only take a spike for the games to catch up and eyefinity resolutions will quickly become unmanageble.

I have my 30" for a 2-3 years now and keeping up with 4Mpixel gaming has been hard, I would definately consider a 2nd 5870 for powering 7Mpix
 
PrincessFrosty said:
Well lets put it this way the most common eyefinity setup is 1920x1200x3 which is 7Mpix, a 30" is 4Mpix so you're going to need almost twice the power to keep the same frame rate.

We're already seeing some games become a problem, Metro2033 is a real killer with all its more advanced DX11 effects, I think the only reason this massive jump in resolution has occured is because most games are console ports and dont need a lot of graphics horsepower to run well.

One of my primary concerns when thinking about eyefinity for my own setup was that we're in a sort of graphics defecit for the PC, we've had constant advancement in harwdare but little to none in games, it would only take a spike for the games to catch up and eyefinity resolutions will quickly become unmanageble.

I have my 30" for a 2-3 years now and keeping up with 4Mpixel gaming has been hard, I would definately consider a 2nd 5870 for powering 7Mpix
Click to expand...

Thats the point I am concerned about too. Eyefinity could lure some back to PC gaming I think with such a great viewing setup. I wish it could have come sooner in as usable a form. I know Matrox had it years ago too, but it had lots of issues then if memory serves. I really want to try out a Eyefinity rig but I would hate to get in the upgrade required every year mode. LOL my wife finally broke me of that in 08. She would probably start smashing boxes if I start up again.
 
When ultra thin bezel or zero bezel (metal frame) monitors come, then I'll be happier with eyefinity. The 30 would be my preference, though I went with the U2711 for the time being.
 
jpinks said:
Oh i dont mind tinkering to get it right. I would just be stuck to weekends doing it after the kids are asleep thing :D. The 30 LCD I have in mind is a 2560x1600 so shouldnt the field of view be close to an Eyefinity field of view?
Click to expand...

The 30" is still 16:10... so it has the same field of view as your 25.5" monitor... as well as any monitor of any size that's 16:10.

Field of view doesn't increase with resolution, it increases with aspect ratio... which is the whole point of landscape eyefinity.

Performance is a legitimate concern. A single 5870 is passable for today's games... but I don't know about 1-2 years from now. One thing that should be consistent though is that all future GPU's should support triple wide. In the future if you don't upgrade you'll likely downgrade eye candy to play in triple wide. Worst case scenario you have the choice of playing on a single monitor with eye candy vs. 3 monitors with slightly lower settings.

People who already have 30" monitors may find 3 smaller monitors a little meh. I personally went from a single 22" to 3x 23" monitors... so I'm loving it. I was going to buy 2 new monitors anyway... so the 3rd one was a easy choice for me to step up to.
 
For mere enjoyment and gaming I would certainly go with an eyefinity setup and deal with less eyecandy. The experience is really a lot of fun. Then you can contemplate adding another 5870 in the future and really not have to think about anything other than what you want to play.

You will not go wrong going with a 30", but unfortunately PLP setups are not supported so going multi monitor at some point may be quite an ordeal for you.
 
jpinks said:
The 30 LCD I have in mind is a 2560x1600 so shouldnt the field of view be close to an Eyefinity field of view?
Click to expand...

Wow, and I thought devs not understanding 4:3/5:4 vs. 16:9/16:10 and the resulting V- vs. H+ FOV misunderstanding was bad...

You may want to spend some time at WSGF before you blow your dough...
 
From an ACTUAL eyefinity user, I say go with two more screens. I play both on three 24's and a 52" and the gameplay on eyefinity is just way better. Don't buy into that bezel bullshit as your focus will be on the main screen and the other two are for wider vision and a better experience. I had a thread going asking if actual eyefinity users had problems with bezels and I got a big no from over 90% of users and a bunch of yes from none users. Besides, if you don't like it, you have 30 days to return them.
 
BravO))) said:
From an ACTUAL eyefinity user, I say go with two more screens. I play both on three 24's and a 52" and the gameplay on eyefinity is just way better. Don't buy into that bezel bullshit as your focus will be on the main screen and the other two are for wider vision and a better experience. I had a thread going asking if actual eyefinity users had problems with bezels and I got a big no from over 90% of users and a bunch of yes from none users. Besides, if you don't like it, you have 30 days to return them.
Click to expand...

yep, cant agree more..

I was thinking about the bezel issue until I tried it myself....

you can see someone playing a game with that and feel its an issue, but its really not when you are playing it..

and overall, eyefinity is way better experience than a single 30" screen, it just fantastic...
 
2560 monitors already lead to bottlenecks in some games. Some of it is 1GB cards and some is framebuffer/bus. It's already hard enough to keep games maxed and above 60fps at 2560 and those bottlenecks are even worse on eyefinity with more pixels. So the question is if you care about framerates and maxing your games out. There aren't any cards in existence that could run the most intensive games maxed out at a decent eyefinity resolution (say 1920x3).
 
I was an Eyefinity skeptic, but now I simply couldn't go back to a single screen setup. Although the side monitors are mostly peripheral vision, the difference in the immersion level is incredible. Most of the games you mentioned work well with Eyefinity, even on a single 5870. The only games I can't run acceptably at 5760 x 1200 resolution without severely cutting back on image quality are GTA4, Metro 2033, and Crysis. BC2 is a great example of a game that just begs for an Eyefinity setup, looking amazing and running smooth even with AA cranked up a bit.
 
Yea I have ran quite a few configurations, it is very difficult to go back to a single monitor, even a 30". Currently running 3x30 and it is a lot of fun though the 5970 is struggling. I much prefer the fov than the extras.
 
Having played on both, I will keep my 30" for a long time to come. It's already quite taxing on the wallet to push 2560x1600 with eyecandy and add the fact that games just look unbelievable at that res and it's an easy choice.

Eyefinity is cool for racing and maybe even some FPS, but I don't see myself using it over my 30" for a long time.
 
Well for now we can all hope that they will enable plp and give people with 30" monitors a great/practical option.
 
+1 for Eyefinity. Not only is it awesome for games, but anybody who has used dual monitors will tell you that more monitors is *way* better than a single, larger monitor for general usage. I could never survive going to a single monitor. I've been using multiple monitors since the 9700 Pro days, and any time I'm forced back to a single monitor it just sucks.
 
Triple wide aspect ratio > Higher resolution screen, imho.

You can drop the Eyefinity resolution if you are worried about GPU muscle. I have a 5970 and mostly game at 5040x900 (4.5 Megapixels) in Eyefinity. I really dislike dropping below 60fps in any game.

It's worth noting that even with a 30" (4 Megapixels) you would still have to keep up with cutting edge GPU's in order to keep cutting edge games running smoothly at native resolution.
 
I will point out that the experience with eyefinity with mid high settings still IMO outweighs eyecandy and super high aa on a single screen. Eyecandy is to look at and eyefinity is to play with if you get what I am saying. I will gladly run mid settings with low aa on eyefinity then have all maxed settings and super aa on a single screen.
 
Having to look 5 feet from corner to corner to see HUDs on the monitor edges isn't my thing so I'm primarily sticking with a 30". Solid 60 FPS gaming at 4 million pixels is hard enough to achieve IMO. I'm not too thrilled with the (generally unoptimized) games I have that don't support crossfire at that res already.

OTOH, in a well supported title, the effect IS great. I replaced the 4770 in my mATX build with a 5770, and replaced my oddball 24/22/20 inch monitors with 3 Dell 22" DP panels. It's primarily for having 3 displays from one card, that only use 40-45w all together, but it's still nice having the option to game on them.
 
I vote Eyefinity 30inchers! Bezels pose a slight annoyance, but the enhanced FOV with eyefinity is pretty sweet.
 
kllrnohj said:
+1 for Eyefinity. Not only is it awesome for games, but anybody who has used dual monitors will tell you that more monitors is *way* better than a single, larger monitor for general usage. I could never survive going to a single monitor. I've been using multiple monitors since the 9700 Pro days, and any time I'm forced back to a single monitor it just sucks.
Click to expand...

I will disagree... a single 30" destroys dual 24" (or smaller) monitors for normal usage.. and for games... It's much more inconvenient to turn your head to look at different monitors when doing stuff like video editing, then it is to have it all on one big desktop. And you can't game on dual-monitors which means you lose that half when you're playing games (unless they're in a window, which you could still do on a 30" anyways).

I dropped my single 30" for a NEC 23" (and going to have 2 more for Eyefinity pretty soon)... and so far I'm liking it in some senses, in others I prefer the 30".

So I'll have to wait and see, once I have the eyefinity setup I'll see if I want to keep them or go back to a 30" again. Although I will have 6 megapixels vs. 4 on the 30" so I still might keep them just for programming / other things that are better with more desktop space.
 
Quality 30" IMO.

Like some others I hate the bezels in addition when people go Eyefinity they often get crappy LCDs. I'm use to H-IPS and won't be moving off of that until better tech comes along.

Eyefinity was buggy with Crossfire and I don't know if they fixed it. A single HD 5870 is not enough to push Eyefinity in some games even with 2Gb.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed/7

Obviously, all of this is preference.
 
There may well come a day when you can throw 1 30 and 2 small "winglet" LCD's on there as Eyefinity is still in its infancy yet. I tend to think the 3 or 6 same size monitors is more of a "what fits the market of screens" answer to the problem rather than what fits the gamer's desire.
 
Another vote for Eyefinity

I'm personally using three 22" widescreens, which an HD5850 seems to be able to handle well enough.
 
You can have my eyefinity when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Blacklash said:
Quality 30" IMO.

Like some others I hate the bezels in addition when people go Eyefinity they often get crappy LCDs. I'm use to H-IPS and won't be moving off of that until better tech comes along.

Eyefinity was buggy with Crossfire and I don't know if they fixed it. A single HD 5870 is not enough to push Eyefinity in some games even with 2Gb.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed/7

Obviously, all of this is preference.
Click to expand...

Meh, bezel complaints are a sure sign someone hasn't actually played on an Eyefinity setup, and steering clear of Eyefinity because some people use crappy TN panels is just ridiculous. You can easily buy IPS panels if you wanted.
 
I love my 3008WFP with the eyecandy turned up.
Not running Eyefinity and haven't seen it in person but run AA/AF when I can and wouldn't want to drop the settings multi-monitor will require.
 
Kowan said:
I love my 3008WFP with the eyecandy turned up.
Not running Eyefinity and haven't seen it in person but run AA/AF when I can and wouldn't want to drop the settings multi-monitor will require.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand the logic here. How would multi-monitor require lower settings?

Lets go to the "great big table of resolutions," shall we?

2400 x 600 . = 1,440,000 pixels | Triple 4:3
1680 x 1050 = 1,764,000 pixels | Single 16:10
1600 x 1200 = 1,920,000 pixels | Single 4:3
1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels | Single 16:9
1920 x 1200 = 2,304,000 pixels | Single 16:10
3072 x 768 . = 2,359,296 pixels | Triple 4:3
3840 x 720 . = 2,764,800 pixels | Triple 16:9
3840 x 800 . = 3,072,000 pixels | Triple 16:10
4080 x 768 . = 3,133,440 pixels | Triple 16:9
3840 x 960 . = 3,686,400 pixels | Triple 4:3
4320 x 900 . = 3,888,000 pixels | Triple 16:10
3840 x 1024 = 3,932,160 pixels | Triple 5:4
2560 x 1600 = 4,096,000 pixels | Single 16:10
4200 x 1050 = 4,410,000 pixels | Triple 4:3
5040 x 1050 = 5,292,000 pixels | Triple 16:10
4800 x 1200 = 5,760,000 pixels | Triple 4:3
5760 x 1080 = 6,220,800 pixels | Triple 16:9
5760 x 1200 = 6,912,000 pixels | Triple 16:10

Every triple monitor configuration of 3840 x 1200 (triple 1280x1024) or lower would perform faster than 2560x1600, and 5040x1050 (triple 1680x1050) would perform close to the same.
 
noquarter said:
Meh, bezel complaints are a sure sign someone hasn't actually played on an Eyefinity setup, and steering clear of Eyefinity because some people use crappy TN panels is just ridiculous. You can easily buy IPS panels if you wanted.
Click to expand...

Alright, I'm open-minded. Let's assume I can forget about the bezels in play and I've shelled out the cash for two more 1920x1200 H-IPS panels.

How is Crossfire support currently with Eyefinity? Could 1Gb HD 5870s deal with three 1920x1200 panels in demanding games with the details cranked up?
 
Blacklash said:
How is Crossfire support currently with Eyefinity?
Click to expand...
Crossfire + Eyefinity has worked since the 9.12 hotfix drivers.

Blacklash said:
Could 1Gb HD 5870s deal with three 1920x1200 panels in demanding games with the details cranked up?
Click to expand...
A single 1GB HD5870 could deal with pretty much everything but Crysis and Metro 2033 at that resolution (5760x1200). Two in crossfire would dominate all.
 
So what kind of stands are you guys who have Eyefinity using?? One of the Multi stands or just setting the monitors up on your desktop in the right config??
 
Blacklash said:
Alright, I'm open-minded. Let's assume I can forget about the bezels in play and I've shelled out the cash for two more 1920x1200 H-IPS panels.

How is Crossfire support currently with Eyefinity? Could 1Gb HD 5870s deal with three 1920x1200 panels in demanding games with the details cranked up?
Click to expand...

You can check this review for Crossfire performance:
http://widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Radeon_5870_Eyefinity6_-_Featured_Review

It's of the E6 edition but if you look at Anandtech's E6 review there's no performance difference on 3 monitor configs. You may have to give up some IQ even on a Crossfire setup but to me the immersion is worth it.
 
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