Is Eyefinity + Crossfire Possible?

[Kor]

Posted in your other thread.

TLDR: Shit's broke, AMD never fixed it and probably never will (at least not for the 5xxx and 6xxx lineup).

 

[samuelmorris]

Given the experience of others, I find this a little difficult to believe

 

[Kor]

The problem isn't framerate, it's stutter. The problem is very prominent on AMD hardware, I've never seen it on nvidia setups. 60 frames is pointless when it looks like 30.

 

[samuelmorris]

The problem is inherent to dual-GPU setups, from both manufacturers.

 

[Kor]

The problem is inherent to dual-GPU setups, from both manufacturers.

Stutter is common across both vendors for sure, but AMD's stuttering issues are incredibly more pronounced when running triple head. The difference between 60 frames on a single monitor and 60 frames in Eyefinity is very large. Single monitor is smooth as silk, you might see the occasional bit of stutter but it always springs back to a fluid feeling. Triple head on the other hand never looks fluid like a single screen.

 

[Spree]

Stutter is common across both vendors for sure, but AMD's stuttering issues are incredibly more pronounced when running triple head. The difference between 60 frames on a single monitor and 60 frames in Eyefinity is very large. Single monitor is smooth as silk, you might see the occasional bit of stutter but it always springs back to a fluid feeling. Triple head on the other hand never looks fluid like a single screen.

I agree with your sentiment overall. Certainly the 58XX series was abysmal for crossfire and eyefinity. Even the 5970 failed to run eyefinity acceptably, with the drivers of last year anyway.

I have experienced a marked improvement with the 69XX series though. You still get some games producing that slight stutter feeling particularly when the frames are low. The big thing for me though is BC2 runs well on 3 and even 5 screen eyefinity. 3 monitors are particularly good with tri-fire as it allows me to enable HBAO and the gameplay is still smooth. It's a little bit too much for 5x1 though, but tbh I don't know what HBAO really adds. The frames are good with it on but the gameplay not so much.

If nvidia supported 5x1 I'd be very tempted to give them a go. Just to see if that setup would have this issue with fewer games or not.

 

[samuelmorris]

The HD5s did perform quite badly both in eyefinity and in crossfire, so that certainly isn't going to help. Before you write off the technology I'd say try and use an HD6-based system and then report back. Things are much improved.

 

[-Sn1PeR-]

The HD5s did perform quite badly both in eyefinity and in crossfire, so that certainly isn't going to help. Before you write off the technology I'd say try and use an HD6-based system and then report back. Things are much improved.

This. 2x 6950's in Eyefinity works amazingly well. Smooth.

 

[Noize_Unit]

This. 2x 6950's in Eyefinity works amazingly well. Smooth.

this gives me hope, i just got my third monitor for eyefinity (3x U2311H, Thanks Platano) and i have a ASUS HD 6950 2GB reference GPU atm, was planning on going for a 7970 when it came out but now that its not going to be released til q1 2012 at the earliest i have my eyes set on picking up another ASUS 6950 reference to match the one i have for more eyefinity horsepower, although i have mine clock at core: 910 (can go higher) memory: 1450 it performs pretty well for most games sans Metro 2033 (only 11-15 fps) i'm hoping that i can get some good performance when i xfire, until 7970 comes out anyways.

 

[crezzlin]

Yeah just put my old extreme4 board back in and all is super smooth with crossfire and eyefinity