Need your feedback on eyefinity

[dorky82]

Ok that lasted long
my dp to vga adapter died on me.
Asus made outputs so cramped in one slot
i thought its my vid card so i plugged in my 4850(has dp port) and it didt work
i had to wiggle around to get monitor to detected but crash when i try to do eyefinity

 

[AlvinMaker]

Just got done selling off my Eyefinity setup because I was sick and fawking tired of chasing drivers and trying to get games to work properly,...

never ending battle and a waste of time and money is all Eyefinity was

Damn, that's too bad...

I must be one of the "lucky ones". Pretty much EVERYTHING I have tried has worked without incident- heck, with minimal tweaking I even got Doom 3 rolling (yeah, I know, shoot me- nostalgia!).

I can't imagine gaming on a single display again. Game on!

 

[jhatfie]

I absolutely love eyefinity. Racing games like Dirt 2 are amazing with the in car view. Feel very realistic and Battlefield BC2 likewise has a similar realistic impact that a single monitor just cannot duplicate. Only game that I have really had trouble with so far has been Grid, but then again I have not spent any time trouble shooting it.

 

[King Icewind]

I absolutely love eyefinity. Racing games like Dirt 2 are amazing with the in car view. Feel very realistic and Battlefield BC2 likewise has a similar realistic impact that a single monitor just cannot duplicate. Only game that I have really had trouble with so far has been Grid, but then again I have not spent any time trouble shooting it.

What is wrong with Grid?

It worked right away for me, and it's freaking sweet. I think I might have patched it with an update. It's one of my top 5 games to play in Eyefinity.

 

[piscian18]

Damn, that's too bad...

I must be one of the "lucky ones". Pretty much EVERYTHING I have tried has worked without incident- heck, with minimal tweaking I even got Doom 3 rolling (yeah, I know, shoot me- nostalgia!).

I can't imagine gaming on a single display again. Game on!

Other than screwing around with FOV in some older unsupported games It's all been plug and play for me aswell.

I would say overall CSS, TF2, BCBC2, MW1, MW2, Burnout Paradise have made the whole thing worth it to me.

What is wrong with Grid?

It worked right away for me, and it's freaking sweet. I think I might have patched it with an update. It's one of my top 5 games to play in Eyefinity.

While not an Eyefinity issue I gave up on Grid. The controls I guess are just too tight for me. I barely twitch left or right and my car spins out even at a measly 30mph. I dont know what the deal is with that game.

 

[dorky82]

Played grid, dirt, prototype, bc2 in eyefinity for half day and i'm back to single monitor.
I really miss eyefinity already. Need to get another dp to vga cable asap.

 

[wicked_chicken]

I've been using Eyefinity for the last 2-3 months. I'll never go back, and if I do, It'll be kicking, clawing, and screaming.

One of my favorite things about Eyefinity is flicking off my lights and using the iTunes Visualizer fullscreen while jamming out or relaxing. Also, the screensaver Flurry is phenomenal across extended mode.

I tried to use 4 displays with two video cards and ended up dropping the secondary card. Too man glitchy profile issues, but that might have been me asking too much of my system.

 

[AlvinMaker]

I've been using Eyefinity for the last 2-3 months. I'll never go back, and if I do, It'll be kicking, clawing, and screaming.

One of my favorite things about Eyefinity is flicking off my lights and using the iTunes Visualizer fullscreen while jamming out or relaxing. Also, the screensaver Flurry is phenomenal across extended mode.

I tried to use 4 displays with two video cards and ended up dropping the secondary card. Too man glitchy profile issues, but that might have been me asking too much of my system.

I thought about adding a 4th display as well... But don't know if I am ready for the headaches...

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[Matrices]

Grid's controls are fucked up, period. Not an Eyefinity issue. They are just ridiculously sensitive.

 

[AlvinMaker]

Grid's controls are fucked up, period. Not an Eyefinity issue. They are just ridiculously sensitive.

That's what I thought.... I tried it for 10 minutes and went back to Shift.

 

[King Icewind]

Never really thought they were touchy. It's definitely one of the best racers I've ever played because of the driving and drifting. You can change it, however.

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

1. There are no specific drivers for Eyefinity. They are the same whether it's one monitor or six.

2. There's only been a few games I've come across that don't work with Eyefinity, and those are 4+ year old games. MW2 is the only new game that didn't work right away. All that was needed was to google "MW2 Eyefinity fix"

3. You had the vast population of Hardforums to help.

.

I never said I couldn't get games to work... I said I was stick and tired of trying to make them work... I would get them to work, and by that time I had wasted enough time I didn't have time to play the game.

and who said shit about MW2... even when it was working properly with Eyefinity... game still sucks, the new patch made it not work for a long time.

I am just giving my feedback, and it wasn't positive.

 

[Oldie]

Grid's controls are fucked up, period. Not an Eyefinity issue. They are just ridiculously sensitive.

Yeah, Grid is one game I wouldn't want to try without a nice wheel. Definitely works just fine with eyefinity:

All of the Codemasters games I've tried have worked just fine.

I already had 3 matching S-IPS monitors long before Eyefinity came out, so my only investment was the card and adapter; but I would purchase it all from scratch again in a heartbeat. When I initially went with two monitors for the first time, I was amazed at the increase in my productivity. It was like going from Dial-Up to DSL. When I moved up to three, it was just like that compared to 2. I'm really scared about trying out 5 some day.

If you ever work from home, multiple monitors are one of the best investments you can make. With easier access to three screen gaming now, it's just that much more valuable. If you've never tried multi-monitor gaming, I suggest you find a way to sit down in front of a good setup before judging it. You simply can't understand the immersion level from videos online.

 

[AlvinMaker]

Ditto on the productivity...

Actually, this whole Eyefinity thing was an accident of sorts- and a GREAT one at that!

I was building a new PC for some basic video work, and the "do it to the max" geek in me started researching all the latest hardware. I had budgeted for 2 monitors for more screen real estate in Photoshop/AE/VUE etc..., and when I saw the new ATI cards were doing 3, it intrigued me. My buddy who helped me get back "in the know" persuaded me to forgo the TH2GO I was looking at and wait for the new Eyefinity technology that was coming (this was last year).

And VOILA'...I am one HAPPY Eyefinity camper, to say the least! I have said it before, and I'll say it again- I haven't uttered "holy crap" so much since I launched my first 3DFX accelerated game! Truly a "game changer".

True there are some bugs here and there, but that goes with ANY new "bleeding edge" technology. And the benefits FAR surpass the minimal "tweaking" it took. (I spent WAAAAY more time "patching" games to run 3D accelerated back in the day!).

Eyefinity GAME ON!

 

[Bladestorm]

Just got done selling off my Eyefinity setup because I was sick and fawking tired of chasing drivers and trying to get games to work properly,...

never ending battle and a waste of time and money is all Eyefinity was

You're not alone. That, and a few other reasons are why I went back to a single monitor.

 

[Unknown-One]

5850 isn't enough for eyefinity with all settings on high with enjoyable FPS.

Sorry, but that's simply not true, especially without specifying the resolution or the games you're using.

An HD5850 is more than enough for 3840x800 (triple 1280x800), 4320x900 (triple 1440x900), and in most cases, maxing out settings at 5040x1050 (triple 1680x1050) isn't a problem either. Take a look at 2560x1600 benchmarks for a good idea of what a card will do at 5040x1050, the pixel count is close to the same.

It's 5760x1200 (triple 1920x1200) that really kills performance. At that point you'd want to look at an HD5870 or two HD5850's in crossfire.

 

[wadec22]

You're not alone. That, and a few other reasons are why I went back to a single monitor.

this surprises me as i've never had to spend more than say 20min looking for a fix for an older game i wanted to play on eyefinity. i can't believe any enthusiast user here on the [H] would feel this way.

 

[AlvinMaker]

I felt the same way...

Doom 3 took just a handful of minutes "googling", and I was off to the races.

(mabye the fact that I was gaming back when you had to "patch" a game, and HOPED it worked 3D accelerated... boy have times changed! Guess it trained me well! )

 

[wadec22]

funny stuff right. i remember having to make boot disks to only load the essentials onto my 486 and pentium pro for a game to run.

 

[wadec22]

Yeah, Grid is one game I wouldn't want to try without a nice wheel. Definitely works just fine with eyefinity:

All of the Codemasters games I've tried have worked just fine.

I already had 3 matching S-IPS monitors long before Eyefinity came out, so my only investment was the card and adapter; but I would purchase it all from scratch again in a heartbeat. When I initially went with two monitors for the first time, I was amazed at the increase in my productivity. It was like going from Dial-Up to DSL. When I moved up to three, it was just like that compared to 2. I'm really scared about trying out 5 some day.

If you ever work from home, multiple monitors are one of the best investments you can make. With easier access to three screen gaming now, it's just that much more valuable. If you've never tried multi-monitor gaming, I suggest you find a way to sit down in front of a good setup before judging it. You simply can't understand the immersion level from videos online.

thinking of trying racing game now. never appealed to me before but i think it might be pretty kick ass now with eyefinity. recommend a game and wheel to use with it?

 

[AlvinMaker]

funny stuff right. i remember having to make boot disks to only load the essentials onto my 486 and pentium pro for a game to run.

Ahhh yes...those were the days!

I guess it prepared us for a little "tinkering" to enjoy our games to the fullest!

 

[Nickbaldwin86]

You're not alone. That, and a few other reasons are why I went back to a single monitor.

Ya I would rather just play my games than have to spend hours googling for a fix

 

[AlvinMaker]

In my 14 years of PC gaming, I can't recall ever NOT having to "tinker" to get things running optimally. It's just par for the course. "Tinker free" is console gaming...(at least it used to be : just got my second batch or red rings on my 360, but I digress) And yes, I own them all as well- but they can't hold a candle to the immersion and awe that comes with my Eyefinity rig... Just sayin'.

 

[no_control]

I cant speak for the lower resolutions, but for my setup, I can tell you that BFBC2 a single 5870 is really barely enough to run all settings on high. So while I would think a 5850 would run oler monitors @ 1050 fine and I would think there woould be some compromises for 1080 monitors. But in my experiance running the 1080 or 1200 monitors is hard on a 5870 unless its a 2gb version.

 

[AlvinMaker]

I cant speak for the lower resolutions, but for my setup, I can tell you that BFBC2 a single 5870 is really barely enough to run all settings on high. So while I would think a 5850 would run oler monitors @ 1050 fine and I would think there woould be some compromises for 1080 monitors. But in my experiance running the 1080 or 1200 monitors is hard on a 5870 unless its a 2gb version.

I would have to be inclined to agree, as I am running 3x22" IPS with a 5970, and BFBC2 is BARELY in the 30s maxed out at 5040x1050 with no AA. My compromise was to drop down to the next res , crank up AA, and it looks gorgeous and stays closer to 60s. So I could see a single 5850 having some issues with everything jacked...

 

[dorky82]

Got it running again. Did frap benchmark 5760x1080 med setting I get around 35 fps in multiplayer game. Tried lowering resolution and adding aa and af gave me only 30fps so I'll be sticking with full res.
Think my 550BE is holding my 5850 back?

also what are some good eyefinity games?
currently have
grid, dirt2, prototype, bc2, mw2

 

[AlvinMaker]

Got it running again. Did frap benchmark 5760x1080 med setting I get around 35 fps in multiplayer game. Tried lowering resolution and adding aa and af gave me only 30fps so I'll be sticking with full res.
Think my 550BE is holding my 5850 back?

also what are some good eyefinity games?
currently have
grid, dirt2, prototype, bc2, mw2

I also like Shift, Hawx, and Wings of Prey... All good in Eyefinity!

 

[Oldie]

thinking of trying racing game now. never appealed to me before but i think it might be pretty kick ass now with eyefinity. recommend a game and wheel to use with it?

I haven't been doing as much gaming lately, but I've played NFS: Shift, Grid, and Dirt/Dirt 2 the most, and they were all pretty fun. I'm also thinking about grabbing Blur when I know I'll have some time to play it with some friends. Adult Mario Kart sounds intriguing.

I know the ones I've already played handle eyefinity quite well (high settings on a 5870 @ 5040x1200); and I've heard that Blur works quite well too.

 

[Matrices]

How'd you end up with that resolution? Three 4:3 16x12 screens?

 

[Zepher]

Can you have 2 different resolutions?
I have 1440x900, 1680x1050, and 1440x900 screens.
I am considering selling my GTX285 and getting an Eyefinity card since it looks really cool to game on 3 screens.

 

[noquarter]

Can you have 2 different resolutions?
I have 1440x900, 1680x1050, and 1440x900 screens.
I am considering selling my GTX285 and getting an Eyefinity card since it looks really cool to game on 3 screens.

You can, but it will use a common resolution all 3 can support, so 1440x900 across all 3. Probably will be fine on your monitors since they are probably similar in size.

 

[dopee123]

Got it running again. Did frap benchmark 5760x1080 med setting I get around 35 fps in multiplayer game. Tried lowering resolution and adding aa and af gave me only 30fps so I'll be sticking with full res.
Think my 550BE is holding my 5850 back?

also what are some good eyefinity games?
currently have
grid, dirt2, prototype, bc2, mw2

You didn't specify which game, so I'll assume you're getting 35 FPS in BC2 with medium settings, no AA or AF. That is about what I predicted, which is unplayable FPS imo.

And to answer your question: yes, your dual core processor is holding you back immensely. I just went to a Q9650 from a E8400 and I gained around like 30+ FPS in BC2. Though it may not be true for the games that don't take advantage of 4 cores.

 

[noquarter]

You didn't specify which game, so I'll assume you're getting 35 FPS in BC2 with medium settings, no AA or AF. That is about what I predicted, which is unplayable FPS imo.

And to answer your question: yes, your dual core processor is holding you back immensely. I just went to a Q9650 from a E8400 and I gained around like 30+ FPS in BC2. Though it may not be true for the games that don't take advantage of 4 cores.

..But I can do about 35 FPS in BC2 in multiplayer at 5760x1080 with medium settings, no AA, 8x AF on a 5770, so I can't see the 5850 getting the same FPS I am. One way you can tell if your CPU is holding you back or your GPU is is to just lower the resolution without changing anything else, if the FPS goes up the GPU is holding you back, if the FPS stays the same the CPU is holding you back.

 

[dorky82]

My CPU is def holding it back.
Tried 3 different resolution and they were getting about same fps.
ran 3dmark06 and got 15900. Is this normal?
Used to get about 13000 with 4850

Cant believe my 3.8ghz dual core is holding it back. Never thought I would use full of dual cores and need of quad cores.

 

[Matrices]

Has anyone (besides Zorachus) tried Eyefinity with one center screen that's larger (in physical size, not resolution) than the flanking screens? It seems like an attractive idea since it's where your attention is focused most of the time, but I wanted to know whether anyone had tried it and was bothered by the resulting misalignment of content displayed across bezels.

 

[AlvinMaker]

Has anyone (besides Zorachus) tried Eyefinity with one center screen that's larger (in physical size, not resolution) than the flanking screens? It seems like an attractive idea since it's where your attention is focused most of the time, but I wanted to know whether anyone had tried it and was bothered by the resulting misalignment of content displayed across bezels.

When I FIRST got my setup home, my third monitor hadn't come in, and I had to use a 4:3 19" along with my 2 IPS 22" until the third 22 came in. It didn't bother me TOO much, and I had considered what you just mentioned, as it would be nice to have a slightly larger FOV in the middle monitor, since the sides are just for peripheral... Interested to see if anyone is running a setup like this, and the feedback. (I had considered something along the lines of 22-27-22 or 27-30-27...).

 

[noquarter]

Has anyone (besides Zorachus) tried Eyefinity with one center screen that's larger (in physical size, not resolution) than the flanking screens? It seems like an attractive idea since it's where your attention is focused most of the time, but I wanted to know whether anyone had tried it and was bothered by the resulting misalignment of content displayed across bezels.

I've done 23-24-23, also had mixed displays of 1920x1080 (23"), 1680x1050 (19") and 1280x1024 (19") with pillarboxing and the widescreen monitors slide behind the 5:4 one, and some other weird setups.

Size difference bothered me very little at all. What does bother me is color difference. Seems much more important to match the color than the size. I didn't like mixing IPS+TN because it's hard to balance them to each other. But I also wouldn't want a center monitor that's *much* larger than the sides. An inch or so isn't a bother though.

 

[Matrices]

Hm, interesting. Well my situation is that I've bought two Asus 25.5" panels and I'm thinking of getting an Asus 27" in the middle for the third. Since they're all TN and all Asus, it should work in theory. The only hitch is that the 25.5" panels are 16:10 and the 27" is 16:9. The 25.5" panels do have 1:1 mapping, so I could run them with little black bars to go with a uniform 1080p across all three monitors.

I'll have to think about it more when the 25.5"ers I bought come in and I can actually look at them. Sometimes 1:1 mapping isn't what people say it is; I have a Dell 2407 that does 1:1 on, say, 1680x1050, but refuses to do so in 1920x1080, which is retarded.

 

[Kardonxt]

I have 3 of the 25.5 ASUS and they are way larger than I thought.

Couldn't pay me to run at 1920x1080 instead of 1920x1200 though. That was 1/2 the reason i bought them

 

[Matrices]

I don't know that I care about the 120 pixels. I've been doing most of my gaming at 1080p on my plasma TV up to this point, and I had no complaints with 16:9. I already have a 24" desktop monitor, so I'm not sure that I'll be wowed with nSurround or whatever it's called if I get 3 monitors that are each only slightly larger than 24", so that's why I'm considering one 27".