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nvidia surround?

Tamlin_WSGF said:
Its easy and understandable that people think going 3X screens is giving up eyecandy on single screen. :)

Its not a compromise, since you in cases where FPS is low, would either choose between 2 ways of eyecandy. You can either have AA enabled or view 3X the amount of game content. Many choose to see more of the game then have AA. :)

And, you still have the option to run single screen whenever you wish!
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Yea, people think of it as 'you have to turn down AA and eye candy to run at that res?' but it can just as easily be looked at as 'you have to turn your res that low to turn on AA?'

To me eye candy doesn't begin to compare with the immersiveness. Definitely happy to see nVidia releasing a multi-monitor solution too, more support = more games that take it in to account when in development.. like Mass Effect 2 should have :(
 
heatlesssun said:
Why the requirement for two cards? I guess that must be related to output ports as GT 200s and Fermis only have 2 independent ports on a card.
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That would be correct. Nvidia's cards only have two RAMDAC's, which means each card can output to two displays. You need a 2nd card to connect a 3rd monitor.

ATi's cards share the same limitation, they only have two RAMDAC's, so you can only get two DVI signals. They allow you to have a 3rd display by also including DisplayPort, which doesn't need a RAMDAC.
 
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Unknown-One said:
That would be correct. Nvidia's cards only have two RAMDAC's, which means each card can output to two displays. You need a 3rd card to connect a 3rd monitor.

ATi's cards share the same limitation, they only have two RAMDAC's, so you can only get two DVI signals. They allow you to have a 3rd display by also including DisplayPort, which doesn't need a RAMDAC.
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Also the RAMDAC is integrated into the GPU in modern video cards, meaning more RAMDACs = more die space and complexity for a feature most won't touch, where DisplayPort is basically free to integrate.
 
Unknown-One said:
That would be correct. Nvidia's cards only have two RAMDAC's, which means each card can output to two displays. You need a 3rd card to connect a 3rd monitor.

ATi's cards share the same limitation, they only have two RAMDAC's, so you can only get two DVI signals. They allow you to have a 3rd display by also including DisplayPort, which doesn't need a RAMDAC.
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Thanks for the clarification. As I said there's a LOT of misinformation about this and your answers are the best I've found. Perhaps you should start a thread about it because I know people are worried that since they think like I did that it was an all software solution. I simply assumed that it was an SLI implentation that instead of rendering part of a scene rendered a different one on each card. Though now that I think about it that doesn't make sense because that would require THREE cards.
 
Well there are a LOT of us that just plunked down at least $1000 on 2 480s and this is a BIG unknown so it's no surprise that the interest level has risen considerably. We'll be watching all this week for drivers or some information from nVidia about this because they either have to deliver the drivers or announce a hard date otherwise I would expect a DRAMATIC decline in GTX 400 sales.
 
Man I hear ya, I had a pair of them the first week and am getting tired of looking at 2 blank screens. It has been very frustrating to hear no mention of this.
 
Yeah I know you had a pair of them and understood EXACTLY where you were coming from. I'm pretty sure that nVidia will at least SAY something this week, I don't think they have a choice since it's not like they need ANOTHER problem with Fermi.
 
heatlesssun said:
Yeah I know you had a pair of them and understood EXACTLY where you were coming from. I'm pretty sure that nVidia will at least SAY something this week, I don't think they have a choice since it's not like they need ANOTHER problem with Fermi.
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With announcement after announcement after announcement that nVidia made regarding Fermi's ever-dubious hard launch date, I cannot really say that another announcement about drivers would be in their best interest.

Hate to say it, but as far as nVidia and Fermi is concerned words hold no water. Drivers or bust! :p
 
night_2004 said:
With announcement after announcement after announcement that nVidia made regarding Fermi's ever-dubious hard launch date, I cannot really say that another announcement about drivers would be in their best interest.

Hate to say it, but as far as nVidia and Fermi is concerned words hold no water. Drivers or bust! :p
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I would agree but if they aren't ready nVidia can't just let this week go by and say nothing.
 
Well either way if they aren't ready then let's just give them the time so they don't release yet another pos driver package that fubars your system up again. Their driver development has been going ati style for about 6 months now and they need to get their shit together.
 
heatlesssun said:
...they either have to deliver the drivers or announce a hard date otherwise I would expect a DRAMATIC decline in GTX 400 sales.
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-- and a potential for returns. I know if they don't release this week, I'll be considering moving back to my 5870s and sending my 480s back. I didn't get two 480s to run a single 1920x1200 monitor :rolleyes:
 
I'm pretty sure they will either launch the 256 drivers this week or announce when they will. Either way they are gonna come out soon I'm willing to bet.
 
I wonder if they'd be open to lawsuits if the drivers did show up, but not for months. There's got to be a precedent for declaring advertising to be false if the featured was not made available within 'a reasonable timeframe' or some similar legalese.
 
I think 'reasonable timeframe' is at launch if they are going to advertise this on the box of a product. I could see the law providing up to 30 days though, provided the delay is announced (like it is on nVidia's pages).

They're playing a really fine line here...
 
Savoy said:
I'm pretty sure they will either launch the 256 drivers this week or announce when they will. Either way they are gonna come out soon I'm willing to bet.
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if it was this week we would of already seen beta drivers to test it out.. and so far there isnt anything..
 
night_2004 said:
I think 'reasonable timeframe' is at launch if they are going to advertise this on the box of a product. I could see the law providing up to 30 days though, provided the delay is announced (like it is on nVidia's pages).

They're playing a really fine line here...
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This is correct. In terms of consumer protection law, if a feature is marketed as working when the product is sold (which is the case here regardless of what nV reneged on their site after launch), it must work when the user gets the item home -- otherwise it is considered defective at best and false advertising at worst.

There is, however, a gray area here as nV stated they would only have drivers ready in April BEFORE the retail product was available. I'd say they are in unambiguous hot water if they miss the end of the month deadline.
 
harmattan said:
This is correct. In terms of consumer protection law, if a feature is marketed as working when the product is sold (which is the case here regardless of what nV reneged on their site after launch), it must work when the user gets the item home -- otherwise it is considered defective at best and false advertising at worst.

There is, however, a gray area here as nV stated they would only have drivers ready in April BEFORE the retail product was available. I'd say they are in unambiguous hot water if they miss the end of the month deadline.
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lol i take it you havent seen directv's tell the truth commercials? which is 100% false advertisement, eh? which is exactly why they say cable companies instead of comcast in their commercials about their so called most HD channels then anyone else..

sorry off topic with that one.. but i figured it was needed just to show how much false advertisement there is out there..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
lol i take it you havent seen directv's tell the truth commercials? which is 100% false advertisement, eh? which is exactly why they say cable companies instead of comcast in their commercials about their so called most HD channels then anyone else..

sorry off topic with that one.. but i figured it was needed just to show how much false advertisement there is out there..
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Ya, that's the problem... they'll get away with it and they know it. The best we can do as consumers is return (or don't buy in the first place) the item when they don't deliver on promises.

In the case of 3D Surround, it's a lot more clear-cut than the Direct TV/cable arguement: the feature isn't available (in any form) as advertised. If they were claiming 3D Surround did this and that better than Eyefinity when it was ambiguous where the winner lies it would be different.
 
They have it working I believe as they have shown demo's have they not?

The only problem is that if they release something that isn't quite ready they will get slated in reviews and people will forever hold the opinion that is worse than eyefinity so they have to make sure it works as well as possible. At least that is how I see it.
 
necrophile said:
They have it working I believe as they have shown demo's have they not?

The only problem is that if they release something that isn't quite ready they will get slated in reviews and people will forever hold the opinion that is worse than eyefinity so they have to make sure it works as well as possible. At least that is how I see it.
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This is probably why they haven't released it yet but they are damned if they do and damned if they don't it seems. People who wanna believe one way or the other already do most likely anyway so meh. I personally understand that in the real world shit happens, delays happen we are all human. I can wait and so can you guys. Relax.
 
Doesn't affect me, however let's not forget that eyefinity affects very few users, and nvidia's version will be but a fraction of that so they kinda know people will wait. For one thing I would be surprised if barring those actively interested in it many people who own 260's or 280/5's know they can benefit from it also.

When it finally does get released it will be promoted as the second comming and more people will hear of it and then all will be forgotten but for just now it is not a big deal really.
 
It is well past the end of the business day for nVidia, still have not heard anything (surprise). Four more days before people start jumping ship from the sounds of it. :D

Note: I hope you can detect my e-sarcasm. This situation kind of sucks for anyone that is actually waiting for this (like I am) but you gotta roll with the punches.
 
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night_2004 said:
It is well past the end of the business day for nVidia, still have not heard anything (surprise). Four more days before people start jumping ship from the sounds of it. :D
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Not at all. If they can't get it out by the end of the week I'm sure they'll make an annoucement setting a new time frame. It's pretty much a certainty that'll we'll see something in the next few weeks. They've had a LOT of time to work on this after all. My guess is that they are REALLY trying to one up AMD on this one if they can I mean they need a win and something tells me that this might be it.

But if it comes out a clusterd mess I'll probably be picking up 3 5870s.
 
God, I can't wait to find out how this nvidia surround turns out. I am REALLLLYYY hoping its on par with ATI's Eyeinfinity. WE NEED SOME UPDATES damn it!
 
Maybe I need to post some kind of doomsday clock, tying in the 256 driver series launch with Fermi and the LHC implying that failure to release the drivers on time will result in Fermi GPUs successfully creating mini-black holes that suck up the earth.

I joke. Stupid joke, but I joke.

Definitely looking forward to the release though, whenever it might be. I just hope I can find out through quick reviews how well it works so that I know if I should stay put with my dual GTX 275 setup or move to a single 5870. Third monitor purchase depends on which company I stick with (i.e. should I get a monitor with DP or is DVI enough).
 
I would almost believe it if Charlie posted information like that. Unfortunate that he carries any weight as far as information with nVidia is concerned. Sad really, as nVidia likes to claim that they already had this technology a while back but yet they have trouble rolling it out now.

It is looking more and more likely that I will be in California for the summer, with plenty of spare time, so I'm definitely looking forward to moving to a three monitor setup. But I don't exactly feel like paying a 9.5% tax on parts so if I do go out there I will definitely need to order the parts before moving.

For me at least...
Driver released on time, priceless.
Driver released a day or three late, understandable and I can roll with the punches.
Driver released a week or two into May, pushing my patience.
Driver released months from now, I'll be the next person in line to buy ATI GPUs.

If nVidia already knows that their driver release is months away, and they are still stringing around GTX 470/480 buyers as well as anyone else with a GT200 card with the hope of an April release, they deserve to burn.
 
What'd be worse is that, if this is true, it is also almost certainly true that this did not happen overnight - they must have known the drivers were months away from being completed before they even hard launched.

Cue angry nerds with pitchforks.
 
Are these the same drivers that are supposed to enable an advertised feature?

I.E the one this topic is about, I highly doubt the legitamacy of that info, the co release of mobile and desktop drivers yes but not anything to do with the 4xx series drivers being the same ones.
 
I'm trying to stay positive. I am. Really. No, seriously, I am positive.

*Tabs back to the NewEgg list of currently available ATI 5870 GPUs*

The 256 drivers are what will be required in order to use features that nVidia has advertised for the GTX 470 and GTX 480 GPUs, yes. As for the co-release of notebook/desktop drivers and how that all mixes into the situation...it probably is a little inaccurate but you never know. weirdsauce is right, Fermi is cursed when it comes to getting to dinner on time.
 
Isn't NVIDIA Surround basically going to be the same thing as SoftTH? A software based approach to multi-monitor gaming unlike ATIs solution which is hardware based
 
SoftTH can only use one GPU for rendering though, the 2nd GPU is effectively just another output for the primary card. nVidia's solution will (hopefully) be able to utilize most of the resources of both GPUs when rendering on three screens.

It just crossed my mind that a Matrox TH2G would let me use both my GTX 275's on three monitors. Cheaper than two ATI 5870 cards too.
 
The only reason I would call it software is that is has not been designed from the ground up in hardware and so is jerry rigged as sorts. Some people claim that it is just unlocking capability that exists in their quaddro line but I have not heard exactly what that is, I do not think it has the same capabilites like eyefinity has but I may be wrong.

We shall see, hopefully soon so this matter can be settled.
 
Sad that people like me running Portrait+Landscape+Portrait have to use SoftTH.

I wonder if Fermir Surround will support my monitor configuration.
 
necrophile said:
The only reason I would call it software is that is has not been designed from the ground up in hardware and so is jerry rigged as sorts. Some people claim that it is just unlocking capability that exists in their quaddro line but I have not heard exactly what that is, I do not think it has the same capabilites like eyefinity has but I may be wrong.

We shall see, hopefully soon so this matter can be settled.
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Nvidia have had a similar capability in their quaddro line for years with SLI Mosaic, but I'm not so sure that they can directly transfer it to gaming. Sync issues is bigger to have in gaming, then in using a multi-display feature otherwise. That said, I am happy that they are spending a little more time with it IF it results in a better product once released. However, many are waiting for these drivers and Nvidia shouldn't wait too long with releasing them. They are an advertised feature and they are stealing much of peoples gaming time with delays.
 
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