![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
I want to preface this by saying I haven't even tried eyefinity yet. I have researched it quite a bit though by reading about it, getting into conversations about it on several threads, and watching some vids. I am going to try it once I upgrade my gpu (soon), with a few monitors I have at different desks (22", 23"), and borrowing someone else's 23". However I'm waiting awhile to buy into it - maybe until 27" 120hz led backlit TNs are out.. perhaps waiting even a bit longer until they come down in price a bit. For now I'm getting a 27" cinema display with a monitor on each side in portrait. Portrait - Landscape - Portrait setup, aka "PLP" which isn't supported by eyefinity.
I still want to reply to the OP's bullet-points like others have done, with both my opinion and what I have come to understand about those issues:
1. Expense. Its a luxury. Its absolutely not necessary at all. And it can be way more than $570. A single gpu alone can be $370 - $500.
2. No room on desk. Get a bigger desk, and if needed use a bigger room. If you can't get either, maybe its not for you. Its like saying your room isn't big enough for your big 7.1 surround system speakers, new big screen tv , and your new big couch so now you have no room to walk anymore. Or your garage is too small for your monster truck now that you bought it.
3. Display needs to be farther back - thats all a matter of perspective and screen size. Like others have said, you aren't supposed to be focused on the side monitors. Its not supposed to be one huge display or indeed it would have to be set back 6' I'm guessing. That said, I prefer a 28" (27.5" viewable) 1920x1200 screen 3' or more away personally - otherwise I'm looking up to the corners of the screen too much. That distance is even more suited for me when I'm using multiple monitors. Anyway, as I said, even a screen of that size (28") *singly* edges into periphery.. of course eyefinity is going to (thats the idea).
4. Requires a lot of GPU power to push very high resolutions. Of course it does, but that also depends on what games you are playing and if you are an AA whore (no offense AA snobs). Many people feel that AA really isn't that necessary at very high resolutions, and it gives a considerable performance hit. "Edge smudging" isn't changing the game architecture as far as the engine is concerned, its just blurring the edges as you see them , and at very high resolutions the height of those 'stairs' on fine edges you are smudging is very small, and in most games you are moving pretty fast most of the time anyway. If you look up some eyefinty videos on google you will find some games running off a single (higher end) card with decent fps. Not everyone is trying to play crysis at all, and not at 128x AA+AF lol.
5. Not much more useful than peripheral due to fish-eye --- Thats the main use of the side monitors - Periphery to make you feel immersed.
6. Power draw. Big toys have big appetites. You should of course have a battery backup unit that can handle your pc btw, so if the circuit ever dies your pc won't. You also didn't mention what else is on that same circuit. Some people don't realize other parts of their house and other devices are on the same circuit - with big items like sound systems, kitchen items, people using hair dryers, power tools, etc. LCD's don't use much juice, and some single cards can play many popular games at decent framerates with the right settings. Unless you are using a 1200watt psu and quadruple crossfire I have to think your house wiring is weak or your load balancing across circuits is bad. Besides - I've had two single card gaming pc's going on the same circuit before , both with people playing on them and 3 monitors going overall -- and one was a 24" widescreen crt even. Also a 5.1 pc gaming surround system going with subwoofer lol.
7. & 8. Monitor dead pixels, dying risk increased. Well, I've never had a monitor die on me. TV's yes. Pixels most times are only an issue when you first purchase the monitor and try it out for 14 or 30 day return period. Buy monitors from somewhere that allows returns. Don't buy monitors from places with 6, 8, 12+ dead pixel policies. I'm actually buying my 27" cinema display from bestbuy because even after taxes its cheaper than online since the shipping is so much. I can return it to the store for a replacement, or 14 day return for store credit I believe. There is also a $60 4 yr warranty available. Squaretrade also warranties stuff cheaply - and you can usually find at least 20% off coupons online, sometimes more. Personally any fragile electronics (laptops, tv's, etc) that cost $1k or more I usually get a warranty because thats too much of a loss to digest comfortably.
9. Taskbar items too far away on ends of side monitors --- You can get a program called ultramon that intelligently utilizes multiple monitors. I have not tried it with eyefinity yet but it works awesome with desktop span mode across multiple monitors. I recommend you give it a shot. I use it all the time. It has an intelligent taskbar on the non primary monitors, with customizable settings. Also with regular monitor spanning, you can drag the taskbar around if you unlock it. This may or may not work with eyefinity, but works in desktop span mode just fine. You can drag your taskbar not only to the middle monitor, but if you prefer you can put it sideways on the side edge of a monitor, or even across the top of any monitor. There are also 3rd party toolbars available if you are into that kind of thing. They tend to emulate the mac sortof, using transparent backgrounds so the shortcuts are 'floating in space'.. or they use named tabs on edge of screens that pull out to 'drawers' full of custom shortcut icons.
..HUD and game engine elements too far away on ends of side monitors. That's the dev's fault, as others have said. Games like WoW and others have full featured scripting engines that support a robust mod community, and allows you to move any hud elements anywhere you want. Back in the day companies like id software would support mod communities and the 'community' in general, with dev kits and modeling tools, etc. The only other company I can think of that still echos back to that is probably valve (whose games seem to work great in eyefinity from what I've seen). If your game doesn't suit the community - complain. Don't accept pc games being treated like console games. btw I even hate when regular apps are missing easy standard coding 101 crap for stuff like changing font size, fonts, and background color. Lazy bastards. Pet peeve.. GrrrRRR!
.. Worst case, some games you play on central monitor, and use the side ones for other apps while you game. Another vote for medium to large monitors rather than small ones. Eyefinity is still pretty young. I can remember when higher resolutions weren't supported even on single monitors, though some devs patched that in later.
10. Glitches and flickering. Well stuttering can happen from not enough vram of course, but you are talking about flickering and other glitches. I'd say thats early adoption again. You should know what you are getting into before you make the leap. There seem to be a lot of happy people playing in eyefinity though, problems aside. Hopefully it will remain popular enough that the wrinkles get ironed out over time.
