AMD Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition: One Card, Six Screens

[brisingamen]

the best setup for gaming until the bezel free monitors come out are the 3 tall monitors, i want a setup as such, all games are playable with that type of setup, i think 3x 22inch is easy enough.

you can see how this is going to pave the way in oh, maybe 3-4 years for people to have bezel free wall sized displays of resolutions of 25,600 x 16,000

wall sized . . . . yeah im down. this technology has evolved pretty smoothly by the looks of it. only way is up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[climber]

[citation][nom]hixbot[/nom]climber, cards for 6 display have been out for workstations for gods age. we run 6 displays on one matrox card for our marine traffic control center, which is displaying realtime maps with radar and AIS info across a 3x2 1280X1024 display for a total of 3840x2048. display performance is more than satisfactory.[/citation]

But not Google Earth visualizations at 6 x 30" displays at 2560 x 1600 you can't with matrox. I used to use 3DLabs workstation cards, they were great but they went the way of the dodo. Also if you want GPU computing capabilities for GIS then you're out of luck with Matrox, if Manifold gets on the OpenCL and not just the CUDA bandwagon then the 5000 and 6000 series Radeons will scream as desktop supercomputing GIS platforms. I also know about the low resolution data served via WMS and WFS from various vendors OGC compliant servers, it's all rudementary and very limited. There are technologies that can enable these ind of resolution desktop environments to be real time, matrox's 2D optimized cards just can't compete with Nvidia's or AMD/ATI's offerings. The biggest problem is Windows poor 2D performance in Win XP and Vista, as noted by the 2D acceleration article back a month or more ago on Tomshardware.

 

[Guest]

wait for a projector / extra large LCD which support true 7680x3200 res. output so that the bezel will be gone~!

 

[itailsfly]

6 monitors is going to get me laid!

 

[hixbot]

I'd like to know if this can work in a multi view game like a flight sim.

In those instances you would NOT want all 6 montors to span one camera across the whole resolution. Instead you'd want, for instance, one 1080p monitor for your front view, one above and one below, one behind, and one on each side. That would be an amazing 360 degree setup! alas, it seems eyefinity supports spanning 6 displays for one mega resolution, but what about having a distinctly different perspective on each display? cangelini, please reply, is this possible? bezel is a non-factor for this type of setup, us simmers desperately need some representation from hardware reviewers of this sort.

 

[cadder]

How would it work with 3 monitors turned vertical instead of horizontal?

 

[eyemaster]

You can make that bezel area smaller by 50% if you just overlap the bezels of the monitors...

Can you set this up in other ways than a 3x2 setup in a grid pattern? How about a 2.1.2, 1.2.1, 1.3.1 or any other paterns? I think I would rather have a 3x1 pattern but with the monitors flipped 90 degrees.

 

[jjobaber]

Lame - useless for your average gamer - useful for expos/presentations etc...

But for everyday gaming use - it's lame.

 

[shineon2010]

3 screens is better than 6.

 

[falchard]

You don't Need 6 monitors with this card. You can use 5. I think it would be rare to use an even number of monitors unless you make a sky-box type deal. Can you imagine it, it would look like you were in a mobile suit?

 

[knowom]

[citation][nom]PhantomTrooper[/nom]I would hate playing with that much black area between screens. I will stick with my 1080p monitor thank you.[/citation] Exactly the bezels are a real detraction given how easily you can take 2 projectors and combine the screens together to appear as one giant display I don't understand why monitor makers can't easily and afford ably do the same idea.

 

[knowom]

[citation][nom]eyemaster[/nom]You can make that bezel area smaller by 50% if you just overlap the bezels of the monitors...Can you set this up in other ways than a 3x2 setup in a grid pattern? How about a 2.1.2, 1.2.1, 1.3.1 or any other paterns? I think I would rather have a 3x1 pattern but with the monitors flipped 90 degrees.[/citation] That's actually a valid tip looks god awful, but it's marginally less of a detraction, but still no real solution since bezels are still a big enough problem.

 

[Hilarion]

With a bit more maturity and the right monitors.... /Drool/

 

[Guest]

god damn. i couldnt imagine it before, but i can now. picture this, 6 adult films, all full screen, playing at once! or hydragrid- and now we have a whole array of adult entertainment! @_@

 

[elbert]

6 monitors on each card is nice but can crossfire do 12 in a 4x3 grid?

 

[idisarmu]

[citation][nom]ltcommander_data[/nom]So I guess Apple's miniDP connector is quite useful after-all and is now seeing adoption outside of Macs.It's too bad you didn't test GTA IV like you used to do. I believe GTA IV at max settings exceeds 1GB of VRAM usage so perhaps 2GB graphics cards may be of some use assuming the game isn't still CPU limited despite 12 threads with the Core i7 980X. At the very least, I'm guessing Liberty City at 6048x2276 would be amazing.[/citation]

The textures would still suck.

 

[aethm]

For this to take off they need to get around the Bezel problem. I don't Think I'd ever use this in a gaming setup. Maybe elsewhere. Like in the lab I work at we have 8 monitors set up like this using a bunch of tegra cards. For the cost of 6 good monitors you could easily afford a good 60" TV and probably be happier with it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

You don't Need 6 monitors with this card. You can use 5. I think it would be rare to use an even number of monitors unless you make a sky-box type deal. Can you imagine it, it would look like you were in a mobile suit?

That's the one configuration that you can't use.

 

[Guest]

for 6 displays with NO bezel at all, just project onto a screen surface with 6 HD projectors. Now you can have super hi-res on whatever size you can fit in the building...

(rear projection would be ideal)

 

[kennyforgames]

I think 6 lcd is too annoying. I will sticker with my 42 inch lcd

 

[phelixnyc]

What racing game is that?

 

[phelixnyc]

What racing game is that?

 

[phelixnyc]

Never mind I figured it out.

 

[a4mula]

5x1 Portrait. Seriously.

I've been waiting patiently for this card since November. I'll add this and 2x more Dell 2209wa (208$ /w shipping if you haggle) IPS screens. No special stands required, no bezels blocking my crosshairs.

My only concern, and one I'd love to see addressed is how this card is going to play with a regular 5870 in crossfire. I'm a little concerned that it's going to negate the 2GB advantage.

5x1 Portrait, forget anything else.

 

[a4mula]

Oh, and to those of you saying just buy larger screens...

Only resolution increases workspace. Going with a 42+ inch Consumer Electronic LCD @ 1920x1080 is a travesty on a pc. At that size your pixel density gets so spread out that you have to start battling against blurryness.

5x1 @ 1680x1050 in portrait equates to a 5250x1680 resolution or 8.8 megapixels. Match that against 1920x1080 which is 2 megapixels. 4x the amount of pixels in surface areas that will be similiar.