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

[_renegade_]

to be fair...

the price of 6 screens and 2x 5780 2Gb cost (to run it with a fps thats worth playing with)

--vs--

3 screens in 120Hz and 2x Gtx 480 (that u can play in 3D)

i think i would go for the nvidia solution to be fair... first of i play first person games mostly and that seems not to go well with 6 screens and the experiance of 3D from the reviews i have seen seems to be so great (i have to try it for my self first ofc )

on the other hand 6 screens for car games like Dirt 2 would be nice aswell and to be fair most likly better than nvidia 3D, but once again i dont play those games so would still go for nvidia solution.. but for people that play games like Dirt 2 and other car games out there this seems like the best way to play it even with the space between the screens i bet u dont even notice it when playing.

finaly as u might understand im gona buy the gtx 480 and u might say im stupid and what not... but i can see the nice part in 6 screens for some people just not me and i wana experiance the 3D effekt so much!!

Eyefinity 6 seems nice and i can understand why people waht it 100% just looking at the videos seems so nice

 

[rambo117]

^ and WHY again would you buy 6 screens for *just* gaming? That's an epic waste of money, its meant for the power user, heavy multitaskers

 

[cobra5000]

Or you can just buy a 28" monitor for less than $300.00. Dragon Age and Left 4 Dead look fantastic and that means zero bezel! I think its kind of a no-brainer, at least until the price comes down on those custom set-ups.

 

[elbert]

While a smaller bezel would be nice I hope company's are smart enought to come with a one piece solution. One piece 3X1 and one piece 5X1 monitor with no bezel would be amazing. One cable with 2 DVI and 1 Display port or one cable with 2 DVI and 3 display ports depending on model. The 5x should be this way to work with other cards so require the use of DisplayPort-to-DVI and Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort dongles . Less cable mess and almost no space between each screen would be well worth a small increase in price.

 

[Guest]

I just plunked down for a regular HD5870 and 3 x HP z24w, it just made more sense to me to reduce the cost, bezel problem and help improve framerate by running a low-resolution 3600 x 1920.... (I will use it mainly for work, so I wanted S-IPS displays)

If I wanted to spend more money on a pure gaming rig, i would much rather get 5 x Samsung SyncMaster 2343BW, which gives you 5760 x 2048 in portrait mode with no center bezel, for less money than the tested setup with almost exactly the same resolution (one monitor less, no expensive stands!). For the money I saved I could get an additional standard 5870 and pair it in CrossfireX with the Eyefinity 6 to increase the framerate! That would IMO be a much better setup for the money compared to what Tom tested.


If I was new Ferrari 359 rich (I am so poor that I have to drive an '04 911...) I would get 5 x 27" U2711 and dual eyefinity 6 cards and run them portrait to get 7200 x 2560 with much less bezel problems and higher resolution than 5760 x 2160, still at about half the price of a 6 x 30" setup.

 

[dc73093]

if there was a way to take the plastic away and just attach the lcd glass to each other that would make the experince so much better, cause those big black gaps will drive me nuts, so im happy to say i'll stick with my 1080p 23" monitor untill that part of it is worked out, plus thats alot on the power bill

 

[mcbowler]

Tom's Try it with projectors!

 

[deividast]

I myself have a 24" LCD and am happy with it.... I feel no pleasure by looking at those bezels... as long as there are bezel's i won't even consider having multiple monitors.... although the idea of using projectors seems kind a nice can't wait to see performance compared to nVidia's 480GTX on 3 display to 5870 both in single and in multi GPU configuration....

 

[LoBi]

Well yeah, but will it run peggle?

 

[mm0zct]

Personally i think 5 monitors in portrait as husker suggested would be good, because you can then put the curvature in as well. Why don't TH try eyefinity with zalman trimons or iz3d dissplays? the 2 middleware solutions should still work to provide the 3d output. 3x2 or 5x1 portrait (it's worth losing a screen to have a middle one) in stereo 3d would be amazing, it's already great with a single 22", think that 5 or 6 would be like!

 

[msroadkill612]

This post isnt about the reviewed card but about eyefinity. Am not a user tho - too many roaches in my pigsty make LCDs go poof. I am also not a gamer but as it is the major mainstream cutting edge app - i am vicariously fascinated by it.

I post in the hope that some of the below ideas may motivate some punters to experiment with what seems expensive, but may even be cheap option.


I have read many comments from eyefinity users. Its been out for a while.

The consensus it seems, is that 3 x is ideal & its awesome. After a while u get used to the bezels - its like the pillars when driving. Crosshairs in middle & peripheral & rear vision much enhanced, and its ok on most current ati cards. Obviously, displaying 3 x you monitors native resolution in intensive applications like games is a big ask.

Bottom line - we have an affordable mainstream output device but oriented to an unaffordable non-mainstream input device (x3) - (DP lcd)

3 matching DP (display port) monitors are dear. Passive DP adapters are a waste of time & money & active ones are expensive & a hassle.

You can however use a DP to VGA for the third screen for a cheap (~$15)good result I hear. See links & quotes below. Also documented on AMDs website somewhere.

ALSO

"Just a correction,

DP to VGA does not require an active adapter if none of the other RAMDACs are being used. In the last configuration, the DVI and HDMI run off of the 2 dual-link TMDS (HDMI being double clocked single link actually) and then the DP->VGA adapter will use the RAMDAC to run that display, it does not require an active adapter. Nor does DVI+DVI+VGA.

This has been done many times before, and was address by ATi in a blurb posted by bossman Kyle @ [H];
http://www.hardocp.com/news/2009/1 [...] ve_adapter

It is a little more problematic at detecting monitors, but it works fine. "
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ati-eyefinity,2567.html#t38623

you may be restricted to 1920x1200 ? - anyone?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-eyefinity-6-displayport,2596-3.html

BUT at 3 x (~6000x3600) that res is still huge compared to the best 40" lcd.

SO... 3x19" @ $100 ea. is reasonable (=57" & huge resolution). Maybe even used 17" 2nd hand - so cheap can even afford a spare. Face it - 3 screens increases the odds of a failure, which could spoil your gaming week.

u may even find hi res screens are a negative in EF. Think about the grunt you need from a gpu. - EF triples the mainstream resolutions to output for the gpu.

If time is money, (CF can be fraught) (coming soon to a screen near you) a factory watercooled (read OC) 5870 would be my pick as your best chance of feeding 3 screens - a 2gb frame buffer seems to help for extra AA.

I cant believe amd dont have a counter to Fermis lame response after 6 months of expecting fermi. Am sure they underengineered 5800 gpu a bit. There is even some unexplained superfluous circuitry on the referance cards.

Do wish AMD/ATI had made wonderful eyefinity more accessible by including 3 standard dvi ports & required hardware into their cards tho.

Portrait x3 sounds good to me also. Not sure crossfire can do portrait eyefinity ATM tho. Anyone?

Also, CF 2 x 5850 for a better and cheaper result than a 5970. The 5970 only uses 8 lanes per gpu so the cheaper 790GX mobo which has only 8 lanes for each PCIe slot may still rock in CF. Anyone?

Hope this helps some of u.

P.S. I do wish I didn't have to wade thru 10x the same lame comments like "i don't think bezels would suit me at all". Get a life - we know anyway that they are there & not ideal - why say it for the tenth time? Bet you don't get invited to many dinner parties.

an analogy would be me posting on a Caterpillar forum that their new bulldozer would not suit me as i am an academic and i dont do much excavating. Yawn.



"http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1339901.html
20-Pin DisplayPort Male to VGA Female Adapter (Black)

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20776

I just received my $20 adapter from dx today and can confirm that everything works correctly with my 3x 24" monitors @ 1920x1200 each.



Take a $50 to IKEA, look for MIKAEL, there's your Eyefinity on a budget Desk.

You'll have to figure out a good way to rig speakers with it of course, easier if you're going portrait."

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Very informative follow-up to the original article.

 

[lashton]

lol the 480GTX gets licked by the 4870 X2 more thna the other way around

 

[dartanian]

can i give 12 screen with 2 x R5870 Eyefinity 6 on croosfire?

 

[Guest]

It seems to me that the ultimate setup would consist of six projectors so that there were no bezel space to cause issues. If i were building an ultimate gaming system, that's what I would be using for my displays.

 

[berto665]

so, whats the difference between having 6 monitors and/or playing on a 60'' plasma?
unless they were 6 60" that would be crazy.

 

[henrytvu]

Does anyone have experience with xfx hd 6950 2gb?
I have a faulty hd 5870 eyefinity six and xfx wants
to replace it with the 6950. All specs and reviews
indicate that the 5870 higher performance card.
However, Mark from xfx tells me that its the new design
and therefore it's better. Anyone have experience, please shed some light.