AMD's Eyefinity Technology Explained

[Guest]

Most of our graphics card coverage centers on 3D performance. But that's not the only reason enthusiasts buy new video cards. Eyefinity, ATI's technology supporting up to six displays from a single graphics card, is changing the way people use their PCs.

AMD's Eyefinity Technology Explained : Read more

 

[Sykar]

The problem I see with Eyefinity are the black borders between displays...

 

[dertechie]

Second page mentions a Radeon 5890, I presume you mean either the 5870 or 5970.

 

[mooch37]

@sykar My thoughts exactly. It has to be an odd number of monitors, otherwise you'll get the crosshair right in the middle. That would bug the crap out of me.

 

[xaira]

there was talk of a few companies making bezel less monitors

 

[drowned]

"In assessing single- versus dual-monitor (18" LCDs) usage in everyday work environment applications"

The key word in your statement is DUAL monitors. I recall another study that tested how much people prefer 3 or 4 monitors over 2, and it was a very small percent (~10%). For a lot of tasks outside of gaming, you don't want your entire vision filled with pixels. You don't want to get dizzy constantly from moving your head back and forth. Of course eyefinity is great if you want to blow a ton of money for a wall of monitors and your career is a stock trader, CERN mission controller, etc, but I'd rather stick with 3 physical and use virtual desktops for 3+.

 

[Trueno07]

It all made sense to me, until I saw the picture of the kid playing a Racing game on that 6 monitor set up. It looked ridiculous. Why not just play on a big TV that has no lines and only requires 1 output?

 

[Chris_TC]

[citation][nom]Trueno07[/nom]It all made sense to me, until I saw the picture of the kid playing a Racing game on that 6 monitor set up. It looked ridiculous. Why not just play on a big TV that has no lines and only requires 1 output?[/citation]
Absolutely, this one is quite ridiculous. Multiple displays only make sense for games if you sit closely and angle them. But the borders would still annoy the hell out of me.

This may be a nice gimmick for some, but ultimately we'll be moving to curved screens.

 

[hackmule]

I used to use two monitors but since I went to three CRT monitors 5+ yrs ago I can't go back to two. This bezel in the middle is aggravating. I use three monitors for work - presentations/writing/graphics and the extra real estate is very valuable there. For play, I have been waiting for the hardware to improve to the point where 3 monitor frame rates are good enough and this eyefinity article has got me thinking that the new ATI cards might be worth a try. I think the next generation will be the game changer when three monitor play frame rates are over 50 for the games we like to play. I would be surprised if there are many who once they get used to three monitors would willingly go back to two.

 

[falchard]

Big TV lacks the same resolution. Bezeless is hard to manufacture. I don't see the point in using Eye-finity in the method specified with multiple monitors in the front. I would rather setup like the Cave and Stereoscopic display. Borders wouldn't be much of an issue then. 4 x 55" display, 1 front, 1 on each side, and 1 above.

 

[SmarterChoice]

Eyefinity is amazing with three screens, you don't notice the bezels at all in most games.

 

[Wheat_Thins]

[citation][nom]SmarterChoice[/nom]Eyefinity is amazing with three screens, you don't notice the bezels at all in most games.[/citation]

How can you not notice .5" bezels?

 

[SmarterChoice]

Because you aren't looking at the bezels, you are looking at the screen.

Too many people comment on this without having the first idea about what it is like. In fps games, driving games, flight sims you DO NOT notice the bezels. The only games where the bezels are noticable is in flat 2d type board games ie empire total war campaign map.

I have it so I know what it's like. Read some reviews and they will tell you the same thing.

 

[warmon6]

[citation][nom]Wheat_Thins[/nom]How can you not notice .5" bezels?[/citation]

It actually amazing how the human mind works......

let me ask you this, have you ever done a dual screen setup? If so then how many times have you payed attention to different resolutions, bezels/ bezels thicknesses, and different makers of monitors? My guess would probably be no.

Now i haven't used eyefinity although i have used dual screen setups, but i can understand how people don't notice thing when your that focus on something. In this case, most peoples don't looking for the unlit bezels, there eyes are going to jump to the next bright screen that they need to see and there minds will just filter the bezels out, giving the full clean picture.

 

[dkapke]

Having switched over to 3 24" 1080P monitors in December...I can't imagine going back. Honestly, like Smarter Choice and Warmon said...you don't notice the bezels. Admittedly, I did it originally for the desktop space, but after playing Dragon Age, Crysis and Bioshock, and wondering about the bezel space, I can tell you in 5760x1080 eyefinity that you honestly don't even notice it. It's an absolute joy and my gaming will never be the same. I think some people are just a little a.r. and WANT to see the bezels and WANT to make it an issue, but if you give it a chance you'll be surprised.

I actually arranged mine so the side two overlap the middle one to reduce some of the bezel space but still...it's really not noticeable. The 10.3 drivers will introduce a "hide" option where instead of having a gap between monitors (half of a building on one monitor and the other half on the other monitor) it will actually hide the image behind the bezel so you get, maybe, 1/3 of the building on each monitor and the other 1/3 hidden by the bezel (think tall thin building, obviously). Sort of like wearing a pair of sunglasses with bigger rims. The image is there, but will be hidden by the rims. You'll specify how wide your bezels are and the driver will handle it from there. That, actually, will make things a bit more interesting. Of course, I'm not so sure in FPS it would be good as you could, theoretically, have someone hiding in that bezel area as they approach instead of definitely seeing them on a monitor somewhere.

Bottom line - don't knock it before you at least try it. See if you can borrow some friends' monitors and hook 'em up to your 58xx card and try it out. I promise it'll be your next expense to budget for.

 

[shaoran lee]

I have a question... how much hardware is required to deal with such resolutions or the amount of windows displayed... (gamming and productivity) I mean if i have to upgrade from 3 to 6 gb of ram or 4 to 8 for example or even change processor.

 

[erikstarcher]

[citation][nom]SmarterChoice[/nom]Eyefinity is amazing with three screens, you don't notice the bezels at all in most games.[/citation]

Just like you don't notice the pillars between the windshield and side windows of your car. Your brain just ignores the parts that it doesn't want to see.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Great Article. Looking forward to the next article.

Man Cave! Six large screens! I need a larger apartment. I may even have to rent a large house.

 

[andrewcutter]

i dont know if i am an idiot but i still dont understand the difference between hooking up 3 monitors to a 48 series and eyeinfinity.
i meant 3 because i saw 3 outputs on my graphics card never tried it thought.....
can someone explain..... the article just said you cant have speed and size....(scratching head)

 

[ksenter]

So, if I read it correctly you can't mix portrait and landscape for eyefinity, is that right? I have two 23" monitors that I was thinking about using for the left and right and I was going to get a larger monitor (or TV probably), for the middle and I was thinking of getting a middle one whose height would be the same as the 23" monitors width so I could use them in portrait on the sides. Then again you probably can't really mix monitors/tvs with different resolutions either...

 

[Snipe3000]

Useless for us 30" monitor users until the drivers support Portrait+Landscape+portrait in eyefinity. You would think it would naturally support this. What a shame. If you want this setup you need to use SoftTH, biggest problem with that is you can only utilize the power of one GPU.

 

[Boxa786]

Look at it this way,

If you can raed tihs, you hvae a wroknig hmunam mnid.

Gaert inst it?

The mind works misteriously and can read any word as long as first and last letter is in order, the middle part does not matter as much.

Theres a whole article on this, somewhere on the net, basically, the bazel's are considered the middle part and you wnot nctoyie them in real life situations!

 

[liquidsnake718]

I hate the fact that you have to get 3 monitors instead of 2 in fps games because of the crosshairs...I can imagine the lcd community and companies like samsung and LG who are also LCD suppliers of lessor brands smiling and praising Ati for eyefinity.... sales must have spiked a bit due to Ati fans alone, albiet by at least a few hundred thousands

 

[brennon7]

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n166/brennon7/2010-03-01_232831.jpg

 

[msroadkill612]

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1339901.html

re

20-Pin DisplayPort Male to VGA Female Adapter (Black)

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

quotes -

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.

ALSO

hows about an lcd model w/ a DP option - the can get 2 x cheap dvi lcds & 1 x premium DP lcd