Along with its introduction of the
HD 5830, ATI announced the
HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 card yesterday, which predictably comes with six DisplayPort outputs and enables that hallowed six-screen gaming overload that the Eyefinity branding has been about
since the beginning. Some lucky scribes over at
PC Pro have been treated to a live demonstration of what gaming at 5,760 x 2,160 feels like, and their understated response was to describe it as "far more immersive." No kidding. They did raise the spectral figure of those monitor bezels, however, pointing out that bezel correction -- where the image "behind the bezel" is rendered but hidden making the overall display look like a window unto the game world -- habitually obscured text and game HUD elements. In their view, the sweet spot remains a triple-screen setup, and we're inclined to agree (particularly if they look
like this). For those interested in getting their multi-monitor gaming up and running, we've linked an invaluable guide from
HardOCP below, which breaks down how much you can expect from ATI's current
HD 5000 series of cards, and also provides a video guide to setting your rig up.
posted February 26th 2010 4:17AM
personally i don't care much for gaming on 6 screens but i'm eagerly waiting for AMD to release a FirePro card that supports eyefinity so i can work using more monitors.
@Psyg this would work perfectly for when i take my evening fap
@Psyg getting several cheap video cards will be both cheaper and faster, IMO.
@(Unverified)
I wish regular cheap cards performed like the FirePro range.
im agreeing with that, why the hell would you wanna game with 3 big bars across your screen. I dont care what the resolution is, doesn't really make up for it. Prefer a projector or a big tv over this.
For work on the other hand this'd be awesome.
@iroydude
I know!!! That 3 screen panoramic wraparound is monitor porn!!!
@Psyg
Everyone knows that FirePro and Quadro are scams. They're just Radeons and GeForces with some small hardware unlock.
@Kurian
The underlying hardware might be the same but i doubt you've actually used one buddy.
Even though you could hack the older FireGLs, you still lacked alot of the features such as stereoscopic output, the color bit depth, ambient occlusion.
Scam my ass, use one before commenting.
There is a BIG speed difference in using 3D software.
@Psyg
Of course there is. It's all software controlled/unlocked.
@dave england ok how about 6 1080p projectors line em up right you have no bezel huge screen at insane resolution. Lets be honest if your buying this for gaming then you have no budget anyways why not go the whole hog. For me 3 screen wrap around or 6 1080p projectors are the way to use this tech
@Psyg
I agree, which is um, why they make them.
Why not use a good quality projector instead and get an even better bezel free experience ?
@GnuGeek
They have projectors that can display 5,760 x 2,160 resolution?
i guess not
@Psyg how about six projectors? damn i need money
@Psyg
If you are playing games from distance then projector is way to go as i doubt one bothers about pixels during cinematic experience
@Psyg
They have individual monitors that can display 5,760x2,160? Nope...oh yeah...six connected together! Like you could do with projectors at great expense.
@GnuGeek - True... or a huge ass plasma tv. Sure the resolution wont be that high but come on... the human eye cannot tell the difference past a certain point.
@GnuGeek Thats what I use, but even my 720P projector was quite expensive and noisy, and 1080P is about as much resolution as you're going to get out of one nowadays.
My other challenge is that you can't sit quite as close, and if you use head tracking like trackIR, you can't put it on top of your display at eye level anymore (it would cast a shadow/obscure view).
@GnuGeek It could be done with projectors, but it would probably need to be on a pretty adjustable rig to get them aligned to where they would not bleed into each other.
@GnuGeek What if he doesn't want some blurry smears rendered at a subpar resolution though? Projectors are great, if you live in a cave.
@pickleJar Just wondering, who sits farther than three feet away when playing COMPUTER games? Oh yes, nobody.
@GnuGeek
I'm not sure you exactly understand what's happening when you are using these eyefinity setups. You're getting a substantially greater field of view because the monitors are tilted so that they wrap around you. This gets you a greater field of view than a projector on a flat wall would get you. This helps a lot in fps's because it makes it easier to spot enemies.
@GnuGeek
Exactly, and wouldn't my aimer for an FPS be where the bezel is?
One can only dream of playing BC2 with this setup.
@cdf74dc9 Some don't dream: http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e381/650Slider/2010-01-20133646.jpg
I'm currently saving up for a 3x 22-inch monitor eyefinity setup, which seems to be the only semi-affordable way of doing this.
@r3loaded Darn, forgot to add the other image: http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e381/650Slider/2010-02-06002551.jpg
@r3loaded
Oh my lawd that's so awesome. But I think I'd still prefer 1 massive screen to 3 separate screens. My mind might change if there wasn't any bezel in between the screens. :|
@cdf74dc9 Yeah but at what FPS or detail level?
Sounds like eyefinity would give the player an unfair advantage because they have a larger field of vision and can see more things going on at once. I think not being able to zoom out very far in starcraft2 was purposely implemented to be fair (not sure if that was justified).
Money, money, money, must be funny...and so on...
@bluefisch200
im not sure what is worse that you posted that or i understood what the lyric is...
I don't like the idea of the bar being right in the middle, like that.. Half my games focus on the center of the screen! You'd be completely fudged by that.
3, or 9.. Not 6! 6 is silly!
Those bezels are complete deal breakers
At the price of 6 FullHD monitors I'd prefer a single Full HD Led 50" TV.
You can't kill people with that bar in the middle of the sniper scope
@IlBaffo
Hopefully we will see a 50" TV with double HD resolution so it could approach the same kind of level of detail as 6 monitors.
Can anyone recommend an ultra thin bezel monitor?
some of the newer monitors will have smaller bezels so i don't think its fatal
Come on Engadget.. Credit should be given where credit is due! Its not a fatal flaw at all! You can get thin bezel monitors: http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/6ecrans2,0101-223351-0----jpg-.html
When Ferrari makes F430, you don't buy the tyres for it from your local garage and blame Ferrari because they don't go with it at all!
I'm very much not convinced. every FPS out there would have it's crosshairs dead in the middle of that double-bezel line. Plus, the overall effect is like playing through a prison window...
This setup looks horrible, its a really cool concept, but has little real world value, with a 6 monitor setup whatever the focus is in your game, firiing reticle, direction, character etc, is obscured by an inch of screen bezel. Although in a 3 or even 9 monitor setup i think your on to a winner
noone removed the bezels till now and hacked them together? I'm sure it should be possible to half them by overlapping? But well.. i never saw whats inside a flatscreen so perhaps im wrong...
That is exactly the point where they'll start making bezel free displays.
The thing is that 2x3 monitors just don't work because of the bezel.
And 3x3 monitors becomes too high of a rig, unless you cut the legs of your table, but that would mean very little leg space...
Ergo 1x3 seems to be the only answer so far until we get monitors completely without bezels
I wonder if this is made with Windows Multipoint server 2010 in mind. This card could be used to drive 6 different users screens (if the drivers can do that).
How about 3 large widescreen monitors rotated 90 degrees that would avoid the problem with crosshairs and such but still give a good height.
@petebob796 That really is the way to go. With a resolution of 3600x1920 and a wide aspect ratio of 15:8 - YOU WIN! :)
it would be awesome but there is just too much bezel. they need to make monitors meant for this sort of stuff.
Give me a HD projector and 100 inch + screen over this any day but thanks...................
Why not use 5 widescreen monitors turned vertically. That gives you 5400 x 1920 (assuming 16x9 monitors) and no bar in the middle of your reticle/windshield?
Fatal flaw? Price.