Anandtech HD5870 E6 review

[cbn]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed

This is promising technology, but I think ATI and Nvidia need to work with LCD manufacturers in order to get rid of the Bezels.

With Bezels removed is there any way Triple 1080p monitors (in portrait) or six 1080p (in Landscape) could be used in place of a traditional large pixel LCD TV?

 

[zerocool84]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/amds-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-edition-reviewed

This is promising technology, but I think ATI and Nvidia need to work with LCD manufacturers in order to get rid of the Bezels.

With Bezels removed is there any way Triple 1080p monitors (in portrait) or six 1080p (in Landscape) could be used in place of a traditional large pixel LCD TV?

But you'd need bezels. They could of course make the bezels really thin but that costs money.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Waiting for benchmarks from Sapphire Toxic 5870 2Gb & Asus Matrix 5870 2Gb.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Personally, I would rather play a game on 1 large screen at 1080p then 6 screens with Gazzion x million resolution.

I just fail to understand WHY.

Also keep in mind COST is important to me. Give me $700 42" over 6x (total 1000-1200 of monitors).

also since I play mostly FPS and racing games I think bezel thing would bug me to death.

 

[yh125d]

Yeah I didn't think 2gb of RAM would help it match the 480 like some said it would

And a card with only DP? le sigh....

 

[Lonyo]

Yeah I didn't think 2gb of RAM would help it match the 480 like some said it would

And a card with only DP? le sigh....

Why does it matter if it only has mini-DP out?
It comes with adapters to have at least a base level of functionality, and if you are going to be going for a 6 monitor Eyefinity setup you're likely going to having to buy new monitors anyway.

(Also, how else would you fit 6 ports on one card? There aren't many options, unless they went back to the blocking off air vent thing again like they do on single cards)

 

[happy medium]

I guess if you have the money to buy 6 monitors, 2 of these cards and like to run at about 30fps, its worth it. Wonder what the minimums were with 6 monitors if the avg was 30/40 fps?

The one bright spot was Stalker with 4x aa.

 

[yh125d]

Why does it matter if it only has mini-DP out?
It comes with adapters to have at least a base level of functionality, and if you are going to be going for a 6 monitor Eyefinity setup you're likely going to having to buy new monitors anyway.

(Also, how else would you fit 6 ports on one card? There aren't many options, unless they went back to the blocking off air vent thing again like they do on single cards)

I just don't support DP on cards as any more than an option, we shouldn't be pigeon holed into having to use it if we want 3+ eyefinity, regardless of whether or not our monitor budget allows us to buy DP monitors or DP adapters.

Screw DP, add more DVI/HDMI timing sources. DP is far, far from being the standard

 

[AzN]

Personally, I would rather play a game on 1 large screen at 1080p then 6 screens with Gazzion x million resolution.

I just fail to understand WHY.

Also keep in mind COST is important to me. Give me $700 42" over 6x (total 1000-1200 of monitors).

also since I play mostly FPS and racing games I think bezel thing would bug me to death.

eyefinity raises resolution just like going from a standard tv to HDTV. also gives peripheral vision

yeah the 6 monitor is overkill. too many bezel is in the way but not 3

 

[Daedalus685]

eyefinity raises resolution just like going from a standard tv to HDTV. also gives peripheral vision

yeah the 6 monitor is overkill. too many bezel is in the way.

It actually doesn't give peripheral vision yet. Games would have to implement a surround mode for that. As it stands the screens represent a flat plane window into the game world, they don't allow you to see beside yourself.

 

[happy medium]

If 30 inch monitor prices come down, to me all this multy monitor stuff is obsolete.

Could you really SEE the difference between 4000x1200 and 2500x1600?

As of now the bezels kill it for me, and mabe by the time they get smaller bezels ,30 inch monitors will be cheaper.

This tech is just as bad as Nvidia 3d.

 

[Lonyo]

If 30 inch monitor prices come down, to me all this multy monitor stuff is obsolete.

Could you really SEE the difference between 4000x1200 and 2500x1600?

As of now the bezels kill it for me, and mabe by the time they get smaller bezels ,30 inch monitors will be cheaper.

This tech is just as bad as Nvidia 3d.

When was the last time 30" monitors had a price drop?

 

[happy medium]

When was the last time 30" monitors had a price drop?

Very good point....but they can't stay high forever>?

 

[NoQuarter]

It actually doesn't give peripheral vision yet. Games would have to implement a surround mode for that. As it stands the screens represent a flat plane window into the game world, they don't allow you to see beside yourself.

Not true, the fish eye compensates for peripheral and is why there's distortion on the sides. Imagine your head was inside a globe and you flattened it out, it causes the peripherals to become much large the further out from center it is. If you raise your FoV up to something ridiculous like 150+ you start to see behind yourself.

 

[happy medium]

Give me this 30 in monitor for 1300$ and a 5970 for 600$. I bet it gives me a better gaming experience cheaper then 6 monitors with bezels and 2 of these cards which you need to run at a crappy 30/40fps avg.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A0970148

Any takers?

 

[Daedalus685]

Not true, the fish eye compensates for peripheral and is why there's distortion on the sides. Imagine your head was inside a globe and you flattened it out, it causes the peripherals to become much large the further out from center it is. If you raise your FoV up to something ridiculous like 150+ you start to see behind yourself.

Many games do not allow modification of the FoV, and more often than not it is not tied to the resolution.

That is why there is stretching in the games, as a small field of view is forced onto the 'wrong' aspect ratio. Just like a wide screen TV showing old school aspect ratios the stretching will be done more at the wings.

However, this is an issue with games, not so much eyefinity. The limitation with eyefinity is that it is designed to be a flat plane.. True peripheral vision would require surround monitors.

I can see fish eye lensing as a half way point for allowing peripheral information on a plane.. but it is not what i would call peripheral vision as it would not work with a curved set up... despite that most games still don't allow fov modification.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Seems like 5 monitors would be better. 4 on the outside like in the article, and the center one set vertically. Not sure what size the middle one would need to be to make it all "fit".

Maybe 4 24" and a middle 27"?

 

[NoQuarter]

Many games do not allow modification of the FoV, and more often than not it is not tied to the resolution.

That is why there is stretching in the games, as a small field of view is forced onto the 'wrong' aspect ratio. Just like a wide screen TV showing old school aspect ratios the stretching will be done more at the wings.

However, this is an issue with games, not so much eyefinity. The limitation with eyefinity is that it is designed to be a flat plane.. True peripheral vision would require surround monitors.

I can see fish eye lensing as a half way point for allowing peripheral information on a plane.. but it is not what i would call peripheral vision as it would not work with a curved set up... despite that most games still don't allow fov modification.

Fish-eye skewing and widescreen stretching are 2 different things. But some games do use stretching to fill in the extra width (Modern Warfare 2). Fish-eye skewing will always exist on a flat panel and the wider your FoV the more skewing. I actually wrote up a long explanation but then realized I could just say this.

 

[Daedalus685]

Fish-eye skewing and widescreen stretching are 2 different things. But some games do use stretching to fill in the extra width (Modern Warfare 2). Fish-eye skewing will always exist on a flat panel and the wider your FoV the more skewing. I actually wrote up a long explanation but then realized I could just say this.

Yes,

However, not all games allow modification of FoV, and resort to stretching.

Besides that, we would not notice the fish eye skewing unless the FOV is drastically different than the actual FoV the displays take up in our eye. It is just a property of optics, since the screen can't compute where your head actually is all of the plane projections assume the observer is at the mid point of the displays.

That being said.. I was differentiating between our peripheral vision and that of the character in the game. I assumed folks were talking about being able to tilt the wing displays inwards to allow one ot look to teh side... which is not how it currently works as it assumes a single plane when projecting the image plane... it would be a much better solution to have the game 'see' the individual screens and allow multiple imaging planes. That would be required for our peripheral vision to be occupied.

But yeah, the characters peripheral vision is often added by increasing the FOV and resulting in a globed surface being represented on a flat panel (causing the fish eyeing). Assuming the game does not have a fixed FoV (many games do)

 

[cbn]

If 30 inch monitor prices come down, to me all this multy monitor stuff is obsolete.

All monitor prices have dropped with the exception of the 30".

Maybe producing them in TN would be enough to increase volume?

 

[cbn]

Many games do not allow modification of the FoV, and more often than not it is not tied to the resolution.

That is why there is stretching in the games, as a small field of view is forced onto the 'wrong' aspect ratio. Just like a wide screen TV showing old school aspect ratios the stretching will be done more at the wings.

With triple 1080p in portrait configuration this wouldn't happen right?

 

[Daedalus685]

All monitor prices have dropped with the exception of the 30".

Maybe producing them in TN would be enough to increase volume?

They would be near useless as TN, the colour change from top to bottom would be huge, unless you were sitting 6 feet back.


As for the other thing... correct 9:16 * 3 is pretty close to 16:9 (well.. it is the same... but Bezel correction might change it a tad..) This avoids the odd issues with stretching and fish eye changes.

 

[happy medium]

So its a no go for 6 monitors with TN panels, which just brought the price up 100$ per monitor. So 6 monitors at 300$ a piece and 2 of these cards for another 1000$
2,800$ for this setup?

Give me a 30 inch monitor and a 2 5970's for 2,400$ with double the fps in games and I'd be much ,much happier. Cheaper too.

Seems this setup is already obsolete.

 

[Stoneburner]

Personally, I would rather play a game on 1 large screen at 1080p then 6 screens with Gazzion x million resolution.

I just fail to understand WHY.

Also keep in mind COST is important to me. Give me $700 42" over 6x (total 1000-1200 of monitors).

also since I play mostly FPS and racing games I think bezel thing would bug me to death.

This is truth! Eyefinity holds no interest for me.

 

[v8envy]

Workaround for bezels: projectors. So six projectors at about $900 a pop, a nice 100" or bigger screen, dark place to install this and there might be some serious wow factor to be had. Once ATI and NV invent video hardware to drive that at a reasonable frame rate that is.

Otherwise, yeah, I'd rather have a 24" monitor and a 65"+ 120hz DLP TV instead. You'd be amazed how good and immersive a 65" 1080p TV can look displaying PC games.