Eyefinity or 3D vision on Budget

[_Deadshot]

Its gonna be a long thread....

First of all my specs
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66GHZ
Nvidia 9400GT
2GB RAM
Local PSU

I was thinking of upgrading my PC for future games & with some WOW factor

Eyefinity

My choice after a lot of research : HD 7870 HD 7950
HD 7870 2GB @ 1050MHZ is priced at $352 or INR 20000
HD 7950 3GB @ 860MHZ is priced at $430 or INR 24100
Both are flex edition

If i go with eyefinity i would first go with 3 Monitors and then analyse
the performance...if my GPU could handle more i would go with 5 Monitors
If i didnt get satisfactory performance with single GPU i would opt for
crossfire in future...my gaming will be at 720P (Yes ...NO 1080P) for each
monitor...i will play EVERY new fps,rpg & third person shooters
I DONT use AA ...I dont mind gaming with medium to high settings
so for eyefinity which of these above GPU's will deliver me a good performance...i know both of GPU's are overpriced but its India..Taxes are in the air !
i would go for 7870 if could give me above 50FPS same goes to 7950
is the performance gap too big ?
Is eyefinity HD3D possible ? BTW i am going to use portrait mode

Nvidia 3D surround

For 3D vision my best bet would be
GTX 660ti 2GB @ 1033MHZ which is priced at $437 or INR 24495
GTX 660 2GB (NON Ti) 2GB @ 933MHZ is priced at $330 or INR 18480
these two cards according to Nvidia are "sweet spot" for gamers
First i would go with single GTX 660 or 660Ti and analyse the performance of 3D on a SINGLE monitor...my gaming requirements for 3D is same as eyefinity 720P with medium to high settings
I know 3D chops FPS to half & i also know i would need a SLI for decent
performance with 3D on surround mode
Will the 192bit memory interface of 660's give me a problem in later titles ?

The main factor here is "Immersion"
I have used 3DTV 40" which i think is more immersive than eyefinity
but thats just my opinion...i also think that 5xEyefinity setup would be
as immersive as 3D but at lower cost
so guys Is 3D worth it ? or eyfinity
what should i go for AMD's eyefinity or Nvidia 3D Surround

PS: PLEASE dont give me suggestions on Upgrading PSU , RAM ,etc
I will do that eventually
Stick to the topic please...on other forums my thread was turned
into chatbox
I am going with monitor that comes with Tridef 3D
Its a PASSIVE 3D Monitor from viewsonic (vx2268wm)

 

[Jaydip]

I will recommend 3D if you don't wear glasses.Personally after experiencing both I can safely say I am intrigued by neither one.Eyefinity is cheaper perhaps but the bezels are a big let down.On the other hand for guys like me who wear glasses 3d vision is very difficult to get attached to.Also after playing sometime with 3d I feel headache but that maybe just me.If you are going for 3d route NV wins hands down but you will need at least a 670 to enjoy it.

 

[Arzachel]

Running Eyefinity on such low resolution seems pretty pointless in my opinion. Honestly, I think you should find a friend or a store that lets you try out a 1) 2560x1440 27" monitor 2) ~50" 1080p HDTV and 3) the 3D TV you mentioned for an hour or so. All of them have their boons and tradeoffs and we can't really tell you which one you'll enjoy the most nor can we tell you whether you will get migrenes from 3D/ not like having too much stuff in your peripheral vision/ find the image on a HDTV too pixelated. Afterwards either get the HD 7950 for 1) and 2) or a GTX 670 for 3).

I will recommend 3D if you don't wear glasses.Personally after experiencing both I can safely say I am intrigued by neither one.Eyefinity is cheaper perhaps but the bezels are a big let down.On the other hand for guys like me who wear glasses 3d vision is very difficult to get attached to.Also after playing sometime with 3d I feel headache but that maybe just me.If you are going for 3d route NV wins hands down but you will need at least a 670 to enjoy it.

The bezels aren't that big of an issue, because your brain pretty quickly starts to compensate for them just like it does for your nose.

 

[Jaydip]

Yeah but it is still irritating

 

[_Deadshot]

Running Eyefinity on such low resolution seems pretty pointless in my opinion. Honestly, I think you should find a friend or a store that lets you try out a 1) 2560x1440 27" monitor 2) ~50" 1080p HDTV and 3) the 3D TV you mentioned for an hour or so. All of them have their boons and tradeoffs and we can't really tell you which one you'll enjoy the most nor can we tell you whether you will get migrenes from 3D/ not like having too much stuff in your peripheral vision/ find the image on a HDTV too pixelated. Afterwards either get the HD 7950 for 1) and 2) or a GTX 670 for 3).



The bezels aren't that big of an issue, because your brain pretty quickly starts to compensate for them just like it does for your nose.

I used that 3DTV for like 10-20 Mins with the pre supplied video from sony...didnt had any headache
But when i decided to play a 3D sample from youtube ...my eyes ached like for 5 seconds After that i was fine..& my bro completely removed the glasses because of pain

 

[KingFatty]

I think going with triple-monitor is a good compromise. If you go for five displays, that seems to be more expensive and would be an option if you have a ton of money to spend, but since you are on a budget, I would just skip that option.

Perhaps don't even think about the video card yet, just focus on what monitors would make you happy.

Have you considered getting a cheap 27" 1440p Korean monitor on ebay? use that as your center monitor. Then, get two super-duper cheap 720p monitors to use as peripheral monitors. This setup will work with eyefinity, and the resolution/size mismatch is not such a big issue for the side monitors, because they are just for peripheral and provide the immersive boost that comes with eyefinity. Plus, nice choice to limit to 720p and will let the video card get higher frames per second in eyefinity. But, the nice benefit is the center monitor is wonderful when you just want to game on the center monitor or use windows etc.

So, I currently believe that will give you the biggest bang for your buck, doing eyefinity (because it supports mixed monitors) and get a killer fancy 1440p center monitor that can showcase single-monitor games/windows, with super-cheap 720p side monitors to provide immersive eyefinity for shooters/racing sims.

 

[blastingcap]

Whoa whoa whoa hold up, have you tried this personally? I know Eyefinity can work with mismatched monitors (not so sure about mismatched resolutions), but honestly I haven't delved into it since my monitors all match anyway. Are you absolutely sure about this? Do you have a link? I'm getting excited...

Have you considered getting a cheap 27" 1440p Korean monitor on ebay? use that as your center monitor. Then, get two super-duper cheap 720p monitors to use as peripheral monitors. This setup will work with eyefinity, and the resolution/size mismatch is not such a big issue for the side monitors, because they are just for peripheral and provide the immersive boost that comes with eyefinity.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Can anyone confirm this works? Im seriously buying a catleap style monitor immediately if it does, because that sounds awesome. Oh yeah, and i'm probably gonna need to grab a better video card than my 8800 GTS

 

[wand3r3r]

I was impressed with the 3D demo at a store so I got a HD3D screen, some of the games didn't work at all and others did work fine. The problem was in shooter games the sights were off. The effect was amazing when it worked, but would never suffice for fast paced first person shooters especially online when playing against people where every shot counts.

The dizziness others spoke of didn't seem to affect me but after a while it was somehow just enough and I didn't really feel like using it. I'll wait for some new inventions to try it again.

 

[_Deadshot]

Yes you can do it

 

[KingFatty]

Whoa whoa whoa hold up, have you tried this personally? I know Eyefinity can work with mismatched monitors (not so sure about mismatched resolutions), but honestly I haven't delved into it since my monitors all match anyway. Are you absolutely sure about this? Do you have a link? I'm getting excited...

Yes, this is verified to work by mixing a big 1440p catleap with 1080p, so I would be speculating that it would also work by mixing with 720p, but that is conditioned on what kind of monitor is being used to provide 720p. As for the 1080p, I asked specifically about this, due to concerns about how the catleap would interact with eyefinity and the lack of a scaler in the catleap. Although I don't personally have a catleap to test, another user successfully verified mixing catleaps with a 1920x1200 (1200p) display and all 3 monitors successfully ran at the common resolution of 1080p:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33874512&postcount=660

Originally Posted by KingFatty
So has anyone tried mixed-resolution eyefinity with one of these non-scalar monitors and perhaps 2x 1920x1080 monitors? Or maybe with two 1920x1200 monitors?

Ideally I'd like to verify that the catleap/shimian etc. monitors with single-input, no scalars, can still report themselves to eyefinity so that they will work with a 1200p or 1080p monitor to get 3x1080p resolution on all three monitors (or some other factor, where all three monitors show the same aspect ratio).

I question this because the catleaps don't have a scalar, so I'm wondering if eyefinity just gets confused or if it can actually work without needing to get 3 catleaps (e.g., using two existing smaller monitors like a 1200p and/or 1080p).

Here is the response by joe_H: http://forums.anandtech.com/member.php?u=275662

I did a quick Eyefinity test with World of Warcraft using 2 Shimian Lites and a Westinghouse 1920x1200 monitor. Created a 5760x1080 setup without issues. Each monitor scaled down to 1920x1080.

I haven't tried it since, as running 2 Shimians off of one 7950 caused the idle temps to be in the low to mid 50s. I run the secondary Shimian off a 5450 now.

 

[blastingcap]

Well yeah downscaling works, but it's ugly. I thought you meant running the 27" at native 1440p resolution in the middle flanked by two more screens at native 720p.

Yes, this is verified to work by mixing a big 1440p catleap with 1080p, so I would be speculating that it would also work by mixing with 720p, but that is conditioned on what kind of monitor is being used to provide 720p. As for the 1080p, I asked specifically about this, due to concerns about how the catleap would interact with eyefinity and the lack of a scaler in the catleap. Although I don't personally have a catleap to test, another user successfully verified mixing catleaps with a 1920x1200 (1200p) display and all 3 monitors successfully ran at the common resolution of 1080p:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33874512&postcount=660



Here is the response by joe_H: http://forums.anandtech.com/member.php?u=275662

 

[KingFatty]

Well yeah downscaling works, but it's ugly. I thought you meant running the 27" at native 1440p resolution in the middle flanked by two more screens at native 720p.

Ah, yes, I wasn't very clear. I really wish AMD or NVidia would get going on this native-resolution mixed-monitor support!

Or, just think if you could specify the resolution on a per-monitor basis. I mean, currently, running native resolution eyefinity on 3x catleaps is not within my financial budget due to needing massive GPU power.

But what if you could specify that the middle monitor would stay at native, and then just throw up a downscaled signal to the side monitors, to ease the burden on the GPU. You don't need the fancy resolution on the side monitors, but it's really nice for the center. Ah well, eventually it will happen. or, we can wait another 10 years when budget GPUs would support 7680x1600 native easily.

 

[moonbogg]

3D is good for making older games fun again, and for playing new games on low settings, maybe medium. The best thing about 3D vision IMO is blu-ray 3D. Really badass.

 

[blastingcap]

Ah, yes, I wasn't very clear. I really wish AMD or NVidia would get going on this native-resolution mixed-monitor support!

Or, just think if you could specify the resolution on a per-monitor basis. I mean, currently, running native resolution eyefinity on 3x catleaps is not within my financial budget due to needing massive GPU power.

But what if you could specify that the middle monitor would stay at native, and then just throw up a downscaled signal to the side monitors, to ease the burden on the GPU. You don't need the fancy resolution on the side monitors, but it's really nice for the center. Ah well, eventually it will happen. or, we can wait another 10 years when budget GPUs would support 7680x1600 native easily.

Techpowerup said something about Kepler doing that but then that was never again brought up. But it gives me hope that at least NV, and hopefully AMD, understand that you do not need equal horsepower on all three monitors for immersion, and that at some future point we'll get most horsepower in the middle and "just enough" on the sides. Heck, making it adjustable would be great for games that do require occasional high-quality on the sides.

 

[Kyanzes]

Well, they are two completely different things.

I can only say what I have experienced:

1) Eyefinity

It's a nice concept and probably works for a lot of peeps but it didn't for me. I bought all the stuff, set up three monitors but I just couldn't utilize the extra space. It looks AWESOME when you watch someone else playing but when YOU play it's a hassle to look around all the time.

OFC, playing a flight simulator is different from playing a game like Dead Space. I would imagine that a multi-monitor setup is awesome for someone who's into such games cause you have the time to look around (kind of look out the window and whatnot) or have instruments show on a separate display etc.

For fast paced games it didn't work for me. Never had the time to look at the monitors.

It can also be a hassle to deal with the extra space as you'll soon run into issues like using the START menu conveniently. Then you reconfigure the setup so it appears in the middle but then your pointer tends to wander to other displays instead of "hitting the frame" which is ANNOYING. Still, some people could probably adjust to that faster than me.

If you keep a lot of stuff open (e.g., a coding window on one monitor, an app preview on another one and, say, MSDN on a third then it's a no brainer. It's awesome for work.

2) 3D Vision

I wear glasses and it can be a bother to fiddle with the eyewear. I have tried 3D but don't use it very often. Never really wanted it but I did want a 120Hz monitor and bought a VG278H. Since it came with 3D glasses I tried 3D but nothing astonishing. It looks nice and all but never really got into it.

Also, the number of games that are perfectly balanced for 3D is probably not that many. What I mean is that you always run into some issue. The pointer looks out of place, some menu items (that are mostly usable in 2D only) appear in odd ways etc.


You should try them for yourself. Either ask friends to let you try 3D and Eyefinity or perhaps try exhibition pieces in malls.

 

[_Deadshot]

Well, they are two completely different things.

I can only say what I have experienced:

1) Eyefinity

It's a nice concept and probably works for a lot of peeps but it didn't for me. I bought all the stuff, set up three monitors but I just couldn't utilize the extra space. It looks AWESOME when you watch someone else playing but when YOU play it's a hassle to look around all the time.

OFC, playing a flight simulator is different from playing a game like Dead Space. I would imagine that a multi-monitor setup is awesome for someone who's into such games cause you have the time to look around (kind of look out the window and whatnot) or have instruments show on a separate display etc.

For fast paced games it didn't work for me. Never had the time to look at the monitors.

It can also be a hassle to deal with the extra space as you'll soon run into issues like using the START menu conveniently. Then you reconfigure the setup so it appears in the middle but then your pointer tends to wander to other displays instead of "hitting the frame" which is ANNOYING. Still, some people could probably adjust to that faster than me.

If you keep a lot of stuff open (e.g., a coding window on one monitor, an app preview on another one and, say, MSDN on a third then it's a no brainer. It's awesome for work.

2) 3D Vision

I wear glasses and it can be a bother to fiddle with the eyewear. I have tried 3D but don't use it very often. Never really wanted it but I did want a 120Hz monitor and bought a VG278H. Since it came with 3D glasses I tried 3D but nothing astonishing. It looks nice and all but never really got into it.

Also, the number of games that are perfectly balanced for 3D is probably not that many. What I mean is that you always run into some issue. The pointer looks out of place, some menu items (that are mostly usable in 2D only) appear in odd ways etc.


You should try them for yourself. Either ask friends to let you try 3D and Eyefinity or perhaps try exhibition pieces in malls.

Dude about eyefinity i am going to do portrait mode not landscape...so how does that feel like
& about nvidia....Exhibitions? Pieces in malls ? Man! i live in India !!!!