Widescreen Gaming Forum

I too am hoping this will allow 3x1920x1200.

wether or not it will work as a "span" or wether or not it will/ wont work for games, im certain we will see up to 1920x1200x3 easily. there is no silly bandwidth requirement like running 3 monitors from 1 port anymore, i see no problems running 3x 30" at native res, even if it is just for desktop usage.

I would highly doubt that they wouldnt allow it to work for games, because their system of rendering (using multiple squares) is very adaptable. Also, i bet they wonder how much money Matrox is making and hope to boost their sales :P

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I think if EyeFinity works well with multigpu and multimonitor, definitely 12mp will be playable in most games. Maybe not with a lot of AA (30" are better at this respect, with their lower pixel size, so it´s not so neccesary), but a few games just now are playable with a single 285gtx at 3x30", so think about a CF of 2x 5970x2 will do. Surely not crysis, but most console ports plus some PC native games almost surely will be playable (It it works at expected).

And I would wait for a nvidia response, because It´s more a driver thing rather than hardware.

I'm not sure I agree that 3x30" will be playable - at least with high settings. Check out my benchmarks (link to the left). A GTX295 still struggles in many instances at 5.3MP (3x1680x1050). Hopefully I can get a 2GB GTX285 SLI rig to test soon. I've already seen where the 1792MB version of the GTX275 outperformed the 896MB in 3x1680x1050. I'm guess at 3x2560x1600 you'd need almost 4GB of RAM per card.

I'm not sure I agree that 3x30" will be playable - at least with high settings. Check out my benchmarks (link to the left). A GTX295 still struggles in many instances at 5.3MP (3x1680x1050). Hopefully I can get a 2GB GTX285 SLI rig to test soon. I've already seen where the 1792MB version of the GTX275 outperformed the 896MB in 3x1680x1050. I'm guess at 3x2560x1600 you'd need almost 4GB of RAM per card.

Of all games I tested (including crysis), the only game I´ve seen at 7680x1600 using more than 1GB vram was GTA and FC2 (and this only by a few MB). Of course without AA. Crysis was bellow 1GB too (in High, vhigh not tested), althought only by a few MB.

It´s easy to test with a vram monitoring utility. Before a buyed my 285gtx 1GB, I was between 1GB and 2GB versiones. After testing was done, I decided for the 1GB version. vram doesn´t scale at the same rate as resolution.

Most games don´t use more than 800MB at 7680x1600. And BS, properly configured, even allows for 4xAA at 7680x1600 for a very nice 40-50fps in win7. And that is with SoftTh, not a native driver solution from the graphic card producer and designer.

My rig is a 3x30". Trine, EVE Online and Dead Space are playable with all settings to max. Trine is barely playable, at 25-35fps (but playable), Dead Space is a something better, with 30-40fps (playable, but play it at 5040x1050 @ th2go instead softth), and EVE online is not fully tested (done at request with a demo), but probably can do 50-60 with all to max and some AA if SoftTh is properly configured.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/10551
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/

And thats with a 285gtx (pcie2.0) + 8800u, with 8800u limiting at some degree pcie bandwidth (motherboard and 285gtx are pcie2.0), as softth is very pcie bandwidth dependant at that resolution.

My point is: if I can just play now some (very few) games at 3x30" at max detail / no AA, with only one gpu working and with a third party freeware utility using hacked directx libraries. If I put four, more powerful gpus (quad CF / quad SLI if nvidia reacts) with native driver suport for multimonitor, things can only go better.

Because one of the big limitations for softth is wich doesn´t support multigpu, so if multigpu multimonitor support is open for resolutions above 5040x1050, I´m pretty sure many games can be played at 12mp. Not very demanding games, but many port games will do and some pc native games too.


So I´m really waiting for an alternative to SoftTh to improve my frames at 76x16. Anyway, BS is where I need more to play at native res, and (after many many testing) I can play quite good at native resolution + 4xAA and all max except for one secondary graphic setting.

Do we have any definitive proof that Eyefinity is multi-display gaming yet? I'd like to see more links to information, because a lot of us are definitely making a bunch of assumptions right now.

The speculation of Big Bang II multi-display SLI still brings back bad memories for me.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Do we have any definitive proof that Eyefinity is multi-display gaming yet? I'd like to see more links to information, because a lot of us are definitely making a bunch of assumptions right now.

The speculation of Big Bang II multi-display SLI still brings back bad memories for me.

No, there is not proof, but at least, this time the information/rumors over the web is much less vague about it, and speak explicitly about 12mpx, 3x2560x1600 or 3x5040x1050 used in gaming and compare directly with th2go.

we will find out soon enough, previews / early reviews should be popping up in the weeks to come, release is suppost to happen anytime between sept 10-27 from previous news posts with general availability in mid to late october.

Both ATI and Nvidia have had this forum speculating about native >2 screen gaming a few times in the past but not delivered on their veiled promises.

As for 3*30 inch: That would push ANY GFX system including quad SLI setups and even that wild 8 chip SLI thing dell once had. A setup like that would probably IMO be bottle necked by vram.

I believe that my 9800 GX2 died cause I pushed the vram too hard, that is to say I have 2X3840*1024 displays and I believe the vram got hotter faster than the GPU did and cooling kicked in too late to keep it from happening.

If it ends up being the truth and ATI does pull something magic out of their hats, I'm definitely writing an article about how nVidia lost the surround-gaming market (which they never realized they had to begin with). I'm still quite pissed off about XP horizontal-span removal and SLI Matrix Mode being QuadroPlex locked. Honestly, nVidia needs to get their head out of their ass on this one. Everyone I talk to at EVGA and nVidia just don't get it.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

If it ends up being the truth and ATI does pull something magic out of their hats, I'm definitely writing a scathing article about how nVidia lost the surround-gaming market (which they never realized they had to begin with).

Cool, and ill buy 2 x 5870 hehe :P

We should find out this week. Its said that the new cards/5800 chips are going to be unveiled on the 10th of September for everyone to see with a release date also announced as well.

4 more days people and the speculation can end :P I for one either way am excited.. Cant wait to get my hands on a 5870X2!