Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello everyone, firstly, I'd like to apologise if this isn't where this belongs, please do forgive me.

Eyefinity/surround is something that has caught my attention and appealed to me lately in a way that it hasn't before, though I appreciate it is very demanding.

As it stands, I plan to get a Dell u2414h, and a second one when I get back to university in September for more screen space. This leaves me in a position where if I were to get a third one (most around the end of the year) I could do eyefinity, but with that comes a few questions I'd like to ask you guys.

- Since I'd only be 1080p gaming until around Christmas, would it be unwise to get say an r9 290, with intention of crossfiring, since by late this year/early next year we can expect a new range of GPUs? Alternatively, do you expect crossfire r9 290s to perform well in eyefinity for a while to come? What about crossfire r9 280x's?
- How easy is switching from the eyefinity configuration to one of three separate monitors with their own borders etc (so if I maximise a screen it doesn't fill out all three monitors)? I'd probably want to keep my primary monitor the centre one when not gaming too. Is that possible?
- How is surround strategy gaming? I play a lot of Crusader Kings 2 for instance, and not sure if the huge expanse of monitors would be good or bad. A 21:9 monitor may suit better here.

I apologise for throwing questions at you in such a way, but I hope to get some clarification on these points.

Thanks in advance

Chris

I'll leave comments on the r9 series to those who have experience with it. I'm still using 2x 7950s for Eyefinity at 5760x1080 and still find it quite suitable, although I typically can't use much antialiasing or may have to turn down some settings in newer releases.

Switching from Eyefinity to Extended mode is trivial. You can either use Windows keyboard shortcuts or maybe two or three clicks from the Catalyst Control Center to swap between a single large surface and traditional expanded monitors. So, no worries about regular desktop usage or playing some games on a single screen when it's desirable.

I think most players tend to prefer a single screen for strategy games simply because it becomes burdensome navigating games menus when they're spread to the far left and far right corners of your side monitors. But, I'll still occasionally play Civ 5 or Simcity in Eyefinity - it just depends on whether I'm in the mood for it or not. Then again, I'm referring to playing at 5760x1080 in 3x1 landscape orientation. You might prefer playing strategy in Eyefinity with a lower horizontal resolution by doing 3x1 portrait instead.

i'm playing on two 290's
Most games work on high and very high with 60 FPS

i switch from Extended to Eyefinity mode via keyboard Hotkey, you can set that in the Profiles page in the CCC.
Takes about 5-10 seconds till the whole change is done, flickers two or three times.

If you want to wait for the next generation of GPU's... well they're due in christmas or few months after.... but they probalby won't be more than 20-35% faster than a 290X, and you can overclovk a 290X by 15% easily.

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