Benchmark Results: Surround 2D

Though certainly less high-profile than 3D Vision Surround, Nvidia’s 2D Surround technology is a good alternative when games misbehave in 3D mode. In S.T.A.L.K.E.R., we don’t have to use static lighting. We can instead crank up the DirectX 11-class lightning model and enable SSAO for the best possible picture quality in 2D mode. And of course, we can do the same using AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 2GB Eyefinity 6 Edition cards, too.

The performance picture is surprisingly close, but the SLI’ed GeForce cards do take the victory at 4800x900 and 5760x1080.

In 3D Vision Surround mode, Nvidia recommends running Far Cry 2 with a handful of settings that detract from the game’s highest possible quality, which I think is a bummer. Running in 2D mode lets us turn those features up higher (Bloom is enabled, Post FX are set to High, and we can use the DirectX 10 code path).

Here again, the SLI’ed configuration outperforms AMD’s boards in CrossFire. Both setups deliver impressive performance, though.

DiRT2 wasn’t even an option for us in 3D, so Surround mode is the only way we’re going to get to play this one on a trio of displays using a pair of GeForce GTX 480s. Performance is solid compared to AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 2GBs in CrossFire with settings cranked up.

There were minimal changes that needed to be made in order to get Call of Duty running smoothly in 3D. In 2D mode, however, we’re able to turn Depth of Field back on, along with enabling 4xAA. The result is close performance between the Nvidia and AMD boards. However, Nvidia ekes by with the win here.