AMD's Eyefinity Technology Explained
Table of contents
- 1. En Route To The Holodeck
- 2. Leaping Beyond Two Screens
- 3. Counting Pipes
- 4. Screen Groups
Major changes to the PC graphics experience come few and far in between. Perhaps the last significant update was the move to multi-GPU rendering, a la ATI CrossFire. Of course, despite the well-known performance benefits of employing multiple GPUs, the technology has some obvious drawbacks. More than one motherboard slot is usually required for multi-GPU configurations, which in turn means that you wind up consuming two or more cards worth of power, rather than just one.
On the application front, you're free to span a desktop across multiple screens, running multiple apps across one or more displays concurrently. However, traditionally, spanning an application across more than one screen meant that it had to be non-accelerated. You could have size or you could have speed, but you couldn’t have both.
Times have changed. AMD’s new Eyefinity technology takes us to the next level in mainstream multi-monitor output. Known as “SunSpot” to only a handful within AMD up until its launch day, Eyefinity enables up to six monitors to be controlled from one card, enabling a massive “surface” area exceeding 24 megapixels. If you read AMD’s literature on Eyefinity, it says that “we are inexorably on the road to the ‘holodeck’ (as conceptualized on Star Trek).” Given that the Star Trek holodeck involved haptics (tactile feedback) based on force fields and such, this might be a tad hyperbolic. A better, if less-known, analogy might be the CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), a small chamber comprised of three to six screens showing rear-mounted 3D projections. Dozens of universities use CAVE systems for research around the world, so imagining a consumer version of CAVE enabled by AMD’s technology isn’t at all far-fetched. If you’ve read Fahrenheit 451 and recall the three-walled, immersive home entertainment systems Bradbury imagined, that’s where Eyefinity (with a little help from ultra-high-speed broadband) is headed.
If your primary PC is a single-screen notebook, the thought of having six monitors may seem overwhelming and excessive. So let’s be clear at the outset: Eyefinity is a means, not an end. If CrossFire was ATI/AMD’s method for helping consumers go multi-GPU, then Eyefinity is the next evolution of that. The object is not to pile on as many screens as possible. Rather, the object is to make computing “surfaces,” the real estate on which you visualize a computer-generated environment, as scalable as possible.
Today, DisplayPort is a key piece in making that scalability happen, as is a redesign in how multi-monitor computing happens on the video card. Let’s dig in and see what Eyefinity really is and does.
"We test with 30" panels—the 2560x1600 panels with over 6 million pixels each."
2560x1600 is only just over 4 million pixels....
Is it possible to set just 2 monitors to seperate groups. Say I had a 24" 1920 X 1200 to use while gaming, but wanted to keep an eye on my ebay bids and email on a second 22" 1680 X 1050 monitor. Is that possible?
@redsnake77
You can do that with any graphics card for at least the last 10 years, you just extend you desktop to the other monitor, if you running eyefinity to span by the sounds of it you use an extended group.
I should note, most games do not correctly support spanned resolutions, you can get a lot of them to work but it'll require you to manually edit conf files or download a tool to do it for you. (Shameless plug for a relivent website to follow)
www.widescreengamingforum.com
This site tests most games for how well they support widescreen and surround resolutions, they also collectivly fine and test fixes to get it working in games that don't offer suport.
To what is this 5890 continually referred to?
Either it's an ongoing typo or they something more concrete about this rumoured card.
Roll on March 11th - 5870 Eyefinity 6, bitches!
Crossfire those buggers and watch the 6 30" panels go! Although I won't be Crossfiring them just yet as I my planned output is "only" 2 24"s and a 30".
I can dream though
What about audio streams? Right now my desktop has a streaming radio station and a streaming video playing. Guess what, I get the audio from both to my speakers?!
Regarless or price, this will be amazing... I only hope expanding on hardware isn't overly excessive to make this actually practical!
Regardless or price, this will be amazing... I only hope expanding on hardware isn't overly excessive to make this actually practical!
LePhuronn wrote:
Either it's an ongoing typo or they something more concrete about this rumoured card.
The 5890 is going to be the fastest card out - but i dont know a release date yet. I think ati will wait to see if the 5970 will sell well before launching it.
The 5890 is going to be the fastest card out - but i dont know a release date yet. I think ati will wait to see if the 5970 will sell well before launching it.
This is what the rumours say, but the rumour's been around since the launch of the 5870 and nothing's materialised.
I don't see how ATI can get anything more powerful than the 5970 unless they put the pair of chips back up to their 5870 stock levels.
I know you need at least 1 DP card such as one of the 5000 series but do you also need one DP Screen.
I have 3 DVI screens, 1 Samsung 26" T260HD and 2 Viewsonic 20.1" screens running from 2 4850's in crossfire mode. If I bought 1 5000 series card, using a legacy convertor form DP to DVI could I use all three screens with the 5000 card and one of my 4850's or do I need a new screen too?
I don't see how ATI can get anything more powerful than the 5970 unless they put the pair of chips back up to their 5870 stock levels.
Mitchel said faster, not more powerful. A 5890 would be single core, just with a higher clock rate compared to the 5870 - like the 4890 is to the 4870.
The 5970 could only be beaten in power by a 5990, and seeing as there never was a 4890x2, it seems unlikely that there'll be a 5990.
Reading that through barely makes sense to me, but I hope it helps.
According to this article you can have a PASSIVE DP adaptor if you are only connecting "1 or 2" DVI/HDMI monitors to it. If that is so, why is it my machine only allows me to select the 2 monitor Eyefinity modes? I have tried HDMI+DVI+DP and DVI+DVI+DP and nothing works
Brought the card with the plans to us EYefinity later (when I could get the monitors).
What you don't mention here is how poor the support options are from AMD/ATI. How these guys expect to break into the mainstream with this technology beats me. I bought a 5450 and a 5670 and in neither case could I install the associated software, only the drivers, so couldn't use eyefinity technology. The AMD support guy didn't have a clue why the installer hung in the background (fresh built DELL PC with XP Pro). His best suggestion was DELL had locked the motherboard against AIT cards. There are no diagnostics to run and no log file of the installation (unless it completes!).
I've never had any trouble with the catalyst software, (to which I assume you are referring) - I can't find any eyefinity specific software either.
You've tried this?
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_ [...] radeonx-xp
If that doesn't work, then it's not an ATi / Catalyst-related problem. There must be a conflict elsewhere.
zsolmanz - Yes that is the software I tried to install. As I said, I spoke to AMD tech support and they didn't have a clue what was wrong but the Catalyst installer program just hung in the background with no interface showing and the first few menus. This PC is only 3 weeks old, has all versions of DOT NET installed and fully patched and is a very clean build (at this stage in its life). Note that the tech. support guys were not very complimentary about the the ATI software - for example it apparently doesn't tell you if you don't have DOT NET 3.5 installed at installation time, despite this being a requirement.