A back and forth we had in another thread lead me to setup my system for Eyefinity. I had the HD5830 GPU and enough monitors in the house (one with Displayport), but I had never tried Eyefinity.

Pretty awesome -- as those of you set up this way know. Heck even my wife was impressed -- got a little grin when she viewed it the first time Of course, maybe the grin was because she thought I spent a fortune -- but, I had spent nothing extra

Used 3 of my existing LCD monitors to setup a 5760x1200 Eyefinity arrangement (24", 26.5", 24") using the Dell provided Displayport cable and two DVI.

Setup was easy -- with an instruction PDF downloaded from AMD/ATI.

I found it interesting that the games I currently like best already support 5760x1200 in-game -- merely change the resolution under video options (the new resolution shows up as being available once Eyefinity is activated). But, not all games support 5760 natively -- including the "bigger budget" games I tried.

The wrap around effect is great. My entire eye field of view seems filled edge to edge (subjective feeling as, of course, the true eye FOV is nearly 180 degrees). By actual measurement, the Field of View from where I sit is 140 degrees. The side monitors are arranged at about 35 degrees to the center monitor -- they "wrap around". And the full distance across is about 56 inches. Wow -- really makes an impression.

Surprisingly to me, the HD5830 had no problem with 5760x1200 at maximum in-game settings -- including AA in one of them. These include: Neverwinter Nights 2, Two Worlds, Sacred 2, Drakensang, Titan Quest IT -- all big-environment role playing games which I am into currently while waiting for SoW:BoB. I did not try all my games (about 50 installed).

The new three monitor wide desktop is easy to use and practical, so far.

Probably no going back. I can see Christmas is going to be expensive -- matching monitors and the appropriate HD68xx card

Anyhow, this is not news to those of you using 3 monitors for months or years. Merely, my impressions FWIW.

PS: Heaven benchmark DX11 5760x1200 High Shaders, normal Tessellation, Anisotropy 4, AA off -- about 10FPS typical (12.4 average). Looks awesome -- to a geek like me Almost usable -- but not quite smooth to the eye. A reason to buy an HD68xx

Amen brother... No going back now after Eyefinity. Originally bought it (card and 2 additional monitors) for iRacing, but now i'm hooked on using it with Arma 2, DCS:BS and FSX. Best investment I've made my sim addiction yet (knocked TrackIR from the number one spot, although it's still a veeeery close second).

Welcome to the pack! You can also setup profiles for older games that don't like 2 or more monitors so you can switch. Personally I find desktop apps bothersome with three monitors, so I have a profile that just uses two (The one directly ahead and the one to the right) then for older games that act goofy with 2 or more monitors I have a profile that just uses the center monitor. Then of course many newer titles support the large resolutions, so when I'm about to launch one I press the hotkey for three.

Argon, can you tell us more about your hotkey system? I really like my Eyefinity setup (see the link in my signature) but do not like using it in 2D mode as maximizing a window opens it to the entire screen (and related issues with one large desktop space, such as the task bar). What resources (links?) do have you that might help?

thanks

David

I'll give a step by step when I return home... But basically I set up what I wanted how I wanted it, then created a profile in the ATI CCC Profile Manager using a key combo. I did that for each of my configurations. I've got Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E for Eyefinity (3 monitors), Ctrl + Shift + Alt + X for extended (Two monitors, one extended, 50 in plasma T.V. duplicated) and Ctrl + Shift + Alt + O (For One monitor, duplicated to my 50 in plasma)

Start with creating the Eyefinity three monitor profile first, then work your way down to the one monitor setup. I'm not using Eyefinity with the two monitor setup, just regular extended mode as you said I didn't want windows maximizing across both monitors.

Excellent! Thanks, I did not know that was possible. I will look into it when I get home.

David

Is anyone with this setup able to watch movies spanned across all three monitors? From what I've read online, it seems like both the ATI and NVIDIA triple-monitor gaming setups don't support watching videos (bluray) across all three monitors.

Sorry, I have never tried. The official AMD Eyefinity faq says "HD Video support depends on the player application." and points to a link by Arcsoft who is introducing HD support for ultra-wide resolutions:

http://www.arcsoft.com/en-us/press_detail.asp?prID=429

Why would you want to though, with the monitor bezels in the way? I've never tried because of that. Watching a movie from a distance, it would be very distracting...

To put together my Eyefinity, I used two LCD HDTV/monitor units from elsewhere in the house. They had to be replaced somehow -- or, better yet, returned to their original locations.

Today I found Hewlett-Packard LP2465 24" 1900x1200 refurbished (well used in an office environment I think) monitors with S-PVA panels at $210 each delivered (comparible new monitors are going at roughly $500 and up). These compare exactly to my Dell monitor ($550 when I bought it) for physical size, color, wide off axis viewing angle, height/tilt/swivel/pivot, etcetera. They're two or three years old. Write ups were very good (not the very best). Should be an improvement over the two HDTV/monitors I'm using -- and much cheaper.

Moreover, they are 1920x1200 -- new monitors are mostly 1920x1080 these days.

With fingers crossed, I ordered two -- as I really was not looking forward to spending over $1000 to get two monitors to match my Dell (which is mediocre anyhow).

Great find Allen. I am using three 22" Acer (1680x1050) monitors for my desktop; all in all I am very happy with them. In the simpit I am using one 28" I-Inc and one 17" Dell. I would love to get two more I-Inc monitors (1920x1200), at 299.99 each they are not badly priced..but another 600.00 on the simpit is not possible any time soon

David

I don't own a TV, so I use my computer for both games and movie/tv viewing. Currently have a 30" monitor. Would be bummed to downgrade from that to a single 24" monitor for watching movies and tv. Wouldn't do it, in fact. Yet there's no way I'm going to try to game across 3 30" monitors. The cost of buying 2 more 30" monitors and the hardware to power it all would be prohibitively expensive. Watching tv and movies across 3 24" monitors however, could be pretty awesome. Sadly, I don't think it really works, from the answers I've gotten online.

I don't think it will either. The aspect ratio of a film doesn't sit right across 3 monitors.

One arrived with a smashed LCD screen. The second with a cracked bezel and the On Screen Menu buttons on the bezel had no effect. Downloads of User Manuals, HP software and drivers did not help.

The second monitor did have an excellent, if nonadjustable, picture. Would have been perfect.

Got them RMAd. We'll see if the replacements are any better.

Newegg has Acer 24" LCDs for 199.99 on sale until the 15th:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009167

Can someone try and post a scree

Can someone try and then post a screenshot? I'm interested to see how much of the monitors the picture spans across. Thanks.

None left, so money refunded -- no cost -- just lost time.

Meantime, found HP ZR24w 24" 1920x1200 S-IPS (very wide gamut) brand new for $382 "promotional price" free shipping. Bought two -- one either side of my Dell U2410 H-IPS (ultra wide gamut). Installed they look good and are very adjustable in every respect. They have Displayport and DVI input like the Dell. Displayport is desirable on all monitors if I eventually buy a 2GB HD6870 6 monitor or future HD7870 6 monitor Eyefinity card.

Despite how nice the HP ZR24w and Dell are in general, for ultimate contrast and black level, the new Samsung Eyefinity cPVA (I think) monitors (over $600 each) will easily beat them (my wife has a Samsung cPVA monitor -- outstanding black levels). However, the Samsungs are only 1920x1080.

I notice that I pay 80 percent attention to the center monitor -- the side ones just "fill in" my eyeball field of view at the periphery most of the time. Thus, the Eyefinity side monitors do not need to be identical make and model to the center monitor (at least for me) -- merely well matched -- a place to save a few $$. Hand/eye manual adjustment got them close.

I ordered Pantone huey Pro MEU113 color adjustment hardware/software ($86) to adjust all the monitors' colors and contrast to match -- it should arrive today.

Another Eyefinity convert here. I had to flash my card's BIOS to cure the 'blacking out' of the display that was attached to the active DP-to-DVI adapter. I don't have the same displays, but a Samsung F2380 in the middle and a pair of cheap Medion Akoya 55004 displays on the sides. Such a configuration disables the bezel correction option, but hopefully this will be fixed in a future Catalyst release.

The Samsung F2380 is what my wife has (still available a couple places for around $300). That is a really outstanding display. I seriously considered "stealing" hers and buying two more for the perimeter -- giving her my Dell. In the end, I did what I did. But, the F2380 was a VERY close second that, perhaps, should have been first -- cost less too. I think the new Samsung Eyefinity displays are the same technology -- just with displayport and a doubled pricetag.

It does have a bit of motion blur, but it's liveable.

Re: Eyefinity^6 cards is a future-proof(ing) purchasing idea, but I'd go for 4 projectors (beamers) on a curved screen, if I were to go beyond 3 screens. I did mail Optoma a little while back to check if their HD20's would run in portrait mode, but sadly the answer was no. I think an off-the-shelf mirror 'periscope' construction (x3) to get the image to portrait would cost more than a 4th HD20. :p

geeks.com

28 inch 16:10 wide screen i-inc $199.99 right now

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IH282HPB-PB-R

Wow! I have one of these monitors in my simpit, I paid 300.00 a few months ago though...

Great find Mastiff!

But who wants to game at a max res of 1920 x 1200? That's very little game world visible on such a huge screen, and the point of eyefinity is to see as much of the game world that approaches full situational awareness as possible. HEck, I find 2560x1600 on a single 30" monitor still not enough to lend a sense of peripheral vision to games.

It won't be 1920 x 1200 at a max res with 3 monitors/Eyefinity. It will be 5760 x 1200 which will give you plenty of situational awareness and peripheral vision.

To chime in: That's what sold me on Eyefinity. For all practical purposes (with the two side monitors angled towards me), my entire useful eye-field-of-view is filled edge to edge. In most games I've played so far (only a few), the two side monitors ADD more game world (the center monitor shows the "normal" single monitor view of the game world). So, in a very real sense one's vision sense is overwhelmed with new information. Very immersive -- more immersive than gaming on a 54 inch monitor (which I have tried and was great)

I calibrated the center monitor (Dell-u2410) to sRGB with the Pantone hueyPRO hardware. The color hardly changed -- a selling point of the Dell is that each monitor is factory calibrated to sRGB and the profile is provided to Windows. The HP ZR24w needed only small manual brightness adjustment to coincide. Perhaps it was easier because both are IPS monitors (Dell H-IPS and HP S-IPS) and both have an sRGB mode (like a lot of monitors).

FWIW: With Eyefinity, the hueyPRO only adjusts the center monitor. The other monitors go along for the ride and must be "manually" tweaked for all to match (assuming one does not have 3 monitors of the same make and model). To get it exactly right, I made a simple color chart (fully saturated one of each R,G,B,C,M,Y,K) and used a precision light meter to match the brightness of the individual colors on the HP to the Dell -- I used the manual HP On Screen Display. If one had a "normal" Windows multi-monitor setup as used in an office, each monitor is automatically adjusted separately by the hueyPRO.

Thus is my Eyefinity experience. I recorded it here because I post a lot and thought this might be of interest to some considering Eyefinity or the Nvidia equivalent.

In a nutshell, Eyefinity is easy to set up (ideally need at least one Displayport monitor), makes a huge subjective difference, in many games the new resolution choice (5760x1200) shows up automatically, in others manually edit .ini or .cfg file, Eyefinity is not practical in some older games which automatically play on the center monitor, the side monitors don't have to be identical to the center monitor or even the same diagonal measurement (in fact all 3 can be different -- I tried that and though I could see the differences it looked better than playing on a single monitor), color matching across monitors can be done manually. I like the 3 monitor desktop; however, one can setup hot keys to provide different arrangements for different applications.

Though my monitors work very well, I do not recommend them as being "better" than other monitors. IPS panels apparently don't have the black levels of CRT, Plasma, or cPVA. The color gamut is excellent -- which is my reason for buying. The view angles are good relative to cheap LCD monitors but not nearly as good as for cPVA -- and they are not nearly the 178 degrees advertised (well, they are, but the contrast ratio is 10 to 1!!! -- a joke, right?). The IPS are not economical; however, I did like the promotional-price on the HP monitors relative to other IPS monitors.

Wanna trade one IPS for my cPVA?

My wife has one same make/model as yours on her desk -- about 20 feet away from where I'm sitting. That's why I know its a toss up

And, I can steal hers anytime -- she offered it to me because she knows I like it. I have the best of both worlds -- zig or zag on a moments notice

A smaller resolution (not that 1920x1200 is small) does not mean one sees less. Conversely, a larger resolution does not mean one sees more. The only thing that will get one to see more of a game, assuming that the game functions properly with widescreen and ultra-widescreen displays, is to make your monitor wider (through the use of 16:9 and 16:10 monitors as well as triplehead monitor setups).

2560x1660 will give you no more or less virtual peripheral vision than will 1920x1200, 1680x1050, or 1440x900. Why? Because all of those resolutions have the same aspect ratio. The point of triplehead is to create a wider aspect ratio, allowing you to see more to the left and right in a game.

Bigger is not the same as wider.

Most Applications dont support Direct Draw / Overlay on Mulitple displays OR on displays that arent digital.

my PowerDVD is constantly giving me an Error if I use Analog outputs to either my TV or VGA to a 2nd Monitor, but if I use HDMI/DVI to the 2nd Monitor/TV, it will play on both duplicated. Even if it stretched across you'd still have the bezel edges.

That sounds like HDCP in action.