AMD's ATI Radeon Eyefinity Performance Review

[flippin_waffles]

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/


One thing I have learned while playing with AMD’s ATI Radeon Eyefinity technology is that it can breathe new life into old games. It has been a real thrill loading up older games in an Eyefinity configuration and enjoying them all over again in new ways. I have loaded up many games this past month with Eyefinity, going all the way back to the Quake 3 days. While I wish I could include every one of them here in this evaluation to get my point across, I can’t, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, Eyefinity is not just for new games.

It seems Eyefinity is really something to experience.

[edit]

I'll add this for emphasis. :D


(Editor’s Note: I am still getting feedback from folks that seem to think Eyefinity is some kind of gimmick. Well it is not. Eyefinity is the real deal and has done more to enhance our gaming experiences at HardOCP than anything else has in a long time. 3dfx SLI brought me 1024x768. Then a few cards brought me 1600x1200 and then 2560x1600. Then Eyefinity brought me 5760x1200 and 3600x1920. Am I saying that Eyefinity is the single most important technology since 3dfx’ SLI? Yes I am. I fully believe that we are only at the tip of the ice berg. )

[LordEC911]

About 3 months late?

[SocketMan]

About 3 months late?

He waited till the cards were in stock perhaps ?;)

[flippin_waffles]

I'm guessing they were waiting for multi-gpu driver support.

[OutSider]

it says date: September 28 2009

[thatdude90210]

Makes me glad I went for the 5870 instead of the 5850, because I bought it mainly for Eyefinity. And they clearly found that at those ultra high res, there is a difference.

It's linked to the wrong page at the moment, he meant this one:
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/

[Xope_Poquar]

I hate it when they compare the different video cards at different in-game settings.

[marten_larsson]

I hate it when they compare the different video cards at different in-game settings.

I don't really see this article as a comparison between the different cards, rather than a demonstration of what the different cards are capable of. I'm a bit disappointed though as they could have benched it with dual 5870's and maybe tried to OC them a bit seeing as it isn't that hard to do.

Also is Eyefinity working in all CF configs now? Because then it would be great to see 2x5970 and 3/4x5850, 3/4x5870, 3/4x5770. Also would have been great to see the 5870 Six with 2GBs of RAM... Can someone do this for me? (With the time, budget and opportunity) :)

[tajoh111]

I don't really see this article as a comparison between the different cards, rather than a demonstration of what the different cards are capable of. I'm a bit disappointed though as they could have benched it with dual 5870's and maybe tried to OC them a bit seeing as it isn't that hard to do.

Also is Eyefinity working in all CF configs now? Because then it would be great to see 2x5970 and 3/4x5850, 3/4x5870, 3/4x5770. Also would have been great to see the 5870 Six with 2GBs of RAM... Can someone do this for me? (With the time, budget and opportunity) :)

I am pretty sure cf eyefinity doesn't work except for the internal CF of the 5970. So 5870x2 is out.

[marten_larsson]

I am pretty sure cf eyefinity doesn't work except for the internal CF of the 5970. So 5870x2 is out.

I thought that the 9.12 Hotfix changed that?

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst912Hotfix.aspx


2. Support for ATI CrossFireX™ on Eyefinity configurations

§ The ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 Hotfix release provides ATI CrossFireX™ support on Eyefinity configurations, allowing users to take advantage of their additional graphics cards for increased gaming performance when driving high resolution Eyefinity display groups.

[SocketMan]

Also is Eyefinity working in all CF configs now? Because then it would be great to see 2x5970 and 3/4x5850, 3/4x5870, 3/4x5770. Also would have been great to see the 5870 Six with 2GBs of RAM... Can someone do this for me? (With the time, budget and opportunity) :)

2 cards in CF should be enough for 3 monitors as long as one of them has a display port,not sure if adding a 3rd card also adds additional output.
Afaik only the 1st card is utilized for the monitor output
with CF enabled.

[marten_larsson]

2 cards in CF should be enough for 3 monitors as long as one of them has a display port,not sure if adding a 3rd card also adds additional output.
Afaik only the 1st card is utilized for the monitor output
with CF enabled.

I was more interested in seeing the performance. Since 3x5850 is about the same as two 5870's it would be interesting to see the differences. I'm very sensitive to FPS-drops when gaming so I need a lot of performance to be able to use Eyefinity.

[TheBlueChanell]

I think I believe [H] was waiting for drivers to stabalize and crossfire and eyefinity to work before making an official review.

They did an eyefinity preview in November.

[madcho]

If someone use two or more 5870, can he tell us, you use two dvi on a 5870 and one on an other 5870, the eyefinity work like in single 5870 with 2 dvi and a display port ?

Maybe i'll sell my 5870 for 2/3 5770.

[stevecs]

Does anyone know if eyefinitiy (and multi-gpu) works under windows XP (x64 but even just normal 32bit would be good to know). I desperately want this but have held off due to comments that it didn't work under windows xp?

[Iconyu]

You titled the performance review, then linked the old eyefinity review where HOCP had their early tests with three monitors. o.0

http://hardocp.com/article/2010/01/05/amds_ati_radeon_eyefinity_performance_review/1

Was this what you wanted to post?


Does anyone know if eyefinitiy (and multi-gpu) works under windows XP (x64 but even just normal 32bit would be good to know). I desperately want this but have held off due to comments that it didn't work under windows xp?

Let XP go man, even if you hate Windows 7 now I think the longer you work with it the more you'll like it. It's much better supported than XP 64bit, more companies have their drivers going well on it. I think at it's worst you'd be forced to dual boot for work software reasons.

[Final8ty]

I am pretty sure cf eyefinity doesn't work except for the internal CF of the 5970. So 5870x2 is out.

That's twice that you have been told that is not the case any more.

[Macadamia]

That's twice that you have been told that is not the case any more.

Wanna bet that he won't stop? ;)

[stevecs]

@Iconyu, I am trying to let it go by converting over to linux everything (don't like XP either but necessary as WINE doesn't support some of the games I like). The problem is the Win7 is not as efficient (takes more time to perform the same tasks as XP (as in mouse-clicks to get something done) and does not support the older games I like to play (directx7/8/9 games, I don't care about any of the current directx 10/11 games at all). anyway, I'm just looking to see if anyone knows if it works or not w/ XP.

[zalbard]

5870 beats 5970 in Warhead... WTB new drivers... :rolleyes:

[marten_larsson]

5870 beats 5970 in Warhead... WTB new drivers... :rolleyes:

No. The 5870 runs with lower IQ settings.

[Rock&Roll]

Just so I'm clear here...

I know that CF technically is working with EyeFinity since the hotfix. But lots of users are reporting games where only one GPU is being utilized with EF...

Lets say I buy 3x 5870's and don't put them in CF. Would Eyefinity be possible across all three monitors with one card for each monitor? (non CF)

I'm just thinking, give each card 1920x1200 pixels on a single monitor, and boom. Performance issues solved. No waiting around for CF to work perfectly.

[Aerwidh]

Lets say I buy 3x 5870's and don't put them in CF. Would Eyefinity be possible across all three monitors with one card for each monitor? (non CF)

I'm just thinking, give each card 1920x1200 pixels on a single monitor, and boom. Performance issues solved. No waiting around for CF to work perfectly.

Didn't AMD do something like that when they demonstrated a flight simulator (X-plane, or something like that?) on 24 screens?
Here it is, http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzUyNQ
Four 5870s running 6 screens each.
Apparently, that game supports running multiple copies of the executable, one per card, or something like that, which is how they could make it work without crossfire.

[Rock&Roll]

Didn't AMD do something like that when they demonstrated a flight simulator (X-plane, or something like that?) on 24 screens?
Here it is, http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzUyNQ
Four 5870s running 6 screens each.
Apparently, that game supports running multiple copies of the executable, one per card, or something like that, which is how they could make it work without crossfire.

Thanks for the link. Its does give some details. That was done under linux using an in-house driver of theirs. Also, you can see some quadrants of the video move before others.

[madcho]

dammm !!!

I would like a sim could be home made ^^