The ATI Radeon 5XXX Thread

[tajoh111]

This. I don't know why people think multi-monitor tech wont take off, or wont become popular eventually. Does no one know how technology works in terms of public use? Think of cell phones and internet gaming back in the late 90's, widescreen monitors being a luxery to have, or an extremely fast video card being very expensive.

Times change. As technology advances and things get cheaper/easier to use, it will increase in popularity and will eventually become the new standard. This is how it always works with new/existing tech that needs a boost.

I don't know why those that 'hate' eye-infinity don't see the big picture. Sure, it may not be a feature that interests you, but it helps technology advance which is always a good thing especially for us 'enthusiasts'.

There is no hate for this technology. Just skepticism on whether it will catch on. No one want this technology to fail or anything, some people, including myself, don't see the benefits it outweighing the costs associated with the technology. The biggest application of this technology or how AMD is trying to present it is gaming since business environments where cost is hardly an issue already have cards or systems which can display 3 screens or more.


Multiple display gaming is something more of a novelty because we have been introduced to something similar in the past and it just hasn't caught on because the consumer hardly see's it as essential part of the gaming experience.

Something like this technology I akin to Nvidia 3-d display technology. Sure its nifty and all but do we really need it to enjoy our games. No not particularly. Does it add realism or immersion to the experience, probably. Because of these added realism features, will this feature catch on. As we have seen, probably not if the cost is too high.

Honestly atleast to me, 3d technology atleast when done properly adds for more to a gaming experience than a couple extra screens because your just adding size and adding stuff to your peripheral that you really can't see. Compare this to 3d technology which adds depth of field to your primary field of vision.

Just go to a movie, which uses real 3d technology in the movie, something like this adds way more to the movie than just a larger widers screen in my opinion.

Has 3d gaming taken off those? Not really at all. People might blame the technology, but it is really good in some games, probably just like this eyefinity technology is. Eyefinity will be best used with older games.

To me, the size thing was already conquered long ago when video was allowed to be outputed to a larger screen monitor like an lcd tv. Sure we might not have as good as image quality but atleast you wouldn't have bezels.

For this technology to take off it will take an ideal set of factors to come into play.

Big cheap, bezeless monitors become available. Bezels will distract the general public from adopting it because it is too immediately noticeable.

A revolution game thats uses this technology to its fullest becomes available(e.g wii and its controllers). PhysX still needs such a game to become popular even those it is a free feature associated with the card.

The price of admission with 3 monitors and videocards needs to falls to under $500 eventually. Currently the price of a 5870 2gb is 450(you will need the most powerful and most memory possible for these monster resolutions) and 3 22 " monitors cost about 200 a piece = $1050, way too high a price to become really successful. Ghettoing it up with 19" will still make you into the 900 dollar range if you don't want crap crap monitors. As we have seen with game consoles, too high a price admission will stop customers dead in their tracks. Even if the hype and games are there, a crazy price will prevent something from taking off. And no way does eyefinity have the amount of hype that resembles anything like new game console. I am almost certain NV 3d gaming would have teken off if it didn't use special monitors and the glasses were 50 dollars.

The screen is a bottle neck for this technology too in regards to price. LCD prices are starting to stabilize and not sink anymore. It going to take a very very cheap videocard for this technology to catch on. If you look at most modern gaming builds recently, they typically go for about 1000 dollars including the screen.

These systems consist of a quad AMD or intel = 200
case+ decent power supply 100
Videocard 4870 - 4890 or gtx 260 or 275 = 140-180
motherboard = 120
Ram 4gb = 60
HD 1tb= 80
OS = 110
monitor = 200
= 1050

This is a somewhat high end build(and it is beyond this market, that eyefinity will have to go after). This is what the public is used to at this point, anything else your starting to go into enthusiast. The bang for you buck nowadays is pretty high and people expect to get alot for their money after the phenom II and core i5. Turning this into an eyefinity build turns this into a 1720 dollar build if we want 2 more monitors and a 5870 2gb. Thats substantially more obviously which is why I don't think this will catch on. Don't kid yourself, no one in the high end-enthusiast markets with a 5870 will want to use 19" monitors as they are too small for everyday use.