AMD showing off new multiboxing toys?

[Lax]

Something to this effect has been brought up on here before, but this looks interesting.

"Whereas most current graphics cards can only drive a pair of displays, AMD has put some special sauce in its next-generation DirectX 11 GPUs to enable support for a whopping six monitors. There's no catch about supported resolutions, either. At an event yesterday, AMD demonstrated a single next-gen Radeon driving six 30" Dell monitors (http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17563), each with a resolution of 2560x1600, hooked up via DisplayPort. Total resolution: 7680x3200 (or 24.6 megapixels). AMD's drivers present this setup as a single monitor to Windows, so in theory, games don't need to be updated to support it. AMD showed off Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, World of Warcraft, and DiRT 2 running at playable frame rates on the six displays."

Excerpt copy/pasted from the slashdot article that got my attention, and here's a link to the actual article that has photos.
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/17563

All I can say is ... I know some multiboxers that would love to use a 7680x3200 display that runs that fast from one PC.

[Lax]

The article doesn't indicate one way or another whether it will work for multiboxing, and I didn't suggest otherwise. Only that it looks interesting. They don't really even specify how fast it runs, only that it is "fluid". I was bringing it up here for relevant discussion

I am curious as to how well it would perform with 5 WoWs (with a sufficient number of CPU cores). I am imagining that if they are running these games at 7680x3200, they can probably handle a few WoWs at a normal resolution.

[Freddie]

I agree with Lax. What he said was, "this looks interesting," and it certainly does.

I also agree with his comment that, "I am imagining that if they are running these games at 7680x3200, they can probably handle a few WoWs at a normal resolution."

This demo strikes me as extremely impressive. This video card appears to be very powerful compared to existing hardware.

I doubt that this video card can display a big WoW at the demo'd resolution at desirable framerates, and, in addition, simultaneously display four small WoWs. But I wouldn't rule it out.

Either way, clearly we're getting close. If this card can't do it, I suspect the next major generation will. At the rate AMD went from 4870 to this, that's what, about 15 months away, something like that.

[Fizzler]

competition spurs innovation. I will flip flop from AMD to Intel, ATI to Nvidia as they leap frog each other.
I am a fan of ATI right now while not the fastest GPU they handle Audio over HDMI better or least did.

[MultiMacBox23]

Sooooooo. I have a matrox Triplehead2go Digital edition for sale now, LOL!

Definitely, gonna drop the matrox box. Its soooooo temperamental about what nvidia drivers, and which monitors it can work on. The only nvidia drivers i could get to work is the 182.5, which is old. and you need to have a monitor capable of running at 55hz (not 60), or if you can find the old firmware, and backdate it you can run 57hz. both are difficult to find monitors that work correctly with it. Only ones that i found that could reliably run 57hz were some viewsonics and the expensive dells.

I love the fact the i can keep my 2 30" screens, and then have enough inputs to hook up 3x1080p monitors, and have a extra port left over. Dunno about running a 3-by-2 stack of monitors, i dont like where a character would be in the middle of the center-upper + center-lower bezels. (single boxing of course)




PS Lax: i was the one that bugged you about running triple wide (5040x1050) resolutions when i first purchased a IS subscription.

[Sajuuk]

Makes me wish I had more -uniform- monitors.

Right now I just have a hodge-podge. :(

edit: adding hardocp article: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/09/amd_next_generation_ati_radeon_eyefinity_technolog y

http://www.ultrashock.com/images/v1/images_fun/multimonitor.jpg

[Ess]

6x 2560x1600, that is indeed very impressive. I agree with Lax though it is a shame they don't mention actual numbers that say anything about the performance.

But I do recall there is already an ATI videocard that has four DVI dual link outputs (2560x1600). I think it is plausible you can also set those to act as one big display if it is a driver feature from ATI there is a good chance it is a setting available for all ATI cards even the ones with two outputs.

I remember all the Matrox videocards had it (and still do only they're not so great for 3D).

I wonder if anyone has any experience the Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2G GDDR3 PCI-E which has 4 outputs.

http://www1.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=265

[zanthor]

Ya.. the title of the entire thread doesn't suggest this or anything. lol

You people kill me sometimes.

Fur, lets nit pick just a little more.

FFS Samdeathwalker stops posting so you take his place as resident troll?

[Lax]

Ya.. the title of the entire thread doesn't suggest this or anything. lol

You people kill me sometimes.

The title of the thread includes a question mark, indicating that I don't know if it is a multiboxing toy or not. I'd love to find out. Let it go, man

[Ess]

The title of the thread includes a question mark, indicating that I don't know if it is a multiboxing toy or not. I'd love to find out. Let it go, man

I think it will be a very expensive toy. The resolution it supports suggests the GPU to be very powerful and that is always expensive. On top of that this card will be for a niche which usually means it is even more expensive like the the nVidia Quadro FX cards for CAD/CAM.

So it will not be of much interest for multiboxers on a budget but perhaps for those other ones... that just do not know where to put all their money :)

I think if you're fiveboxing a 30" will suffice. I doubt a lot more desktop space will do all that much good. A bigger screen will make you see less at the same time and decrease your reaction time. I do not think it is all that practical. Cool sure! practical I don't think so.

[Timorous]

According to Anandtech it was running WoW @ 80fps with maximum ingame settings. IT was also able to play Dirt 2 at playable frame rates (although the exact settings are unknown).

The graphics card is the 5870 Six. It is a single GPU card with six mini display port outputs on the back. It will not be release at the same time as the other 5xxx series cards but it should be released shortly after once they do have the software working 100% (at the moment it does not work with crossfire but that is just a software fix). The software is pretty good because you can set it up to see each screen individually like normal multi screen setups or you can group screens together however you wish and even make it a 'Single Large Surface'.

From the specifications a single 5870 has the same processing power as 2x 4890 in Crossfire but without the scaling issues that arise from multi gpu setups.

I see no reason why it wont work with multiboxing. 2 monitors works fine and if this software makes windows see all 6 screens as 1 big one then you can just set up your maximiser to open the windows in the right location and it should just work.

The price of the standard 5870 is rumoured to be $399 so I guess the SIX will be a bit more because it has a 2GB frame buffer rather than 1GB and it also has all the adaptor cables to go from Mini DP --> DP

[Lax]

Great info Timorous, that does sound quite promising.

Here's a link to the Anandtech article: http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3635

And a couple other related links that I got from Anandtech's forums:

Youtube video (an AMD guy explaining a little bit and showing a game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGtxlaPQqY

Samsung is apparently planning on selling hardware to make it easy to do a 2x3 (6 monitor) configuration:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/9/10/samsung-to-launch-a-six-monitor-setup-for-amd-eyefinity-technology.aspx

[cybernerv]

looks great and useful, although I am sure it will be out of my price range :(

thanks for all the info guys, can't wait to see some benchmarks :)

[Eggy]

I want that Sapphire HD 4850 X2 2G GDDR3 PCI-E with 4 outputs, anyone care to trade for my 295? :D

[Lax]

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=783&type=expert&pid=3


the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity6 Edition card will sport 6 mini-DisplayPort outputs on it and was shown at the recent AMD gaming event in Oakland this month (http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7744). Expect to see this card in November.

More info on Eyefinity: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=783&type=expert&pid=6

[cookcpu]

I just realize the graphic card to display 4 to 6 monitor, you need the monitor to have a display port. I only know that Samsung sell 19" LCD with display port.

Anyone know of which brand and model of 24" LCD that have display port.

[Lax]

I just realize the graphic card to display 4 to 6 monitor, you need the monitor to have a display port. I only know that Samsung sell 19" LCD with display port.

Anyone know of which brand and model of 24" LCD that have display port.
A quick google turned this up: http://www.displayport.org/consumer/?q=content/product-directory

[Whowantstoknow]

I just realize the graphic card to display 4 to 6 monitor, you need the monitor to have a display port. I only know that Samsung sell 19" LCD with display port.

Anyone know of which brand and model of 24" LCD that have display port.

Luckily DP is backwards compatible so if your monitor does not have a display port you can use an adapter. Most newer models are starting to use DP as it is becomming the de facto standard

[Oswyn]

looks great and useful, although I am sure it will be out of my price range :(

thanks for all the info guys, can't wait to see some benchmarks :)

The HD5870 starts at $379, pretty decent price. I believe they support three outputs.

[cybernerv]

The HD5870 starts at $379, pretty decent price. I believe they support three outputs.
i will still wait till it comes down in price a little, maybe that will happen when they release 5870x2 or when nvidia releases their 300 cards. Always wanted to try the ati cards, I see screen shots of the driver program and it looks more in depth then nvidia driver control panel.

[jak3676]

I'm thinking the 5850 will be the sweet spot for WoW multiboxing - at least for 3x monitor setups. You're still getting ~50% more processing power than the "old" 4890 and about at the same price.

I hear retail for the 5850 is $249 and the 5870 is $379. I guess ATI was originally aiming for the $199, $299 retail prices, but due to some initial problems with yield and a lack of competition at those price points they raised the prices a bit (i.e. they thought they calculated they could charge more and get away with it.) I suspect that once the Nvidia releases their 300 series cards (assuming comperable performance jump) that we'll see the prices on teh 58xx drop a bit.

My only concern from a multi-boxer perspective is that all the cards I saw released on Wed were 1GB memory cards. I can't prove it, but I've reports from people that went from 1GB to 2GB video memory on the last generation of cards and saw an improvment. Hopefully some of the card vendors will release some 2GB varieties shortly.

[cookcpu]

Luckily DP is backwards compatible so if your monitor does not have a display port you can use an adapter. Most newer models are starting to use DP as it is becomming the de facto standard

Glad to learn that there are display port adapter for non-display port LCD. :) So far I haven't come across one, I guess when display port graphic card become more popular this type of adapter will start to surface.