Anandtech: AMD's Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition Reviewed

Anand Lal Shimpi says:
" The first time I laid eyes on this card I was visiting AMD's headquarters in Sunnyvale before the Radeon HD 5800 series launch event. I could take photos of the 6 displays it was driving, but not the card itself. So we'll start off with a picture of the things that set the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition card apart from its 3-display counterpart.

The most obvious changes are the display outputs. While your standard 5870 has two DL-DVI, one DisplayPort and one HDMI output, the Eyefinity 6 Edition has six mini Display Port connectors."

[champ21]

insane. I happy with my 3 monitors lol.

[darkequitus]

My lowly two. Lol.

[mrv321]

Untill you've experienced one colour displays you haven't experienced gaming.

[Aphe]

I've experienced two colour displays! Go go zx81!

[dktxx2]

Thats just over kill. Hell, two is overkill.

I mean come on your face is a foot away from that.

[Pandamobile]

The point is to immerse the gamer as much as possible.

[steve30x]

If you want that much Immersion buy a big TV thats good with computer games. The price of three or six monitors would make up the price of a decent 32" or 40" TV. Having more than one big 24" monitor is overkill.

[darkequitus]

I have 2 23" Dells. The only reason I have two is for my hobbyist video editing. So I can preview in full screen. I never use two for anything else.

[steve30x]

I understand why you need two monitors. My brother needs two monitors for music Editing but for playing games anything more than a 24" monitor is overkill.

[Pandamobile]

Why would I want a 40" stretched 1080p picture?

[mrv321]

Two screens is good... it allows so much multitasking and easily aswell. 3 can have it's function but 6 I do agree unless your a gamer is pointless.

[JsonHenry]

I use a 46" HDTV for my gaming monitor at 1080p. Nothing is "stretched". It is native @ 1920*1080 (60hz) and looks damn good.

You should try it, but make sure the TV you use has a "PC port" which is usually DVI or Dsub inputs to get the best picture coming from a PC. Unless I completely misread what you were talking about, if so I am sorry.

[HolyOrangeCows]

LOL, as immersive as looking out a six-pane window.

[Aphe]

I've often thought about that, to use more than one monitor would add all the borders of the monitors, as seen in the article picture. Isn't that off putting?

[crck]

I would have to agree with the others that say this is pointless. Who wants to play a game all chopped up like that? It would annoy the hell out of me. I would just play games on a projector if you want a giant screen.

[STONEY4]

It does seem kinda hard to be immersed with the big fat borders, although to be honest when you're actually playing it, you don't really notice them too much. (judging from trying out a setup like this at a local CompUSA)

And yes 1080p on that big of a screen for a pc gaming monitor does look very streched, especially if you're sitting close. There's a reason why only 24" monitors use 1920x1200 and 30" monitors use 2560x1600 instead.

[f789790]

If you are a gamer, a bigger screen = immersion

Having space in between the monitors would ruin that. If you are an artist in any way, you want as many monitors as you can get.

[Darkfocus]

it's to get a big resolution. the only point of buying a bigger screen is if you sit far away for example you get the exact same image on a 23" 1080P monitor as you get on a 1080P 50" Tv the 50" one is just stretched. that's why Pc monitors above 23" are all a higher res than 1080P so that the retain the same pixel density but give a bigger image so there's no stretching(monitors are meant to be sat close to TV's not so much that's why the stretching isn't that big an issue on tv's)

personally the only way to do eyefinity is with multiple 1080P projectors that way you get the resolution boost you get a big picture and there's no bezels

[steve30x]

I Most 24" monitors Ive seen lately are only 1920 x 1080. I had a monitor that done 1920 x 1200 but the difference is minimal. Also I still disagree about having more than one monitor is immersion. But its your money to waste.

[Software_Lover]

Made the monitor bezels as thin as possible. They just look too thick to me for the amount of monitors present. But hell, you might as well get a 55-^ inch lcd and play

[TABSF]

The difference is

One 46" HDTV is only 1920 by 1080p 60Hz low DPI and PPI where as
three 24" Monitors is 5760 by 1080p 120Hz (each) High DPI and PPI

So basically any single 24" monitor has a much higher DPI and PPI than any HDTV ever released plus if you have 3 its even better

Inches would be the last thing I look at when getting a new TV or monitor, its resolution, DPI and PPI that are the most important of a purchase for me

6 looks bad yet 3 or 9 would be perfect.