Widescreen Gaming Forum

Folks,

I've just completed my new Win7-64, i7-860, 5850 build and am considering going the Eyefinity route. I'm primarily an rFactor and FSX sim-head, so I'm hoping that the 5850 would sort me out.

My initial multi-panel plan is a little off-normal, so thought I'd get some advice. Here's the situation: I have a 24" panel and am thinking of picking up a 30". The plan is to ultimately grow to 3x30" (and CF'd Radeons) in about a year or so, but until then I'd like to keep the 24" in the mix.

Here are my questions:
[list]
[*]Will a 24" in portrait next to the 30" in landscape work in a conventional 2-display setup for the windows desktop ( i.e. no Eyefinity large surface)? This way, I could 3D game on just the 30", while using the 24" as a regular second monitor. To put it another way, does CCC support just a bog-standard two independent display setup, with all 3D gaming happening on Display 1?[/*:m]
[*]Is there any way to get Eyefinity to do a single surface with the Portrait-Landscape (or Portrait-Landscape-Portrait) configuration with different sized panels? (I'm guessing the answer is no).[/*:m][/list:u]

I hope I've made my thinking somewhat clear. Any thoughts and/or comments are much appreciated.

Here are my questions:
[list]
[*]Will a 24" in portrait next to the 30" in landscape work in a conventional 2-display setup for the windows desktop ( i.e. no Eyefinity large surface)? This way, I could 3D game on just the 30", while using the 24" as a regular second monitor. To put it another way, does CCC support just a bog-standard two independent display setup, with all 3D gaming happening on Display 1?[/*:m]
[*]Is there any way to get Eyefinity to do a single surface with the Portrait-Landscape (or Portrait-Landscape-Portrait) configuration with different sized panels? (I'm guessing the answer is no).[/*:m][/list:u]

[list=1][*]Of course it will work. Use Windows Extended Desktop for the 24" like you/we have done in the past when doing Multi-Monitor for work. The 24" will show the Desktop while you are gaming on the 30". However, most games keep minimizing when you switch to any application on the secondary monitor.[/*:m]
[*]Yes, this will work. The resolution of the "lowest" display connected will be used for all displays. E.g. you are using a 1920x1080 display and a 1680x1050 in Eyefinity. You will get 3600x1050 as the max resolution. The CCC always trys to "square box" the setup.[/*:m][/list:o]

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3 x 30" is huge you will end up having to sit further away from the monitors in order to make use of the peripheral vision. You also have an extremely high native resolution 7680 x 1600 which really requires the new 2GB version of the 5870 in crossfire to run decently.

Have you seen eyefinity running in real life using 24" monitors? If not you should try to before deciding if it is not big enough. Personally I would prefer 24" monitors for eyefinity and a big 40" + for watching movies rather than 30" eyefinity and it would cost about the same.

As far as creating groups you can create groups with different sized monitors but are limited to the maximum resolution of the smaller monitor. For example if your 24" does 1920 x 1200 that + your 30" would give you 3840 x 1200.

You cant run eyefinity with portrait + landscape at the moment but I think you can with SoftTH but you wouldn't want to use a 30" with a 24" there either because of the resolution mismatch. The idea would be to use a 30" 2560 x 1600 in landscape + 2 x 20" 1600 x 1200 monitors in portrait for the side.

I'm a big FSX head too, I run my Eyefinity w/ 3x24". Anything bigger than that and I'm sure I would have to sit just out of reach for my Trackir setup.

On the other hand, if you plan on using the 30" as your main display and the 24" in portrait with your GPS and other gauges running, that would work great. You'll just have to run FSX in windowed mode so that you can view it all at the same time. you can open up different panels and detach them from your primary game window and move them to the other monitor. FSX is an awesome game for multiple monitor setups and one of the few games that can truly take advantage of multiple monitors.

When it comes to CCC, you select how you want to view your monitors, Eyefinity is only active when you chain all the monitors together as one, using groups. If you want them independent of each other, that is the default set up when you plug in the new monitor. you can also go into CCC and assign the primary, this monitor will house the game. It's much like Nvidia's configuration, accept CCC is a little more user friendly with their GUI. Nvidia's looks like a cheap small business's house written spread sheet.

Also, when the monitors are not in a group, by default, each monitor can be independently manipulated. Resolution, Portrait, landscape and such can all be assigned to each monitor separately. (I just tested this to make sure I was not lying)

In all, this should be the perfect solution to your gaming needs. I would on the other hand research, and watch some videos of different sized Eyefinity set ups to see what you feel comfortable with. Bigger is not always better, not to mention that games like FSX are more processor intensive then anything else, and wont use the cards full capabilities.

I ran FSX on a q6600 at stock speeds and I could only run the game at medium settings, even with my over clocked i7 950, i can run the game at ultra setting (awesome btw), but I have to lock the frame rate at 30fps for smooth game play. Unlocked frame rates jump around way too much, i get between 15 - 150fps but the game becomes choppy and inconsistent. locking at 30fps gave me game play as smooth as a hot knife through butter.



-Tanshin

Thanks guys, this definitely clears things up for me. Good advice on the potential pitfalls of going too large ... I'm going to try to find a 3x24" and/or a 3x30" setup and sample it in person before putting the plan in motion.

... if you plan on using the 30" as your main display and the 24" in portrait with your GPS and other gauges running, that would work great ...

This is exactly what I was thinking of Tanshin. Good to hear it works flawlessly. BTW, are you using refresh (vertical) sync with FSX? If so, are you enabling it via a CCC profile?

wasn't vertical sync disabled by default with SP2? how do I even check to see if it's on. I probably don't as I haven't a clue how to find it in the game settings.

If you let me know how to set it up, I'll gladly test it out. although i don't see any rippling in the game.


-Tanshin


Edit: I found it in the CCC panel > 3D > All Tab > Scroll down to Wait for vertical refresh.
I'm testing it on always on.


Edit: I can't tell a difference with it on or off...