Widescreen Gaming Forum

[-noun] Web community dedicated to ensuring PC games run properly on your tablet, netbook, personal computer, HDTV and multi-monitor gaming rig.
It is currently 13 Dec 2024, 10:43

All times are UTC [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 178 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 18  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: 16 Oct 2009, 03:15 
Offline

Joined: 13 Sep 2009, 15:53
Posts: 245
Would that be someone willing drop in around here every now and then? If not, where would be the best place to keep up to date on his EyeFinity press releases and communication? Does he blog like SunSp*t and you do?

He Tweets actually - @CatalystMaker. Thought I'll probably report here as well when something is ready to be said.


Top
 Profile  
 


PostPosted: 16 Oct 2009, 03:18 
Offline

Joined: 13 Sep 2009, 15:53
Posts: 245
In the 4870x2 a feature called "sideport" was always shown on the slides and whatnot but never implemented, and it was widely believed that if sideport were to be enabled the 4870x2 could have surpassed Nvidia GTX295 (since the sideport was a direct interconnect between both GPU cores and may have helped performance greatly). Well, it's been ages since anyone has even spoken about it, but what will happen to Sideport? Will it be enabled on the 5870x2 and the 4870x2 at the same time?


I'll steal the same answer from the one I gave Guru3D:

This is simply a case of our software capabilities catching up to our hardware capabilities.
When the initial design of the RV770 was taking place and concepts such as Sideport were being kicked around our ATI CrossFireX™ software wasn't in the place it is right now, so there was a much higher reliance on inter-chip communication.

While having lots of bandwidth is rarely a bad thing, the ATI CrossFireX communication bandwidth between two discrete cards is less than local bandwidth - even though Sideport doubles the inter-GPU communication bandwidth on an X2 type solution it's still not significant enough to really change the disparity in local frame buffer and inter-GPU bandwidths.

The software work that occurred in the space of time between the RV770 design and product saw significant improvements in inter-GPU communication. Internal to the driver we now have a number of "alternate frame rendering" (AFR) profiles, with many parameters that can be tweaked in order to control how the rendering behaves over multiple GPU's and reduce the inter-GPU communication as much as possible. By the time we put two RV770's on a board and started testing Sideport, the current ATI CrossFireX software capabilities delivered more than enough bandwidth, obviating the need for Sideport.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 16 Oct 2009, 03:36 
Offline

Joined: 13 Sep 2009, 15:53
Posts: 245
If this feature was enabled, it would save alot of hassle and money in having to buy an active adaptor, which then could be spend on a 2nd ATI card for better performance, (CrossFire 5850's > 1x5870 + active adaptor)


To do this type of setup you'd need a genlock/framelock type connector that is typically a workstation feature. Without this it would make the timing/syncing of the panels between card particularly difficult and you'd be getting "panel" tearing.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 16 Oct 2009, 15:45 
Offline

Joined: 28 Jun 2009, 22:17
Posts: 760
[quote]If this feature was enabled, it would save alot of hassle and money in having to buy an active adaptor, which then could be spend on a 2nd ATI card for better performance, (CrossFire 5850's > 1x5870 + active adaptor)


To do this type of setup you'd need a genlock/framelock type connector that is typically a workstation feature. Without this it would make the timing/syncing of the panels between card particularly difficult and you'd be getting "panel" tearing.
I guess this would be the case even if the number of cards & number of screens were symmetrical ? (i.e. 2 identical gfx cards, 2 screens, one on each card or 3 cards , 3 screens & so on ... )


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 16 Oct 2009, 15:48 
Offline

Joined: 13 Sep 2009, 15:53
Posts: 245
To do this type of setup you'd need a genlock/framelock type connector that is typically a workstation feature. Without this it would make the timing/syncing of the panels between card particularly difficult and you'd be getting "panel" tearing.

I guess this would be the case even if the number of cards & number of screens were symmetrical ? (i.e. 2 identical gfx cards, 2 screens, one on each card or 3 cards , 3 screens & so on ... )
Probably, because the rendering workloads would be different between the boards.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2009, 19:43 
Offline

Joined: 17 Oct 2009, 19:40
Posts: 2
With the new 58xx and 57xx cards, can you have separate colour profiles for each monitor? Is that a feature that is in the works?

If not, would I need to have 3 video cards and maybe 2 DVI switches if I wanted to switch to Eyefinity for gaming?


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 18 Oct 2009, 09:32 
Offline

Joined: 17 Oct 2009, 16:28
Posts: 7
Question: Is ATI SurroundView still supported with the HD5xxx?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: 5870x2 outputs
PostPosted: 21 Oct 2009, 08:24 
Offline

Joined: 10 May 2009, 19:46
Posts: 280
Dave can you confirm if the 5870x2 will be a 6 port card? Some people have said the 5870x2 will be just like the current 5870 with support for 3 monitors. What will be the 6 port card be then. I heard that there will be a 2 gig ram card also. I really want to be able to use 3x1 landscape and the 1 extended monitor to have teamspeak and temp monitors running and visible. I always host a 8 man lan on thursdays and it is so much easier when you can monitor teamspeak and hamachi on a visible monitor. That is why I stayed away from sli for the longest time. I think that the 2 gig ram card will help for the big resolutions but I also think it will not have the horsepower to run the image quality we would like on games. Almost all the people that are waiting for the 5870x2 are doing it because they think it will be a 6 port card and hoping it is 2 gigs ram per core. I am expecting and ready to pay $500to $600 for this card. I am a 45 yr old gamer and have been waiting for 4-5 years for some mulimonitor gaming but the matrox triplehead has not been the solution that I would want. It is to much work to configure for my tastes. Thanks for reading this long post and thank you for the reply!!!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 22 Oct 2009, 01:55 
Offline

Joined: 01 Oct 2009, 18:15
Posts: 2
Hey Dave,

do you know if we will be able to Xfire the eyefinity 6 version of the 5870 with a regular 5870?

Thanks


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 22 Oct 2009, 17:52 
Offline
Editors
Editors
User avatar

Joined: 10 Jun 2005, 21:24
Posts: 1371
Thanks for previous answer Dave. :) Its good to see that AF have come that far.

I have another question:

Will ATI provide with an option to use our previous gen cards (4000 series) with the new 5000 series? I am thinking spesifically Havok and Bullet on Opencl, GPGPU related tasks etc.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 178 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... 18  Next

All times are UTC [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  




Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group