Reviews - ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition review: AMD hits one for six

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We take a look at a single graphics card capable of powering six displays at resolutions of up to 7,680x3,200.

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Read more.

Good review Parm.

Quite brave of AMD to put this in slightly ahead of display manufacturers keeping up, but I think they will catch up and make it worthwhile for some - for digital signage this kind of off the shelf solution is a god-send.

Back to gaming though and I think the 5970 eyefinity6 is the card that's really better suited to it - I was impressed at how well the 5870s scaled in XF though - dual cards have really come on quite a way.

Anyway, crosshairs are for pansies.. I'd love to see a gorgeous RPG like Oblivion on 6 screens..!

Definitely a nice review, but how about some eyefinity results for 3 1080p screens side-by-side in portrait mode to give an overall resultion of 3240 x 1920? I think that'd be a setup that would interest a lot of people, given that it would provide an aspect ratio between 16:9 and 16:10...

I honestly can't see this catching on as things stand... I just keep looking at that 6 screen photo and thinking that it looks rubbish.

Completely missing the centre of the screen, game menus are near unusable, there are gaps all over the place and the bezels are a real pain in the arse. Not to mention the ridiculous scaffolding you need behind them, meaning you need a massive desk, and the wiring that'd be going on behind there.

If I'd just shelled out over a grand on new graphics card(s) and monitors, I'd want something that looked mind-blowingly good - that people would look at and just think "wow". As opposed to "err, yeah".

What I'm wondering is, would it be possible for a panel manufacturer to make six bezel-less monitors at perhaps 1920x1080, as physically small as possible, and then combine them into one gigantic monitor, with a bezel going around the outer edge? It would still require 6 displayport connectors, and probably 6 powerleads as well, but is it even possible?

If so, it would be a massively improved solution.

It's a joy to play Dirt 2 on :)

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Originally Posted by stefan_c

It's a joy to play Dirt 2 on :)

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Get back to some work or I'll install a coin slot on the system! :)

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Definitely a nice review, but how about some eyefinity results for 3 1080p screens side-by-side in portrait mode to give an overall resultion of 3240 x 1920? I think that'd be a setup that would interest a lot of people, given that it would provide an aspect ratio between 16:9 and 16:10...

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Has some 3x1080p benches:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3621/a...ion-reviewed/7

I must confess my complete technical ignorance on this, but could anyone explain to me why no one has yet made a bezel-less (or even nearly bezel-less for that matter) monitor? Quite aside from the fact that multi-display technology is never going to get far without it, it must be considered a desirable technology in its own right so I can only assume that it's not possible... Anyone?

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Originally Posted by CK_1985

I must confess my complete technical ignorance on this, but could anyone explain to me why no one has yet made a bezel-less (or even nearly bezel-less for that matter) monitor? Quite aside from the fact that multi-display technology is never going to get far without it, it must be considered a desirable technology in its own right so I can only assume that it's not possible... Anyone?

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Nearly bezel-less is possible and they exist, but they're expensive.

http://www.nexnix.co.uk/bezelless_pl...ung_460utn.php

Ati had all been in touch with manufacturers regarding thinner bezels before eyefinity launch. I'm guessing products are in the pipeline, but more time needed till they arrive.

Where's the Quad CFX setup?

"This copy of Windows is not genuine" :P

Not a bad review, but you should have done what Kyle at Hardocp did and just lower settings in BC2 and Crysis.

With 6 screens running, the difference between medium and high isn't really noticable.

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Originally Posted by Mighty God

"This copy of Windows is not genuine" :P

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We have numerous images (and keys) for Windows 7. This particular picture relates to an earlier Eyefinity build. Check out the other screenies for the fully-licensed copy which we benchmark with. :)

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Originally Posted by Jimbo75

Not a bad review, but you should have done what Kyle at Hardocp did and just lower settings in BC2 and Crysis.

With 6 screens running, the difference between medium and high isn't really noticable.

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One can make always make it playable by knocking down the settings. The point here was to compare the E6's performance against a raft of benchmarks we have already run.

BTW, Crysis is run with the 'gamer' setting and no AA, whereas we normally benchmark with 'enthusiast' and 4x AA on a single-monitor setup. :)

Umm, I put this in the same category as some of the more 'exotic' features on nVidia's side (e.g. 3D Vision). Technology that are not quite ready for prime time for a number of reason, namely special or costly hardware requirements, but interesting nevertheless.

£100-£150 (based on OcUK prices) is a hell of a premium over a standard (albeit 1GB) 5870!

The people who buy these aren't going to be intimidated by cost though. They're going to want to fork out for at least 3 decent-sized monitors on top of that, and probably not 22" ones like Hexus used. It's hardly for your average gamer. Probably a bit of the usual early milking that goes on too.

In the review I noticed you had an issue with maximising screens on an Eyefinity 6 setup as the bezels got in the way but there is a nifty little feature in ATI Catalyst called HydraGrid that effectively allows you to draw on the outlines of your screens as a grid and then use them as snap-to or maximising areas... just an idea ;)

It's neat, I'll give it that, but I'd really not sure about the decision to support only two 'legacy' monitors.

All the current generation of ATI's cards support three monitors, of which one has to be a displayport, or use an active displayport adaptor (about 70 quid).

If the motherboard in use has spare slots, it may be more sensible to run two 5850s. You still get six connections, four of which can be legacy monitors. The downsides are extra heat and power and (probably) the lack of a seamless single display surface across the two cards.. The 5850 is slightly slower, but then again, if you ran it in xfire you could get higher performance than the 5870 on some of your monitors (the others are disabled whilst in xfire, I believe).

So, yes, it's good, but only if you really need 3D acceleration on all your monitors in a seamless display space.

As for power consumption at idle, did you compare the Eyefinity card running 3 and 6 monitors to a regular card running only one? Surely it would make more sense to compare it to regular card running three/Eyefinity running one, so you can compare power usage directly :)

I have to admit, it isn't fair to slag off nvidia for how gimmicky and needless PhysX and 3D Vision are, without also commenting on how gimmicky Eyefinity is. Unlike PhysX, it will always have a market, but it's not going to be that widespread because simply put, Eyefinity just isn't compatible with all genres of games. In racers it works reasonably well, in strategy games it works superbly. In first person shooters, it's going to be extremely annoying until there are no bezels at all. For the money involved, unless you solely play strategy games, you're better off going with a single 30" monitor and have done with it. It's so much easier, no awkward setup, only a single video cable required, less graphics power required, no bezels, etc.
The HD5870 2GB Eyefinity6 cards are currently £400-£440. That's about the same price as a GTX480, just under. Seems perfectly legitimate to ask that price if you ask me. Here's just hoping that doesn't mean the HD5970 4GB Eyefinity 6 will cost £800-£880 :S

Hi

does the HD 5870 only really support 2 legacy monitors or can you just add the right additional adapter to add more VGA monitors?

I have an F16 cockpit and I require at least 6 VGA outputs! Viperpits rule!

You can theoretically use displayport adapters for all the ports, but I don't think it will actually work in Eyefinity if you do that, you'd be better off with a pair of TripleHead2Gos.