Eyefinity, nvidia surround or 3d display

Hi there, welcome to the forums. First things first please fill out the form here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advic... gives us the information we need to help.

We should be able to figure something out. I'd keep an eye out for the new 7970, you may like what you see.

If your keen on 3D go with Nvidia, but if your keen on surround/eyefinity go with ATI
Nvidia has had 3D vision going for a long time and has the best support for 3D so far
AMD has pioneered eyefinity and is currently the best multidisplay option for gamers

I can't speak of 3D, but I can give you my impression of Eyefinity.

Pros:
Immersion, Immersion, Immersion... seriously
Massive resolution for eyecandy galore
Additional FoV in landscape
Coolness factor, everyone that sees it falls in love

Cons:
Requires IPS monitors to be done right
Non-DP monitor (1) require a funky DP adapter that are hit/miss at best
Driver support is wretched and slow
Not all games support it, SC2, MW2, Diablo 3 to name a few
Bezels, though I don't mind them, they really do vanish while gaming.
I prefer portrait mode for gaming, but it creates a really poor browsing experience

I can tell you that I've been running Eyefinity for 2 years now, and my new build I'm going for a single 120hz display for 2D. At some point the aggravation that I've been through with Eyefinity has just kind of worn me out on the tech. Like any other bleeding edge technology it's had its share of growing pains.

thanks so far guys... @striker410 ive filled in that form it is below;

Approximate Purchase Date: 2 - 3 months - i know this is a while but im putting a lot of thought and research into this before doing it.

Budget Range: £4000.00 for the tower around £1500.00 for monitors

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, music production, photoshop, 3d design, the occasional bit of coding.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: scan.co.uk overlcockers.co.uk - anything inside the uk will be ok

Country: if you didnt guess from the above, drum roll please.......................................................................................................UK

Parts Preferences: in all honest im not bothered about brands, ive used amd cpus for gaming in the past and feel its just as good as intel, especially now thanks to their new bulldozer chip.

Overclocking: hell yes, i plan to over clock the gpu and cpu untill they are crying for mercy  

SLI or Crossfire: yes, i will be running either a crossfrie or sli setup

Monitor Resolution: this depends on what setup i go for, if i go for a 3d display it will be a asus vg278h which has a res of 1920x1080, if i go for eyefinity or nvidia surround i shall get three dell us2212hm's which has a res of 1920x1080

Additional Comments: water cooled, everything shall be water cooled.

a list of componets i plan to use are below;

motherbored;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68xp-ud4-in...(x16)-vga-on-board-atx

cpu;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i7-2700k-s-11...

16gb of ram;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-arctic-white-pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-135v

either two of these gpu;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-evga-gtx-580-40nm-40...

or two of these gpu;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-xfx-hd-6970-dd-coole...(x16)-5500mhz-gddr5-gpu-880mhz-1536-cores-2x-mdp-dl-dvi-i-dvi-hdm

this psu;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-psu-corsair-profess...

2x 120gb ocz vertex3 sandforce ssds 550mbs read 500mbs write
lg blu-ray writer
creative x-fi titanium fatal1ty pro sound card
windows 7 ultimate 64bit

thanks to kitsunestarwind, as i have now decided its eyefinity or 3d display, the only thing about eyefinity is im not sure i would get use to the bezels, yet everywhere i look everyone who has it says you dont notice it.

i did find this link, which lets you "experience" eyefinity

http://www.amd.com/US/PRODUCTS/TECHNOLOGIES/AMD-EYEFINI...

yet im still not fully convinced. the other thing with both eyefinity and 3d is that alot of games dont natively support it, so im going to be buying a technology i couldnt necessarily use on all my games, this would, well for lack of a better word due to forum rules, wee me off as i could spend the extra cash on better parts and stick with my current 20" screen, or even invest in a 27" led screen, i could get one of these for sub £200.

any more comments would be great guys, thanks in advance.

EDIT;

also cant using 3d for long periods give you sore eyes and headaches ?

3D or Surround gaming all have their drawbacks. Lack of support , bugs, driver issues

Personally I have been running eyefinity for nearly 2 yrs, drivers haven't been a problem other then non-responsive driver upgrade but thats a Quadfire problem not an eyefinity problem. the DP to DVI adapters work fine as long as u dont cheap out on a crap one.
Driver support for eyefinity has been great, it's the Games that have the bugs or don't support it that's the huge problem.

either way you go you will be spending money for a feature that only works in half the games on the market. But when its supported and working great it is fantastic (dirt2/3 in 5760x1080 with steering wheel = so awesome)

In regards too
"also cant using 3d for long periods give you sore eyes and headaches ? "

This only affects some people. 3D gaming I can only handle about an hour without getting eyestrain.
Some people have no problem with it, others can't handle it, just depends on how your body can handle it
helps to try it out before you buy into it if you can

so when eyefinity works it works great... got it.

do you have to have decent displays to make it look good, i was looking at three dell u2212hm if i go for eyefinity.

i think im nearly set on eyefinity, as it also gives me added comfort for music production and everyday tasks, opposed to 3d which is still a marketing gimmick IMO.


kitsunestarwind, what graphic card are you using for eyefinity ? and does it handel it well, i mean have you got a half decent FPS and game quality ?

EDIT;

fyi im not editing on purpose its just im thinking of something else after posting lol... do you have the monitors on their stock stands or did you pay out for a monitor stand to hold all three ?

I am currently driving my 3x Acer V243HL 24inch LED monitors via 2x ATI 5970's (so Quad GPU) I do have a bit of a problem as the 5970's only have 1gb of ram this rears it's head sometimes in newer games in eyefinity mode, (e.g BF3)
Newer cards with more then 1gb of memory kinda solve that problem, hence myself will be upgrading when the price on 7970's is good here

2 monitors are connected by DVI, the 3rd is connected via DVI through a Sapphire Active Mini-DP to Dual Link DVI adapter.

I have my monitors setup on their stock stands, but I do have a Roccaforte gaming desk so its not a problem getting them lined up.

Also in eyefinity mode you always have to run your games with Vsync turned off, trying to Vsync 3 monitor timings cause things to run very slow

thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much,


ive spent the last hour just looking at youtube footage of it and i have came to a decision.


i want a eyefinity setup, i watched dirt 3 on SIX displays and it looks freaking amazing, especially with the steering wheel and even just watching it the bezels seemed to melt away, these were a primary concern of mine.

anyway if worst comes to worst and i dont like it i can always turn it of lol, better to have it and not use it than to regret not having it  

thanks again, esp kitsunestarwind.

Profiles are you friend on the ATI drivers take a bit of screwing around to get right but i have 3 profiles setup
1. eyefinity mode 5760x1080
2. Triple display 3x 1920x1080
3. Single monitor mode for taking my rig to lans.
I can switch between them at a click of a button, eyefinity for gaming, triple mode for productivity/general use, and single mode for lanning.

yeah you won't notice the bezels at all once your in a game like Dirt

Glad i could help