AMD Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition: One Card, Six Screens

By Chris Angelini
published

Six Monitors (6048x2276): One/Two Cards

Six 1920x1080 displays yield 5760x2160. So why the weird resolution? When you tweak the bezel compensation feature, you actually increase the overall resolution. And if you want to actually realize the benefits of bezel compensation, you need to specify the higher-resolution setting in your game. Selecting 5760x2160 effectively disables bezel compensation.

In the chart above, blue bars represent performance at 6048x2276 with a single Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition card. Left 4 Dead 2 is certainly playable, and DiRT 2 can easily get away with 30+ frames per second. But, for the most part, those averages are on the low side.

Adding a second card (the red bars) definitely gets us closer to where we want to be, pushing DiRT 2, Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, Far Cry 2, and to a greater extent Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. into the realm of playable.

One of the things Nvidia’s representatives are particularly proud of is the GeForce GTX 480’s scaling in SLI. Indeed, near-doubling of performance in some cases suggest that Nvidia is really getting the most out of its multi-card rendering technology.

If we were going to see exceptional scaling anywhere, it’d be at an extremely high-resolution setting like this one. CrossFire doesn’t seem to scale quite as aggressively as SLI; however, DiRT 2, Bad Company 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and Far Cry 2 all see formidable boosts.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
116 Comments Comment from the forums
  • phantomtrooper
    I would hate playing with that much black area between screens. I will stick with my 1080p monitor thank you.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    :O They got two of those cards!! Lucky punks.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Glad they compared the 1GB and 2GB cards in a 3x1 setup. Glad I got my 5870 instead of waiting for a 2GB card :D. Even so, I want some thin bezel monitors before I hook up three of them. The bezel on my HP LCD is just to think so I'm not keen on buying another two.
    Reply
  • duk3
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125322&cm_re=5870-_-14-125-322-_-Product
    Immediate availability? Yes.
    Even in stock! (When linked :P )
    Reply
  • magicbullet
    wow......i feel so poor.
    Reply
  • Should have just made the 5970 the eyefinity edition
    Reply
  • ltcommander_data
    So I guess Apple's miniDP connector is quite useful after-all and is now seeing adoption outside of Macs.

    It's too bad you didn't test GTA IV like you used to do. I believe GTA IV at max settings exceeds 1GB of VRAM usage so perhaps 2GB graphics cards may be of some use assuming the game isn't still CPU limited despite 12 threads with the Core i7 980X. At the very least, I'm guessing Liberty City at 6048x2276 would be amazing.
    Reply
  • mtyermom
    This begs the question: how long until we have zero-bezel displays?
    Reply
  • oldscotch
    Obviously, the best solution is a 3x3 grid of displays to make sure your centre focus is not interfered with.

    Lesse, that'd be 5760 x 3240.
    No sweat ;)
    Reply
  • So, I guess if you already have a 1GB 5870 and 3x1 Eyefinity setup, the only advantage of the 2GB version is being able to pile on the AA/AF effects and still have a playable frame rate.
    Reply