So, clearly PAX East was NVIDIA’s big event.  But that doesn’t mean that AMD/ATI was just twiddling their thumbs.  Yeah, their booth may not have been huge, but they had boxes running Bad Company 2, DiRT, and Hawx in Eyefinity (BC2 and Hawx were over 3 monitors, while DiRT was on 6).  All three boxes were running the new AMD 6 core Phenom II processors, which are due out shortly, and a few different ATI cards (the 5970 was running on the BC2 machine, while the 5870 was running DiRT).  I didn’t actually play the games themselves, but I was able to observe others doing so.  All of them ran very smoothly, which I thought was rather impressive considering the ridiculous resolutions involved.  There was also a system at the Alienware booth running Modern Warfare 2 over 6 monitors.

Modern Warfare 2 in Eyefinity 6.  Blur effect is from the low shutter speed on the camera in poor light, not the game.

My first impressions of Eyefinity were mixed.  Over 3 monitors, it gives you the peripheral vision one typically lacks in video games.  This can help a lot in shooters.  But when you expand BC2 or MW2 to 6 monitors, you start to run into some problems with the bezels on the displays.  On Friday, Bad Company 2 was running on the Eyefinity 6 system, and the very first thing I noticed was that the crosshair was split between top and bottom monitors in the center column.  LCD bezels being what they are, this meant that the player has about 1-1.25 inch gap right in the center of his view.  Of course, you’re not actually losing anything, because the video card is still rendering all of the video and not leaving out what should be at the bezels.  But it’s very difficult to aim properly when you have this split.  Unless game designers start working on a better way to display across 6 monitors from the start, or unless you can get bezels down to almost zero, shooters won’t be playable across that much display real estate.  Stick with 3 screens for these kinds of games.  That being said, the AMD guys did tell me that the user can make some limited adjustments to where the center of the view should be to get around some of the lost ground between monitors.

Here you can see the bezel problem.  How can you aim effectively like that?  Again, blur is due to the camera.

DiRT seemed to work much better on this display, however.  The car largely remained on the lower screen, while the upper screens allowed the driver to see a great deal of what was coming up.  I think it might work better with racing games in general.  However, there are two types of games that I really want to see in Eyefinity 6 that we weren’t given a taste of just yet.  The first is flight sims.  Yes, I know that Hawx was right next door running on 3 screens, and it looked just fine, but that’s not a true flight sim.  I want to see something Flanker, DCS Blackshark, or Rise of Flight running on six monitors.  If true Eyefinity support was built in to the games, it’d be great to be able to have the bottom row of screens provide your normal cockpit views, while the top row would be your upper wing or canopy views.  I think this is the type of game Eyefinity is made for, and it could very well define the technology.  I would also like to see how this sort of set up can impact Real Time Strategies.  Especially in games with limited zoom levels (which can be frustrating even in Company of Heroes), this could make a huge difference in what you can command.  That said, it might take too long to move the mouse around a play area that huge (Tom’s ran the 5870 at 6048×2276 across a 3×2 array of 22” displays).

There are problems with a 6 display set up.  First is that you can’t fit it on your desk.  By, this I don’t necessarily mean physically (you might actually have a desk the size of the Enterprise’s deck), but the fact that you need to sit several feet back from the screen in order view the entire array.  Second is cost.  Consider that to run 6 screens smoothly across all games you’ll probably need a Crossfire setup.  That’s $1,000 for two cards.  Add in the cost of 6 monitors and stands to hold them, and you’re looking at no small chunk of change.  And how do you power all of that stuff?  Some people may not have an issue with providing enough outlets and circuits, but my apartment has only 4 circuits, and only 2 are readily accessible (the kitchen and the bathroom are separate, so only 2 handle the rest of the place).  Considering this means I’m already running my 46” LCD TV, a minifridge (which is my only fridge, so get off it), and my PC on one circuit already, and the air conditioner or electric heater on the other, I probably couldn’t even handle the power draw.

Notice how far back the controls are from the wall.  Also, you’d think AMD could have cleaned up the wires a bit.  Just because real computers have that kind of spaghetti out the back doesn’t mean your demo unit has to!

All that being said, AMD still had a great deal to say when it came to their business model.  Since they have successful products in both the CPU and video card markets, they’re able to provide a complete computing solution.  This is something that NVIDIA and Intel can’t provide.  They claim they’ll be able to provide top end systems for under $1,000, but frankly I’m not too sure of that.  Don’t get me wrong, it would still be a hell of a lot cheaper than an equivalent Intel system, but they didn’t provide me with a great deal of insight into what the system specs on a $1,000 rig would be.  If a top flight video card like the 5870 or 5970 costs $500 or $700 respectively, I just don’t know what they’re throwing in there.  That being said, ATI’s video card solutions are competitive in all market segments, so it’s not like a cheaper card is going to be a piece of junk.  I should also note that they discussed the price points of their new 6 core CPUs as being around $300 and under.  And they’ll use all existing sockets for backward compatibility.  And yes, that is supposed to include the Black Editions (the current Phenom II X4 965 goes for about $185 on Newegg, so it’s not unrealistic to assume these price points are accurate).

The 5970

The individuals I spoke with also noted that AMD is pushing for open source solutions to physics processing and 3D technology (NVIDIA’s is proprietary).  I tend to side with AMD on these topics.  An open solution that doesn’t require licensing and special programming on the developer side benefits the consumer, whereas the current proprietary technology employed by NVIDIA only helps them and even then it’ll be a difficult sell.  Developers won’t program specifically for NVIDIA technology if people don’t buy the hardware, but no one will buy the hardware if there are no games that support the fancy new bells and whistles.  It’s a potential catch 22 that would be better solved by an open solution than a proprietary one.  But NVIDIA is a business and they have their own bottom line to protect, so I can’t say that I blame them one bit for the path they’ve taken.

A few random points I’d like to make before I close this out:

  • We’re not a hardware site, so when articles such as this one appear, it’s going to be from the perspective of gaming consumers.  We do not have the time, money, hardware, or knowledge to do real hardware testing and benchmarking.  If I see it in action and it works right and looks good, I’m going say it’s successful.
  • The individuals I spoke to at both booths agreed on one thing: Tom’s Hardware is one of the most objective sites out there for hardware reviews and benchmarks.  Tom’s has been my personal source for a great deal of information, and the engineers at both companies seem to agree that they can be trusted.  So, if you’re looking for hardware information, they’re probably the best place to go to.  And no, I have absolutely no affiliation with Tom’s.  I’m simply a satisfied consumer of their journalism.
  • Full disclosure: I run a machine with an AMD CPU and NVIDIA video cards.  Although I have run this combo for a while, I do so because AMD’s price/performance index is usually better than Intel’s, while I have tremendous brand loyalty to BFG Tech for video cards.  Again, I’m not involved with any of these companies in any capacity other than a consumer, but BFG has always provided a superior product and a lifetime warranty on their cards, and they only make NVIDIA products, which is why I still run this combo despite the merger of AMD and ATI.