i dont know if anyone if familiar with ATI Radeon Eyefinity cards... to sum it up, the make 3+ monitors actualy act as one monitor, allowing you to play games like MOH or COD where your character/gun is in the middle monitor, and you have perifferal vision allowing you to see whats happening to the sides of your character (fun in knife fights in MOH). but now the windows 8 is being supported primarily by nvidea, and on top of that, the royal interface change... will eyefinity users still get the chance to upgrade. this question is goes for n-videa surround... will its multi monitor capabilitys be supported with the new interface?

Yes it will.

This is going to sound like a silly question, but what it Nvidia's equivalent of Eyefinity? And will it be native to Windows 8 at all (if anyone knows)?

Originally Posted by Avalon

This is going to sound like a silly question, but what it Nvidia's equivalent of Eyefinity? And will it be native to Windows 8 at all (if anyone knows)?

its called nvidea surround, it works verry similar to eyefinity, except it requiers 2 cards. alot of the eyefinity was only put on cards benchmarked well over nvideas stuff, so people talk about how surround is better, but they vs the 2 mid grad nvidea cards to the 1 mid grade ati card, ati loses. however if you setup eyefinity using a 5950 or 5970 or 6950 6970 or 6990 than the single ati card will smoke 2 mid grade nvidea cards. and people dont realize the difference in effects of crossfirex and think its the same as running the 2 nvidea cards and compare them. you cant. they are never properly tested which disapoints me. but to answer your question, its a cheap knock off of eyefinity.

Originally Posted by vrosa

I guess it will be supported

but how is the question. the interface is the part im worried about. the computer would no longer be as siuted for high performance gaming. i dont think the os is prepared for that kind of technolagy. if windows even aknowladges that the tecnolagy exists. i dont belive it can run on ubuntu. and even if it can, how many games can. so this means if they dont leave some room for adjustment and drivers, they are going to turn into a busyness computer only. people with windows 7 wont be able to upgrade. and i wouldnt put it past a few to try and find out later that the drivers might not work.

Oh, thanks for pointing that out for me. I will definitely be getting an ATI with my next rig, then.
It's interesting you should say, though... in what way are SLI and crossfirex different? You seem to be knowledgeable on the topic so I thought I would ask. And perhaps that difference has something to do with the native support for Nvidia over ATI?

Originally Posted by Thornton

its called nvidia surround, it works very similar to eyefinity, except it requires 2 cards.

A lot of the eyefinity was only put on cards benchmarked well over nvidas stuff, so people talk about how surround is better,

Are you referring to supposedly nvidia optimized benchmarks?

but they vs the 2 mid grade nvida cards to the 1 mid grade ati card, ati loses

.

That's true of any benchmark / game. It's not a Eyefinity/Surround exclusive issue.

however if you setup eyefinity using a 5950 or 5970 or 6950 6970 or 6990 then the single ati card will smoke 2 mid grade nvida cards

.

Once again, if you have two mid range AMD and two mid range Nvida cards, the performance is the same. Also, 2 mid range 560ti's will out perform a single 6970.

and people dont realize the difference in effects of crossfirex and think its the same as running the 2 nvida cards and compare them. you cant. they are never properly tested which disapoints me.

Crossfirex is running two or more GPU's just like Nvidia's SLI - They are properly tested and you can compare them.

but to answer your question, its a cheap knock off of eyefinity.

It's Nvidia's response to Eyefinity. It's not necessarily that cheap a knock off.

The true advantages to Eyefinity is that is arguably more mature and only requires a single card. Aside from that, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two. Each have their own particular pros and cons.

Originally Posted by Avalon

It's interesting you should say, though... in what way are SLI and crossfirex different? And perhaps that difference has something to do with the native support for Nvidia over ATI?

For the end result, there is no difference between CF and SLI.

CrosfireX and SLI utilize 2 or more GPU's to provide the theoretical performance of one 'big individual' card. (real world performance increase is usually a rough 50%~ )

They aren't 'different' in the sense that both allow you to use extra cards to increase performance.
Previously, SLI was superior but as of the 6xxx series, CF and SLI are virtually identical in terms of performance. Again, both have their own unique issues.


To go crossfire, you still need two or more physical cards, regardless of AMD or Nvidia. The exception are the 'x2' cards; which are a single physical card with 2 GPU's onboard. CF and SLI is 'built in'. ie AMD 6990, nvidia GTX 590


If you are seriously considering Eyefinity, go no lower than a 6950 2GB. Eyefinity sucks on slower cards.

VRAM is also a big factor in multi-screening. The resolutions are huge and the buffer runs out damn quick. 1GB really doesn't cut it - even 1.5 is borderline. 2GB+ is mandatory to avoid lagging.


Just be aware that Eyefinity and Surround aren't perfect and you will have to use a few workarounds.


And I wouldn't worry about native support - support will come from both camps.





PS It's AMD now, not ATI

Woah, that was very thorough. I certainly understand it a lot more. Thanks for the awesome post!
What are we looking at in terms of price for the 6950? I might consider building a Windows 8 rig when the time comes.