AMD is scheduled to very soon introduce their new series of graphic cards named Evergreen. But before that, at AMD press event we had opportunity to glimpse at very interesting feature, called Eyefinity. At it's basic this is multi-display technology, in some aspects similar to already known  Matrox solutions, but without additional costs for box and more software. Together with Directx 11, DirectCompute 11 and Open CL support, this feature should be one of  the focus points, as it enables playing games on multi-display setup, making gaming extraordinary experience.

Bare in mind, not all is in resolution, position is also very important. One of our favorite demonstration was done with guys from Crytech and theirs new engine. There were three displays with individual resolution of 1920x1200 forming a picture that was almost 6000 pixels wide. Best thing was that two side displays formed excellent addition as a partial side-view, something like Microsoft Flight Simulator if you remember situation. Central display is reserved for, well, central view, but side ones comes very handy during intensive play.

 

 

And unlike with Flight simulator, where implementation was for that game only, this setup will work with “80 percents of the games” out of the box, 10 percent needing few lines more in the drivers, and last 10 percent will need small intervention from developer. The list of tested and working titles is quite long, and it is to be expected that most of the new games will work out of the box. There were other game demos shown, every one impressive in his own way. There was some DirectX 11 titles like Dirt 2, new Colin McRae, Battle Forge, H.A.W.X. Alien VS Predator, etc... O yes, did we mention that new tech demo from Crytech on three displays was done with one card? In most games, with Eyefinity enabled new resolutions will be shown in menu to choose from. For example, you can play Crysis Warhead in something like 2400x1200, 3840x2048 or even 5760x2160. We checked with guys from AMD, and theoretical maximum is 8000x8000 pix per one card, making it more than enough for 6 full HD 30 inch monitors. When there is enough horse power to pour content to all the screens (and trust us, new Evergreen has that plenty) almost every content looks unbelievable good. Eyefinity combinations that were on display worked great with desktop work space, video playback, windowed and 3D full screen application and every combination of mentioned. One more demonstration got our attention, mainly because of 6 Samsung displays used in same time. Samsung, as official AMD launch partner produced new line of 23inch monitor with small screen edges and bezels, and at the same time they provided mounts for all of them to hold them in the same place. Our favorite part was when 4 displays were used for gaming, and on last two were left for more serious things like auction checking, stock reports etc... There were be special line of cards with 6 mini display ports on them, but most of the regular ones will support something like two DVI's, one Display Port and one HDMI. Eyefinity supports this different type multiple video outputs without sweat. To add cream on top, UI for display configuration in Catalyst Control Center is intuitive and easy to be used. New feature will be available only for Evergreen, with owner of older graphic cards left out on cold. That is a shame, as we believe that there will be many games that can work on multi-display configuration even with older cards, but problem here probably lies in only two video outputs, not in not enough power. On the other hand, Eyefinity is supported on Windows 7, Vista and Linux, making a very strong presence.