Eyefinity or TH2go?

[Crescent]

It appears there are a few members who have been using Eyefinity for a bit now. So, I'd like to hear the pros and cons of each. I'm thinking of going with Eyefinity...I havn't priced out the cards yet, but I'm thinking it may be a cheaper way to go as opposed to TH2go.

[twisted8]

Depends on a few things, what monitors and resolution do you want to run? what's your current video card? Do you have display port in your monitors?
If you already have a really good video card I would recommend getting the TH2go if it can handle your desired resolution, it's less troublesome. If you need to upgrade your videocard and want to run higher resolutions then might as well go for eyefinity. Don't forget to add the $100 display port adapter when comparing prices. If you go for ATI I think the 5850 is a good bang for the buck. That's what I use!

triplehead2go:
pros:
Seems to be less troublesome
works with your existing video card
Doesn't use as much power
cons:
Can't handle higher resolutions and refresh rates

Eyefinity:
pros:
Cheaper if you are upgrading your video card anyway
Better performance (vs. using older video card and just add a triplehead)
Can handle portrait mode
Can handle higher resolutions and higher refresh rates
More future proof as higher resolutions become more standard (also supports DirectX 11)

cons:
Needs beefy power supply
No bezel management as of now
ATI cards sometimes don't play well with FS
Need $100 displayport adapter

[litebkt]

It appears there are a few members who have been using Eyefinity for a bit now. So, I'd like to hear the pros and cons of each. I'm thinking of going with Eyefinity...I havn't priced out the cards yet, but I'm thinking it may be a cheaper way to go as opposed to TH2go.

I've just got Eyefinity set up with three 25.5" displayes (one with an active Displayport to DVI connector). One monitor is an HP and the other two are Samsung. Everything works pretty well in the 3D cockpit on the three monitors. But when I switch to the 2D cockpit, things get a bit flaky. I suppose that is because the 2D cockpit is actually overlayed the rendered "outside" whereas the 3D cockpit is completely rendered. It may be that my problem is caused by using two different brands of monitors.

I'm planning on running the three large monitors for an outside view only though and my controls on another eyefinity capable card but not in eyefinity mode. The other card will power two smaller 18" Dell monitors.

Michelle

[Stevsky]

I just started using ATI 5870. Only problem I have with a 3 monitor setup is in full screen. In full screen I get a clone of the virtual cockpit on each monitor. The only way I can use it is to alt-enter out of full screen and then stretch that across all three monitors, then I end up with the tool bar at the bottom and the menu tabs at the top. Does anyone have a work around for this in order to use the full screen across all 3 monitors. I do have them grouped 3X1 and using Win 7 64 bit. Also is there a way to zoom below the 30% limit to get a better view of the cockpit along with the outside?

[Navajo31]

@ stevsky,

Maybe a little late, but you need to select the proper resolution again in the display setup.
Select the resolution to match that of the 3 screens together.
Then you get one VC.

Cheers

[Stevsky]

THANK YOU IT IS NOw CORRECTED.

[Stevsky]

Thank you, it is now corrected and working great!

[Crescent]

Looks like you didn't do your homework before buying the stuff.

To run three monitors on your Eyefinity 6-edition HD5870, at least ONE monitor needs to have a DisplayPort jack.

Or get the displayport to dvi adapter.

[Stevsky]

I did my homework and all 3 monitors have display ports. Have you used the bezel compenstion, if so how did it work out in FSX? I can not get it to line up correctly in FSX

[Skylane]

Does Eyefinity really work with FSX ???
I have checked out AMD's site for that. There is a list of supported games .... FS(X) is not among the supported games.
Matrox TH2Go only works with supported games, so I am very curious!!

I use a TH2go-digital on a NVIDIA GTS260 (overclocked) 5040 pix horizontal res on 3 LG 37" HD-LCD TV's. Fps is poor !!! average 21 to 31 fps but at large airports fps drops to 4 to 12 fps which makes it impossible to land by hand. (all "traffic" sliders to min, “water texture” slider to “1”, no “ground shadow” on scenery, most of all other sliders to max)
On a single monitor at same slider setting I get an average fps 50++, very dense airports 30+ fps. So the TH2Go is draining the processors performance for it’s still the processor that has to calculate the 5040 x 1060 pixels. I am very curious what Eyefinity could add compared to that, for FS(X) is a processor depended game, no doubt about that.

I think there is still no other way to get good fps on multi displays than WideView !! And as I see how price to performance evolves between AMD and Intel … we might have a winner. AMD Phenom Black edition processors are cheap and can handle over 4.2GHz clock in a stable system. AMD seems to make a high end WideView system more affordable for a larger group of cockpit builders.
Just my 2 cents worth…….

[Stevsky]

I never used TH2GO but I do get very good FPS at high settings with the ATI 5870.

[Stevsky]

On a single monitor at same slider setting I get an average fps 50++, very dense airports 30+ fps. So the TH2Go is draining the processors performance for it’s still the processor that has to calculate the 5040 x 1060 pixels. I am very curious what Eyefinity could add compared to that, for FS(X) is a processor depended game, no doubt about that.

I think there is still no other way to get good fps on multi displays than WideView !! And as I see how price to performance evolves between AMD and Intel … we might have a winner. AMD Phenom Black edition processors are cheap and can handle over 4.2GHz clock in a stable system. AMD seems to make a high end WideView system more affordable for a larger group of cockpit builders.
Just my 2 cents worth…….

[Stevsky]

I just started using ATI 5870. Only problem I have with a 3 monitor setup is in full screen. In full screen I get a clone of the virtual cockpit on each monitor. The only way I can use it is to alt-enter out of full screen and then stretch that across all three monitors, then I end up with the tool bar at the bottom and the menu tabs at the top. Does anyone have a work around for this in order to use the full screen across all 3 monitors. I do have them grouped 3X1 and using Win 7 64 bit. Also is there a way to zoom below the 30% limit to get a better view of the cockpit along with the outside?

[Navajo31]

Hi,

At first I had the same thing.
In windowed mode, FS uses the destktop resolution.
In full screen, you need to have set the FS resolution in the settings menu.
You should be able to select 4000X1024 or something like that.

One other thing you can change is the with of the screen FS shows.
Therefore you need to add one line to the display section of the FSX.cfg: WideViewAspect=True

Then you should have a wider field of view.

Hope this helps

[Stevsky]

Thank you it works great now, very very helpful and appreciated.
Steve

[Navajo31]

Allways glad to help. I noticed you fixed the problem in the other thread as well!

Cheers!