ATI’s Eyefinity: 18 Games Benched on 3 and 6 Displays

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by Rob Williams on May 17, 2010 in Graphics & Displays

When AMD launched its ATI Eyefinity technology, it helped redefine high-end gaming, and effectively made 2560×1600 look like child’s play. In this article, we put the technology to a good test across 18 different games and on both 3×1 (5760×1080) and 3×2 (5760×2160) display configurations to see just how worthy Eyefinity is.

Page 13 – Metro 2033, Need for Speed: SHIFT

Metro 2033

Metro 2033 is a game I like to consider “The Next Crysis”, because it’s beyond playable at the game’s highest settings on most of today’s resolutions, regardless of your PC. It’s brutal, it’s that simple. But unlike Crysis (in my opinion), Metro 2033 actually looks the part, and gives definitive proof about why so much graphics horsepower is required to run it. It’s for that reason that this game is likely to become implemented into our regular GPU test suite soon.

This game is yet another to be neither Validated nor Ready, but we saw no reason for the omission. The menus looked great, as did all the fonts, and of course the UI and game world. There were simply no graphical oddities during our time spent with the game, so I suspect AMD will give it props in the near future for its friendliness to Eyefinity.

Metro 2033 - 5760x2160

Metro 2033 - 5760x1080

ATI Eyefinity 3 and 6 Displays

At the game’s Low detail setting, both configurations at 5760×1080 ran just fine, with extremely good framerates. At 5760×2160, the dual GPU configuration allowed us to stay with those detail settings, but with one GPU, things are again a little bit borderline. Unfortunately, we were running with the lowest in-game detail settings, so at that point it was take it or leave it.

Graphics Card
Best Playable
Min FPS
Avg. FPS
5760×1080 – Single GPU
Normal Detail, 0xAA
33
49.541
5760×1080 – Dual GPU
High Detail, 0xAA
21
35.906
5760×2160 – Single GPU
Low Detail, 0xAA
19
28.353
5760×2160 – Dual GPU
Low Detail, 0xAA
28
44.62

Both 5760×2160 configurations stayed put, while we were able to increase the settings for both the single GPU and dual GPU configuration at 5760×1080. With a single GPU, we were able to go to Normal detail, while with two, we were able to use High. At that detail setting, the game looked unbelievably sweet, and as you can see, the framerates dropped quite a bit as well, but it was still completely playable.

Need for Speed: SHIFT

Our third and final racing title used was SHIFT, and thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. As an official Validated title, this one delivered exactly what we were hoping for. Menus with no issues, good UI placement (of which there is little to begin with), and a perfectly-rendered game world. As this is a Validated title, you can expect Eyefinity perfection, and from our experience, that’s what we got.

Need for Speed: SHIFT - 5760x2160

Need for Speed: SHIFT - 5760x1080

ATI Eyefinity 3 and 6 Displays

Like Just Cause 2, this title looks amazing, but didn’t fare well with CrossFireX. These issues seem to be an obvious trend, so I suspect there could be something specific in the driver that needs tweaking, and not just a specific game profile. Again though, even with one GPU the detail settings and performance is fantastic, so at least we have that.

Graphics Card
Best Playable
Min FPS
Avg. FPS
5760×1080 – Single GPU
Max Detail
60
81.826
5760×1080 – Dual GPU
N/A
N/A
N/A
5760×2160 – Single GPU
Normal Detail
50
57.615
5760×2160 – Dual GPU
N/A
N/A
N/A
This title doesn’t run well in CrossFireX mode with currently-available driver.

As the game saw 100+ FPS at 5760×1080, it was obvious that we were going to be able to boost the detail settings even more, and we did. At maxed-out detail settings, we still saw an incredible 81 FPS on average… at 5760×1080! For 5760×2160, we kept things as they were.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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