AMD demonstrates Eyefinity technology

Earlier today, AMD demonstrated a new feature of its DirectX 11 generation of graphics cards, named Eyefinity. This technology is a big leap forward: where conventional graphics cards were limited to the two RAMDAC's for each core, supporting up to two monitors simultaneously, Eyefinity stretches this limit up to six monitors for a single graphics card, providing both consumers and the business market with a new experience.

AMD's entry-level DirectX 11 cards will be limited to supporting three monitors simulteanously, but the more expensive models will smoothly support six monitors with a resolution of up to 2560x1600. To optimally use the generated workspace, software has been integrated into the GPU drivers which allow the display to be stretched over all screens seemlessly. AMD calls this Single Large Surface (SLS) and the latest Catalyst drivers already show how this will work.

Because the graphics card thinks only a single monitor is connected, multi-monitor related problems are also of the past. Games can also be played over all screens, if they recognize the Windows resolution. This means that the game no longer needs to support multi-monitor setups to utilize all monitors properly. Eyefinity will always allow the image to be scaled to the full resolution or the full surface of all monitors, something that until now was unheard of.

World of Warcraft on six 30'' monitors with 80 fps rendered on a DirectX 11 card

To show what the Eyefinity technology and RV870 videochip are capable of, AMD made a test setup with six 30" Dell monitors, accounting for a total resolution of 7680x3200 pixels. Games like World of Warcraft, Left 4 Dead and Dirt 2 were showed. To give an impression of the RV870's performance:  World of Warcraft ran at 80 fps on the aforementioned resolution, having all details on max. Dirt 2, a game that'll use DirectX 11 features, also reached playable framerates on this extreme resolution.

All screens are forged into one massive workspace, which can be adjusted as seen fit

Because Eyefinity cooperates with an additional software layer in the drivers, monitors can also be split up rather flexibly. Groups of monitors can be made, allowing for a dual-screen setup with a group of four monitors and a group of two. This means that AMD's new DirectX 11 generation, both entry model and high-end, exceeds the functionalities the Matrox TripleHead2Go has to offer.

Things become even crazier when multiple graphics cards are present in a single system, which significantly enhances the amount of supported monitors. A system using four Radeon HD5800 cards was linked to 24 monitors. LegitReviews made two interesting photos of the configuration.

It's very likely that the business market will benefit of AMD's new feature, since there are plenty of applications where multiple monitors are to be used on a single system.

Dirt 2 recognizes the 7680x3200 pixel resolution

Codemasters' Colin McRae Dirt 2 also uses DirectX 11

Tags: radeon directx directx11 rv870 eyefinity

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