9 replies to this topic

[Clifftonz]

Hi my first post here after following and reading many threads, just want to say it seems like a great community here!

I searched the forums for any topic regarding eyefinity and multiple monitor support but found very little information regarding this so maybe I'm first (or just a lousy searcher )

I would like to know if any other people here are running eyefinity and playing GW2 on multiple monitors, and what experiences and tips you have regarding this. I think we could start by telling what kind of rig we have and what fps/temperatures you get during gameplay, and any problems using the UI with usage of eyefinity


Card: 1x Powercolor 6990 LCS card that is water cooled that I run together with
Monitor: 3x NEC EA232wmi using 3x mini DP. Getting 5760x1080 resolution.
Fps: 25-40fps Highest settings (vsync off)
Temperature: around 40 C
CPU: i7 Intel Core i7 3770K 3,5Ghz Socket 1155
RAM: 8 Gb

The game is fully playable, but there are some cut screens like the character selection/creation sceen where you can't see the whole character. It is being cut right about in the middle. Other then that I have actually not noticed any problems in the game.

It is truly splendid to be able to see have more visible area during game play then using only one screen. A clear advantage during WvW and sPVP

But I do feel that the ftps is a bit low, and I expected my card to be able to run higher then this even on 5760x1080 resolution. Does anyone get similar fps using eyefinity, multiple screens?

[Elder III]

1. Every developer notes for each Beta thus far has said that Eyefinity is not yet fully supported and they are aware of UI issues.  --- Presumably it will work ok on of shortly after launch.

2. Crossfire and SLI are not yet supported (officially) and even when they work they don't scale well right now, so your performance is probably about right for that resolution considering it's not making good use of both of your GPUs.  This should be fixed on release --- trying the 12.7 Beta drivers might be worthwhile too, but they're aimed at 7000 series GPUs, I'm not sure how much difference they make for a 6990.

[Merlo]

I had this post elsewhere

Merlo, on 11 August 2012 - 05:55 AM, said:

I've been using the last two stress tests to gather some data on my crossfire and eyefinity setup and was looking for feedback on any other similar setups. Tests were done over a single game of sPVP using MSI Afterburner. I created a new profile in CCC with cap 12.7.
My details are:

i5 3750k @ 4.6ghz
8g ram
2 x HD 7870s no OC
3 x 27 LCDs

Test 1: Crossfire enabled/ 6060x1080/ Medium settings

FPS=60-80
GPU1 usage=80%
GPU2 usage=100%
GPU1 temp=70*
GPU2 temp=60*

Test 2: Crossfire disabled/ 6060x1080/ Medium settings

FPS=50-60
GPU1 usage=100%
GPU2 usage=0%
GPU1 temp=70*
GPU2 temp=30*

Test 3: Crossfire enabled/ 1920x1080/ Max settings

FPS=120+
GPU1 usage=80%
GPU2 usage=100%
GPU1 temp=65*
GPU2 temp=45*

Test 4: Crossfire disabled/ 1920x1080/ Max settings

FPS=90-110
GPU1 usage=100%
GPU2 usage=0%
GPU1 temp=65*
GPU2 temp=25*

Although the crossfire setups show a higher FPS, I found there was some stuttering and the crossfire disabled setups felt "smoother". Gpu usage seems to have improved a bit between stress test 1 and stress test 2, which is encouraging. Eyefinity on the whole seems to be working well, with only character generation being a pain in the butt. I know Anet is still working on crossfire and eyefinity support and alot of work and optimization still needs to happen, but anyone else been having problems?

I'm pretty happy so far with eyefinity, and after playing all of the betas and stress tests so far, plus some BF3 inbetween, I couldnt go back to stantard resolutions now. It feels like someone is standing behind me with their hands over my shoulders blocking my peripheral vision. Eyefinity adds so much to gameplay at the cost of a little framerate. I'm confident as more support for eyefinity and crossfire comes GW2 way, performance will improve.

[sargentgunner]

I've played with eyefinity on 3 1920x1080 60hz monitors at 5760x1080 in all three BWEs with a 6970 and an amd phenom 955 @3.8 ghz with no issues on high. The UI is a pain but they said that it is not fully optimized yet so I am hopeful that we will be able to move UI on launch.

[Clifftonz]

^{Thanks guys for your reply, it is great seeing more people running multiple screen and I totaly agree with Merlo that it is impossible going back from this. Do you have any suggestions of softwares to use to monitor your fps, temperature and gpu load during the game, today i use fraps but it is not the informative.}

[Elder III]

MSI Afterburner is the best for that.

[Tallenn]

Great topic. This is something I'm interested in, as well.

This is my current setup:
intel i5 2500K (not currently OC'd- haven't seemed to need to, yet)
8GB G Skill Ripjaws 1600 RAM
EVGA 560 Ti Superclocked 1GB video
27" 1080p monitor.

I'm wondering what all it will take to go to a 3 montior setup. I do have a second monitor now, but it is smaller. I currently just use it for web surfing and so on while playing. I know I'd need 2 more 1080p monitors.

My mobo (Asus P8P67 Pro) supports crossfire and sli.

Could I do it with a second 560 Ti, and even if so, would it be better to get a different card that already supports a 3 monitor setup?

Edited by Tallenn, 16 August 2012 - 05:25 PM.

[kaiboshi]

I actually posted a thread about eyefinity performance:

http://www.guildwars...with-eyefinity/

It's nice to see that I'm not the only person giving this a try because it kinda felt like that for a while, lol.

[Merlo]

Tallenn you will need to setup the Nvidia version of ATI's eyefinity, http://www.nvidia.co...n-surround.html

You can use your 560 TI but you will need to buy another 560 TI and run SLI. If your budget allows it, you're better off upgrading to a single higher end card that allows Nvidia Surround without needing SLI, you can always get a second high end card later to run in SLI for better performance. Monitor wise I'm not sure about Nvida Surround, but Eyefinity allows you to use any 3 sized monitors as long as they are all running the same resolution (ex: you could have a 27 monitor in the middle and 2 x 22 monitors on the sides).

[SuperNova]

I wouldn't recommend 560 Ti Sli for a multimonitor setup.  It just doesn't have enough VRAM, 2GB is the minimum requirement for these kinds of resolutions now.

I would generally recommend against Sli and Crossfire anyway, as they give a very poor gaming experience regardless of the fps totals.