![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Friday , January 08, 2010
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
NVIDIA 3D Surround Multi-display Gaming Editorial
We give our readers a few of our first thoughts about NVIDIA and its new NVIDIA Surround feature that will help push forward multi-display gaming to the masses. This is a great day for PC gamers, but there are a couple of things that need to be said.
NVIDIA 3D Surround
There is some interesting information from NVIDIA at CES that is somewhat disconcerting and promising all at the same time. You guys no doubt know that we love ATI Eyefinity technology. We don't love Eyefinity because it is from AMD, we love Eyefinity because it greatly enhances the PC gaming experience. Gaming on an Eyefinity configuration can be a tremendous experience. Here is a link to my personal Eyefinity setup that I use daily. I have moved up to a Radeon 5970 for the time being, but the 5870 did just fine in terms of performance. Once the Trillian 6-head card comes to market from AMD, we will likely be using one of those to do this...the HardOCP Eyefinity Dream Station. :)
I am not telling you all of this to poop on NVIDIA’s parade. I am telling you all of this to let you know that we are incredibly excited about the technology and fully believe in multi-display gaming. I am doubly excited that NVIDIA is following AMD's lead on this. I could not be happier.
NVIDIA’s multi-display solution has been crowned "NVIDIA Surround." NVIDIA’s solution is being shown on last-gen cards and next-gen cards, which is very exciting too! NVIDIA is upping the ante a bit with a feature that is accessible on "old" hardware. NVIDIA is also throwing into the mix its 3D Vision feature (wear the 3D glasses movie type of thing) into the mix. So we get "NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround."
Now here is the good stuff. This NVIDIA Surround technology is being shown in working order this week at CES. It is also being shown working on GTX 285s as well as upcoming GF100 boards. Here are the specs that Brian Del Rizzo gave us when asked:
We have multiple demos on the show floor. Here’s the breakdown:
The booth in the grand lobby is running on dual GTX285s and three Acer projectors. The projectors are 720p using CRT connectors.
The three projector display in the booth are running on dual GF100s. The DepthQ projectors are 720p and use CRT too.
The other demo we have is 3D Vision Surround running on three 1920x1080 LCD displays from Acer and Alienware using 3 dual link dvi connectors. This one is using dual GTX 285s.
We are showing a combination of Need for Speed Shift, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Avatar.
Another thing that is great to see is NVIDIA has hopefully gotten SLI working smoothly with NVIDIA Surround, where AMD is still struggling for smooth Eyefinity and CrossFire support. However, it is sort of disconcerting that the NVIDIA "needs" two GF100 cards to run the demo. In fact all the demos are SLI setups. We know a single Radeon 5870 or Radeon 5850 will run three 720P panels with ease. It will also be very interesting to see where all of this settles out in terms of price, performance, and value. And of course you can trust HardOCP to chime in on that, hopefully in late Q110.
Now keep in mind that when you enable 3D Vision (the actual 3D portion of this), it basically cuts your frame rates in half due to the way it has to draw every frame twice so your eyes and the glasses you are wearing fool you into thinking you are seeing a 3D image. I am not going to even be shy about this; I hate those damn 3D glasses. But we will give them another chance, and we will surely be giving 3D Surround a big chance. (NVIDIA is telling us this has greatly changed but I have never been shown it first hand.)
Eyefinity gaming has changed my perception of PC gaming and made me truly passionate about PC gaming again. Here is a quote from our recent Eyefinity Performance Review.
Many folks that have forsaken PC gaming for console will find Eyefinity luring them back as Eyefinity provides you with something no console can; more of the gaming world in your field of vision. Eyefinity is not just a larger screen; it is more pixels on that screen. You will see more of the gaming world than you have ever seen before.
And…
(Editor’s Note: I am still getting feedback from folks that seem to think Eyefinity is some kind of gimmick. Well it is not. Eyefinity is the real deal and has done more to enhance our gaming experiences at HardOCP than anything else has in a long time. 3dfx SLI brought me 1024x768. Then a few cards brought me 1600x1200 and then 2560x1200. Then Eyefinity brought me 5760x1200 and 3600x1920. Am I saying that Eyefinity is the single most important technology since 3dfx’ SLI? Yes I am. I fully believe that we are only at the tip of the ice berg.)
Certainly NVIDIA bringing its own "nFinity" to market (Yeah, that is a better name but we know you can’t look like you are following AMD’s tail that closely!) validates AMD’s move to Eyefinity and quite frankly HardOCP’s support of it. Multi-display gaming is here to stay. NVIDIA could have done this two years ago with it is current generation of parts, but it simply screwed the pooch and missed a great opportunity using technology it had already done all the grunt work on. We don’t often see NVIDIA play catch up, but we are surely seeing that this year.
HardOCP is tremendously glad to see NVIDIA on board with an Eyefinity-type solution; we are all for it and excited this is happening. I think it will force game developers to better use the technology when building games. This is good for PC gamers and good for PC gaming.
I am scared about one thing though. And let me put this in laymen's terms so HardOCP is clear on its stance. I do not want to mince words here.
For god’s sake NVIDIA, if you pull this bullshit where NVIDIA Surround "games" will not work on Eyefinity configurations, we are going to beat NVIDIA down repeatedly and publicly for harming the PC gaming industry. Keep those crappy proprietary PhysX policies, but if you start messing with OUR multi-display gaming and not letting it remain "open platform," I will personally lead the mob with the burning torches to the castle gates. And we will be fully prepared to use the torches. I will personally lead a boycott of NVIDIA products if I see NVIDIA harm multi-display gaming in the marketplace through an IP grab. Multi-display gaming belongs to gamers, not NVIDIA.