Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 edition announced

Robert Hallock 31 Mar, 2010 at 11:35pm ET Article published in Tech

AMD today officially unveiled the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 edition, which features six Mini DisplayPort connectors to drive up to six displays at and beyond 1920×1080.

“The ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card opens the door to a new era in personal computing,” said Matt Skynner, VP and GM, AMD Graphics Division. “With the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition, PC users get the ultimate panoramic computing experience in one powerful card. By bridging the innovation in ATI Eyefinity technology with broad ecosystem support, AMD is revolutionizing the PC visual experience.”

Features for the new adapter include:

2GB of GDDR5 memory to keep framerates up in the presence of high texture memory usage.
Five adaptors: Two Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapters, two passive Mini DisplayPort to DVI dongles and one passive Mini DisplayPort to HDMI dongle.
Support for 3×2 display configuration with new configurations supported in upcoming ATI Catalyst software updates.
The ability to use ATI CrossFireX in conjunction with new ATI Eyefinity multi-display capabilities released in February’s Catalyst version 10.2
Several optimizations released in March’s Catalyst 10.3, including bezel compensation, per-display color correction and improved Eyefinity mode switching.

The new adapter is available immediately with an MSRP of $479, or approximately $60 more than the current street price of the vanilla Radeon HD 5870

What is Eyefinity?

Reviews

AnandTech: Read
PC Perspective: Read
ExtremeTech: Read
Hexus: Read

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Comments

31 Mar 2010 ~ 11:44pm ardichoke It's so sexy... O_O
1 Apr 2010 ~ 12:22am DrLiam All I want now is a monitor with no edge.. :o
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:30am Cliff_Forster Liam,

I understand Samsung is making a model for this purpose. Something with a thin enough bezel that it is barely noticeable.

I really, really want to do 3 monitors on my current desk, but I just can't justify it right now. Still, I like what AMD is doing because multiple monitors have a practical application beyond gaming and entertainment. Maybe not six, but certainly three. So, having that flexibility to get more out of a multi monitor set up is nice.

Damn it limited finances!!
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:33am Thrax I've played with those Samsung monitors at AMD. They are noticeably thinner than regular monitors, but by no means are they unobtrusive.

Eyefinity is great for productivity, but for gaming? Support can be erratic and bezel disruption is still a big nuisance.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:52am _k Why do monitors even have to have a bezel? Couldn't they just push everything to the back side or make the depth longer to house whatever is needed?
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:01am Cliff_Forster

_k_ wrote:

Why do monitors even have to have a bezel? Couldn't they just push everything to the back side or make the depth longer to house whatever is needed?

I'm not sure, I think the ones Samsung had were going to be 5mm thick per monitor, so, 1 cm when placed side by side, which is about as good as it gets for right now.

I'd love to see a monitor manufacture come up with some kind of custom bundles three and six monitor solutions with some kind of included system for interconnecting everything.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:07am Snarkasm It's mostly for protection. LCDs aren't exactly robust, and pushing everything to the edges means you have to protect the screen, the crystals, the contrast layer, the polarizer, everything. It's easier to just wrap it in plastic. Even then they're hard to get right sometimes - look at the latest iMac's color and warping issues.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 9:12pm Sledgehammer70 This tech is beyond awesome. AMD is leading the space with this. it really puts a fat red mark int he face of Nvidia people who will run only 3 monitors. I wonder if this tech scales with Crossfire, pushing games across that many pixels on one card is going to be tough... but than again its only a matter of time before we see a 5970 version.

The odd thing is I did not realize that the 5870 E6 would consume so much power? all the hub-bub about the GTX 480 at 300watts at full load seems to be normal if looking at charts for the 5870 E6. If the difference is only 5-6 Watts that almost puts it at the same level as the GTX 480 under load. I guess the biggest factor is it runs 8c cooler...

Both AMD & Nvidia have cool tech when it comes to multi screen & AMD is leading the way. It is time that a monitor company comes out and leads the way with them with bezel free monitors. I know they can do it with a glass front... I have seen them. They just need to mass produce them.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:34pm mas0n The figures I've seen for the 5870 E6 are a max board power of 228W; 40W more than the standard 5870 due to the additional memory. GTX 480 has a 250W TDP but from what I've read that's not exactly an honest number.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:45pm ardichoke (LOL moar like 450W according to THG)
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:54pm _k Those numbers are wrong fyi.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 10:56pm mas0n See, assuming that Furmark is forcing the boards to draw absolute max power, a relatively fair assumption IMO, that GTX 480 is easily chewing through 300W.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:03pm BuddyJ ThE GTX 480 CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:03pm mas0n

_k_ wrote:

Those numbers are wrong fyi.

Those are for total system power, but the real problem here is that everyone's numbers are wrong in that they are unscientific. The TDP and max board power really don't mean much in terms of actual consumption and unless somebody gives readouts from a multimeter, it's a pretty fuzzy guessing game.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:05pm mas0n But anyway, EYEFINITY IS AWESOME!

I need a third panel. 6144x1152 yes, please.
1 Apr 2010 ~ 11:20pm Sledgehammer70 If you look at the numbers for GPU watts in the test for the ATI cards and the tests they did with the GTX 480 and ATI cards.. the numbers do not match up using the same testing methods.
19 Apr 2010 ~ 7:16pm kio There is a detailed specification for the article on http://www.techarena.in/review/36430-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6-review.htm.