ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition Gaming
L4D2 and H.A.W.X Eyefinity 6
The Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition is a unique product, which is to say there is no competition currently on the market that can handle the same display configuration. As such, we don't have any direct comparisons between it and a competitor at the resolutions the card is capable of. Instead, we've tested a number of popular games on a 6-screen, 3x2 Eyefinity configuration, at a resolution of 5760x2160, not only to assess performance, but to experience the actual game-play and any "gotchas" that may have come up along the way. First up, my favorite--Left 4 Dead 2.
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Playing Left 4 Dead 2 on the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition is absolutely awesome. Setting up the game (and just about any other current Source Engine-based game) is no different than a single monitor configuration. Once your Eyefinity display group is configured, the max resolution will be available in-game. Simply choose the Eyefinity resolution and you're done.
The field of view is huge and really changes the feel of the game. When you catch a Zombie running at you in your peripheral vision and can react accordingly, playing the game is all that much more, dare we say, realistic. Because L4D2 isn't terribly taxing on today's high-end graphics cards, performance is very good too. At 5760x2160 with anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering enabled, and all in-game graphical options set to their maximum values, the game ran at 33.45FPS. Lower the quality settings slightly, and performance will obviously go up.
It's not all good news, however. With a shooter like L4D, running a 3x2 monitor configuration places the crosshair dead-center, in the middle of the screen bezels. It's easy to get used to the funky crosshair, but it's not ideal.
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Playing H.A.W.X. on the Eyefinity 6 Edition is really something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. The video above gives a glimpse at the level of immersion possible, but it's nothing like being positioned in the center of the screens and controlling the fighter yourself. Flight-Sim fans would most definitely be pleased by a setup like the one we're showing you here. At 5760x2160 with 2X anti-aliasing enabled, H.A.W.X. ran at 27 FPS--smooth enough to be perfectly playable, as the video shows.
Note, however, that again there are issues with the screen bezels. In H.A.W.X., some HUD information can sometimes span across bezels, making the information more difficult to read. During the heat of battle, it's not a deal breaker, but we point it out as another one of the issues AMD (and gamers) has to contend with regard to Eyefinity and game developers.
