AMD announced that several technology partners will be releasing Eyefinity-validated DisplayPort to DVI adapters.
“The availability of the inexpensive Single Link DisplayPort-to-DVI adapter, with a suggested retail price of $30 US, expands the ATI Eyefinity ecosystem to include the massive number of LCD monitors with DVI connectors and resolutions up to 1920 x1200. This encompasses the vast majority of monitors sold today, with many models available for well under $200 each. Now, ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor solutions are within reach of virtually everyone, from die-hard gaming enthusiasts to individuals wanting more screen real estate to improve workflow.”
Related: I am not a huge gamer, but for those of you who are, and if you haven’t seen Eyefinity in person, check out the Eyefinity simulator tool to see how Eyefinity really does transform the experience of gaming. Personally I’d love to see the same simulator tool for professional CAD examples - I’ve seen these kinds of demos at trade shows and the mutli-display thing is impressive to say the least.
The very cool 92 million pixel video wall that blew people away at SIGGRAPH 2010, will be making an appearance at IBC 2010 in the AMD booth #7.J30, according to Vizrt.
If you haven’t already heard about the wall, hi-resolution, complex 3D animations play across 40 displays, powered by 10 ATI FirePro V8800s with Eyefinity and Viz Video Wall ER. Each display in the wall has a resolution of 1920x1200, giving a total resolution of 19200 x 4800 pixels or 92 megapixels.
The Viz Engine processes are synchronized via the ATI FirePro S400 Synchronization module (Genlock and Framelock), distributing a unique frame counter to all Viz Engines, in order to guarantee the same animation progress on all 40 displays.
A student/friend at Siggraph 2010 sent me some video snippets from the ATI FirePro booth. According to his report and the video you can see here, traffic is intense.
Check out the 4 X 10 video wall at the top of the booth. I’ve got two videos below that show it off.
This is more than 92,000,00 pixels of real time 3D (VizRT doing the rendering), powered by 10 FirePro V8800 cards sync’d together with the FirePro S400 running on 4 Colfax workstations. The solution is easy to configure and costs half the price of an Nvidia solution and uses half the number of cards. Drool-worthy.
This is a 3dvia demonstration of immersive virtual reality and gaming using a single ATI FirePro V8800 to drive a 6-display visualization. The video says it all:
This blog post from the ATI technical group discusses the “ATI Eyefinity Validated and Ready testing” program. The program is designed to test hardware to see if it works the way you, the user, are going to utilize it. For example, testing DisplayPort adapters on a variety of graphics cards, panels, and system configurations and at several display resolution settings. The process is human driven, visually checking for for any issues - no scripts, no screen captures, minimal automation and maximum observation by human eyes. If it all tests out and looks good, AMD lists the adapter as being ATI Eyefinity Validated and Ready. If the adapter doesn’t pass muster, AMD works with the manufacturer or developer to address the issue or provide the information they need to get the product to a passing grade.
ATI FirePro V7800, V5800 and 4800 professional graphics cards are immediately available with the Dell Precision R5400, T1500, T3500, T5500 and T7500 Workstations for design engineers and digital content creation professionals. These cards all support ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology so a single graphics card can drive up to three independent 30’ displays. They of course, also provide full support for DirectX11, OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL. These cards are rigorously and exactingly certified for over 90 of the leading CAD and DCC applications.
At the 2010 DS PLM Conference, held on June 11, Shanghai, China, over 300 VIPs from China’s largest manufacturing companies came to view ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology on the new FirePro line and embrace the conference tag line “Bring Innovation to Life with 3D”.
William Xia, Sr. of AMD presented the clsoing speech covering ATI FirePro solutions.
AMD is very strongly positioned in the PLM space. Check out the recent PLM MarketPlace blog regarding the a realistic 3D interactive view of a city using 3DVIA with a single ATI FirePro card driving 6 displays using Eyefinity technology.
Below is a video of 3DVia bringing a city to life using Eyefinity technology running on a single ATI FirePro V8800 at the DS 2010 Partner Summit (SwYm Conference).
At this year’s Laval Virtual 2010 virtual reality conference, Dessault’s 3DVia was shown running on a hi-def system powered by an ATI FirePro V8800 using Eyefinity technology. As noted by the presenter, Eyefinity multi-display technology with full OpenGL 4/DX11 capabilities completely changes the way people deploy large scale visualizations - making it simple to deploy and maintain.
SolidWorks “Lets Go Design” site has a poll running until June 16: Do you want one large monitor or three small monitors?
I have a gigantic 27in screen and I use it to its fullest, but if I could have three screens with even more resolution, of course I would go for it (My vote is obviously “three smaller monitors").
Not only is it visually easier to digest, I think it is easier to organize your applications per display. SolidWorks on one screen, PhotoShop on another, and my ever-present mail and web browser on a third. That way I don’t get the overlap problems that I typically encounter with my big screen. I can of course use workspaces, but that requires set up- rather than on-the-fly adjustments.
Got an opinion? Vote and then comment here if you want.
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