Does ATI Eyefinity Technology Give Gamers an Unfair Advantage? Take the Poll!

Ever since ATI Eyefinity Technology hit the scene, there’s been a fair amount of buzz online and in forums sparking a growing debate about whether this technology gives an “unfair” advantage for gamers who have it.  I use the term “unfair” here loosely because I don’t think that is the way it should be described. Here are my thoughts as to why “unfair” is not an appropriate descriptor of the technology:

Is there an advantage? Simply put, yes, there is a potential advantage with ATI Eyefinity technology, but this is no different than other technologies that can seen as giving gamers an edge: mice with variable weights and extra buttons, high speed network connections, high performance gaming rigs, gaming keyboards designed with WASD in mind, better cooling systems or even upgraded, higher-end graphics cards for faster frame rates. It’s the same with any hobby, whether it’s gaming, photography or sports – each has its own innovations and improvements to take things to the next level. Because ATI Eyefinity technology expands your field of view, it can enhance your sense of awareness while playing a game, but it certainly doesn’t improve your hand-eye coordination or guarantee that you’ll get any better at headshots (or racecar driving, or any other gameplay for that matter). If you think about it, single panel gaming is actually an unnatural scenario because it has a constrained field of view whereas in the real world, you get a lot of information from your peripheral vision. This is one of the reasons why video standards have gone from 4:3 to 16:9 – Eyefinity is simply a further extrapolation of that. Ninety-five per cent of cells in the human eye are dedicated to peripheral vision and ATI Eyefinity expands the standard field of view of PC games, presenting a more natural in-game view for players and making the experience more immersive.

You may have seen HardOCP’s article where they encouraged their readers not to buy games from Hi-Rez Studios (particularly Global Agenda) as the developer was, “singling out Eyefinity and other multi-display users and not allowing us guys to use the enthusiast computer hardware that we worked hard for.” HardOCP does have a point; In my opinion, game studios should be supporting developments in PC gaming technology! The beauty of the PC platform is that it’s a playground for innovation and new developments in gaming. If developers had stopped taking advantage of new technologies 10 years ago, we’d still all be playing Doom clones on our 486 PCs and 14” monitors.

I reached out to my good friend, Johan Andersson over at DICE to share some thoughts on what he thinks about ATI Eyefinity technology and this is what he had to say:

“The PC as a platform is inherently not a 100% fair playing field as people have always had varying performance, network connection, hardware setups, input devices and new technology – which is also one of the strengths of the platform and something we, and many PC players, embrace and utilize. So we’ve done just that by ensuring Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is officially ATI Eyefinity validated. Our goal has always been to create new, innovative PC experiences and ATI Eyefinity lets us do just that.”

Remember, ATI Eyefinity technology isn’t just for gamers with the solid gold cases and liquid nitrogen cooling systems. Whatever your budget, you can take advantage of the power and premium features of ATI Eyefinity technology to expand your field of view to create a fun and immersive gaming experience. AMD also offers a wide range of graphics cards at every price point ($50 – $700) which support various display configurations:

Check out the ATI Eyefinity Experience Tool where you can view demos of the latest games such as DiRT 2 (Codemasters), Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE), and Dragon Age: Origins (EA BioWare) in normal versus ATI Eyefinity mode.

Curious to see what everyone thinks – go ahead and vote on the poll below! Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @Wavey_Dave and tell me what you think.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Dave Baumann (@Wavey_Dave) is a Product Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.

ATI Eyefinity technology can support up to 6 displays using a single enabled ATI Radeon™ graphics card with Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems. The number of displays may vary by board design and you should confirm exact specifications with the applicable manufacturer before purchase. ATI Eyefinity technology works with games that support non-standard aspect ratios, which is required for panning across multiple displays. To enable more than two displays, additional panels with native DisplayPort™ connectors, and/or certified DisplayPort™ adapters to convert your monitor’s native input to your cards DisplayPort™ or Mini-DisplayPort™ connector(s), are required.

23 Responses

  1. AMDsupporter

    A company is in business to make money for investors, not just play with technology. Will you be able to show and prove ATIi outsell Nvidia?

  2. DemonsRage

    Whenever you have something another player may not, it is considered an advantage. Plain and simple.

  3. Rene

    If eyefinity is cheating then talking trough Skype, ventrilo or team speak would also be cheating… or having the computer that runs everything smoothly… the Guy that isent able to do something will always think doing it is cheating…

  4. krish

    Can we see eyefinity in these big screens

    http://techreport.com/discussions.x/19043

  5. cook careers

    i agree that it shouldnt be consider unfair just as gaming keyboards are not considered unfair.

  6. Shawn Thomas

    I have an Eyefinity setup with three 24″ Dell LED LCD monitors and an HD5870. I think that Eyefinity gives me an advantage in TF2. I do not believe that advantage is unfair, however. As Fahd pointed out, the small percentage of gamers who have 30″ monitors also have a resolution advantage, and no one can be heard complaining about them. The US military has found that the width of a simulator display has a far greater effect on performance than the height. Our brain is wonderfully adapted to process motion in our peripheral vision; human ancestors had to rapidly react to biological motion in their periphery or risk death.

    The fact that coordination and skill are advantages is irrelevant to this argument in my opinion. The basic question boils down to whether or not some computer hardware offers an advantage that is unfair. In my view, fairness is based on whether a gamer follows the rules of the game as outlined by its creators. If someone were to hack Global Agenda to make it work with Eyefinity, I would consider that person to be using an unfair advantage. With TF2, I am using technology that Valve approved for the game. Therefore, I have a fair advantage.

  7. swotyou

    Dave, I agree with you .