ATI Eyefinity Technology Gets Social at Work
Today is an outstanding day! Why is my day so awesome, amazing and glorious you ask? Well today is the day I got to start up my very own setup at work which supports ATI Eyefinity technology. I’ll tell you more about the hardware in a minute but first let me explain why I am really, really excited about ATI Eyefinity – for work.
I make my living here at AMD as a social media strategist. For those of you who don’t know what that means (which is probably everyone) I am basically a web guy in marketing clothes. My day-to-day work involves a lot of multitasking:
- Communication – Outlook, Communicator, GTalk, TweetDeck, Facebook
- Web development – SFTP, Dreamweaver, Photoshop
- Publishing – WordPress, YouTube, Flikr
- Measurement & analysis – Radian6, Excel, Calculator (don’t laugh, I’m a nerd)
The result: carpal tunnel from a lot of ALT+TAB and wasted time waiting for apps to load. It’s easy to see then why a guy like me would really need a three-monitor desktop experience.
The truth is there are several of us out there who need this kind of multitasking flexibility. My social media brethren know all too well what I am talking about here. Notebook computing is great on the go but its limitation is and probably always will be screen real-estate. For people who just need email and web, that is fine solution. Once you go beyond those basic tasks your computing experience tends to suffer. Hence the need for a desktop or workstation to do the heavy lifting.
The traditional barrier to multi-monitor nirvana has been price. I recognize many of you in the small, medium or single-proprietor business are on limited budgets and additional IT tools are a “nice to have” at best. As a result, a multi-monitor workstation that goes into the many thousands of dollars is simply not an option. We have made do with two monitors where possible, or like I did until yesterday, just put up with whatever our laptop could deliver on a 13” to 17” screen.
Enter my new desktop, powered by an AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 processor and an ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics card. Now what would this harbinger-of-enhanced-productivity set you back in the real world if you bought it today?
- Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0Ghz – $152.99
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5 – $184.99
- Memory: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 – $109.99
- Eyefinity Graphics Card: XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 – $139.99
- Hard Drive: HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM - $79.99
- Case: Antec VSK-2000 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – $39.99
Desktop subtotal: $707.94*
Attached to this beast I have 3 Dell P2310H 23” Widescreen (1920×1080) LCDs which are currently going for $249 each on Dell.com. That’s a monitor subtotal of $747.*
How much did it cost AMD to outfit me with a desktop that supports ATI Eyefinity technology?
$1454.94* plus taxes, shipping, etc.
I could have saved some dollars by going with a different motherboard but this is basically the price point you are looking at for a system like this. Let’s see you hit that price point with your fancy-pants, fruit-stamped, single-monitor workstation!
But I don’t want a new desktop! I just want the ability to use multiple monitors simultaneously. How much would it cost me to UPGRADE my current system to support ATI Eyefinity technology?
The important thing to remember about ATI Eyefinity is that it is a graphics-based technology. Sound obvious but it’s worth noting. Essentially all the hardware you need to get your current desktop graphics to where mine is today is as follows:
- 1 ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 card that supports ATI Eyefinity technology
- 2 or more monitors (assuming you have one DVI monitor already)
- At least one monitor needs to support a DisplayPort connection or have the dongle converting DVI to DisplayPort
Based on that criteria and the pricing info I used above, your cost to upgrade your system to support an ATI Eyefinity display setup is:
$639.99* plus taxes, shipping, etc.
Now we are talking. You probably spend that much on caramel macchiatos per year!
You have me interested, but what will I do with all of that screen real estate??
So let’s put aside the price and go back to the reasons why you should want or even demand ATI Eyefinity for your job. Let me paint you a picture of this multi-tasking utopia on my desk. Now, pretend you are me for a minute (frightening, yes?).
Imagine…a desk.
All of a sudden, three monitors appear lined up in front of you in portrait orientation. After you turn each one on to start working, you see all of the information you need laid out in front of you on one, large 3240×1920 desktop.
Your Task: Write a blog post about how ATI Eyefinity technology is used in the workplace. Here is what you might see:
Left-most monitor:
- Top half: Google Chrome with tabs open for Facebook, news articles and webmail
- Bottom half: Internet Explorer with tabs open researching prices for all of the components in this desktop
Center Monitor:
- Top half: MS Word 2010 where you are authoring this blog post
- Bottom half: Google Chrome with tabs open for posting this blog in WordPress when it’s finished, and YouTube where you are reviewing comments on our latest videos
Right-most Monitor:
- Fullscreen: You have TweetDeck open where you are checking in on your network in real-time, monitoring the competition’s tweets and looking for which party you should attend at SXSWi next weekend.
Without ALT+TABing or closing a single app you researched, wrote and published this blog post – all while being a single click from email and other tasks – and you didn’t miss a tweet in the process.
Impressive, no?
Note to Slackers:
This thing also owns in 3D games and plays back HD video like a dream. Something I personally would never, ever, ever do while at work. Ever. [wink]
Am I insane to have a job that requires this much multitasking? Probably. Are you insane to try and do this job without ATI Eyefinity technology? Absolutely.
Slow down there cowboy! I’m not a social media nutcase like you. Why should I care about ATI Eyefinity technology?
A sane question from a sane person to be sure. Well there is more to this story than just using it for communication & networking. In fact, there are about as many ways to make ATI Eyefinity work for you as there are ways to set up 3, 4, 5 or even 6 monitors to our graphics cards. Here are a few examples off the top of my head:
- Stock trader
- Video editor
- Web developer
- Graphic designer
- [insert your job here]
Over the next few weeks, I will seek out real-world ATI Eyefinity users and ask them how they use their multi-monitor systems at work. You get to sit back and just take it all in. Are you excited yet?
Until next time, how would YOU use ATI Eyefinity technology at work? Leave me a comment. I dare you to multitask more than me!
*Note about the prices. They were taken from newegg.com and dell.com on Friday, February 26th, 2010 and may not reflect the component prices available in your area.
Chris James is the Social Media Strategist for AMD’s Global Communications team. 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.
POSTED IN: AMD Opteron
TAGS: ATI Eyefinity, ATI Radeon, Dell, multi-monitor, Social Media
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COMMENTS: 19
Nice. When the Linux support lands (thanks for mentioning it at the end of http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/products/eyefinity/whatiseyefinity/Pages/what-is-eyefinity.aspx), I’ll have to take a hard look at it for a future workstation. I loves my screen real estate, and I need a lot of it.
Right now, on my netbook, I have 49 virtual desktops (a 7×7 grid). They slowly fill up over time. I have 4 terms on my main desktop, firefox on another, liferea, and then on-demand desktops for projects (e.g. for each project, I have 4 terms on a desktop for compiling, testing, and other pokings + 2 emacs frames on another desktop + a firefox window for documentation on another desktop + perhaps a desktop or two for graphical output). Flicking between them is very quick, but distinctly sub-optimal compared to my workstation. Presentations can take a few (I use git/bzr to maintain the history of my presentations in case I make a big mistake and need to go back to a previous version, so you have that plus links (keeping track of what’s pulled in) and of course OpenOffice). Inkscape and GIMP require their own desktop since the screen is so small.
My workstation also has 49 (7×7) desktops but each desktop is across 2 fairly large monitors (1480xsomething or in that neighborhood) which can get filled up, but much more slowly so about half are usually empty. Each project eats one virtual desktop (same as before, but all on one desktop and I get an extra emacs frame and 2 more terms for e.g. testing on various servers). A third monitor would be awesome; more emacs frames and also simultaneous PDF viewing (I do physics, so I often work from an equation somewhere and need to understand it) would be great (it currently takes up an extra desktop on my workstation when it’s needed).
Thankfully, things like gwibber (social networking), empathy (IM services), and Skype provide notifications so I don’t have to actively poll the window; otherwise, I’d either have yet another static desktop or (on my workstation where screen real estate pressure is much less than on my netbook, I can have windows simultaneously on all virtual destkops (I do this with a term with IRC and a term with top so I can watch jobs running locally).
Rebooting really sucks, since I have to put everything back to its previous state. A working BIOS (and ACPI) is critical for me, in order for suspend to Just Work.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for the comment! You are indeed a multitasking fiend of the highest order! On a netbook no less! Outstanding.
I have to say that each day gets better with this setup. Simply being able to spread out the components of task or quickly utilize all of the real estate for detail work on images, etc is incredible. I even find that for my social or communications apps that the notifications are more useful too. I can actually just glance over at the other window or tab and at least read the message or tweet and continue working on the task at hand. Personally, I think has helped my focus improve a bit too.
By far the best intangible benefit I think it provides me is some peace of mind. Knowing I have my day setup and organized means searching for information is less time consuming and distracting. That reduces stress & anxiety and makes multitasking less of a headache.
Lastly, for someone like you the option to scale up has to be nice. ATI Eyefinity technology lets you combine up to six monitors per graphics card in a variety of configurations to suit your needs. If 2×2 works better you, no problem. If you want 3×2, no problem. If you want 2×2 or 3×1 + 1 or 2 extended monitors, no problem. That flexibility means and the price point it scales at means it truly could work for just about anyone or any situation where more than 2 monitors is needed.
Hopefully you will get your chance to setup the config thats best for you before long! When you do, let us know how it works for you.
Cheers,
Chris
Sounds tasty! How do you hook up all of the monitors to the vidcards? Do you lose resolution in order to gain monitors? (Speed generally isn’t a problem; I don’t game on these things a whole lot)
It’s too bad netbooks have gotten a bad rap; they’re really very very capable.
The tech definitely sounds interesting, and heaven knows I could use more monitors (this statement will always be true
Like I said, I’ll definitely be checking it out after the Linux support is out and when I’m buying a new compy.
Each ATI Eyefinity-capable graphics card has several connection points. Those vary by model but I have 2 DVI, 1 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI connection on my Radeon 5750 card. I hook the middle display up with DisplayPort and the right and left monitors directly to the DVI ports.
Once I boot up the first time with the system, I then group them as a single display in Catalyst Control Center with a total combined resolution of 3240×1920. In a future post I will talk about how to use ATI Hydravision to allow you to create “zones” within that group to maximize windows in. It’s a great bit of software that is really useful in conjunction with the ATI Eyefinity technology.
Thanks! Sounds very, very interesting. I hope the ATI/AMD Xorg engineers get support for it into xorg!
can ati eyeinfinity amd technology is compatible with intel core 2 duo and quad 4 mother board i men i wanna intel motherbord and AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 or higher processor and an ATI Radeon™ HD 5750 graphics card for trading and gaming. i am stock trader want 6 monitor for trading for that i need more than one active displayport please clarify me i am not techqi . i don’t know much of these kind of thing please guide me,
thanks a lot
i also wanna know for trading i can use one mouse one keyboard is enoughf for control all monitor or i need lan or other kind of stuff or card please guide me. in short i wanna doing things or control all monitor application from one keyboard and mouse also if some one also want they use seprate keyboard, mouse example i open trading website with my keyboard mouse and other person open trading charting softwre with other keyboard and if wanna i mange both monitor with mine keyboard mouse. for that what i need to run smoothly ati eyefinnity .
please provide me some answer to my querry it really helps me for my trading plan thanks
Hello Satvinder,
Yes, ATI Eyefinity technology is compatible with Intel-based desktops.
For help on setting up a 3, 4, 5 or 6 monitor display we have created a printable guide here: http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/products/eyefinity/tips-and-tools/Pages/tips-and-tools.aspx
Yes, you can use one (1) set of mouse and keyboard to control content or applications on every screen.
What is required are the6 monitors, and an ATI Eyefinity-capable graphics card like a ATI Radeon HD 5870.
That you for your query and I hope my answer was helpful. Let us know if you have more queries.
Regards,
Chris
Hi Chris, great blog post! I too am a multi-tasking monster and have required four 21″ monitors on my desk for the last five years (pic taken a few minutes ago from my BB while reading your blog) – http://tinyurl.com/ya6fe7u My supervisor bought these monitors together as a kit and they have proven invaluable to me. I am a network administrator for a BigTen university and need to monitor a lot.
On the top left, I usually leave my Active Directory window open so I can adjust user and computer rights on the fly throughout the day. Top-right is typically dedicated to remote desktop so I can access servers and provide remote maintenance. Bottom-left usually hold my web browser and bottom-right is for e-mail. The little Dell laptop you see in the pic is for the occasional TweetDeck, GTalk and a few other apps I check out daily.
The computer running the displays is an Dell Optiplex 755 with an ATI 4650 Radeon I brought from home due to the factory card being…less then stellar
ATI Eyefinity looks very impressive and I look forward to reading more about it. I can’t imagine what this would do for my current favorite game, Battlefield Bad Company 2! Thanks for the fun read.
- Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for reading and a pleasure to meet a fellow multi-tasker. Impressive pic as well!
We just posted a blog that demonstrates the ATI Eyefinity performance on BC2. Have a look here: http://blogs.amd.com/play/2010/03/05/ati-radeon-enabling-a-bigger-badder-battlefield/
Something tells me it’s a good time to upgrade!
Thanks for stopping by and reading. More ATI Eyefinity uses cases are on the way so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the kind comments! I just checked out the blog post and Youtube video of Eyefinity being used to play Battlefield: Bad Company 2.. all I can say is it is indeed time for an upgrade!!
Thanks for the link and I certainly plan on looking at Eyefinity more. Have a great day!
- Bill
I thought I was pedestrian able to fill up 6 monitors –live stock quotes, word, Excel, Photoshop, light box, a few pages of explorer (live video), Need for Speed–waiting for the 6 core to run with this
asH
Well ATI Eyefinity technology may just make massive multi-monitor adoption a ‘pedestrian’ venture asH.
A 6-core processor definitely wouldn’t hurt but I don’t have any performance issues with my Phenom II X4 945. I guess it all depends on the type of task – and then how many simultaneous tasks – to determine if it would be right for you.
His Chris,
I’m interested in this primarily for gaming, but I don’t want to expand my game across 3 screens for more real estate like most examples show me.
What I would like to do is have one monitor just showing my desktop to access web,email etc. and on the other 2 I would like to be playing 2 completely different games say a mmo on one and an fps on the other in full screen mode. Is this possible and would I be able to move in between game applications without having to alt-tab.
I assume I could do this running the games in windowed mode but I would prefer to play them in their full screen splendor.
Thanks
Hi Tim,
Thanks for leaving your comment! Wow, that is a tall order for even the most powerful system out there and one that is not really what we envisioned with the first round of this technology.
The main purpose behind ATI Eyefinity technology is to create one, large 3D-capable display out of multiple monitors. While what you are describing is probably possible – with the games in windowed mode – it’s not a very common use case and my guess will end up creating a poor experience in one or both games. In any case, it’s not something we are testing or developing to my knowledge.
For gaming specifically, what ATI Eyefinity technology is designed to do is provide a more immersive gaming experience and not so much a multi-gaming environment. You could certainly play a game in windowed mode on one monitor AND have email and/or web browsers open in another. Going fullscreen, even inside one display, would prevent you from moving your mouse out to the other displays though and force you to ALT-TAB. That could then cause the game to freeze or the entire system to hang so it’s not recommended.
My suggestion: pick up an ATI Eyefinity-capable card because you want a better single game experience or because your work could benefit from it. Mixing the two sounds too complicated for my mortal brain to find enjoyment from so I can’t personally recommend it.
Cheers,
Chris
Great post, Chris.
I currently use three NVIDIA Quadro NVS cards (two PCIe x 16 and one PCIe x1) to drive six monitors at work. ATI’s Eyefinity solution seems much neater.
A related question. Would you happen to know the make/model of the six-monitor stand used in the following PC Pro article on Eyefinity? Apparently, your colleagues from AMD/ATI visited PC Pro and set up the demo.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2010/02/25/ati-eyefinity-on-six-screens-first-look-review/
http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Eyefinity-intro.jpg
http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Eyefinity1.jpg
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback William! We definitely think the new ATI Radeon 5870 Eyefinity 6 card is great option for guys like you who need a ton of info on screen at once.
To answer your question, the stands we used in that article I’m not entirely sure about. Other setups we built here in the States used Atdec (http://www.atdec.com) stands we purchased online.
For those configs we combined a 2×2 stand with a 2×1 stand to create the 3×2 setup. It was the best & cheapest option for what we needed at the time but I’m sure there are a multitude of other options out there, depending on your setup requirements.
I will ask around and see if I can get that exact model information for you based on that PC Pro setup.
Cheers,
Chris
I think Eyefinity technology (for common people/gamers, not the mighty pros) is crazy and mostly in bad sense. One have to pay up to 2 times more for Display port monitors, check certified connectors (HiEnd’s here!), look for stand for that 6 monstres – assuming if i have 24” i will buy 5 more, not 6×19″.. Up to And after all one gets 1/6 of framerate (e.g. Crysis@HD5850@2560*1600 gets 18FPS, on 6 monitors it’ll be 3FPS %( or one must lower quality he wishes to raise). So it’s for 0.01% of rich pros (and for advertising whiz of course) that means people won’t buy, prices stay high etc.
My decision is to support resolutions such as 900*1440(19”portrait)+2560*1600(30″normal)+900*1440(19”portrait) so that user should buy 2 small 16:10 or 5:4 monitors that both cost half the prise of basic big one and he’ll suffer only about 50% decrease in framerate. Then it will be cheap (almost free comparing to cost of 2 or 5 new big LCDs, 250$ vs. 3000$+) and simple and popular thing. And i could see crosshair then! Ideal would be free choice of number, resolution and position of custom ‘views’.
Just expanding existing technology.
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