It’s not every day a new technology promises to run games at a resolution of 5,760 x 2,160 and across six screens, but that’s the aim of ATI’s Eyefinity. The process is surprisingly simple: multiple monitors are automatically grouped together by ATI’s Catalyst driver so the GPU sees them as a single, continuous desktop.
For its Fusion Eyefinity PC, Chillblast has picked an ATI Radeon HD 5870 card and, while this may not be the rare (we suspect non-existent) Eyefinity 6 Edition that can power six screens, it can still output 5,760 x 1,080 across three Full HD displays.
ATI claims Eyefinity’s increased resolution makes games more immersive and the average PC far more versatile; at first glance, it’s hard to disagree. Burnout Paradise’s palpable sense of speed is heightened with two extra monitors to show the world whizzing past, while the jungles of Crysis impose themselves far more when you’re hemmed in by them.
Potential problems are tackled at the driver level. The left- and right-hand images are very slightly blurred and stretched in the style of a fisheye lens (see below), with the effect more pronounced towards the far edge of the image. It’s a neat trick that does a decent job of replicating our peripheral vision.
The 18mm side bezels on the monitors weren’t as irritating as we expected, either. While it’s impossible not to notice them, especially when fast-moving images jump across the divide, we found our eyes merely adjusted and filtered them out, much as they do with a car’s A-pillars.
However, several niggling issues can’t be ignored. Heads-up displays in games were stretched across the full resolution of the screen, with mini-maps and gauges shunted to the furthest reaches of our peripheral vision. It’s possible to glance at these comfortably only if you’re sitting a fair distance back from the screen, which is both impractical and rather defeats the point of the surround experience.
In fact, we found that, while huddled up at a desk, we couldn’t concentrate on such a vast area at once. Where that’s the intention – such as Burnout’s blurred sense of speed – it’s not an issue, but details on those side screens can feel dislocated from the core experience.
ATI also claims Office applications benefit from Eyefinity, with the vast desktop space lending itself to multitasking. However, the extra video outputs are the only tangible benefit here over a traditional dual-monitor setup.
Eyefinity aside, the three 22in Dell Professional P2210H panels offer Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolutions, so three together makes for a long, narrow viewing area. With good image quality and accurate colours, they’re more than good enough for everyday use, even if the darkest black shades expose slight backlight bleeding at the bottom of the screens.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 2yr collect and return |
Basic specifications | |
Total hard disk capacity | 1,080 |
RAM capacity | 6.00GB |
Screen size | 22.0in |
Processor | |
CPU family | Intel Core i7 |
CPU nominal frequency | 2.66GHz |
CPU overclocked frequency | 4.00GHz |
Processor socket | LGA 1366 |
HSF (heatsink-fan) | Domino ALC |
Motherboard | |
Motherboard | Asus P6T SE |
Motherboard chipset | Intel X58 |
Conventional PCI slots free | 1 |
Conventional PCI slots total | 2 |
PCI-E x16 slots free | 2 |
PCI-E x16 slots total | 3 |
PCI-E x8 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x8 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x1 slots free | 1 |
PCI-E x1 slots total | 1 |
Internal SATA connectors | 6 |
Internal SAS connectors | 1 |
Internal PATA connectors | 1 |
Internal floppy connectors | 1 |
Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
Memory | |
Memory type | DDR3 |
Memory sockets free | 3 |
Memory sockets total | 6 |
Graphics card | |
Graphics card | ATI Radeon HD 5870 |
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? | no |
3D performance setting | High |
Graphics chipset | ATI Radeon HD 5870 |
Graphics card RAM | 1.00GB |
DVI-I outputs | 2 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 1 |
Number of graphics cards | 1 |
Hard disk | |
Capacity | 1.00TB |
Hard disk usable capacity | 931GB |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
Cache size | 32MB |
Hard disk 2 make and model | Intel X-25M SSD |
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | 80GB |
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity | N/A |
Hard disk 2 spindle speed | N/A |
Hard disk 2 cache size | N/A |
Hard disk 3 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 3 nominal capacity | N/A |
Hard disk 4 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 4 nominal capacity | N/A |
Drives | |
Optical drive | LG GGW-H20L |
Optical disc technology | Blu-ray reader |
Optical disk 2 make and model | N/A |
Optical disk 3 make and model | N/A |
Monitor | |
Monitor make and model | Dell Professional P2210H |
Resolution screen horizontal | 1,920 |
Resolution screen vertical | 1,080 |
Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
Pixel response time | 5ms |
Contrast ratio | 1,000:1 |
Screen brightness | 250cd/m2 |
DVI inputs | 1 |
HDMI inputs | 0 |
VGA inputs | 1 |
DisplayPort inputs | 1 |
Additional Peripherals | |
Speakers | N/A |
Speaker type | N/A |
Sound card | Asus Xonar |
Peripherals | N/A |
Case | |
Chassis | Silverstone Raven RV02 |
Case format | Full tower |
Dimensions | 212 x 643 x 503mm (WDH) |
Power supply | |
Power supply | OCZ |
Power supply rating | 700W |
Free drive bays | |
Free front panel 5.25in bays | 3 |
Rear ports | |
USB ports (downstream) | 8 |
FireWire ports | 1 |
eSATA ports | 1 |
PS/2 mouse port | yes |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 1 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 1 |
Modem | no |
3.5mm audio jacks | 10 |
Front ports | |
Front panel USB ports | 2 |
Front panel memory card reader | no |
Mouse & Keyboard | |
Mouse and keyboard | Logitech Deluxe Wireless 660 keyboard, Razer Salmosa mouse |
Operating system and software | |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Recovery method | Recovery disc |
Noise and power | |
Idle power consumption | 194W |
Peak power consumption | 354W |
Performance tests | |
Overall application benchmark score | 2.80 |
Office application benchmark score | 2.37 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 2.95 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 2.32 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 3.54 |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 70fps |
3D performance setting | High |
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