[Discussion] Crossfire + AMD Eyefinity vs SLI + Nvidia Surround
Im trying to figure out the differences between Eyefinity and Surround.
Im currently running two HD7970 cards in crossfire and triple monitors. So Im pretty familiar with Eyfinity and know what it can and cant do, more or less.
Example, switching between extended desktop and Eyefinity is pretty quick and painless. I can have all of my monitors connected to the primary GPU.
But I know nothing of surround aside from things Ive heard. Such as you need to have one of your three monitors connected to the second graphics card, and that it can be slow to switch, and doesnt remember desktop settings, etc. And Im wondering if this is still the case with the 980/970?
So Im looking for peoples thoughts on both technologies and their implementations, especially if you've used both before. Im trying to decide if I should switch to team green and get a 980, or wait for AMDs next big thing?
Posted Sep 26, 2014, 1:18 AM UTC
They updated their sli configuration tool for the 900s - http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/3dvision-surround/system-requirements
Basically looks like the same restrictions so probably the same slow process of switching (switching fast is still possible with only one card though)
Other interesting points are it supports surround 4k now, and mentions using up to 5 surround monitors (though strangely only shows sli configs with up to 4 possible surround monitors). The only issue I know of with crossfire is micro stuttering, but I don't know if they've been fixed yet.
What exactly is "slow" about the switching process, by the way? I havent used Nvidias cards since the 6800GTS I had a long time ago.
For my setup (2x670, 3x120Hz monitors):
Enable surround: close interfering apps, open surround wizard, rearrange monitors, add bezel compensation, finish
To disable: disable surround, enable all monitors again, rearrange monitors to match physical setup, set each to 120hz, finish.
It's just tedious. There is a surround toggle keyboard shortcut, but it doesn't remember your settings for each mode.
Wow thats obnoxious.
Are you able to limit the taskbar to one screen? Also, what kind of apps interfere with surround? How do you know which ones do?
Thanks for the information by the way!
Oh this is just for changing settings, you can open up the programs again afterwards (it tells you what to close). You can confine the taskbar and confine windows to screens yes, the windows look a tad weird around the edges though, plus there's one or two that don't confine properly but I can't think of them now. Flash video full screen goes over all the screens to of course.