Eyefinity vs. 3DVision - immersion in a game.

[Jimbo Mahoney]

I'll be intrigued to hear people's views (no pun intended!) on this.

I'm sure we all agree that games are going to change a lot over the coming years, with a final solution probably being large screen + 3D / holographic (before neural implants / VR).

However, in the here and now, which do you think is going to give a more immersive experience?

1) 22" Monitor + 3DVision = ~£400 for monitor + glasses + £x for the GPU if you don't have one already.

2) Eyefinity + 3 x 24" monitors = ~£750 + GPU (if you don't already own multiple monitors).


I myself am tempted with option 2, adding another 2x 24" Samsungs to my setup and a 5850.

For me personally, they work out about the same price (about £750), since I would need to buy an Nvidia GPU to get 3DVision working.

So which do you think would be more immersive? 22" of 3D or ~72" of 2D?

I'm trying not to be biased, but I feel like I'd be peering into a 3D world through a window, rather than being surrounded and therefore more immersed...

(I suppose alternatives would be a large LCD TV, but the resolution would be a problem, or a projector, but the usual caveats apply there).

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

I agree that both have drawbacks. The bezels on the multi-monitor setup wouldn't be too much of an issue, at least not unless you go for a six-screen setup, in which case the bezles are straight across the middle!

Whilst I agree that a 120Hz projector would be awesome, it's not practical for me (and many people I would assume - mounting + screen + darkness + bulbs).

As for the 120Hz TV, yes that's a realistic alternative and a quick Google seems to indicate you could pick up a 40" 120Hz for ~£600. Thinking about it, you could wall-mount the TV and just move the desk (with keyboard/mouse etc.) back from the wall. I think sitting in front of it like a monitor would be too harsh because of the (relatively) low resolution for such a large screen.

Interesting...

EDIT - I suppose other things to think about are performance and compatibility. With Eyefinity, assuming three 24" monitors, you're pushing around 7MP, but there are no compatibility issues. With 3DVision, you're halving the frame rate (which will probably be faster than tripling the resolution), but some current games might not work so well.

EDIT - I also have no doubt that the 3D offered by the proper shuttered eyeglasses is amazing, but I can't help wondering what being surrounded by the game would be like too. I suppose you could do both and get three 3D screens running over TripleHead2Go

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

Im not at home atm so i only have some old pics of when i was setting up my projector

http://img42.imageshack.us/i/proj1.jpg/
http://img197.imageshack.us/i/proj2.jpg/

Ill post some assasins creed etc to show you how AWESOME 100 inch gaming is.
Now imagine 3d 100 inch gaming, will play a tiny 22inch out of the water. Forget 3 24inchers with bezels.

Whilst I agree, budget + projector issues make this somewhat difficult in many cases.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

IIRC 120hz on tvs/projectors is not like 120hz on monitors. 120hz is achieved by frame doubling/tripling/quadraupling etc. ie it won't accept a 120hz source like the monitors can. It was designed to reduce judder in movies or give a video like effect with frame interpolation.

Ah that explains why the quick bit of googling I did seemed to indicate that there were very few "3DReady" models.

Thanks for this.

Looking better for Eyefinity + 3 x 24" monitors for me then. At least until 3D becomes possible on a bigger screen.

 

[Jimbo Mahoney]

That's the only type of 3D that would interest me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

Yes that is a fantastic system, BUT you have to be moving for it to work.

If you're sat on your butt playing games, it's just going to be a 2D screen.