At its simplest, Eyefinity lets people do basic dual-screen setups, just as you would with a classic dual-output card. Screens could be set in 2×1 landscape, 2×1 portrait, or 1×2 landscape. Interestingly, AMD kept its eye on streamlining the customer experience without limiting reasonable options. For instance, you won’t find a 1×2 portrait group configuration because there’s no usual use use that supports such a tall, narrow display. Why muddle up the setup UI with an option for it? The equivalent three orientations apply for triple-screen viewing: 3×1 landscape, 3×1 portrait, and 1×3 landscape.
Upgrading to with 4 monitors, there are only two compositions offered: 4×1 landscape and 2×2 landscape. Any time you see shots such as this 3×1 portrait Battle Forge example, you have to speculate, “OK, why not 4×1 or 5×1 portrait?” Apparently, AMD’s study led them to determine that the number of people who may use such a mode didn’t justify including the option in the driver. And curiously, there in fact are no five-screen modes.
For six monitors, the system has only the 3×2 landscape option.
Now, what we’ve described here are your options for “display groups.” Anyone can also make “Extended” groups. These are essentially distinct desktop spaces that can run alongside your initial display group. You can see a number of examples in the scenario below. You might have a 3×1 portrait display group of 24″ displays on your desk but have a distinct 19″ extended screen mounted to the wall for messaging apps and perhaps another 15″ extended screen (making 3 groups total) for showing system temps, fan speeds, overclocking tools, and so on.
Carrying on ATI custom, AMD uses the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) rather than a separate program for setting options and managing all Eyefinity operations. Let’s say that CCC auto-detects that you have 3 monitors hooked up. These will show up in a row along the bottom area of the UI as disabled displays until you enable them. When you right-click a disabled screen, you’ll possess choices to use that display for a clone, create it the new active monitor in place of another one, or expand a desktop onto it. Alternatively, pulling up the properties for your desktop group lets you select the total desktop resolution, color bit depth, rotation, and the refresh rate. The possible resolutions shown as choices are based around the resolution modes for your screens as detected by the driver.
One of your initial tasks will be to establish a monitor group by going to the CCC’s menu bar, clicking Graphics, choosing Desktops & Displays, right-clicking on the principal display shown and choosing Display Group > Create Group. If you would like a group in portrait orientation, you’ll need to start by rotating the initial display, then making the group.
When you have 3 or more displays in a group, employ the Select Layout option to pick a monitor group configuration. AMD’s drivers are smart enough to only present selection choices that are workable for your number of connected screens. The CCC has a effective shortcut in that in case one pick a group configuration which matches the quantity of offered displays, the drivers will automatically choose all of the screens and lump them into a group for you.
In AMD’s marketing, you’ll find that all of the screens shown in a monitor group are the same model. Throughout the real world, this isn’t probable to be the case. You’ll possibly have a mix of different and old displays you would like to bridle into a group and/or extended groups. You can use screens with different resolutions, however Eyefinity shall drive all screens in a display group into the lowest common resolution and orientation. Extended groups could very well be diverse resolutions, but obviously your main display group is the chief concern. Because you’re having to work with the lowest general denominator between the screens, this really is why it’s always best to have your focal display group comprised of equal screens.
If you’ve ever created a multi-screen config in the past, you know what a headache it can be to figure out which screen plugs into which port that’s seen as a given screen number by the driver, all of which you have to follow so you can play musical monitors in the UI until the screens flow in the order you want. Eyefinity remedies that mess with a new wizard that runs for every single new display group. In the UI’s main region, you’ll see a grid representing your screen configuration. The displays will black out, then the wizard will turn one blue. Just click on the grid cell for the highlighted monitor. The wizard does the rest, and you possess a completely configured group in mere seconds.
Rev. Donald Fountain draws on over three decades of computer hardware and programming knowledge, managerial experience, and two Bachelor’s Degrees, as well as six Associate’s degrees for his writing. He is the founder and publisher of PlanetEyefinity.com, and CookingTexasStyle.com, as well as an ordained minsiter and Founder of Evangelize the Web.
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