While not quite as epic as ATI’s six-monitor Eyefinity solution and Sapphire excepting, NVIDIA offers three dimensions across multiple monitors. The system supports three screens with resolutions up to 1,920x1,080 for a total resolution of 5,760x1,080, or resolutions of up to 7,680x1,600 for surround gaming in 2D. To get set up, you’ll need three special 120Hz monitors, NVIDIA's 3D Vision kit and a compatible graphics card or two.
Credit: NVIDIA
3D the GeForce way
The list of compatible cards runs across generations, that is, GeForce GTX 480, 470, 465, 295, 285, 280, 275 and 260 making the cut, although GTX 295, whilst able, has no 3D Vision Surround support in this driver. Of course, all of those cards can only drive two monitors at a time, meaning you’ll need at least two of the cards running in SLI to power the system. This is probably for the best, as you’ll need a fair amount of graphical muscle to keep any games ticking along at such high resolutions while maintaining a smooth enough frame rate to keep the 3D looking good.
NVIDIA also maintains a list of recommended monitors and projectors as well as a list of compatible games. While there are a good number of AAA games listed as 'Excellent' or ‘3D Vision Ready (PDF)’ – Battlefield Bad Company 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and Just Cause 2, to name a few – the list is still relatively small. There are also a number of games listed only as ‘Good’ that require significant compromises or tweaks, or that are simply ‘Not Recommended’ – namely DiRT 2. Support seems variable, but this is probably something that NVIDIA will continue to improve in later driver releases.
As a talking point, 3D Vision Surround is certainly something, and we can’t wait to take it for a test drive. Equally, it strengthens NVIDIA's position against ATI, who has yet to release any formal 3D gaming support. However, the cost of one of these setups will be prohibitive to the vast majority of gamers. Three monitors of any kind are expensive and 120Hz LCDs are still restricted to the high end. To get the best from the system, two GTX 470s or higher would be wise along with a sufficiently powerful CPU to ensure that they aren’t bottlenecked. Finally, the 3D vision kit alone currently costs over £130.
Now we just wish we could afford one. The latest drivers, along with the list of compatible games, are available from NVIDIA's website.
Link: GeForce 258.69 64-bit (Win7/Vista)
Link: GeForce 258.69 32-bit (Win7/Vista)
Link: Game compatibility with 3D Vision Surround (PDF)
Link: 3D Vision Surround connectors (PDF)
