Eyefinity testing - Aliens vs. Predator and Just Cause 2
We're focussing on the Sapphire HD 6950 FleX's performance in a single-screen setup (1,920x1,080) and with three DVI-equipped screens running 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 monitors. Operating in these configurations will give us gaming scores at 1,920x1,080, 5,040x1,050, and 5,760x1,080 resolutions.
We want to see if a single Radeon HD 6950 2GB can cut the mustard when tasked with running three full-HD monitors against our high-end gaming suite that takes in maximum image quality.
Our system setup and benchmarks can be found on this page. Please be aware that 3DMark 11 isn't included, and StarCraft II gets the chop because it does not support Eyefinity gaming without an unauthorised hack. The Sapphire HD 6950 2GB FleX's stock clocks means that it performs practically identically to a reference card in single-screen form, so head on over to see it pitted against 13 high-end GPU setups.
Aliens vs. Predator
The standalone Aliens vs. Predator benchmark uses DX11 features such as hardware tessellation and advanced shadow sampling to draw and animate everyone's favourite xenomorph.
This title is pretty hard on graphics cards, especially when all the DX11 bells and whistles are turned on. Full-HD performance is decent, befitting a £225 card. Throw in three 16x10 monitors and the average frame-rate is practically halved, which makes implicit sense. Watching the benchmark shows that there is slowdown in certain sections, though. Cranking up the load to three full-HD screens reduces the frame-rate by about 10 per cent.
We reckon the card can run the game smoothly with quality settings that are one step down from the ones used in our suite. It still looks good and performs smoothly on three monitors.
Just Cause 2
Again, performance at a 5-6MP resolution is reasonable. Much like Aliens vs. Predator, knocking the settings down a touch means that three-screen gaming becomes smooth.
