AMD Brings Another 6-Pack to the Game

It wasn’t that long ago I reported that in the first part of next year, AMD will be bringing 6 core processing to the desktop for the power user. Now another six  will have a special meaning for users of AMD products.

Just announced, the new DirectX 11 cards from AMD/ATi will be able to power, with no modifications, up to six independent displays, each with resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels, and Samsung, wanting to make good use of that possibility, has designed a 6 pack of 22″ monitors and a 3×2 special stand to accommodate them.

If that doesn’t make your eyes light up, you don’t have much love for computing in general! For gamers, it means an ability to play games at resolutions of 7680 by 3200 pixels, which should make any thoughts of using a console on an HDTV go away forever. By the way, the drivers for the card are supposed to handle the 6 monitors as one large one, if the user desires, so games would not need any new tweaks.

I must admit this has a certain appeal to me, as I tend to multitask a lot, and having a full screen for some things is almost a necessity. For example, as I write this, I am working on my laptop, which has a 15″ 1024×768 pixel display, which means that I have to do the alt-tab thing [context switching] a great deal, as I look at the 2 articles I am getting the details for this from, and about every 5th minute, I switch to the newsreader, to see what has popped up. It would be great to have the space for all of this without doing the window switches. I have 3 other machines, with dual monitors, and with each monitor large enough, the problem is overcome, but imagine the ‘headroom’ of having 6 22″ widescreens!

from Bright Side of News

As you noticed in our previous story, bezels on those Dell’s were a little bit thick. Samsung has an answer for that - display giant is teaming up with AMD. When we saw the six display setup over at AMD’s HQ, I was personally awed by the experience a gamer gets while playing in 25 Megapixel resolution, e.g. 7680×3200 pixels. But the thick bezels on Dell’s 3008WFP might be inconvenient for long hour gaming sessions.

In order to combat that, Samsung’s executives were in a similar state of shock as yours truly were… and the display giant decided to team up with AMD and “create a special product for a special technology.”

If this is anything like I’ve seen before, the cost will be in the stand, disproportionally. The monitors here, however, due to the thinner bezels might bring the ratio just a tad closer to normal.

I see the displays, as shown at the site above, and wonder how a more creative arrangement, such as the one used in the movie “Swordfish”, might enhance enjoyment. (50,000 watts of funky!)

Perhaps this is a bit more than most will ever do with a computer, but it is nice to know that the technology is there, ready, when we are.

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