Even we bloggers aren’t always gifted with the latest and greatest. Sometimes we have to buy it ourselves and wait just like everyone else before we can get our hands on the gadgets we so desperately crave. Gaming is a great way to relax the mind, unwind, and scrub off some stress. A big, beautiful display does wonders for us nerds and gamers a like. But looks aren’t everything. To a gamer, the more pixels they have means the more they can see. Until display port came along, hardware for connecting monitors and displays was rather large. HDMI lessened the footprint though we still had the problem of what do when multiple monitors were needed. Enter display port and ATI’s Eyefinity cards. The magic of Display Port is that its small and versatile. One look at the card above while slightly comical is a testament to how beneficial the new found size reduction actually is. Of course, being able to daisy chain Display Port connected monitors doesn’t hurt either. If I had my choice, I’d get a card capable of Display Port — with one million ports. Eh, ’tis fun to dream…
CrunchGear > Toms Hardware
- September 10, 2009 8:03 pm
Take any mind blowing, wallet raping, eye melting gaming rig or big screen you can think of and throw it out of your mind. AMD’s up and coming new hotness, graphics cards packin’ the DirectX11 moniker have some truly impressive muscle under the hood. How much muscle? Well, lets start with the fact that the new cards will support Display Port technology allowing you to daisy chain monitor after monitor via USB. Even better is that the new DX11 AMD cards also support running said daisy chained monitors as one monitor. And the icing on top you ask? The example shown above (more pictures inside) consists of 6-30″ Dell monitors corralled together and pumping out an astonishing 7680 x 4800 quintuple HD resolution. *Jaw drops…drool trickling out…speechless*. The possibilities are enough to make any geek lose their vocabulary for long spans of time. Gaming, PC use, TV, etc. The list of uses goes on.
The lucky folks of Maximum PC were able to physically see this visual monstrosity in the flesh pushing XPlane 9 and Far Cry 2 at full resolution at a respectable 12-20 frames per second. Another batch of lucky folk at HotHardware had the privilege of seeing an upcoming DX11 game, Dirt 2, demoed at 7680 x 3200 and noted “respectable frame rates” were displayed. Now, looking back at the earlier 12-20 fps figure isn’t very reassuring as 12-20 is hardly “acceptable” in the gaming world. Though at 7680 x 4800/3200, pretty much any other set up would choke, die, and subsequently explode.
As promised, a few more pics to gaze over just after the click.
We’ve all been there – you see a new phone or gadget that you have to have as long as it comes in some other color other than charcoal black. Your dreams and aspirations are crushed however when the sales guy comes back and announces to you that charcoal black is indeed the only color. You think to yourself of all the great times you and that gadget would have had. Such unpleasant and life altering occasions will soon be a thing of the past thanks to Kent Display’s new “Electronic Skin”. What does this Electronic Skin do for you the user? I’ll give you a hint: “Rainbows”.
While mobile device manufacturers are currently infatuated with touchscreens, the real deal and way of the future is held in flexible displays. With flexible displays comes a much wider range of applications for slappin’ a display on to as well as a much greater durability that current displays just can’t match. Riding the flexible AMOLED wave of the future, Samsung is using SID 2009 in San Antonio Texas as the location to unveil their 6.5-inch AMOLED flexible prototype. Whether or not you like “The Sound of Music”, you can’t help but be entranced by the awesomeness that seeing such a display brings to your mind. Where would you put an AMOLED flexible display?
Source: Engadget, OLED-Display
If you can recall a year or two ago, (I know, reach deep into the depths that is your mind….I’m just kidding you ‘ol bear trap you), SED technology was a TV technology with a bright future ahead looking to become the dominating standard, if not at least a worthy competitor to OLED, and the now defunct FED standards with it’s extremely nice image quality. Then drama, greed, and confusion took place as various partners dropped support and funding. The most recent casualty being FED as Sony has picked up their cards and moved on. Though currently, there hasn’t been much said in the way of SED tv’s or the technology. However, Canon itself appears to be giving the tech second look with two recent patent filings. Patent No. 20090111350 and No. 20090108727 are two recent patents filed on April 30th by the electronic giant, Canon, regarding SED technology. The first dealing with the downsizing of SED electric fields and the second detailing of how to increase picture quality. If the technology were dead, why would they be patenting things related to it? One can only assume that we can expect to see a resurgence in SED TV technology and hopefully even get SED TV’s into the hands of mere mortals in the not too distant future. The images that SED displayed to the world in the past were nothing short of jaw dropping and impeccable. Maybe if we all cross our fingers hard enough, we can finally see SED materialize into something that we can all enjoy.
Source: Crunchgear, Image Source
If you’re in the market for another graphics card to power a second, third, fourth, or more monitros, OWC would like you to reconsider. Today they announced the immediate availability of their USB powered display adapter that is essetially an “external graphics card” that will allow you to easily and quickly attach up to 6 additional monitors at resolutions up to (1600 x 1200) to your computer via USB. While adding a ingle additional monitor is easily achieved without a USB adapter, many individuals lack the cash or equipment needed to run more than two monitors at a time. With OWC’s adapter, mulitple monitor layouts and multi-tasking are now more easily accessible. Included in the box you’ll find:
- USB to DVI adapter
- DVI to VGA adapter
- DVI to HDMI adapter
- 4′ USB Cable
- CD-ROM with user guide and software
- One Year Warranty
You’ll notice the adapter doesn’t yet support full HD (1920 x 1080) and is more a limitation of the current USB 2.0 bandwidth and technology as opposed to the adapter. If Blue-ray movies, gaming and other applications that demand hi-def are a must, you might be better off saving for a more ellaborate multi-monitor set up. However, if 1600 x 1200 is enough to make your eyes drool and get you through the day (which for most users it is more than plenty, then give OWC a bit of your time and money. Speaking of money, the privilege of outputting video through USB will cost you a cool $99.
[Press release]
