3d PC Gaming

For typical computer use at a desktop, yes, you would need a special 120hz monitor. Although it looks like you're going to use your HDTV which should work too. What you need is a modern-ish videocard that supports 3D and that should be it other than having 3D content.

AMD cards do not natively support 3D, you'll need an add-on driver like the Tri-Def, iZ3D worked previously but they are no longer in business.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-hd3d/Pages/3d-desktop-graphics.aspx#1

http://www.tridef.com/cart/pages.php?pageid=5

Jason

AMD cards do natively support 3D, but the game has to be written specifically for it. Load up Deus Ex 0 as an example. That will spit to 3D to your Samsung. Just fine with no silly middleware.

The middleware for 3D is garbage, and AMD 3D support in software is few and far between. If you want proper 3D that is actually usable, buy an Nvidia card. They've been doing 3D properly over there for about a decade.

I have to agree. Back when I bought my 6850, part of the reason I chose that is that at the time you needed a special 3D vision dongle even to just output 3D to a TV with Nvidia cards (a licensing thing, I believe), but now that they have their 3DTV Play software (which has been out for a while now) that removes that requirement, there's literally zero reason to choose AMD if you want 3D.

nVidia has been doing everything properly for over a decade.

*buh dum tish*

I gave AMD a shot once with this 6870. As long as all you want to do is render out to one PC monitor with nothing fancy going on, it has been fine. Do anything even slightly fancy with it, and those drivers crap themselves. I see an Nvidia card going in to my living room PC once Big Picture becomes useable.

Shortly after 3dfx was no longer the graphic cards to have, I had a few nvidia cards that would randomly blackout my display doing normal options changes. Ever since I've stuck with ATI/AMD exclusively.

Indeed, you are correct but lack of native support for 99% of games means it's not worthwhile unless one add's a 3rd party driver (like TriDef). I own a 6970 and have gone through all the AMD 3D nonsense.

Nvidia is the way to go if your concern is 3D, which has been the case for years.

Jason

"What is the equivalent to my 6870 in the Nvidia lineup?"

A theoretical GTX650, or a GTX 560.

I believe a 650GTX is coming out. I'd opt for the 660ti GTX right now though....or the 670GTX.

Ah, the middleware solutions like Tridef sometimes handle a game better than Nvidia. Mass Effect for example, at least before the community patches started. Tridef is fine, and its got a trial. What the OP needs to know is if his 3DTV will do checkerboard. For that you might want to check out Mtbs3D.com or 3dvision-blog.com.

"Ah, the middleware solutions like Tridef sometimes handle a game better than Nvidia."

Replace "sometimes" with "rarely" and that might be an accurate statement. The ATI middleware is garbage and proper in-game support is exceptionally rare. If you want 3D support in games, Nvidia is the only correct choice.

Another case where really, I love my Radeon 6870 hardware, but the software backing it up is lacking in the extreme. I really wish that Nvidia had had single-card three-monitor support in the 300/400 series.

Tridef does frame-packing (like Blu-ray) also. You'll have a better experience at 720p than at 1080p though, since you can get more frames with HDMI that way.

If your using Tridef, you'd want to use side-by-side, which offers a finer picture than 720p and runs at 60hz per eye, just like 720p.

960x1080 gives you greater vertical resolution and lower horizontal resolution than 1280x720. Yes, humans are more sensitive to vertical information, but lower horizontal can create some pretty nasty aliasing issues on vertical lines. It's mostly a wash, but I'd pick 720p personally. This gives the anti-aliasing more evenly spread information to work with, especially in the case of FXAA/MLAA.

Framepacked 720p also has the advantage of being automatically detected by most displays instead of having to manually engage a 3D mode.

SBS looks like 720p with 4x MSAA applied, that is what i have always thought on my Sony and that is after hours of experimentation. SBS with Tridef looks slightly hazy sometimes, which I believe is from MSAA being applied via the control panel, one of the advantages of using Tridef. With Nvidia's 3DTV Play (720p) you cannot use MSAA from the control panel. I prefer SBS in every case on a 2010 Sony NX711 and only use 720p with Nivida when Tridef doesn't have good support for a game. But each brand of TV probably uses a different algorithm for scaling and it'd be worth examining both.
Edited by tory40 - 9/30/12 at 9:34am

Thanks for the tips. I just picked up a BenQ projector and figured it all out, well mostly. Still trying to get a custom 1080i res working on my AMD card (6970) for widescreen + 3D, using Tridef and SBS

has anyone done that? like 1920x816 x 60hz interlaced SBS? I'm also having a hard time figuring out how to enable 3D Texture Copy in Tridef. I don't really want to turn off AA.