14 DAY TRIAL // End-users have been tormented for months as NVIDIA continuously delayed the launch of Fermi, again and again, but it seems that even AMD is ready to start announcing delays of its own. Now that NVIDIA has finally set a stable launch date for its card, AMD has taken up the mantle of tardiness and is reportedly planning on postponing the launch of its Eyefinity 6 card for sometime around the end of the month.
AMD previously planned on officially introducing its six-display capable graphics card on March 11 but Fudzilla now reports that this is no longer the case. The report does not state any clear reasons for that; it is unknown just what type of issues ATI, business unit of Advanced Micro Devices, is being faced with. Fudzilla perceives the possibility of the drivers being in need of further tweaking, although another reason could be ATI's intention to at least grab a bit of NVIDIA's spotlight when it finally launches the Fermi.
Eyefinity 6 is ATI's technology through which a single card can stretch the image over six displays. The first such model will supposedly be a version of the ATI Radeon HD 5870. This card is said to be called Trillian and will come with 2GB of GDDR5 at 4800MHz, the Cypress GPU clocked at 850MHz, 1,600 stream processors and six Mini DisplayPort outputs. This device is currently slated to have a price of under $500.
The main drawback of Eyefinity 6 is the fact that putting six displays next to and on top of each other creates thick black 'lines' that severely impact on the image, especially if the monitors don't have the slimmest bezel. Samsung will supposedly launch special displays next month, which may also have contributed to AMD's decision to delay the card. The company may feel that it is more convenient if the time gap between the card's launch and the appearance of suitable monitors is smaller.