3D Vision Blog

Do you remember my post regarding the supposedly “new” feature in the ATI’s Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs actually offering Stereoscopic 3D support of some kind about two weeks ago (Is ATI preparing an alternative to Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision?)? Back then I suggested that ATI is trying to push a third party feature, claiming it is something new in their new GPUs, like IZ3D’s driver support for instance and it turns out I was right on the spot. Today I’ve just got a confirmation from the local ATI PR guy that they indeed meant that and that there is actually nothing coming directly from ATI:

Our graphics cards can drive various 3D display devices as long as the user has the correct middleware. Two middleware companies we are working with are Dynamic Digital Depth, and iZ3D.

So DDD’s TriDef software and IZ3D’s drivers do support ATI, but they do not specifically require you to have ATI Radeon HD 5000 series GPU as they will also work on older cards based on ATI graphic processors and the thing is that these two companies actually produce GPU manufacturer independent stereoscopic 3D solutions. In plain words this means that both TriDef and Iz3D will work regarding the type of your GPU, so not only on ATI, but also on Nvidia hardware… so can this be considered as a new feature only on Radeon HD 5000 series? If you ask me it cannot as there is actually nothing new that requires you to have the latest ATI GPUs to use both of these solutions, not to mention that you don’t need to have an ATI graphic processor at all. The only thing that is good to have is at least a middle-end video card, preferably a high-end one, because when playing in S3D your GPU performance is a key factor, so getting the new ATI-based video cards are only good because of having a lot of raw power for processing. Still I might prefer getting Nvidia VGA and use it with 3D Vision as it has better game support (not only), more user friendly (although not completely problem free), oh wait… I do have a 3D Vision setup (among a few others) and an Nvidia GPU already … ;)

By now you should already know that Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) is the new “3D” in gaming and not only in gaming, but in movies to, so it is not hard to guess that everyone is willing to jump on the plane as early as possible to take advantage of the built momentum later on. Nvidia already did that with GeForce 3D Vision and the product has become quite popular and is gaining quite a lot of attention although its development could be improved a bit in terms of quicker reaction to new games coming out, but is ATI (the biggest competitor of Nvidia) preparing an alternative stereoscopic 3D solution of their own?

Today, browsing through the specifications of the recently announced Radeon HD 5870 GPU, I’ve noticed something interesting and of course I started to look for more information about it, but to my surprise there was none at all. I’m referring to the sentence “3D stereoscopic display/glasses support” that you can find almost at the bottom of the page wit specifications of the new GPU under the category ATI Avivo HD Video & Display technology. Looking at the bottom of the page with notes there is this explanation available “Requires 3D stereo drivers, glasses, and display“, which does not clarify things in any way, but actually does the opposite. So is ATI preparing 3D stereo drivers that will be compatible with their latest Radeon HD 5000 range of GPUs along with development of shutter glasses much like 3D Vision, that will be compatible for instance with 120Hz monitors from ViewSonic and Samsung already available? Or maybe the guys from ATI are just stating the obvious, that their new GPUs are capable of Stereoscopic 3D playback of videos and games, if you are using a third party software and hardware solution, for instance like IZ3D’s monitors and drivers. But if they are saying that for just their new GPUs it would be weird, because the older Radeon HD 4000 series also were supported in other third party S3D solutions, so it is nothing new, right?

Anyway if you have some information regarding this you are more than welcome to share it with us… ;)

If you were thinking of getting one of the 22-inch IZ3D monitors for playing in Stereoscopic 3D, now may be the right time to do that in order to get a 20% discount of the product price (only if ordering through IZ3D’s webshop!). The only thing you need to do is when checking out to write the following promo code: 91927c7d and you should be all set. And if you ask why IZ3D and not GeForce 3D Vision, the answer is quite simple actually… IZ3D’s display and drivers work on any kind of video card (ATI-based video card for instance) and not only on Nvidia, unlike the 3D Vision driver that requires you to have an Nvidia-based VGA. And of course the 22-inch IZ3D display does not use active shutter glasses and a 120Hz display, but instead relies on dual screens (inside one monitor) with different polarization and passive polarized glasses in order to achieve the Stereoscopic 3D effect. And of course this technology also has its pros and cons, but if you wanted to get one of these and save some money now should be the right time to take advantage of the discount offer.

- To visit IZ3D’s website for more information about their 22″ S3D display…