As some of you will certainly remember, a few months ago, we had the chance to review for ourselves one of the first 3D solutions available for home users, namely NVIDIA's 3D Vision. Back then, we were pretty impressed with what the GPU manufacturer had managed to achieve, but, to be perfectly honest, the overall impression left by the single-display solution pales in comparison with its more advanced, multi-monitor variant, the 3D Vision Surround.

Initially presented back at CES 2010, the 3D Vision Surround technology has recently received a well-deserved boost with the launch of the company's GTX 400 series of graphic cards, the “tessellation monsters” that took the whole world by storm a few weeks ago.

The 3D Vision Surround solution requires two NVIDIA GPUs in SLI configuration in order to properly work with three different monitors. However, if users really want to take things to the extreme, namely play their favorite games on 3 x Full-HD 1,080p 3D displays (which translates into a 5,760x1,080-pixel resolution or over 750 million pixels/second), then they'll require the full horsepower delivered by the new GTX 400-series GPUs.

And, in fact, the experience itself was nothing short of amazing. I mean, this is not the first multi-monitor solution we tested (we also enjoyed the seriously enhanced desktop space provided by AMD's Eyefinity technology), but 3D Vision Surround is really something, since it takes the game to a whole-new level, seriously upping the ante for its competitors.

The demo system setup by NVIDIA during a local event (the local launch of the GTX 400-series GPUs, which we'll detail a bit later on) included three Full-HD 3D Vision-ready LCD monitors from Acer, coupled with two GTX 480 graphics units installed in SLI configuration. The whole thing worked beautifully, although the level of heat coming out of the case was, in fact, pretty intense

It's also interesting to point out that this multi-monitor solution also features a bezel-compensation software, meaning that the bezels of the two-side monitors can be hidden behind the one of the main display, while the GPUs re-calibrate the way in which they output images based exactly on this setup.

During the demo, we were able to see Just Cause 2 and Need for Speed – Shift put to work, and, as mentioned above, the results were quite impressive. The 3D feeling really expanded across the three displays, and, if one was seated in the exact right position, then the experience was pretty much mind-blowing. In fact, as NVIDIA's reps put it, “Once you've experienced NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround, you'll have a pretty hard time going back to 3D Vision, not to mention no 3D at all,” and they're perfectly right.



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