How to install the new real 3D

How to install the new Real 3D

SafeBytes Software

If you went to the theatre anytime between 2003 and the present day, there’s a chance that either you saw a film in 3D or at least saw adverts for a film in 3D.

Now, 3D film is not really a new thing per se, the first 3D movies were shown in theatres as early as 1922 in a movie known as The Power of Love (unfortunately no, the Huey Lewis song wasn’t based on it).

The film’s anaglyph system (which is a really fascinating process of forcing the eyes to see an image in a different way, if you ever want to read up a bit more on the process) that used images of different colours has been superseded by polarizing images. Polarized images simply are images which are presented to the viewer in different polarized filters. This means that your 3D lenses only let one image of a certain polarization through, while the other lens handles the other slightly different image and your brain processes the two inputs as a 3 Dimensional image that comes out of the flat screen that shows it.

Another big change that is also more evident now is that this better looking 3D technology has become available to the regular consumer at a more affordable price, even going as far as being implemented into consumer video games with the Playstation 3 and 4, as well as most gaming PCs.

So, how do you go about converting your gaming rig to 3D? What do you need to buy?

Let’s review what you need.

Graphics card: the very first thing you should look for. Fortunately, most modern graphics cards are 3D ready, so it should only be a matter of looking for the one that best suits your budget/needs/preference. A good choice is the AMD Radeon RX 480, which is even VR ready, though anything upwards of the Radeon HD 6450 will also deliver. If you prefer Nvidia graphics, any card starting from the GeForce GTX560 Ti or GTX550 onwards will help you. And remember, you can make sure that you have the right drivers for these video cards by using Safebytes’ DriverAssist program, which will keep them up to date with minimal hassle for you.

A 3D capable processor. According to Intel, any processor that has Intel HD graphics 2000 / 3000 or Intel HD graphics 2500 / 4000 should do the trick. This means that you need either a Sandy Bridge or an Ivy Bridge variant of the intel core i3 or i7 processors.

A 3D monitor. You can’t really do anything with a 3D ready graphics card and processor if you don’t actually have a monitor that can display images in 3D. In this respect, there are many, many options. These monitors come either in active or passive shutter modes, with active ones being quite a bit more expensive than their passive counterparts, but delivering better a better 3D experience for the mark-up.

In this case however, the best you can do is look at the many options at your disposal and decide which one adjusts to your needs.