Wanting to eyefinity or surround.

[frawressvictoly]

Okay first off let me see if I understand this correctly. In order to use surround via nvidia you have to sli correct? I have not bought my 3 monitors yet or new gpu's. I am hoping the cost of current ati or nvidia cards drop soon. I was however playing w/ my current gpu (5870) I was able to hook up 2 monitors (I only have 2 atm) and it worked well. I was using hdmi and dvi and I still have 1 dvi slot open so it seems like that one single gpu would do it, am I right?

Anyways to the point. My current gpu is starting to struggle w/ one monitor connected and running games at full graphics so I know it wont work w/ 3 monitors.

I was thinking about getting 2 6970's but I have been researching and it seems like a better deal is to get 6950's and convert them (not sure how) to 6970's and sli that.

I was also going to get a single gtx 580 (but then I learned that I need 2 for surround, I think)

Soo.. This brings me to a list of which way should I go.

I dont want to buy the new 7970 (cost to much unless I can use just one for eyefinity)

Go w/

gtx 570 sli's (surround)

HD 6970's xfire (eyefinity)

HD 6950's converted to 6970's (if its easy todo) and eyefinity that (best price it seems)

or

If a single 7970 can do what I want would that be better?

Anyways what would you guys do and why?

My monitor is

Samsung syncmaster 245bw (getting 1 more to make 3) rez is 1920 x 1200 on single monitor.

rest of rig

i5 2500k at 4.5 (watercooled)

Asus sabertooth mobo

16 gig 1600 ram

ssd 120gig for os and my favorite game.

850 psu

 

[sheroo]

I run an eyefinity setup with a single 6950. I'm not a massive gamer, so am not bothered about turning everything up to max when I game at 5760*1080. You can only run eyefinity off of a single card if one of your monitors is connected to one of the displayport outputs of the card. You'll also need an active displayport adapter to convert the displayport signal to dvi - if you are running dvi only monitors.

You are right in that an nVidia setup requires 2 gpus to run surround. However you can run a 590 - as that is effectively a dual gpu card.

tbh though with the iminent release of the 7000 series, its worth waiting just a little longer until all of the reviews are out, it might also drive the current prices down.

You can only convert a 6950 to a 6970 if the card has a dual bios switch. These switches were found on the early reference models, and these days are pretty rare... The bios switch allows another bios to be loaded, keeping the original intact - otherwise you run the risk of bricking the card if the bios update goes wrong.

By the way what is your budget?

 

[frawressvictoly]

Budget... well it started at $300. Then I thought well maybe I will get a gtx 580 so I moved the budget to 450 to 500. Then I started playing w/ my card's eyefinty and thought man this would be cool to game w/ so I upped it again to around 600 this would be spread out though. Meaning buy one card now and one later etc...

To think this started "small cheap upgrade" because my old mobo died on me.

I almost ordered a 6970 last night because the xfx card is onsale local to me for $299.99. I was going to pick that up and then when the prices drive down even more get another one.

Im still in debate though. . . .

 

[alienware]

Crossfire really sucks. Seriously man, I mean that. And I talk from experience, having owned both Crossfire and Quadfire.

Ignore the messy wiring, it wasn't done permanently as I knew it would suck.

Any way the biggest issue I had in Crossfire was that the drivers sucked. ATI release profiles (a few hundred KB) and you install them. The thing is, most of the time they didn't work. I strongly remember playing Need for speed : Shift and it running poorly. I had the Crossfire enabled logo on the screen, but I was barely making 30 FPS. Then I found out that it was broken in the driver profile, so I had to rename it grid.exe

And it just went on. Most of my games ran like poo and even when they did scale and work properly (and the game supported it) there was still micro stutter and post process flicker caused by a delay in the GPUs synchro.

SLI is better because EVGA do the work now.

http://www.evga.com/articles/00463/

But, there are still microstutter issues. Also bear in mind you need to calculate the resolution of three monitors and then compare that to 2560x1600. If you are running more then even the 590/6990 would struggle. And it's not because of raw power it's because of vram.

Remember, even at 1080p Battlefield 3 uses up to 1.6gb of vram in multiplayer. Now triple that resolution and you come to find you would need two GTX 580 3gb or at the very least two GTX 570 2048mb or whatever they are. They are out there though, but very expensive.

Then bear in mind that the desktop layout is far from ideal. I will get you some pics in a bit of that in a bit.

The best thing to do is wait for the 7970 and if you can afford it buy that. It fixes most of the annoying issues with three screens AND has enough grunt to run things on three monitors at reasonable resolutions.

Personally I took EVGA's advice and would run no more than three 1600x900 monitors.

 

[alienware]

Oh and to run Surround you need SLI. There simply aren't enough monitor outputs otherwise.

I *think* the GTX 590 can do surround natively, but you won't get one of those for $300.

Samsung syncmaster 245bw (getting 1 more to make 3) rez is 1920 x 1200 on single monitor.

Forget it mate. You have no chance of getting a GPU set up to push 5760x1200. You would need SLI GTX 580 3gb to even stand a chance. The GTX 590 can just about cover 1600p alone.

Sell it and then

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009314

Get three of those. Then you stand a chance. My friend runs a GTX 460 2win on three monitors the same resolution and it works. But anything more than that and you will need to mortgage your house to run it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009262

A single 6970 Lightning would stand a chance on three of those. But you won't be running max settings with 4XFSAA. That ^ is what I chose. Three of those for a total res of 4098x768 as it works out less than 2560x1600.

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OK my suggestion is one of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127581

And three of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009262

 

[frawressvictoly]

Hmm alot of good info.

I might just forget the idea of eyefinity and stick w/ my single monitor and go w/ the 580 idea for now. I just wish the prices would drop already lol

I def dont want to sell my monitors they have been some of the best monitors I have used.

With that being said eyefinty seemed like a great idea but sounds like more of a hassle then it maybe worth. I just had fun playing w/ it. On paper it seems easy.

Well this puts me back to square 1 again lol.

I guess in the end I want something that is going to last for a bit. I bought my 5870 the first month they were released and it has done well its just now its starting to struggle a bit on games so its time for an upgrade.

 

[alienware]

Eyefinity can be fun. However, like Surround it can also be an asshole lol.

I wouldn't buy a 580 now. Wait and see what the 7 series Rads bring, you only have about 12 days.

And those definitely fix all of the pains of Eyefinity. The games? still need to rely on those sadly, but the way it works the desktop definitely sorts the issue.

I still advise getting three cheapo monitors and a 6970 Lightning. That way if you don't like it you can toss the monitors in the bin (I mean we're talking less than $200 for all three) and add another 6970 or something.

 

[frawressvictoly]

Eyefinity can be fun. However, like Surround it can also be an asshole lol.

I wouldn't buy a 580 now. Wait and see what the 7 series Rads bring, you only have about 12 days.

And those definitely fix all of the pains of Eyefinity. The games? still need to rely on those sadly, but the way it works the desktop definitely sorts the issue.

I still advise getting three cheapo monitors and a 6970 Lightning. That way if you don't like it you can toss the monitors in the bin (I mean we're talking less than $200 for all three) and add another 6970 or something.

yea I see what you mean. Im still twisting and turnning around the idea. I know the girlie wants my 5870 so she can get her pc up and running again. She playing on an old asus notebook and its driving her crazy. She keeps asking me every day did you pick something out yet!!! ahaha.

now being that a single card can do 3 monitors (which I did not know). I might try and justify the 7970 when it comes out. Its only projected to be any from 50 to 75 more then gtx580 and seems to outperform it..

Here is the thing. Eyefinity I had fun playing w/ but the idea did seem to push my project and budget WAY over. I started just wanting a gpu that was better then my current and could play my games good full (max) graphics at 60 fps. Im not a benchmarker just a gamer..

Games im playing are SWTOR and BF3