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ATI 6990 or 2 GTX 590's [Water]

samuelc

samuelc

samuelc

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627
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Hello everyone.

I'm currently in the process of upgrading my rig and I'm going to order 3 more Samsung 2443BW's to compliment my current set up.

I was thinking of going with the 6990 [Water] to power all 6 monitors. I'll be using it for finance work (Excel and Trading) and maybe abit of gaming. Not that much.

Has anyone had any experience with the 6990 and can you vouch for the performance?

Also, I was just wondering what the equivalent Nvidia set up would be - 2 590's? Was googling abit here and there and didn't quite find any definitive answers unfortunately.

Or shall I just watercool another 5970? But I wasn't sure if it would work though for 6 mons!

So any feedback here would be much appreciated!

Kind Regards,
Sam
 
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The 6990 can run 6 monitors with some DisplayPort jiggery pokery:

AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology
◦Native support for up to 5 simultaneous displays
•Up to 6 displays supported with DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport
Click to expand...

I think Nvidia support a maximum of 3 displays.
 
Hello Surveyor,

Ugh.. so Nvidia wont support 6? Thats dissapointing.. really liked the EVGA Waterblocked 590's.

Do you recommend the 6990 anyhow mate?
 
For barely any gaming, why would you buy a top end gaming card?

Powering 6 screens with nothing but desktop stuff on them takes smeg all power, so what you want to do is be honest about gaming. If "maybe a bit of gaming" means, I like tetris, and I'll happily play the latest COD but not on 6 screens, get a 6screen special edition of something cheap like a 5770, or a 6850 or something, I've not really been paying attention to which editions natively support 6 screens but there are "eyefinity" editions that will do it on a single card.

Your problem is monitors, if you already have them, what connections you have will be key here. If they all only have DVI, you'd have to ask for more advice but I think you'll probably want to go with 2-3 cards, maybe installed individually all connected up to a couple screens each.

If the monitors you have all have display port then I think thats the only way you can do 6 monitors off a single card.

Theres been some better display port to dvi adaptors of late though so you might be able to do it that way but depending on the cost of such adaptors it could be cheaper to buy a few cheap cards.

Basically a £400+ card, when you don't need it is silly really. You'll both use FAR more power than you need to, on top of more noise, and frankly a level of gaming power you'll not likely use.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-254-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

There are other versions, hard to track them all down though but that will do 6 outputs off a single card.

IN general desktop though you can basically just add more cards, more screens, they don't have to be on the same card, or connected in sli/xfire(I haven't done it for a decade though).

A 6950 is ample for gaming on a single 1080p screen, it can handle 3 screens in eyefinity pretty well, 6 though would need some serious quality reduction to get any kind of playable framerate. Thats really pretty high end gaming though and overkill to be honest if you only "might" game a little.

Realistically give a bit more detail on what you might play and how, and people can recommend something closer to what you need.

Basically I wouldn't recommend a 6990 to anyone who didn't say "I love gaming, I want to play in eyefinity resolutions(3-6 monitors) in top detail and top framerate with no care for money", its overpriced and overpowered for 99.999% of hardcore gamers, let alone people who aren't.
 
Hello Drunkenmaster,

Thanks for your reply mate much appreciated. I guess I'll be using the usual things like Excel and Matlab quite a bit but thats pretty down the CPU i guess. For Games - I used to place Dragon Age, Wow and COd on Eyefinity quite a bit! I guess my gaming has toned down a little but I guess I'd still love to play it on Eyefinity when I can! But I dont think I'll be gaming on 6 monitors though. I think 3 at the most. Unless its a racing game per se.

Agreed with your points though. My 5970 runs pretty much anything I want on Eyefinity right now as well so I guess a 6990 would be overkill.. darn.

But I'd still like to power another 3 monitors though. What would be the best solution here? I remember a member of the forums here once suggested a tri fire with a 5870 6 eyefinity.
 
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Drunkenmaster makes a valid point, BUT...

I also had a 5970 and was on the fence as to whether to get a 6990. A 6990 is overkill and I don't use eyefinity. However, the 5970 is quickly losing value. I sold mine on the bay and along with an OcUK deal ended up only spending an extra £50 on the upgrade!

It won't be long until the 5970 will drop in value to a point where it wouldn't be worth selling. You will then be forking out full price for a 6990 or equivilant flagship card.

Sell your 5970 now while there are still crazy people out there willing to play top dollar.

Another point to make - it was only after my upgrade that I realised how much the 5970 was struggling in some of the games I own, so you won't necessarily "notice no difference" as many around here would be so quick to tell you!
 
Hey guys

Thanks very much for your views. Much appreciated.

I'll see what i can do in terms of offloading it. might flog it in the sellers section in OCUK.
Probs sell it with the water block!

Thanks again guys
Sam
 
samuelc said:
Hey guys

Thanks very much for your views. Much appreciated.

I'll see what i can do in terms of offloading it. might flog it in the sellers section in OCUK.
Probs sell it with the water block!

Thanks again guys
Sam
Click to expand...

You will get A LOT more on the bay. I set a crazy price with crazy postage a long with a buy it now or best offer. Was snapped up in 10 minutes!

I got £100 more than the MM was willing to give me - of course the bay comes with its own risks.
 
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