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Upgrade Strategy: Achieving 3 Screens

KingBob

KingBob

KingBob

Associate
Joined
25 Feb 2011
Posts
65
Location
Leeds
Hey guys,

I'd like to step up to a triple screen system.

My current system has a single "MSI N580GTX Twin Frozr II" plugged into an Asus MIVE main-board.

My question is:
  • Should I get a second N580GTX and run SLI?
  • Should I sell my N580GTX and get some kind of 590?
  • Should I sell and move to ATI for eyefinity?

I'm not really interested in 3D, but I'd like to hear back from anybody who runs on 3 screens, either nVidia 2D Surround or Eyefinity.

Thanks for reading.
KB.
 
I had an eyefinity triple screen set up and despite not liking it and getting rid of it, it was really easy to set up and use. On the plus side for AMD cards is the relatively low cost of getting 2Gb vram which helps at those high resolutions.

I'm assuming your 580 is a 1.5Gb, in which case even in SLI you may run into limitations when it comes to vram and high res. I'd look into selling your current card and then either getting a pair of 6950's (if you want to switch to AMD) or a pair of 570 2.5Gb's which should be cheaper than a pair of 580 3gb's but should handle triple screens easily.
 
Clav said:
I had an eyefinity triple screen set up and despite not liking it and getting rid of it, it was really easy to set up and use.
Click to expand...

Just wondering what it was you didn't like about eyefinity? I've thought about getting 3 screens myself but it would obviously cost a lot to setup.
 
coupe69 said:
Just wondering what it was you didn't like about eyefinity? I've thought about getting 3 screens myself but it would obviously cost a lot to setup.
Click to expand...

For me the pro's and con's were these:

Pro's
Extra screens are good for peripheral vision so driving games and to a certain extent FPS look great. (also see cons)
Huge desktop area.

Con's
Desktop windows and apps maximise across 3 screens, Hydragrid fixes this somewhat but I found it cumbersome to set up and work with.
Start menu and quick launch on the left screen instead of middle. (can be fixed with extended desktops while not gaming but again it is extra hassle)
Game Huds stretching across 6 feet of desktop space makes it impossible to take information in at a glance. eg RTS games with bottom left/right and top left/right hud sections
Neck/shoulder strain.
Having to excessivley fiddle about with things to make them work with eyefinity.
Some games just do not work with eyefinity.
Crappy stretched out perspective on the additional monitors makes everything look squashed. So for peripheral vision in driving games it is fine but if you play something where you will be looking straight at them it looks really bad. (for me it was battles in shogun total war 2.)

Some games let you change the FOV through ini files or command line switches or whatever but again it's just hassle. Don't get me wrong eyefinity is a great technology but I don't think it is ready just yet.
 
Clav raises some good points about Eyefinity. I myself am on my 2nd Eyefinity setup now and in Windows definitely prefer using extended desktop so I have taskbar/start menu / system tray in my centre screen.

If you have enough horsepower to run games at 5760x1080 it's a really fun option to have but be prepared to pine for lots of frames per second as you simply wont get it with Eyefinity. On my spec (in sig) - including £1000+ on new hardware recently - it's fine for TF2 era games but BF3... forget it, 30-40fps.
 
that is correct

with nvidia surround you have to run in SLI mode so you can only use surround mode (one large screen) and not extended screens.

Only AMD do this. i use catalyst control panel to switch as i mainly game on my central screen but for racing games i use eyefinity.
 
Thanks GraigN!
That is some serious lamesauce from nVidia.

Clav mentioned earlier getting a pair of 6950's, I'll look into those.
 
harmony said:
Running 3-screen on a setup of 1.5GB vram per GPU is looking for trouble.
Click to expand...

It's alright. As long as your games arn't resource hogs. 1.5s are great for racing games and such where total environmental detail isn't a main feature.

BF3 on the other hand.... Whack up the AA and its goodbye framerate!
 
eyefinity user here and love it but its not to everyones taste, if you can try it first before you buy that would be a great help to you
 
Running Eyefinity here since Christmas and absolutely love it. My 5870's are both 1GB, which hasn't caused a problem yet until BF3 but if you're buying now, I'd definitely go for 2GB per card (silly not to for the slight cost saving).

I much prefer my desktop in Extended mode, so all I do is press Windows + P together and select "Duplicate". Set up your Eyefinity group as normal (only need do this once). Now press Windows + P again to toggle between them. In my case:

Windows + P - select "Duplicate" - resolution of 5760x1080 across all 3 for games

Windows + P - select "Extended" - 2 x 1920x1080 & 1 x 1920x1200 for normal desktop use. This way I can keep my centre screen (the x1200 one) with the taskbar and start button.

I can understand why some people don't like Eyefinity (or Surround for the Green Team), but in my experience, they are in the minority. Once most of my friends have tried 3 screens, they love it and I know I would find it very difficult going back to gaming on one.

OP - I would say go for it, if you can. I very much doubt you'll regret it. I've been with AMD for Eyefinity and found it near faultless. I've not tried an Nvidia setup, so can't say which is better, but for me being able to run 3 on one card with AMD was chosen as it was much cheaper than having to get 2 with Nvidia, and it makes upgrades cheaper as you can simply buy another card and Crossfire rather than have to sell 2 cards, then buy 2 more.
 
harmony said:
Running 3-screen on a setup of 1.5GB vram per GPU is looking for trouble.
Click to expand...

I agree with you completely:)

nah - I'm just trolling:p
1.5 gb is ok. 2+ is better

I think 3 screens is perfect. Sooooo useful in desktop. Plagiarism could t be easier!

The reason I like three screens is because you can have OcUK on one, wiki on another and word or whatever your doing on the third :p

Gaming wise, some games are better on one screen. Others on three. Just turn monitors of depending on the games.
 
Thanks guys, you've been a great help.

I've just bought my 3rd display and a ATI 6950!
I'll get a second after I've sold the 580GTX.

I can't wait until tomorrow!!
I'll post a pic when it's up and running! :)

KB.
 
Last edited:
Just had a quick scan through the thread and I'm not sure that this has been covered.

Is one of your monitors DisplayPort or do you have an active DisplayPort adapter?

Without one of those things you can't run 3 monitors from a HD 6950 unless it's the Sapphire FLEX.
 
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