Dell U2913WM - Is Xfire needed?

[~Dockie]

Thinking of picking one of these monitors up in the coming weeks, the res is 2560x1080

is one 7950 enough to drive it with very high/max settings or will another be needed?

ill be going from a 1680x1050 monitor, which one 7950 handles nicely.

Thanks

 

[breadturbo]

cant say for that resolution exactly, but to give you an idea for 2560x1440 you would need 2 to run at max.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

You're increasing your screen area by about 50%, so expect to lose up to 30% frame rate (not as simple as that, that's a worst case scenario).

For most games, a 7950 will be fine at that resolution. Some of the most recent games might cause you to lower settings if you want a very high frame rate, but the difference between High and Ultra High (for example) is usually hard to notice anyway. So I think you'll be fine.

 

[ToxicTBag]

Helpful thread here, you could ask some of the guys who have one up and running

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18478094

 

[85256638]

7950 got 3GB VRam. so it can easily handle this resolution. My friend has a Korean 27 2560X1440 montior. His 7950 works perfectly.

 

[oldestgregg]

I needed 2 7970s for my 27" Dell 1400p. In some of the prettier games one just dosnt cut the mustard.

 

[wunkley]

There's a big difference between a card 'working' ok at high res, and doing justice to more recent titles at 60fps. You need, and want, to crossfire your 7950 if you want to max out your games on this monitor. End of story.

I'm now running the Dell u2913wm on a pair of 670's. One doesn't stand a chance. And the 29 incher super wides are a lot less resolution (2560x1080) than 2560x1440, so these people that say they can run all games fine on one reasonable card at this res, must be playing 5 year old games, turning the details right down, or are happy to run games at waaaay less than 60fps.

 

[whyscotty]

I needed 2 7970s for my 27" Dell 1400p. In some of the prettier games one just dosnt cut the mustard.

There's a big difference between a card 'working' ok at high res, and doing justice to more recent titles at 60fps. You need, and want, to crossfire your 7950 if you want to max out your games on this monitor. End of story.

I'm now running the Dell u2913wm on a pair of 670's. One doesn't stand a chance. And the 29 incher super wides are a lot less resolution (2560x1080) than 2560x1440, so these people that say they can run all games fine on one reasonable card at this res, must be playing 5 year old games, turning the details right down, or are happy to run games at waaaay less than 60fps.

 

[oldestgregg]

There's a big difference between a card 'working' ok at high res, and doing justice to more recent titles at 60fps. You need, and want, to crossfire your 7950 if you want to max out your games on this monitor. End of story.

I'm now running the Dell u2913wm on a pair of 670's. One doesn't stand a chance. And the 29 incher super wides are a lot less resolution (2560x1080) than 2560x1440, so these people that say they can run all games fine on one reasonable card at this res, must be playing 5 year old games, turning the details right down, or are happy to run games at waaaay less than 60fps.

Spot on. It may work on one screen but whats the point in spending all that money for an optimal experience if its not running at decent fps.

 

[los]

You could always buy the monitor and see if YOU are happy with it. If nit buy another

 

[1Deep]

I use a gtx 670 2gb using that dell screen and I have been able to play games such as tomb raider, bioshock and hitman absolution at max settings including AA. Bioshock does use most of the 2gb vram, tomb raider uses around 1600mb on my machine and hitman runs similar to tomb raider.

HD7950 will have no problem at this resolution If it were 2560x1440 then you may have some problems but 2560x1080 is a lot easier, I came from a dell u2711 and can tell you that the performance of my gtx 670 went up a good bit.

 

[oweneades]

Get the monitor, see if one 7950 is enough for YOU. If not get a second one.

 

[oldestgregg]

I use a gtx 670 2gb using that dell screen and I have been able to play games such as tomb raider, bioshock and hitman absolution at max settings including AA. Bioshock does use most of the 2gb vram, tomb raider uses around 1600mb on my machine and hitman runs similar to tomb raider.

HD7950 will have no problem at this resolution If it were 2560x1440 then you may have some problems but 2560x1080 is a lot easier, I came from a dell u2711 and can tell you that the performance of my gtx 670 went up a good bit.

Apologies as I rea OP half asleep and thought he had the 2560x1400. Yeah that sounds about right as I always get the feeling that I could run mine on a 7970 and a half-so to speak.

 

[flinco]

2560 x 1400 on a single 670 is fine. Maxes out many games, a few may need lowered levels of AA.

Therefore 2560 x 1080 will be more than playable on a 7950.

 

[Duff-Man]

On that screen, you'll be pushing 33% more pixels than a regular 1080p screen.

As a rough guide, check out some 1080p benchmarks and multiply the scores by 0.75 to get a rough idea of what numbers you'll see (i.e. roughly three quarters the framerate you'll get at 1080p).


... In terms of number of pixels, that screen is closer to a regular 1080p screen than a 2560x1440 screen:


1920 x 1080 = 2.07 Million pixels
2560 x 1080 = 2.76 Million pixels (1080p + 33%)
2560 x 1440 = 3.69 Million pixels (1080p + 78%)
2560 x 1600 = 4.10 Million pixels (1080p + 98%)

 

[wunkley]

On that screen, you'll be pushing 33% more pixels than a regular 1080p screen.

As a rough guide, check out some 1080p benchmarks and multiply the scores by 0.75 to get a rough idea of what numbers you'll see (i.e. roughly three quarters the framerate you'll get at 1080p).


... In terms of number of pixels, that screen is closer to a regular 1080p screen than a 2560x1440 screen:


1920 x 1080 = 2.07 Million pixels
2560 x 1080 = 2.76 Million pixels (1080p + 33%)
2560 x 1440 = 3.69 Million pixels (1080p + 78%)
2560 x 1600 = 4.10 Million pixels (1080p + 98%)

Knew someone would be along to do the maths Illustrates it nicely though.
I personally like all my games to run at max settings, and maintain 60fps, so I'll say it again, but to do that, on this screen, you need decent cards (eg 7950 or 670) in SLI or crossfire. And even then, some titles will struggle occasionally (eg Tomb raider at MAX settings, SKyrim enb'd up, crysis 3. Metro, Far Cry 3 etc etc).

If you're happy with big dips below 60, or turning the settings down then that's fine.

 

[Nickjf20]

I've never felt like dropping 200£ on another 7950 with my 1440p screen

 

[oldestgregg]

I've never felt like dropping 200£ on another 7950 with my 1440p screen

To get a good 60 most of the time I had to buy a 2nd 7970 for Metro LL,crysis 3,shogun 2 and the secret world but I play on max everything except aa which you only need small amounts of at that res anywhoo. If you are OK with less than 40fps its fine but I'm not so I had to grab a 2nd card.

 

[Rroff]

Depends a lot on the games your playing, I've got one and the only GPU I'm using day to day at the moment is a GTX675m (roughly desktop 560ti performance with the clocks I'm running). I gave the latest tombraider a whirl on it and aside from having to turn off tressfx, drop ambient occlusion back one notch from max and use FXAA over higher levels of AA it was playable framerates with otherwise max settings not gonna lie tho a lot of games would require big visual sacrifices on anything less than a 670 or 7950 and some games 2 of those wouldn't go amiss.

 

[LtMatt]

I've never felt like dropping 200£ on another 7950 with my 1440p screen

To get a good 60 most of the time I had to buy a 2nd 7970 for Metro LL,crysis 3,shogun 2 and the secret world but I play on max everything except aa which you only need small amounts of at that res anywhoo. If you are OK with less than 40fps its fine but I'm not so I had to grab a 2nd card.

I'd highly recommend it. I have to say the new drivers are really nice. Although i didn't have many problems before the drivers with smoothness, one thing i have noticed now is 30-45 fps feels incredibly smooth. Almost to the point that it doesn't feel that low. Sleeping dogs is such an excellent example of this. I've dropped my gpu clocks to stock now because 40 fps now feels identical to 60 fps, such is the magnitude of the change. This was not always the case before these drivers.