6950/6970 or 2x nvidia

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:18

Right I absolutely definitely am buying parts for my system today. I've been working such long hours I just haven't had the time to finalise the build following this thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18351693

It occured to me that the only reason I was going ATI was because I run three monitors.

One thing I hadn't really considered was retaining a second card in the build. I have 8800gtx tri sli at the moment so could keep one of those in.

I also have a basic passive ati something or other spare from a media centre build.

Any thoughts on whether to I should stick with the plan and go single card 6950/6970 with all three monitors or buy something of a similar budget (ie less than £300 and close to £200 would be nicer) from Nvidia and use a second card for the third monitor.

Is it possible to use a an Ati card just to run a monitor while using an Nvidia as the main card?

Using a 8800gtx in there is a bit of putting because of the extra noise, heat power draw but I will have more than enough PSU for any option.

(rest of system 2500k, 16gb ram, SSD, enermax 1000w) Thanks

Beerbaron · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:20

I think the ati 7 series are released soon so might as well wait as the older cards should drop in price?

RanxZy · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:26

Might push the budget a little bit but how about two 560Tis?

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:29

Beerbaron said:
I think the ati 7 series are released soon so might as well wait as the older cards should drop in price?

Limited time to build and play means I'm needing to splurge now (plus I have a budget to spend on the business on hardware, I have to spend whatever I spend in one go so delaying would mean buying the GPU myself (and a higher spec processor to use the budget but I think 2500k is fine for me)

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:32

Can I use the passive ATI card with an Nvidia card?

By the way I'm gaming at 1920*1200

Surveyor · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:33

If you get a Z68 motherboard can't you run 1 or 2 monitors from the integrated GPU on the processor and 1 or 2 monitors from whatever graphics card you buy?

RanxZy · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:38

Skidder said:
Can I use the passive ATI card with an Nvidia card?

By the way I'm gaming at 1920*1200

No that would not work but I think you need two of the same Nvidia cards to run three monitors in surround. But since you are going to game on one monitor I think the single Nvidia card can display on two monitors.

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:39

Surveyor said:
If you get a Z68 motherboard can't you run 1 or 2 monitors from the integrated GPU on the processor and 1 or 2 monitors from whatever graphics card you buy?

Really? Hadn't even occurred to me that would be a very elegant solution! Would that work ok?

(I wouldn't mind sticking to Nvidia just because I know the driver well)

decto · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:40

The GPU benchmarks are quite misleading as most seem to go for Ultra in 4X MSAA which isn't required to enjoy the game.

I was benchmarking last night and had a great game on both medium and high, if you're in the action you won't be thinking..... that fence isn't quite rendered perfectly. You're really not missing out on anything other than bragging rights by turning the detail down a notch. High is still fantastic. If I hadn't got the pair of cards for SLI I'd have been quite happy with a single GTX560Ti 2GB ... as the occasional gamer I am. My issue was a bit of stutter which turned out to be the Q6700, an I5 cured it.

A single 6950 will be great card for high and some ultra settings and the 2GB card costs about the same as the 1GB

In you were going Nvidia, a single GTX560Ti is fine, I don't have a 448 shader model to test but I would recommend stepping up from the 1GB as it will allow you to experiment with the higher settings in BF3.

For reference here is some actul data (which I've been spamming around here)

decto said:
Here are some single card 560Ti 2GB benchmarks with graphs using a I5 2500k @ 4.5Ghz and 16GB of 1600Mhz DDR3 (Kingston Grey)

As temptation...

Surveyor · 17 Dec 2011 at 09:44

Skidder said:
Really? Hadn't even occurred to me that would be a very elegant solution! Would that work ok?

I've no idea if it works on all Z68 motherboards.

Have you picked a particular motherboard?

What connections do your monitors have? Please state which one is the monitor you use for gaming.

tommybhoy · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:00

It doesn't work with the Msi z68, it's either IGP or discrete, not both.

If the 3rd screen is not for gaming, then you can use your passive Ati card alongside any Nvidia card providing your going to be using W7.

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:03

This is the motherboard I was planning on using:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK

(but not committed to it)

My main monitor is a 24 inch dell 2407 wfphc 1920x1200 Dvi

The other two are 19 inch 4:3 sonys Hs94p 1280x1024 Dvi

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:04

tommybhoy said:
It doesn't work with the Msi z68, it's either IGP or discrete, not both.

If the 3rd screen is not for gaming, then you can use your passive Ati card alongside any Nvidia card providing your going to be using W7.

I will be using w7, presumably you just use a basic windows driver for that card rather than catalyst

decto · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:16

Skidder said:
I will be using w7, presumably you just use a basic windows driver for that card rather than catalyst

That should be fine.

I'm a little wary of passive cards in hot cases, usually end up with artifacts or other issues. They work well in a media center etc but if they are near to a hot main card cooling can be an issue.

If you can't use the built in intel graphics, I recommend buying a basic sister card of the same chipset .. eg. Nvidia, or AMD with fan cooling. Then you'll only have a single driver to worry about and all the options for screen setup etc will be accessable. The sound of a tiny fan will be lost compared to the rest of the case noise.

The cards are around £40 ...

AD

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:25

decto said:
That should be fine.

I'm a little wary of passive cards in hot cases, usually end up with artifacts or other issues. They work well in a media center etc but if they are near to a hot main card cooling can be an issue.

If you can't use the built in intel graphics, I recommend buying a basic sister card of the same chipset .. eg. Nvidia, or AMD with fan cooling. Then you'll only have a single driver to worry about and all the options for screen setup etc will be accessable. The sound of a tiny fan will be lost compared to the rest of the case noise.

The cards are around £40 ...

AD

Thanks (just realised it was you I bought the motherboard from this week, I received it, thank you just updated trust)

I can see the sense of that re the passive GPU. With solutions for the third monitor being more flexible than I have envisaged what would be the best card for £250 to £300 for gaming on my main monitor? Ati or nvidia

Surveyor · 17 Dec 2011 at 10:29

Skidder said:
This is the motherboard I was planning on using:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK

(but not committed to it)

My main monitor is a 24 inch dell 2407 wfphc 1920x1200 Dvi

The other two are 19 inch 4:3 sonys Hs94p 1280x1024 Dvi

Download the user manual here and have a look at page 34.

From that it would appear you can use the integrated GPU outputs at the same time as those on a graphics card.

You can use two of the 4 outputs on the motherboard (DVI, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort).

You can connect your gaming monitor to the graphics card and the other 2 monitors to the motherboard using a HDMI to DVI cable if the monitors only have DVI connections.

Edit

It looks like the Sony monitors have a VGA connector as well so you could connect 1 to the motherboard with DVI and 1 with VGA.

decto · 17 Dec 2011 at 11:10

Skidder said:
Thanks (just realised it was you I bought the motherboard from this week, I received it, thank you just updated trust)

I can see the sense of that re the passive GPU. With solutions for the third monitor being more flexible than I have envisaged what would be the best card for £250 to £300 for gaming on my main monitor? Ati or nvidia

The clear out is going well.... good to hear the board arrived safe and sound.

For that budget I have to say the £270 MSI 6970 2GB.

The 6950 2GB @ £200 would be approx 15% slower but is a fair bit cheaper.

I find myself stuggling to pick an Nvidia card, the 560Ti 2GB is fine but not on the level of the 6970.

I'm not convinced the GTX560TI (448), GTX570 1.25GB cards have quite enough Vram for the latest games. GTX 580 is too expensive.

Comes back to the HD6970.... or keep the budget trim, enjoy a 6950 2GB / GTX560TI 2GB and upgrade to a 7series card next year if it's not delivering what you need.

AD

oweneades · 17 Dec 2011 at 11:29

Personally I would go for a single AMD card (HD6950 now if you can't wait) and run three monitors directly off of it.

Then, if you want to try Eyefinity you can, if not you can run your monitors in basically any landscape / portrait config you want (PLP is a fantastic mix).

Doing this you will also avoid any potential driver conflicts or hiccups associated with running drivers from different brands (it should work fine out of the box but we all know this not to be the case).

Given how close we are to the new 7 series from AMD (proper 7 series - HD79xx etc) I would look at popping in a HD6850 now (£100) and upgrading to a HD7950 or HD7970 once it is released.

The HD6850 will happily run triple screens from a productivity point of view, (and basic games in Eyefinity such as L4D 1&2) and will cope with 1080p gaming with an overclock and mixture of medium / high settings.

The HD6850 does require a different Active DP adaptor to the HD69xx models though (DP to DVI rather than mini-DP to DVI) therefore you may have to get a different adaptor once the new cards hit (£15 cost or so).

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 16:03

Surveyor said:
Download the user manual here and have a look at page 34.

From that it would appear you can use the integrated GPU outputs at the same time as those on a graphics card.

You can use two of the 4 outputs on the motherboard (DVI, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort).

You can connect your gaming monitor to the graphics card and the other 2 monitors to the motherboard using a HDMI to DVI cable if the monitors only have DVI connections.

Edit

It looks like the Sony monitors have a VGA connector as well so you could connect 1 to the motherboard with DVI and 1 with VGA.

thank you and thanks everybody else too, useful stuff

Skidder · 17 Dec 2011 at 16:28

Order placed went 6950 and plan to use the mobo connections for secondary monitors as above

can always add another later if need more juice. Thanks for the help