3 monitor set up?

JAYJT29

JAYJT29

JAYJT29

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429
Hi guys,

Im thinking of setting up 3 monitors from my PC.
I currently have a 24" iiyama prolite running off a saphire radeon 4870 1gb, my system is 1 year old.

Ive have never run more than one monitor, is it as easy as just hooking up another 4870 and buying two more monitors?

Im thinking of 2x 20" to go each side of the 24" monitor.

Thanks in advance,
Cheers

Jay
 
Yes and no. If you hook up another 4870 then you'll have 2 monitors on one card, and one on the other. Rendering for each screen will take place on the card it is connected to. As far as I'm aware you won't be able to have a game span all three screens, you'll need ATI Eyefinity for that, which needs a 5800 or 5900 series card.

If any of your monitors will not be used for gaming you'd be much better off just buying a cheap card (like a 4650 or something) for the 3rd monitor.

I'm currently using an nvidia 8500GT for my 3rd monitor.

You can't use 3 monitors if you run crossfire, btw.
 
andrewdodd13 said:
Yes and no. If you hook up another 4870 then you'll have 2 monitors on one card, and one on the other. Rendering for each screen will take place on the card it is connected to. As far as I'm aware you won't be able to have a game span all three screens, you'll need ATI Eyefinity for that, which needs a 5800 or 5900 series card.

If any of your monitors will not be used for gaming you'd be much better off just buying a cheap card (like a 4650 or something) for the 3rd monitor.

I'm currently using an nvidia 8500GT for my 3rd monitor.

You can't use 3 monitors if you run crossfire, btw.
Click to expand...

You COULD use softTH to render games across all screens, that however, only uses the primary GPU for rendering graphics.

You can also use 3 screens if you use crossfire, you've just got to disable it to enable the third monitor.

If you're gonna get a new graphics card, I would recommend just getting a 5770, for triple monitors, it would require a displayport enabled monitor though.
 
JAYJT29 said:
Would a Matrox TripleHead2Go be the easiest solution?

Jay
Click to expand...

An ATi card with "Eyefinity" would be your easiest option.

Triple Head 2 Go isn't cheap, you'd be better off getting a 5 series card and at least 1 additional displayport monitor.

£200~ odd for a triple head to go plus the monitors, you're best off getting 24" monitors instead of 20" ones as it'd look odd, and if you wanted to play games, 3 screens of the same res would be far better.

Oh yeah, and the max res triple head to go can do is triple 1680x1050 which is quite lame, or double 1920x1200.
 
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Still need to do some more research but i think im gonna go with a new Sapphire 5770 1gb, then get 2 iiyama 22" monitors they have the same res as my 24" of 1920x1080 and then hunt around for a 'Active' Displayport adapter.... to hook upto the 24"

Do you see any probs with this?
Thanks again

Jay
 
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5770 I doubt will be anywhere powerful enough to support tripple screen full res gaming. At the very least you need to crossfire it or better go for 5850 or 5870. Even the 5850 will have issues at 2560 and above especially when you enable post processing.
 
My max res will be 1920x1080 and im happy with that, think im gonna bite the bullet and as suggested get 2 more 24" monitors! The wife aint gonna be happy :)

Jay
 
Konzul said:
5770 I doubt will be anywhere powerful enough to support tripple screen full res gaming. At the very least you need to crossfire it or better go for 5850 or 5870. Even the 5850 will have issues at 2560 and above especially when you enable post processing.
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No it won't. Don't make such vague claims.
 
Im with you on that one Kylew, I reckon with two new 24" a 5770 and a 'active' display port adapter i should be ok, rough cost £500. 'only' £60 more if i got two new 22" monitors.


One thought, should i just run the new 5770 alone or could it be x fired with my old 4870? TBH ill probably sell the 4870, to fund this abit!
Jay
 
kylew said:
No it won't. Don't make such vague claims.
Click to expand...

Apologies maybe I should be a bit more specific:

Enabling DirectX 11 has a massive impact on performance. The Radeon HD 5750 and 5770 can easily handle the high 2560x1600 resolution in DirectX 9 mode, but in DirectX 11 mode things become very choppy.

On the plus side, even though performance has dropped, the Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 continue to deliver smooth performance at high resolutions. And it is notable that now the Radeon HD 5850 CrossFire solution doesn't lose much in the way of minimum frame rates while the single Radeon HD 5870 demonstrates a huge performance hit when DirectX 11 is enabled.
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dirt-2-performance-benchmark,2508-8.html

It looks like these new DirectX 11 cards are quite efficient when it comes to AA, as the results don't change all that much. Only the Radeon HD 5750 and 5770 really suffer, but 1920x1200 performance remains playable, if not ideal. The Radeon HD 5850 and 5870 cards continue to provide playable performance at 2560x1600, which is quite an accomplishment. Only the Radeon HD 5850 cards in CrossFire are able to provide the smoothest minimum and maximum FPS results, however.
Click to expand...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dirt-2-performance-benchmark,2508-9.html
 
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Thanks for the input Konzul, ill only be playing with max res of 1920x1080 not in DirectX 11 so it should still be good, im not after state of the art gaming, at this moment in time. I always tend to be a year behind the whats in now crowd, mainly due to funds!

Thanks again
Jay
 
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