3 monitor setup. 6 later perhaps

[Timkale]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice, I am building a new system in the near future and would like to initially setup a 3 display system.

Light game usage occasional world of Warcraft sort of thing. I will be doing photo and video editing with it also.

I would prefer an nvidia card, but have been reading that there are surround issues with windows 8? Does this mean my best option for the moment is to go with windows 7?

Longer term this is likely to end up as a 6 display setup, is there any advice anyone can give me before I start buying all my parts?

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[SoundsGood]

I think the GTX 680 is the cheapest NVIDIA card that does 3 screens. If you get the non-reference design you can use 4 screens

 

[spoffle]

I think the GTX 680 is the cheapest NVIDIA card that does 3 screens. If you get the non-reference design you can use 4 screens

The 650s support 3 monitors.

However, AMD have got the multiple monitors thing working better than nVidia due simply to the fact that they support more monitors per card than nVidia cards do, and the 3GB VRAM on something like a 7950 or 7970 is a better choice for multiple screens.

 

[Tonester0011]

The 650s support 3 monitors.

However, AMD have got the multiple monitors thing working better than nVidia due simply to the fact that they support more monitors per card than nVidia cards do, and the 3GB VRAM on something like a 7950 or 7970 is a better choice for multiple screens.

It's more the bus size rather than the VRAM, but your point still stands
Iirc the 610 supports 4 displays, using those funky splitters, not that you'd want to game on something that woeful

If the OP ever wanted to delve into 6screen Eyefinity getting a DCU2 model would be somewhat compulsory. Not sure on other models that support 6 displays.

 

[spoffle]

It's more the bus size rather than the VRAM, but your point still stands
Iirc the 610 supports 4 displays, using those funky splitters, not that you'd want to game on something that woeful

If the OP ever wanted to delve into 6screen Eyefinity getting a DCU2 model would be somewhat compulsory. Not sure on other models that support 6 displays.

Very true, it's one or the other really. If it's not the VRAM then the bus width will kill performance.

However, for WoW, I don't think the bus would be an issue, I'd have thought it'd be RAM depending on the monitors?

 

[Timkale]

Thanks for the replies, so it appears that eyefinity on an AMD card is the way to go then ?

no experience with AMD cards, but how many outputs will I get from a 7950? it appears 4 displays from what I can find, how well does eyefinity work under windows 8 ?

for just a 3 display system would you recommend i split the outputs over two cards ? as bus size and ram appear to be the concerns for this setup. The majority of screens would have graphs, browser etc, its only ever the main screen that i expect to be working hard under anything 3d.

 

[spixelspixel]

The Asus 640 is the cheapest card that supports 4 monitors

 

[Armageus]

for just a 3 display system would you recommend i split the outputs over two cards ? as bus size and ram appear to be the concerns for this setup. The majority of screens would have graphs, browser etc, its only ever the main screen that i expect to be working hard under anything 3d.

If you are only needing 3D e.g. games etc on 1 screen, then splitting over 2 cards, or if you have a 1155 Intel chip, the onboard graphics work fine for driving another 1/2 screens.

I run 3 screens, Main Widesceen and one other screen from 7850, with my other side screen running on the integrated 2500K graphics. Seems to work fine, and have run Warcraft on main screen / kerbal space program on the other 7850 screen, and still had browser etc on screen powered by onboard.

edit: Eyefinity/Powerful Single GPU is only really needed if you are planning on doing e.g. 3 screen gaming (e.g. spreading driving game over 3 screens for in car view with side windows etc.)