3 monitor solution, AMD or SLI

[rarryawn]

Hi, I'm looking into a new graphics card as I need to get a 3rd screen working on a budget so I'd appreciate a bit of help... the GTX 460 was my favorite until it dawned that SLI is needed for > 2 monitors

Currently I'm using an 8800GTX and the three monitors will be 1080, 1080, 720 so theres really no problem with the power, most cards would be a good upgrade, although I would have course like to get the most powerful card for my budget which is £135. I'm not planning to overclock a new card at all I hope this doesn't offend some people!

1. Would a 6850 be the best AMD card for my budget to get three monitors working?
2. Buy a second cheap 8800GTX and SLI - How would this compare to just getting a new AMD card? What would you rather do?
3. Get a new sandybridge motherboard - Could onboard graphics be used at the same time as my old 8800GTX to power the third monitor?
4. Buy two new Nvidia cards and SLI them, for £140 (£70 each) would this end up being a really rubbish solution?

Thanks!
J

 

[evilmatt]

Are you looking at gaming across the three screens, or just using them for work/internet/etc? If it's gaming, then both Nvidia Surround and Eyefinity require three monitors of the same resolution, I assume you can set up an Eyefinity group with all three set to run at 1280x720 but I'm not certain. There's a good review on widescreengamingforum that covers the 6850 running across triple screens that should give you an idea of what performance you can expect.

 

[marc1024]

AMDS eye infinity is probably the best overall. Using AMD cards to setup 3 monitors is very easy and it works for games and desktop use.

But if you wanted 3D gaming, you can only go for nvidia cards. But thats highly expensive.

 

[rarryawn]

I forgot to mention, I'm not particularly after an avid gaming card, but I'd like to be able to run 3 1080p displays smoothly in the future for general desktop work and a couple of old school games (with that 720p projector tagged on as an extra). So 4 outputs in total, I wouldn't be using the projector as part of the eyefinity setup though so resolution difference would hopefully not be a problem?

I'm not bothered by 3D gaming but thanks for the heads up!

After reading into it a bit it seems some of the 6850s only have 2 DVI, one HDMI and one displayport.. is it right that you can't use one of those DVI ports at the same time as the hdmi port?

Thanks!
J

 

[Orcvader]

It's true. The cards can only have up to two digital outputs at a time, if you want any more monitors added you have to use the displayport adapter.

Since most 6850s have 2 DVIs, 1 HDMI and 1 DP this only allows up to three monitor connections. If you want more you need to get a FLEX/Displayport version.

Looking at your current monitors (2 1080p and 1 720p), depending on your motherboard, why not just get the 460 and run it with your 8800GTX? It's probably the cheapest solution if you don't want to group all of the screens together to form one super massive resolution. SLi is only needed if you want to span across the monitors.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

1. Would a 6850 be the best AMD card for my budget to get three monitors working?
2. Buy a second cheap 8800GTX and SLI - How would this compare to just getting a new AMD card? What would you rather do?
3. Get a new sandybridge motherboard - Could onboard graphics be used at the same time as my old 8800GTX to power the third monitor?
4. Buy two new Nvidia cards and SLI them, for £140 (£70 each) would this end up being a really rubbish solution?

Thanks!
J

1. Probably, yes. However, you could keep the 8800, and use it simultaneously as a second card, and plug in an extra monitor or two to it to get up 4 or 5 monitors for general windows use.

2. You can't use NVidia surround with any nvidia graphic card below a 260 GTX.

3. The graphic output on a z68 board can be used at the same time as a discrete graphic card like the 8800. It doesn't help get triple monitors for gaming, but is fine for getting an extra monitor for windows use.

4. What cards would you betting for £70? I think this would be a bad idea. Nvidia cards are very powerful att he top end, but scale down very badly - the cheaper ones don't compare well with AMD options. Although... you can get the 260GTX for £70 under the nvidia refurb section of OCUK's site. That might be a pretty good solution. Though two of the 1GB 460 at £90 would be much better.

Note: If you aren't that bothered about triple screen gaming, you can jsut buy any old graphic card, stick it in your computer, and plu an extra couple of monitors into it. Windows will see all 4 monitors, you can drag your mouse and apps across each monitor, but you won't be able to split a game across more than 2 monitors.