Budget eyefinity setup

[Flashheart]

Guy's I need a little help making up my mind. Firstly a bit of background.

I purchased a gtx 480 on offer about 2 months back, and got myself quite excited recently about the thought of nvidia surround across 3 screens. But this will need SLI and another 480 is out of the question.

Currently I'm using a 22inch screen at 1680 x 1050. I play Arma 2, and IL2 maxed out and sometimes Empire total war. Also will be playing Cliffs of Dover when it is released. I really do want to be maxing these games, that is quite important and budget is quite tight.

Now then. I've pretty much decided that I want 3 screens, and with the current ATI pre-orders I'm looking at selling the 480 and buying two of the 5830's.
And then setting up an eyefinity setup across three of these (space is an issue)....

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-046-BQ&tool=3

With the 5830's handle it, and will the 3 smaller screen's be a good set up for eyefinity?

Thanks

Other system specs....

i7920 @3.2
ocz modstream 700watt
9GB OCZ 1600mhz ddr3

 

[drunkenmaster]

5830's really are noticeably slower than the other 58xx cards, and IIRC higher clock speeds with the lower SP's mean theres less overclocking headroom aswell. One would struggle with the latest games maxed out at 1920x1200, so 3x not much lower res screens would be quite a load for 2x5830's. Considering the 5850's are only a small amount more I'd really not bother with the 5830's.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2947/6

Some interesting results, in Battleforge, and a couple other titles the 5830 ends up slower than even a 4890/275gtx, though newer cards are also not that much faster than those, odd game really.

The 5830 basically struggles in all the games in the last couple years at 2560x1600, I can't see 2 being great at eyefinity resolutions, largely because its had half the rops chopped off. The 5850 is massively more suitable and because its got low default clocks you've got loads of overclocking headroom, of course thats going to be party down to voltage, what type of 5850 those cheap ones are.

 

[old gamer]

The 5850's at £108 each are the way to go but even then you my have to knock down some settings, i found eyefinity takes its toll on frames per second, with 2gb of ram on the 69 cards they are perfect for high res triple monitor set ups but still need two to crank up the settings so another option is to get a 6950 then add another later but if the budget does not stretch to it then grab the 5850's quick, as for the monitors then 22" would be the smallest i would go

 

[easyrider]

There is no such thing as a budget eyefinity setup

 

[cmndr_andi]

If you already have a 22in 1680x1050 - why not get 2 more of these, instead of getting three much smaller, lower res monitors that are not much cheaper.

You won't find any more 22in 1680x1050 monitors on OCUK (other than the 120Hz one) - but they do exist and are well priced if you look around.

As mentioned above, I would also suggest you get a single 6950 2GB (try and unlock it to a 6970 while you are at it) and then add another one in the future when funds allow.

 

[Flashheart]

Thanks for the head's up guy's.
So, in all will a 6970 (flashed 6950) give better framerates than a 5850 crossfire setup across 3 1680x1050 screens
I change graphics setups every 6 months but usually by selling my current gpu. Hence the swap from a 480. So I really doubt I would get another 6950 in the future.

 

[old gamer]

Then i would go for the 5850 crossfire