Dell U2711..is it worth the money?

With a bit of effort I probably could have found something amiss in the registry, it was clearly picking up the old default resolutions on reboot. Fresh install was long over due though so did it the sledgehammer way :)

Still can't believe what a pleasure this screen is to look at though... Love the res, the more desk space the better as far as I'm concerned. :)
 
Abz Hussain said:
How you getting on with your monitor reddev85?
Im almost set on a U2711 & GTX580
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Sorry, delayed response, but I got there in the end! ;p

So far so good. I must admit that it's still sinking in a bit. It's just awesome.

If you're going for a GTX 580, I'd suggest a 3GB version. 1.5GB is sitting right on the edge at this res in some games.

While 1.5GB should be just about enough right now, how much longer it will be would worry me.

That's why I went for a 7970, it was around the same price as a 3GB 580, but has better performance, runs cooler, and uses less power. Didn't seem much point in a 580 to me.

On the other hand, I've had to learn to live without CUDA and PhysX, but with the performance of the 7970, it wasn't hard to get over the loss.
 
reddev85 said:
Sorry, delayed response, but I got there in the end! ;p

So far so good. I must admit that it's still sinking in a bit. It's just awesome.

If you're going for a GTX 580, I'd suggest a 3GB version. 1.5GB is sitting right on the edge at this res in some games.

While 1.5GB should be just about enough right now, how much longer it will be would worry me.

That's why I went for a 7970, it was around the same price as a 3GB 580, but has better performance, runs cooler, and uses less power. Didn't seem much point in a 580 to me.

On the other hand, I've had to learn to live without CUDA and PhysX, but with the performance of the 7970, it wasn't hard to get over the loss.
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Well this is what happened with me - managed to get myself a u3011 and a GTX 580 1.5GB for less than £900. I have been thinking the same, the GTX 580 probably hasnt got enough grunt for 1600, maybe in SLI but no way as a single card. So, do i sell the 580 and get a 7970, or do i SLI the 580 and last but not least do i just wait for Kepler and then decide lol:confused:
 
Im going to wait for kepler, I have a GTX470 that Im going to use to drive this, I could take another 470 from another machine and go SLI, but Im thinking slum it for a while, and make up my mind when kepler benchies are in..
It is going to be hard though as high end kepler might not be out until q3 :eek::mad:
One of the things that had me cautious of going to this res was the hidden cost of the gfx cards to drive it


I am right in thinking that I can change the res down on this for gaming?
 
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Abz Hussain said:
Well this is what happened with me - managed to get myself a u3011 and a GTX 580 1.5GB for less than £900. I have been thinking the same, the GTX 580 probably hasnt got enough grunt for 1600, maybe in SLI but no way as a single card. So, do i sell the 580 and get a 7970, or do i SLI the 580 and last but not least do i just wait for Kepler and then decide lol:confused:
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How much did you spend on the U3011?
 
Abz Hussain said:
Well this is what happened with me - managed to get myself a u3011 and a GTX 580 1.5GB for less than £900. I have been thinking the same, the GTX 580 probably hasnt got enough grunt for 1600, maybe in SLI but no way as a single card. So, do i sell the 580 and get a 7970, or do i SLI the 580 and last but not least do i just wait for Kepler and then decide lol:confused:
Click to expand...
XFire 7970s... ;)
 
Abz Hussain said:
Hmmm, that will ruin me lol.
I have had a look at some benchmark figures, i play mostly racing games, so Dirt, F1, NFS etc etc and at 2560x1600 the 580 get about 50-60fps..not too shabby. Im going to stick with the one card and see how i get on. Can always upgrade if need be.
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I'm using a 5970 at the moment that was fine for 1080p but at 2560x1440 the lack of VRAM is really hurting me. I think the answer will be to go for a 7970 and maybe a second if needed. I'd wanted to go for a single GPU solution after 2 years with the 5970 but to be honest apart from some teething problems when a new game comes out occasionally Crossfire has worked well with minimal problem. It doesn't look like nvidia will have anything substantially quicker than 7970 on a single card solution any time soon. :(

2 x 7970 would certainly bullet proof me for another couple of years even at 1440p and if push came to shove with Kepler I'm sure I could sell them second hand without losing too much and "upgrade".

The only question is which 7970 to go for as they all pretty much seem to be reference designs with exception of the Gigabyte windflow which seems to exhaust heat inside the case rather than out the back.

They all seem equally overclockable... Hmmm...
 
Personally I found the 7950 a lot more interesting. It's cheaper, especially if you buy two and every single review is quite fond of the overclocks that can be achieved. For now mine is also powerful enough to game on, only the Witcher II that needs a few settings turned down but that would be case with a 7970 as well. Afaik they're all using the reference PCB so it's the only cooler that can differ.. there are are after-market solutions as well though so not really a need to stick to a particular brand.

Buying a single 7950 and then buying a second one if needed once kepler hits the market / prices go down seems to be the smartest thing to do imo. Unless kepler is everything what NVIDIA made it out to be, then simply replace it with something from NVIDIA.
That would be a first if a manufacturer makes a product live up to the expectations ;)
 
Athanor said:
I'm using a 5970 at the moment that was fine for 1080p but at 2560x1440 the lack of VRAM is really hurting me. I think the answer will be to go for a 7970 and maybe a second if needed. I'd wanted to go for a single GPU solution after 2 years with the 5970 but to be honest apart from some teething problems when a new game comes out occasionally Crossfire has worked well with minimal problem. It doesn't look like nvidia will have anything substantially quicker than 7970 on a single card solution any time soon. :(

2 x 7970 would certainly bullet proof me for another couple of years even at 1440p and if push came to shove with Kepler I'm sure I could sell them second hand without losing too much and "upgrade".

The only question is which 7970 to go for as they all pretty much seem to be reference designs with exception of the Gigabyte windflow which seems to exhaust heat inside the case rather than out the back.

They all seem equally overclockable... Hmmm...
Click to expand...

I hear you, im thinking about selling my 580 + aquagrafx water block and going for a 7970. I will see what its like first though once i get my build up and running.
 
Abz Hussain said:
Hmmm, that will ruin me lol.
I have had a look at some benchmark figures, i play mostly racing games, so Dirt, F1, NFS etc etc and at 2560x1600 the 580 get about 50-60fps..not too shabby. Im going to stick with the one card and see how i get on. Can always upgrade if need be.
Click to expand...
Having done a quick search conjecture is AMD will bring the 7990 (dual 7970s on one card) to market in March so I suspect I'll wait and see what happens with that. My existing 5970 with a few exceptions has done sterling service so this could be a great a replacement.

Slightly concerned that with no Kepler appearing so far AMD may delay 7990 until nvidia releases as they already have the fastest single card solution atm and can then wheel out the 7990 a couple of days after Kelper is announced if need be.
 
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