Eyefinity Advice Rqd

[MarkeR]

Currently I have an MSI FrozR III 6950 2gig card!

Looking to go eyefinity to play BF3, some F1, some Dirt3 and maybe a few other games which are a bit older like Aliens V Pred and Dead Island!

My current pc is

AMD Phenom X6 1055T
8G Mem
ASUS M4-A88T-M board
OCZ 64gig SSD..

Would prefer to keep my CPU as I just AMD, any recommendations on the board and another 6950/70 ?

Budget probably around £320 or there abouts!

Thanks

 

[jp7152]

What screens do you have, native resolution? The resolution is probably the most important factor for smooth framerates.

As for Crossfire motherboards I'd recommend looking at the Asus M5A99X EVO. It's good value and has a easy to work with BIOS. The automatic over clocking is fairly aggressive as well and seems to find a decently fast and stable speed.

Another very good alternative is the MSI GA-990XA-UD3/UD5. They don't have the UFI bios or powered Esata but have 8 phase power which is better for stability with high overclocks. The automatic overclocking on this board isn't very good though, however with the X6 chip it should be fairly easy to get a reasonable speed boost which will help with eyefinity gaming. The MSI board also has excellent on board sound, the ASUS is average.

Both the Asus board and the MSI UD3 board will run at 8x/8x in crossfire but the UD5 can do 16x/x16. It doesn't make any different on one screen but It seems to reduce stutter when using lower than native resolutions on crossfired eyefinity at high framerates.

 

[Semple]

Also what inputs do your screen have? Eyefinity can be a right pain if you don't have DP inputs.

 

[cjph]

I play BF3 and Arma2 on eyefinity on three 1680x1050 22" Samsung screens, and would not go back to a single monitor (unless a v v large one). I have a 6950, though it is an original one flashed with a 6970 bios so shaders unlocked and 6970 speeds. I have everything on Ultra and 4 MSAA, and HBAO (I think). I average around 25-30 fps for most games - it does vary, though I find it quite playable I am sure a lot of more capable players would not. I am trying to increase performance by experimenting in window mode and cropping the outside edge of the two outer screens, which is getting me a few fps increase, which is noticable

At £320 (if that is your budget for a GPU), for few squids more I think the 7950 is the way to go and I will certainly be looking to upgrade in the new few weeks. I would look at crossfire but it is not over friendly to Arma2 and I would have to increase the PSU, adding to the cost. So at the moment I will await some full 6950/70 vs 7950 benchmarks for BF3 etc.

Oh, and echo the recent comments re screens - I have two DVI inputs plus a DVI -> mini DP active adapter, since all three screen have only DVI and VGA inputs.

cj