Eyefinity - Looking into it.

[clartymarty]

I will be purchasing a new monitor at the end of the month, this would mean that I will have 3 monitors to play around with.

I have 2 that are the same 2 x 19" cant remember off the top of my head. With my motherboard I only have 1 slot for a graphics card. I just need to ask a couple of questions.

1) Would I have to get the same monitor Or can I get a larger 1 for my main screen. (Middle around 22" and 19" on either side)

2) I currently have a Nvidia 550Ti, what would be best to replace it. I dont have a massive budget but I find that the 550Ti is good enough for what I play. But this is going to be a build I will constantly upgrade so would prefere that I would get a decent life out of it.

My spec is in my sig - and my budget is around £100 - £150 just for the card.

 

[Clav]

Are you looking to run 3 monitors but only game on one? Or are you looking to game at eyefinity resolutions? What PSu do you have? What resolution are the monitors?

Any AMD card from 5x00 upwards will be able to run 3 screens although you would need a passive DP-DVI adapter if at least one of your monitors doesn't support Displayport. I would highly recommend getting 3 identical size and resolution otherwise it will look terrible.

Gaming wise, it all depends on the resolution. The new 7850 is supposedly just a bit out of your budget range (~£190 rumoured) and is about as powerful as a 6950/6970 according to the benchmarks. You could probably OC it well and get away with running at 1280x1024 x3 (3840x1024) or at a stretch 1680x1050 x3 (5040x1050), don't expect max detail though!

Have you considered just selling your current monitors and gpu and gettign a more powerful single monitor set up?

 

[clartymarty]

I will be looking to running all 3 monitors for gaming, OCZ Zs 650W Powersupply.

I dont thing that it would look terrible, becuase I will have the 2 on either side, which are exactly the same and then the middle monitor being my new screen.

Atm I play battlefield 3 on medium and that is enough for me! I have only just build my first computer before christmas because I was used to consoles.

I have always wanted a 3 monitor set-up. Which would be better though because I want the best experience really.

 

[Gregster]

I don't wish to scupper your plans Marty but 3 monitors will require a GPU with a fair bit of grunt or even 2 GPU's.

Threre are people here who have 3 monitor set-up's who will advise you more on the requirements. Another 550TI might be enough but I wouldn't like to say tbh. Also if you do get another 550 then you need to find out if a 650w PSU will be man enough.

 

[clartymarty]

Yeah the more I look into it the more I am deciding against it and go with a better single monitor set-up. The main thing is funding, was hoping for a budget set-up but that doesnt look like it.

I might get it in the future but depending on funding.

 

[cjph]

I run Eyefinity on three 1680x1050 screens off a 2Gb 6950 (flashed to 6970 spec) with two screens running off DVI and one from a miniDP active adapter, with a 600W Corsair PSU. I could not go back to a single screen as I am so used to the wide vision (I play BF3 and Arma2, COD sometimes with widescreen fixer). I advise similar sized screens as they all run the same res, and a different aspect ratio across the three I found a little offputting before I got the three matching Samsungs I use now.

Performance wise I think £150 is a stretch for a decent performing card, although I get a 30fps average on BF3 with most settings high, no MSAA and H/SOA disabled. It still looks very good in my view. One thing I like is running BF3 in windowed mode which puts the minimap in the bottom left corner of the left hand screen where I can maximise it without covering much of the action area.

I guess a used 6950/70 could be had for £150 which would cover it. I am an eye candy addict so will be looking to upgrade once the current crop of GPU releases settles down, ideally a 7970 but at a slightly more affordable cost (knowing my luck I will get a case a microstutter with crossfired cards). As Clav said, these new cards may push prices of the 69x0 cards down into your price range in a few weeks or offer the same grunt in 7xx0 clothes.

cj

 

[clartymarty]

Yes well I will look into it more with what I get, I might be able to get hold of another monitor if I search the Internet long enough ha-ha Also I will look at my resolutions for the monitors I got and take it from there.

I would love people to come into the room and see the 3 monitor set-up and go WoW.
Is there only certain games that you can do on eyefinity or are there settings you have to play around with?

Thanks for the input so far its much appreciated

 

[cmndr_andi]

+1 for cjph's suggestion of nothing less than a HD 6950 if you want to run an eyefinity arrangement in modern games - as the high resolutions really take a toll on performance, so you need a powerful card to keep things smooth and looking good. The new HD 7850 is also worth a look when it starts shipping in a couple of weeks.

If you have two 19in monitors then most likely these are 1280x1024 resolution - so to run an eyefinity setup you need to maintain this 1024pixel vertical resolution on the third monitor - which realistically means another 19in 1280x1024 monitor.

However, you may find you have a better gaming experience by instead going for a 24in 1920x1080 monitor (like this one) and just running games on the 24in. You can then have the 19in monitors connected to the graphics card, but configured independently - so they can't be used to play games across all monitors but they can be used for desktop task, even when games are being played on the main 24in.

 

[Confused Stu]

I use slightly different sized screens and think the setup works pretty well. My middle screen is a DGM 26inch 1920x1200, and my two side screens are Iiyama 24inch 1920x1080's. Things can look weird moving from one screen to another (mouse pointer for example goes can move up/down an inch depending on where on the screen I am) but it's not intrusive or noticeable IMHO.

When running in extended desktop I can run each screen at it's native res without issue and game on the 1920x1200 if I want. In Eyefinity mode, the maximum res I can run is 5760x1080, so my middle screen stretches the 1920x1080 picture over the full panel, which makes things on my middle screen 10% taller and thinner than they should be. To be honest, nobody has ever noticed it and I only notice it if I'm really looking and only because i know it's there. If you were trying to run 4:3 and 16:9 (or 16:10) screens together, I think this will become unusable as your widescreen monitor would have to stretch the non-widescreen picture over it.

For best results, use the same monitors. For excellent results, use the same size and resolution. For OK results, use close sizes and the same aspect ratios, and for poor results, use different aspect ratio screens.

All this stuff aside, I love my 3 screen setup and find it very, very difficult to go back to playing on a single screen now. Two of my friends have had a play on it have now gone Eyefinity too (one with 3 x 19inch screens, and the other has 3 x 22inch ones).

Any AMD card from 5x00 upwards will be able to run 3 screens although you would need a passive DP-DVI adapter if at least one of your monitors doesn't support Displayport.

Just to clarify, you need an ACTIVE adapter, a passive DP-DVI won't work.

 

[Clav]

Just to re-iterate what I said earlier you really do need 3 identical monitors or it does look a mess. I am speaking from experience! I had 3x24" monitors at 5760x1080 on crossfire 6950's. Performance was ok, not brilliant though. I switched to one 27" at 2560x1440 and prefer it immensely.

Eyefinity on a budget is possible but imo to get the best out of it you need to sink in a fair amount of cash on a powerful set up. Going to a 24" 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 will still be a nice upgrade for you.

edit:

Just to clarify, you need an ACTIVE adapter, a passive DP-DVI won't work.

Yeh on looking at it again it needs to be an active adapter but I meant not one of the £30+ usb powered ones. I used the Sapphire 44000-02-40R one on mine which was a hell of a lot cheaper!

 

[manocheese]

I have an Eyefinity set up at the moment. I have 3 x Dell 22" monitors running on two 5850s. One 5850 does pretty well though. 3 matching monitors is not a must, but it is a big improvement. Having DisplayPort helps a lot, adapters can be expensive. My second 5850 only cost me £100 and gets me better results than spending over £200 on a new single card.

I'm actually selling my Dell monitors as of today, which I'm not allowed to do here, but they are advertised elsewhere *cough*gumtree*cough*.

 

[Gregster]

I was looking to go the same way as the OP, but in the end, decided monetary wise, to go 3D instead. This worked out at £540, which I know sounds a lot, but I would have needed to spend £800+ the way I was looking to go and I just couldn't justify it.

I am loving my 3D vision 2 and will happily be sticking to this for a long while.

 

[The-Plethora]

I think you will struggle to run eyefinity stuff with a small budget like that. Why not get a single large screen TV and put a big window frame over it for that authentic eyefinity experience?