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Eyefinity Recommendation?

Associate
Joined
17 May 2009
Posts
132
Location
Leeds/Vilnius
Hey guys!

I've been out of the loop on GPUs for some time, and was wondering if you could help me select a video card for running 3 monitors. I am due to order 3 of these and I'm wanting a graphics card powerful enough to run BF3 @ 5760x1080 at a decent framerate and a reasonable level of detail. I also have a 42" 1080p TV that i'd like to plug in to this GPU for windows media centre, but this will not be in use whilst gaming.

My current spec is:

-Intel Q9400 @ 3.2GHz
-4GB DDR2 RAM (soon to be 8GB)
-Gigabyte G33M-DS2R
-Nvidia 8800GT (soon to be gone! :p)
-600W PSU (soon to be 1kW)

I really do not want to upgrade my current mobo/cpu/ram, as it's very capable for what it is, but the gpu is definitely long in the tooth and ready to go. I was looking at an ATI 6990, but I heard it makes an awful racket and i'm not sure if this is serious overkill?


any advise would be appreciated!

EDIT: I accidentally a few words
 
The only cards to support 3 monitors of one card is ATI so 6950/6970 2GB for that res.

Although you would be seriously bottlenecked by that cpu :p

You want to spend 600 quid on monitors and run them on your current PC? :p

Would be better ditching the rig or selling it putting the money and buying a SB system and and GFX card and running one monitor until you have the funds for another 2 not the other way around.

Your buying another PSU and more memory so you might aswell renew the whole rig :p
 
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The only cards to support 3 monitors of one card is ATI so 6950/6970 2GB for that res.

Although you would be seriously bottlenecked by that cpu :p

You want to spend 600 quid on monitors and run them on your current PC? :p

Would be better ditching the rig or selling it putting the money and buying a SB system and and GFX card and running one monitor until you have the funds for another 2 not the other way around.

Your buying another PSU and more memory so you might aswell renew the whole rig :p

I'm actually running dual monitors now, but one of my panels has gone a strange colour and is on it's way out (its about 8 years old)

I really didn't think my CPU was that much of a bottleneck, it still scores about 13.5k on 3DMark Vantage, which isn't the best but still up to task, whereas an i5 950 scores around 19k. I'm probably going to buy a 6950, flash it to a 6970, OC and test performance. If things still aren't going my way then i'll look into upgrading, which is a bit of a pain as i've commited to to the MicroATX platform, and I don't think there is many high performance boards available.
 
crossfire or trifire 6950/6970/6990 or such if you want some eyecandy with it.
BF3 is gonna crush eyefinity computers.

I am myself looking for some videocard upgrade when BF3 hits.
 
U'll be fine with a 6970 2GB if u can get ur CPU up to 3.5Ghz+ (try an aftermarket cooler). U may need to have some settings on medium or simply turn off AA but it will run pretty smooth imo (based on my experience of 5870 5040x1050 eyefinity in BC2). Only way ur going to do better is 6990 or upgrade the mobo to support crossfire/sli.
 
U'll be fine with a 6970 2GB if u can get ur CPU up to 3.5Ghz+ (try an aftermarket cooler). U may need to have some settings on medium or simply turn off AA but it will run pretty smooth imo (based on my experience of 5870 5040x1050 eyefinity in BC2). Only way ur going to do better is 6990 or upgrade the mobo to support crossfire/sli.

Thanks for your advice creed, I already have an aftermarket cooler on board, so it's just a case of cranking the juice and keeping it stable :D

My plan is now to grab a 6970, and try and hold out until the end of the year before buying anymore parts! I'm happy to run at a lower settings as long as i can have my resolution :D
 
Eyefinity isn't worth the hassle imo. I got sick of it after a month or so and am now back to 1 screen.

For me the pro's and con's were these:

Pro's
Extra screens are good for peripheral vision so driving games and to a certain extent FPS look great. (also see cons)
Huge desktop area.

Con's
Desktop windows and apps maximise across 3 screens, Hydragrid fixes this somewhat but I found it cumbersome to set up and work with.
Start menu and quick launch on the left screen instead of middle.
Game Huds stretched across 6 feet of desktop space makes it impossible to take information in at a glance.
Neck/shoulder strain.
Having to excessivley fiddle about with things to make them work with eyefinity.
Some games just do not work with eyefinity.
Crappy stretched out perspective on the additional monitors makes everything look squashed. So for peripheral vision in driving games it is fine but if you play something where you will be looking straight at them it looks really bad. (for me it was battles in shogun total war 2.)

Don't get me wrong eyefinity is a great technology but I don't think it is ready just yet. I would seriously recommend you spend the money on a good high resolution 27" or 30" monitor.
 
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