Second hand options for Nvidia Surround?

[Scania]

I currently have two 1.5Gb GTX 580's running surround @ 5760x1080 and tbh it's bloody good, but, with GTA V especially I can't really run at anything other than low ish settings at this resolution as I don't have enough VRAM.

I'm assuming I'll have to think twin card SLI again for surround due to how I have to have my 3 24" monitors connected for surround to work.

I have a mate with a single 3Gb 580 that runs GTA V much better than I can with just one card but assume a 580 3Gb or not is now well past it.

I'm reluctant though to spend no more than £150 plus whatever I get for my two 580's as I don't game too much and tbh my current setup works well with pretty much everything bar GTA V, I run FSX most of all and that runs superbly with what I have now.

I'm assuming my best option is to wait for used prices to drop, in time two 970's would be ideal I think but not at current prices.....

Thoughts?

 

[setter]

What about a pair of 3gb 780's? Theyll work out cheaper than the 970's as prices fall and arent too far behind them in performance. Obviously they have 1gb less vram than the 970 though.

 

[Scania]

What about a pair of 3gb 780's? Theyll work out cheaper than the 970's as prices fall and arent too far behind them in performance. Obviously they have 1gb less vram than the 970 though.

The 780's are probably my best bet if I upgrade now, given how relatively well my 580's still perform, I doubt the 3Gb of the 780's will be that much of a drawback over the 970, I guess I'll get ballpark £80 for my 580's, just hope I can find two 780's for roughly £240, I may be a bit short just yet....

I assume I'm right in assuming I won't get a similar surround effect over three monitors with a single card, I know I need SLI to get surround with Nvidia, is there a single card ATI solution or would I need crossfire?

 

[Glanza]

I ran 3 monitors off 1 780 for a while before going to 780 sli back in the day.

 

[Scania]

I ran 3 monitors off 1 780 for a while before going to 780 sli back in the day.

Was that spanned over all three monitors? As in the card saw the three monitors as a single widescreen display, as I understand it you can't achieve this with a single Nvidia card...

 

[Kaapstad]

What about a pair of 3gb 780's? Theyll work out cheaper than the 970's as prices fall and arent too far behind them in performance. Obviously they have 1gb less vram than the 970 though.

And on the 780 all the vram has the same daddy.

 

[Sasahara]

Was that spanned over all three monitors? As in the card saw the three monitors as a single widescreen display, as I understand it you can't achieve this with a single Nvidia card...

I'm pretty sure all the mid to high range NVidia Cards from the 6xx Series and later can run In 2D Surround using 1 card. Your monitors just have to have the right combi of display connectors or you many need an adaptor for the Display Port if none of your monitors have it and you need 3 DVI or 2 HDMI connections.

GTX 680 in this example.

The GeForce GTX 680 sports two DVI connectors, one HDMI connector, and one DisplayPort connector. In 2D Surround, gamers can use any of the four display connectors to power their Surround setup, and the fourth display connector for the Accessory Display.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/guides/how-to-correctly-configure-geforce-gtx-680-surround#1

 

[Scania]

I'm pretty sure all the mid to high range NVidia Cards from the 6xx Series and later can run In 2D Surround using 1 card. Your monitors just have to have the right combi of display connectors or you many need an adaptor for the Display Port if none of your monitors have it and you need 3 DVI or 2 HDMI connections.

GTX 680 in this example.



http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/guides/how-to-correctly-configure-geforce-gtx-680-surround#1

Thanks, I was thinking of my 580's which won't (hence me thinking I'll need two cards...)

 

[Glanza]

Was that spanned over all three monitors? As in the card saw the three monitors as a single widescreen display, as I understand it you can't achieve this with a single Nvidia card...

Yup when I went sli still had to have all 3 monitors in the top card as sli won't work if it detects monitors on your second card.

 

[Retron]

Was that spanned over all three monitors? As in the card saw the three monitors as a single widescreen display, as I understand it you can't achieve this with a single Nvidia card...

It's certainly possible on a single card.

Here's a screenshot of WoW running back in early 2014, split across 3 HD monitors on a GeForce 670:

I'd imagine it's still doable with today's drivers and cards, although as it looked pretty terrible I've not tried it since!

 

[Confused Stu]

The rules with Nvidia changed with the Kepler architecture. Fermi required 2 cards to run more than 2 screens as each card could only support 2, but Kepler allowed up to 4 from just the single GPU, so SLI stopped being a requirement. Maxwell has carried forward this capability of running up to 4 screens from one GPU.