Triple monitor & gfx card?

[Darren S]

....thread opened to everyone, especially wozzaa, scone, Gareth, Adam, etc....

My nephew currently has F1 2011 on an i7-based PC with an older-gen nVidia card (a GTX275, iirc?) - powering a 26" Iiyama monitor.

He's keen to get this in triple monitor setup (assuming the game runs with it) - so I'm after suggestions of some good gfx cards that are known to happily run three monitors in games. Not fussed with brand - ATi or nVidia. I know Matrox offered the first true triple-head support, but I believe that the hardware on that card is woefully inadequate for gaming?

Any suggestions or recommendations would be much appreciated. Thankfully the space to fit all of this, really isn't an issue.

D.

 

[welshname]

GTX 590 was the first single nVidia card to support it. Otherwise with older cards you need to be running SLi to to support it.

http://uk.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-590

It basically runs SLi internally allowing the use of their "surround vision" with just 1 card.

 

[Darren S]

Cheers Rhys - thanks for the info.

D.

 

[Nickson]

GTX 590 was the first single nVidia card to support it. Otherwise with older cards you need to be running SLi to to support it.

http://uk.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-590

It basically runs SLi internally allowing the use of their "surround vision" with just 1 card.

Nu'uh

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...-5870-eyefinity-6-edition/Pages/overview.aspx

 

[welshname]

Nu'uh

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...-5870-eyefinity-6-edition/Pages/overview.aspx

Oh you tease, I don't really look at ATI products, so I couldn't advise him on them. They do seem much better value for money though.

 

[Darren S]

Ok - choice between the two? ATi's Eyefinity or the nVidia option? I'm biased towards the nVidia choice, even though I run Crossfire at home myself....

D.

 

[welshname]

I think the ATI is the newer of the cards, but haven't looked at the specs properly. They are usually much better value for money too. I'm just a nVidia fan boy.

 

[sbridgey]

ati 5 series onwards can run 3 monitors, eyefinity editions can run 6 monitors off a single gpu

 

[Darren S]

ati 5 series onwards can run 3 monitors, eyefinity editions can run 6 monitors off a single gpu

Presumably with a direct impact on performance with each monitor that's added? Ideally, we'll be looking at 1920x1080 or more likely 1920x1200 times 3. The rest of the PC is fine - decent memory, i7 CPU, all sat on an Asus Rampage III Extreme. Might need a beefier PSU, thinking about it....

Cheers guys,
D.

 

[sbridgey]

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...870-eyefinity-6-edition/Pages/overview.aspx#1

 

[Silent_Scone]

AMD (ATi) cards have always been better at multiple monitor configurations...

However imo they're not the better cards - so it's a compromise Think you might struggle finding a 6 Edition 5870 now, could be wrong though.

 

[Darren S]

AMD (ATi) cards have always been better at multiple monitor configurations...

However imo they're not the better cards - so it's a compromise Think you might struggle finding a 6 Edition 5870 now, could be wrong though.

Hmmm - still undecided. I'll definitely be aiming to order the kit today. The ATi card seems to suit the quick-fix & get up and running mentality, but I prefer the nVidia for some reason. Decisions!!

D.

 

[Nickson]

I think the ATI is the newer of the cards, but haven't looked at the specs properly. They are usually much better value for money too. I'm just a nVidia fan boy.

Noo, that ATi is much older than the GTX590!

 

[welshname]

Hmmm - still undecided. I'll definitely be aiming to order the kit today. The ATi card seems to suit the quick-fix & get up and running mentality, but I prefer the nVidia for some reason. Decisions!!

D.

You sound like you're in the same mindset as me where ATI and AMD were always sub standard and Intel and nVidia were there market leaders. Think I'd have to spend some serious time with their kit to change that.

Noo, that ATi is much older than the GTX590!

Shows how much I care for ATI products really doesn't it lol

 

[Darren S]

Are 590's even available yet?

D.

 

[Darren S]

On these mini displayport connectors - is there any benefit picking MDP->HDMI rather than MDP->DVI?

Cheers,
D.

 

[sbridgey]

if you want sound go for hdmi as they are essentially the same thing just that dvi is minus the sound

 

[Darren S]

if you want sound go for hdmi as they are essentially the same thing just that dvi is minus the sound

Cheers - so long as it's the sound only that's the issue. I wouldn't want to setup sound through the 2w (or similar) speakers anyway

D.

 

[Krispwee]

What I did when I had it set it up with 3 screens was just run an older graphics card I had lying round. It worked fine as the software you need for it to run correctly (may have changed with 2011) was only supported to run 1 graphics card and just stretch the image across 3 screens to it didn't matter how the 3rd screen was connected.

Mind you it was an utter ball ache to get it running on a game that it wasn't designed for.

edit: http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/ software I used for games that aren't supposed to support 3 screens

 

[wozzaa]

The Nvidia 590GTX is the best card around right now for offering it to be honest. It's more powerful than the ATI equivalent the 6990. It is around £100 more expensive however.

To play at decent framerates at 5760x1200 you are going to need some muscle. So this is a case of £600+ GPU time. Or getting cheaper cards and going SLI/CF.

No idea if it is right or not but hopefully unlike the ATI card you also won't be forced to use MDP as an output. Which means if you monitor doesn't support display port natively you need an Active adaptor which is more money on top.

You have to do a little messing in the ATI driver for triple screens but after that once it is done as a group then it should work as one screen. When you go into a game it will bring up 5760x1200(1080) as a normal resolution option. Even a lot of older games support this. HL2 for example does.

However getting to another point, AMD are gearing up to release Northern Islands their new GPU architecture. So might be worth waiting, they demo'd the cards back in June so release shouldn't be too far away.

 

[Darren S]

What I did when I had it set it up with 3 screens was just run an older graphics card I had lying round. It worked fine as the software you need for it to run correctly (may have changed with 2011) was only supported to run 1 graphics card and just stretch the image across 3 screens to it didn't matter how the 3rd screen was connected.

Mind you it was an utter ball ache to get it running on a game that it wasn't designed for.

edit: http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/ software I used for games that aren't supposed to support 3 screens

The Nvidia 590GTX is the best card around right now for offering it to be honest. It's more powerful than the ATI equivalent the 6990. It is around £100 more expensive however.

To play at decent framerates at 5760x1200 you are going to need some muscle. So this is a case of £600+ GPU time. Or getting cheaper cards and going SLI/CF.

No idea if it is right or not but hopefully unlike the ATI card you also won't be forced to use MDP as an output. Which means if you monitor doesn't support display port natively you need an Active adaptor which is more money on top.

You have to do a little messing in the ATI driver for triple screens but after that once it is done as a group then it should work as one screen. When you go into a game it will bring up 5760x1200(1080) as a normal resolution option. Even a lot of older games support this. HL2 for example does.

However getting to another point, AMD are gearing up to release Northern Islands their new GPU architecture. So might be worth waiting, they demo'd the cards back in June so release shouldn't be too far away.

Nice one chaps - more food for thought! Krisp - as I haven't been set a budget to stick to really, I'm really keen on getting the 'all-in-one' card option rather than relying on Crossfire or SLi to achieve support on three monitors. Interesting that you mention the ball ache to get it running on games it wasn't designed for. This was one of my main concerns...

wozzaa - the 590 I was looking at m8 simply had three DVI connectors on the rear - eliminating that very issue you were saying about the adapters, etc. The 590 has taken lead again for me now - purely for it's simplicity on connectivity. I've just got the small issue of finding somewhere that stocks one now!

Any good recommendations for high-end PSUs as well? A single 590 takes 2x 8-pin connectors and some webpages I've suggest that 700w is required when one of these is running at full chat. I'd much rather over-spec the PSU when connected to a circa £600 graphics card that have it as a compromise.

Cheers,
D.

 

[wozzaa]

Scan are due to get some in, they are overdue according to the site. So might be worth giving them a call Monday and seeing what's what.

PSU wise I tend to go for the corsair items. Have one of the modular 1000w items in my rig. Well it is 1000w officially, take it apart and it is actually two of the 620w PSU's in the same case.