Pimping my ride: Looking at triple monitors

Greylor

Greetings gents!

I have a long term goal to have my computer pimped out with triple monitors mounted on an Obutto Revolution...as well as many other goodies down the road for an epic gaming setup.

The Obutto is coming at the end of the process, so I'm getting my machine set up first.

To that effect, step one is to get set up with triple monitors. I am going to aim for three x27" but I can sort which monitors to get myself (although some recommendations wouldn't be unappreciated).

What I need help with is what my options are for graphics cards. I need a setup that can handle large triple monitors and will also be able to run the next generation of games on high settings.

The relevant hardware of my current setup is:
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500k @3.30GHZ
RAM: 2x Corsair 4GB DDR3

I can add another 2x 4GB RAM, and can overclock the processor, so the main focus is really on graphics cards that will work with the mobo.
The GTX 570 can only handle 2 monitors, and I want 3, so should I get a second 570 in SLI, or would that just result in me needing to get a new card in a year to run the next gen of games on high graphics (especially when it has to power 3 monitors)? If getting a new card will get me more mileage, what should I get?

My worry with the 570 is that it has considerably less RAM (1280mb) than the cards being released these days, and even a second one will only be about half of the main cards out there. Would it be worth investing in one of the big 4gb or 6gb cards now and then doubling it at a later date than saving a few hundred now but needing a larger upgrade in the relatively near future?

Greylor

Actually...looking at the debates on monitors I think I need some advice there as well.

So ya...I'm looking for recommendations on 27" monitors and a corresponding graphics card for a triple monitor setup.

deceit

It all really depends on your budget but with either make amd/nvidia with eyefinity you want to be using 3gb ram minimum (Nvidia side 670 4gb, 7970 3gb should be the min cards for this) as its quite alot of pixels to render. I have two 7970's and to run bf4 at ultra in eyefinity i get between 40-80 fps. I really dont think 570's would cut playing this game at max settings with such low ram and small memory bandwidth.

Bepolite

Make sure you like triple monitor setups before you invest. The images on the side monitors are stretched and some games are a PITA to set up. Try before you buy - I got rid of my set up.

Luck100

what kind of monitors? 1080 or 1440? 120 Hz? You're going to need a serious gpu upgrade to run even just 1080p 60 Hz with 3 monitors.

deceit

Bepolite wrote: »

Make sure you like triple monitor setups before you invest. The images on the side monitors are stretched and some games are a PITA to set up. Try before you buy - I got rid of my set up.

I would say the same, try it before you buy if you can. I would be the total opposite though in that I absolutely love eyefinity and could not game without it now. With 27" screens you really should wrap the screens around and have them at steep angles so the side screens really do act as peripheral vision which really helps immerse you into the game.

jadun

Overclock the processor and your going to need to need SLI/Crossifre. Whats your budget?

Two 7950's would do the trick
or even two of these

What power supply you have. Will need at least 600 watts of a decent rated PSU

Greylor

The budget isn't really a major roadblock issue (within reason of course...not gonna SLI two Titans for example). I'm doing this in phases which makes it even easier. For the sake of giving it a number, say I'm happy to spend about €500 on graphics card/s. It's a flexible number though.

I hear what you're saying about trying it first. I've been watching videos of these monster setups for a long time and have always wanted one, but I guess it would be wise to have a physical try with it first. Where would one be able to test out this kind of setup?

My research also pointed towards two 7950s or GTX660s. I've got an 800w power supply to pull it off. Although for the price of 2 7950s I could just about get an HD9770 6gb monster of a card which I assume can handle multiple monitors fine on its own at the moment (assuming it doesn't have a limited number of connectors?) and can be crossfired with a second one at a later date to give the machine some serious forward future compatibility/survivability.

As for the monitors, there seems to be a lot of debate on 1440p vs 1080p and 120hz vs 60hz. I'm leaning towards 27" 1080p 120hz as a good balance.

deceit

Greylor wrote: »

The budget isn't really a major roadblock issue (within reason of course...not gonna SLI two Titans for example). I'm doing this in phases which makes it even easier. For the sake of giving it a number, say I'm happy to spend about €500 on graphics card/s. It's a flexible number though.

I hear what you're saying about trying it first. I've been watching videos of these monster setups for a long time and have always wanted one, but I guess it would be wise to have a physical try with it first. Where would one be able to test out this kind of setup?

My research also pointed towards two 7950s or GTX660s. I've got an 800w power supply to pull it off. Although for the price of 2 7950s I could just about get an HD9770 6gb monster of a card which I assume can handle multiple monitors fine on its own at the moment (assuming it doesn't have a limited number of connectors?) and can be crossfired with a second one at a later date to give the machine some serious forward future compatibility/survivability.

As for the monitors, there seems to be a lot of debate on 1440p vs 1080p and 120hz vs 60hz. I'm leaning towards 27" 1080p 120hz as a good balance.

First the 660's don't have enough vram, second like my 7970's the 7950's will affectively be running in single card mode until a driver is release to fix frame drops on the cards, if it ever will be at this stage, (If that driver is not released I wont be buying amd cards for quite a while in the future), for the 290 series its fixed as its a hardware fix, unless this driver is release you would be much better getting a 290 or 290x, both of which are 4gb cards with high memory bandwidth or a gtx 780 which comes with some free games and is cheaper but wont perform nearly as well in eyefinity and the 290's.

Edit: Also I think 120hz monitors on an eyefinity rig would be wasted as it would require an absolute monster rig to be running above 60fps on highest settings.

Bepolite

The pixel density at 1080p on a 27" is not going to be good. I'd wait for the Oculus.

Greylor

Bepolite wrote: »

The pixel density at 1080p on a 27" is not going to be good. I'd wait for the Oculus.

The Occulus will be part of my Star Citizen gear

I've been reading up on 1080p on 27" and it seems like the pixel density is not as big of an issue as it used to be. I don't know how it all works, but meh...I'm using a 24" 1080p 60hz monitor at the moment (Acer P243w) and I could just get 2 more of these and save myself the better part of 1000 bucks.

deceit

Just to point out I'm using 3 27.5" screens at 1920*1200 and I have no issues with pixel density

peter_dublin

deceit wrote: »

Just to point out I'm using 3 27.5" screens at 1920*1200 and I have no issues with pixel density

What screen is that? Was about to pull the trigger on two AOC 2369vm and one AOC 2769vm monitors for an eyefinity setup / development work but they are all 1080p screens.

deceit

Its hannspress screens. All 28" panels from hanns are 1920*1200 . I really love the extra vertical space for gaming.

Shiminay

I've got 3 X 24" Iiyama 2407HDS monitors (1080p/60Hz) being powered by 2 1GB 6950's in Crossfire. Arkham Origins looked incredible. Battlefield 4 was a non runner. Tomb Raider was also fantastic. The monitors aren't the greatest in the world, but they're not terrible either.

My problem is sitting far enough away to take it all in, so games I can play with my controller (Batman and Tomb Raider are good examples) are better for using all three.

Edit: I got a really good stand at a pretty decent price (customs included) from these fine folks: https://www.easymountlcd.com/