Paradigm Shifters Surround Review GTX460 SLI 1GB & 2GB

[tet5uo]

I get that same issue with Dirt2 on that track. Odd that the water settings can make a track unplayable that has no water...

I'm using 3 GTX 480's.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Hm... architecture related? GF104 is markedly different to GF100...

I can't get DiRT2 running stably on my 470 system. It's frankly pissing me off. Everything else runs fine - Just Cause 2, Civ 5, Metro 2033 (the three serious DX11 system killer games) but DiRT2 runs for anything from five minutes to fifty minutes, then in the middle of a race *bang* - black screen, repeating sound, totally locked - only solution is a hard reset. I've watched GPU utilisation and temps - even going so far as to run DiRT2 in DX9 with everything at minimum and 1024x768... no idea what the problem is. No other racing game does it either - GRID's fine, GTR Evo, NFS: Shift...

[scavvenjahh]

I get that same issue with Dirt2 on that track. Odd that the water settings can make a track unplayable that has no water...

I'm using 3 GTX 480's.

So I'm not crazy after all. Thanks for that ! :D
I wouldn't be surprised if some DX10/11 features would cause specific issues in SLI, especially with newer GPUs, and I'm sure future driver updates will improve things - but there's definitely something wrong with this track.

@PS: if you're using Rapture audio, try switching to Software and see if that makes any difference.

[Paradigm Shifter]

I have no idea what I did, but it appears to have fixed itself.

Started in Safe Mode, played for a couple of hours in 800x600... restarted again in 1920x1080, Ultra details... no more crashing.

I hate unexplained fixes almost as much as I hate unexplained crashes!

Interestingly, the CPU 'workercore' tweaks that seemed to fix most peoples issues on Steam did nothing for me - worse, they actually stopped the game from loading... it would load, the menus would be fine, but the races would never load. I left one loading for over 30 minutes to see if it would! (Normally they load in a few seconds)...

[tet5uo]

[quote]

@PS: if you're using Rapture audio, try switching to Software and see if that makes any difference.

Yeah I had tried that at first too. THe only thing that makes it somewhat bearable is to drop water detail to low. I still get some slowdown on this track but it's within playable levels with water to low.

Has anyone with this issue also noticed that the same hitches happen when using the in-car view? My last system had no such issues with in-car view or this track and it was less powerful.

[Footman]

So here is my question and I am a newb when it comes to NV Surround, but I am considering the move to multi monitor gaming.

I have a pair of GTX 560's in SLI and yes they do have 1 GB of Vram. Currently I am gaming on a 1920x1200 monitor which I believe must have around 2.3million pixels. I like to play games at 2-4 x FSAA and to date have had no issues with performance issues from the 1gb of VRAM.

Now surround gaming is indeed interesting your review was based with large panels, what about surround gaming with smaller panels?

I am considering 3 x 1440x900 monitors that if my calculation are correct contain 3.8million pixels, the panels you were using were larger and at 5760x1080 the video cards are having to process images at 6.2million pixels which is double the resolution I am looking at.

Have you done any reviews to see at what size the 1Gb VRAM becomes the limiting factor here?

Perhaps you have access to panels of different sizes for comparisons?

[scavvenjahh]

1 GB should be enough for anything below 1680x1050 in most games, but only barely. AA might push VRAM load past the limit quite easily. 3.8 million pixels is quite a lot actually; a 30" panel's native 2560x1600 is 4 million px...

A lot of games don't rely so much on VRAM quantity than on GPU clocks or CPU power, though. I think SLI'ed 1 GB 560 at 4320x900 is well worth a shot, but your love for anti-aliased multi-mon graphics will probably require a GPU/VRAM upgrade in the not-so-distant future...

[Footman]

1 GB should be enough for anything below 1680x1050 in most games, but only barely. AA might push VRAM load past the limit quite easily. 3.8 million pixels is quite a lot actually; a 30" panel's native 2560x1600 is 4 million px...

A lot of games don't rely so much on VRAM quantity than on GPU clocks or CPU power, though. I think SLI'ed 1 GB 560 at 4320x900 is well worth a shot, but your love for anti-aliased multi-mon graphics will probably require a GPU/VRAM upgrade in the not-so-distant future...

Yeah this is about what I thought, EVGA will take back my 560's without an issue as I stupidly just bought them. I will buy instead 2 x 6950's with 2gb of memory to run eyefinity in cf.

With these amd cards can I connect the three monitors up to three of the 4 dvi ports at the back like with nv surround or do I have to buy a dongle for the newer ports?

Thanks,

[Footman]

Wow, no one else wants to commentp!!! that sucks.....
Well, I have gone ahead and purchased one MSI 2gb 6950 Twin Frozr lll video card , three Hyundai X93LD 19" LED Backlighting Monitor - 1440x900 as they were only $109 each and have a 6mm bezel and an active dp to dvi dongle....

I have sent back my 560Ti's for full refund, good old EVGA and will be able to set up Eyefinity with just the one 6950 with the second one coming when I get my tax rebate in a few weeks. I will also get a triple monitor stand to hold the three screens neatly.

Perhaps I'll report back on my findings....

[scavvenjahh]

Just ordered two 3072 MB 580s (Evga) to replace my three 1536 MB cards. This should be interesting.

[Delphium]

NICE ;)

[Paradigm Shifter]

Can you give us some before and after benchies? :)

Say, with 3x1.5GB cards, then two, then the two 3GB cards? ;)

If you've got any of the following, it would be most useful:

Aliens vs. Predator
Battleforge
DiRT2
F1 2010
Far Cry 2
H.A.W.X
Just Cause 2
Mafia 2
STALKER: Call of Pripyat

And toss Metro 2033 in there too! ;)

[scavvenjahh]

Time is an elusive commodity right now but yeah, that's the idea. And I have all these games minus Battleforge currently installed on my system.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Time is an elusive commodity right now

Yeah, know the feeling.

Well, anything you can give us will be good. ;)

[Moose]

Broken link is broken :<

[scavvenjahh]

Thanks, fixed. The article is here: http://widescreengamingforum.com/article/palit-nvidia-gtx460-surround-1gb-vs-2gb
You could also find it through the Articles link on the top nav bar. ;)