Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi Guys,

probably the 1millionth post from people asking what is the better choice.

I have the following setup:

GTX 480
I7 2700K
16GB RAM
240GB OCZ VERTEX 3 SSD
1TB WD GREEN
HX750W Corsair Power-supply

i am looking at getting 3 new monitors and a gfx card(if need be) for gaming

The kinds of games i play are:

COD,BF3,SKYRIM,TERA,LOL
so i'm looking for screens no more than $250 each screen about $200 would be better

gfx card maybe a gtx680 if that's going to run everything well.

open to all suggestions

Cheers

Andy

I would read this to decide between ATI or Nvidia first of all: http://www.wsgf.org/article/red-vs-green-vs-blue-v2

If nothing else, read the last page.

Personally, buy a GTX680 all the way.

_________________
i5-2500K @ 4Ghz ° Asus P8Z68 ° GTX670 Windforce OC ° 8GB DDR3 RipjawsX ° 4x Viewsonic VA2703 ° Logitech G15 / G5 / G27 ° Razer Vespula ° TrackIR 5 ° Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS

thanks i read the article def going nvidia and a gtx680

next question is what kinds of fps am i going to get with 3 screens


thats my main concern with the setup

thanks i read the article def going nvidia and a gtx680

next question is what kinds of fps am i going to get with 3 screens


thats my main concern with the setup

The first question I would ask is, are going to go SLI or just a single card?

The 680 GTX is the first single core GPU that can handle Surround, so there very little information in regards to performance with multi-monitor currently. The biggest problem your going to run into with games at say 5760x1080 would be related to memory. There are not very many games that max out vram, but when it does it will cause sudden dips in your FPS and can cause a game crash, such as BF3 with Ultra and AA enabled. I currently have 2 580 GTX in SLI from EVGA that are water cooled so they are overclocked out of the box and I've been able to run almost any game maxed out, but there are games that I have to disable AA, such as BF3 and Skyrim. In the case of Skyrim though, I run ENB video filter and Skyrim HD along with many other mods to enhance the visuals. I would say I get 45+ FPS in Skyrim and BF3 on a 64 player map I get about 42+ FPS. These numbers are with SLI so a single GPU might be half or worse with my settings, thus you would have to sacrifice some or a lot of fidelity to get smooth FPS.

I would personally recommend you grab two 680's and put them in SLI or you could go with a single 690, that should be on shelves soon. The 690 has the potential to reach the max auto-clock of two 680's in SLI but I say if you want the most FPS with maxed settings, go with the two 680's. The only concern I see with your rig if you do get 2 680's or the 690 is that your PSU is lacking a bit, the recommend bare min I think is 850 to 900w.

EDIT: As far as monitors go, check Amazon or Newegg for you're price range. I found my Viewsonic's for $183 there, but I put them on a stand (same as the one sold here) which I recommend because the base is diamond shaped and it likes to wobble.

_________________
Azza Fusion 4000 Liquid Cooled Full/Mini-ITX Tower - AMD Ryzen 1700x CPU - Tt Water 3.0 Ultimate CPU Cooler - ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme - 2x EVGA GTX 980 in SLI - Geil 16GB - Klipsch 5.1 THX Speakers - Vertex 4 128GB SSD, Sandisk 256GB SSD, Samsung 512GB 850 PRO SSD, WD Black 320GB & Two times Toshiba 5TB (one for Games and the other for Storage) - Logitech G502 - Corsair K65 RGB - Logitech G13 - Win10 Pro 64bit - 2-over-1 Viewsonic VA2448M 24" (2x 1920x1080 Secondary) & Samsung CHG90 Series Curved 49" (3840x1080) - Ergotech Monitor Stand - Shout out to WSGF for the upgrade on my stand!

As far as the AMD/ATI vs Nvidia....

I've had both, and my 100% preference is now for AMD cards. In terms of ease of setup, updates, and swapping back and forth between multi-monitor and single monitor setups, AMD wins IMO.
I had dual GeForce gtx 460s in SLI before. I lost 1 card, and suddenly not only could I not use any multi-monitor games, but no one was selling the exact card any more. As SLI is so picky, I was forced to buy a new card. As I didn't want to buy 2 new cards again, I went with the AMD 6950 (bios unlocked to 6970). Now it runs all my monitors just fine at 5960x1080 with nearly maxed settings.


As far as monitors goes, I just recently went to frys and got a great deal on 3x 27" Asus monitors. Asus VE278Q for $279 each, with a $20 rebate, so $259. Theses beasts replace the wimpy triple monitor setup that I had before composed of 3x 19" which were only 1280x1024 each. Only downside is they are too big for most of the triple head monitor stands I've found. Just because they claim they can support 27"... doesn't mean they can support 3 of them.

As far as the AMD/ATI vs Nvidia....

I've had both, and my 100% preference is now for AMD cards. In terms of ease of setup, updates, and swapping back and forth between multi-monitor and single monitor setups, AMD wins IMO.
I had dual GeForce gtx 460s in SLI before. I lost 1 card, and suddenly not only could I not use any multi-monitor games, but no one was selling the exact card any more. As SLI is so picky, I was forced to buy a new card. As I didn't want to buy 2 new cards again, I went with the AMD 6950 (bios unlocked to 6970). Now it runs all my monitors just fine at 5960x1080 with nearly maxed settings.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion and I respect that, but I would point out that much has changed for Nvidia since your experience - for example, SLI is not required depending on your card. You can now do Surround from one card and the features that Nvidia offer are far greater than what Eyefinity offers presently (such as bezel peeking, turning off the outside monitors instead of duplicating, etc). As per my previous, I would take the time to investigate how each system stacks up presently, check out the article I linked to for the latest info.

:cheers

_________________
i5-2500K @ 4Ghz ° Asus P8Z68 ° GTX670 Windforce OC ° 8GB DDR3 RipjawsX ° 4x Viewsonic VA2703 ° Logitech G15 / G5 / G27 ° Razer Vespula ° TrackIR 5 ° Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS

I just upgraded to a GTX 680 and three of these ASUS monitors


http://www.amazon.com/Asus-VS229H-P-22-Inch-LED-Monitor/dp/B005S0XYKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336454145&sr=8-1


Everything plays like butter(even BF3 maxed)


I highly recommend those ASUS screens as they are cheap and IPS @$162.00 a piece. Not a fan of TN panels for eyefintiy because of the shit viewing angles.

well ive got a gtx590 on water atm and it does its job really well
but if i was in your shoes id get the gtx690 as its nearly twice the power of the 680
but it doesnt use twice the power or create double the heat