Nvidia Surround - My first impressions

[tepescovir]

I've been waiting for ati to fix the ati/eyefinity/crossfire/vsync issues for months now so gave in and got 2 480gtx's instead.
the dual 5970s were nearly twice as fast, in benchmarks, but the 480's are way above the ati's in gaming.
i've had constant issues with ati, mostly vsync and poor crossfire performance, but the 480's simply work and work well, no crashes, silky smooth and vsync works at last.

I can max out every game i have with the 480's(k, had to turn metro 2033 to normal to keep framerate capped at 60). bad company 2 went from running at 50 to 70 fps on low with the dual 5970's(obviously had to disable crossfire as it dosent work with bc2) to been capped at 60 with everything maxed out.

I love ati for pushing mutiple monitor gaming on us, but So glad to be using nvidia again,

[McKie]

I see 2X 470's in my future

[Mach1.9pants]

[quote]YESSSSS!!!! very nice review thales100!!! so its finally true!!!! true triple sli/surround scaling with 1x display per gpu!!

Haha, thanks m8, yes its a great surround solution, tri sli is finally worthy, 1 display per gpu rules...
...as long as the SLI profile is any good. I mean how can they leave a game so poor as to drop 50FPS, with SLI on? Still the numbers on a lot of games in reviews look good, but SLI 480s not enough for most for 3d surround at 3x1920x1080. Hopefully the next gen of cards will make it worth my while dropping vertical pixels to get 3d! Oh and the monitors at 120Hz will be cheaper :)

But as mentioned above crossfire and EF is pretty stuffed, although the frames are fine if you get less than 60FPS it is all stuttery. I sold my 5970 for a 5870 and I now get a much better experience, 40 FPS on the 5870 is much better than 55 on the 5970.

[thales100]

...as long as the SLI profile is any good.

Yes, but these are beta drivers, its pretty clear that things will only get better, btw considering the pros and cons of the other surround solutions, Nvidia`s is the best (by far) imo.

[r3v3nant]

I see 2X 470's in my future

that's what I got... it's been 100% hassle free and quite powerful. I can play lotro full maxed out again with all DX10 features on and AA on... I can even play metro 2033 at normal with AAA, 16x AF and DX11 tess on (dof off)... I'm pretty happy with the 470s. Looks like Nvidia really came through for us. Too bad you got rid of your displays, but oh well, there are always more to get. :)

PS: my top card does run a bit warm, but with the fans on at 80% it seems to keep the temps under control... might go water with these eventually.. they run pretty warm. You might consider Palit or Galaxy because they seem to have better air coolers than the ref design..

[McKie]

[quote]I see 2X 470's in my future

Too bad you got rid of your displays, but oh well, there are always more to get. :)

.


Well, just got rid of the ASUS 25.5" tn panels . Still have my 3 new 24" IPS Dell's. Although two sit in the workbench at the moment along with a 5870. Put out a feeler "for sale" thread for 2 HD 5870's in another forum. and didn't get any responses. so I might need to adjust the price a little and then come up with some more cash for the 470's

I have one more thing to try. and that is to hook up the monitors again , but using an adapter instead of the native displayport . and also leave crossfire out of the equation for the time being

[stangflyer]

I have a 5970 right now and a gts 250 I just got for physx.
Few questions for the guys or gals that went nvidia that had eyefinity.

1. I have three diff monitors but the same res. 3x1680x1050. Will I be able to use bezel mgt on the nvidia solution?? No monitor hacks for me.

2. I have a pc p@c silencer 750 ps with 59a on the single 12v rail. It is running 2 opticals, 4internal hd's, x-fi, asus p6x58d prem mobo, I7 920 at 4.0 and 6 gigs ram and my 5970 at 850/1175 when gaming with a gts 250 for physx. Haf932 case with all the fans running.
Should run a 470 sli but any chance of 480 sli??

3. Anybody sell there 5970 yet and how much did u get for it?

4. I see that most of the people are happy with the switch to nvidia so far. I really like how the minimum frames are up there for nvidia.
Any other thoughts or words of wisdom???

Thanks for all the constructive feedback in this thread.

[tricky]

Two thumbs up here for 2 x GTX 470, every game I have tried so far has simply worked, no muss no fuss. I have not had to go back to SoftTH once. Have not crashed once, and it is nice to be able to use Fraps again for framerates and triplewide screenshots (Fraps does not work with SoftTH).

The games run smooth and fast...my only issues so far have been getting used to a 5040x1050 Windows desktop, but I have found some creative workarounds and have not had to to turn Surround mode off yet. Turning Surround mode off on my pc changes all the resolutions and icon locations, so I have been avoiding that...

I do have a power supply that has two separate rails with two 6 prong power connectors each rail which made powering these beasts a snap (four total)...Thermaltake Toughpower 1000W

[thales100]

I have a 5970 right now and a gts 250 I just got for physx. ...

Weill i didnt have eyefinity but i may help with the first two questions :

1 - Yes itll work for 2D surround.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dv-system-requirements-surround-technology.html

Code: Select all

All displays must have a common resolution, refresh rate, and sync polarity

2 - No, your 750w PSU wont be enough to run a SLI of GTX 480 (generally speaking a 900w + is required). Maybe it can handle two GTX 470, check the certified PSU list for SLI here :

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

[whismerhill]

second what thales said
you need at least 600W just for the two GTX480 http://www.behardware.com/articles/787-5/report-nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-470.html

298W for a single card in furmark so a 600W PSU would barely be enough for two GTX480 alone (without the rest of the system

obviously a game is not furmark, yet your PSU absolutely HAS TO be able to handle the absolute maximum power draw of the whole system
otherwise you can expect POST problems & possible random crashes...

[r3v3nant]

[quote][quote]I see 2X 470's in my future

Too bad you got rid of your displays, but oh well, there are always more to get. :)

.


Well, just got rid of the ASUS 25.5" tn panels . Still have my 3 new 24" IPS Dell's. Although two sit in the workbench at the moment along with a 5870. Put out a feeler "for sale" thread for 2 HD 5870's in another forum. and didn't get any responses. so I might need to adjust the price a little and then come up with some more cash for the 470's

I have one more thing to try. and that is to hook up the monitors again , but using an adapter instead of the native displayport . and also leave crossfire out of the equation for the time being

I sold my 5870 + DP adapter for $350 in less than 24 hours on [H]

the only issue I have right now is heat.. I have to run with the cards squashed together so the top card is starved for air.. even at 100% the top card's air flow is about 50% of that of the bottom card and it runs about 20c hotter! so I am dropping these 470s on water.. then I might be able to OC them a little also..

[skipclarke]

Still have my 3 new 24" IPS Dell's. Although two sit in the workbench at the moment along with a 5870.

If these are the U2410's and you have desire to sell two of them, let me know. I'm looking for two more and Dell has 3-5 week shipping times right now. :cry:

[Chiller]

the only issue I have right now is heat.. I have to run with the cards squashed together so the top card is starved for air.. even at 100% the top card's air flow is about 50% of that of the bottom card and it runs about 20c hotter! so I am dropping these 470s on water.. then I might be able to OC them a little also..

A tip for you guys with 'hot' top cards... Plug two of your displays into the bottom card - NOT the top one. If you're unaware of how much heat the extra display causes, then get ready to be stunned! I'm running triple 30's and while this may make more of a difference, my upper card is now cooler than my lower one - also another benefit to tri-sli's one display per card.

cheers

[r3v3nant]

Ahh... good idea. well, I just got all my Koolance gear so no need.. but I might do the switch prior to putting the WC in just to experiment..

[Widerron]

I just got Nvision 3D Surround up and running. First impression. Wow! I don't see how I can ever go back to single monitor gaming now. One thing though. I'm using 3 2233rz's and the rightmost one is brighter than the other two. I can't seem to move it to the center even if I move the cables. Is there anyway to have the monitor you want in the position you want? Even though they are all the same monitor, the computer seems to know which one is which and it won't let me play musical chairs. Very bizarre.
Ron

[thales100]

Is there anyway to have the monitor you want in the position you want? Even though they are all the same monitor, the computer seems to know which one is which and it won't let me play musical chairs. Very bizarre.
Ron

lol yes sure, in fact it sounds quite weird.


Aliens Vs Predator looks great all maxed on DX11 (including tesselation and extra shadows) + AA4x at 5040x1050, GPU usage running tri-SLI is also excellent, generally above 80%, and consequently FPS too. :rockout

[McKie]

I sold my 5870 + DP adapter for $350 in less than 24 hours on [H]

I tried to sell mine on the [H] for $360 each and had no takers. I suppose I should try again. cuz I'm getting anxious to try nvidia surround.

[r3v3nant]

considering you can pick up GTX470s for under 300 now (w/ sales + coupons, etc) I'd go lower on the 5870s and you can pretty much 100% offset the cost of the new cards..

[McKie]

considering you can pick up GTX470s for under 300 now (w/ sales + coupons, etc) I'd go lower on the 5870s and you can pretty much 100% offset the cost of the new cards..

Yeah , going to go a bit lower and see

[Orthello]

Thales what motherboard are you running, are the 3 cards all in x16 slots ?

Recently traded up from a watercooled 5970 clocked at 970/1200 to two GTX 480s watercooled clocked at 900/2230 and man i just love it, i love the fact vsync actually works in nv surround !! and for those people doing power consumption comparisons .. heres reality - 2 x GTX480 are so much more efficient in terms of scaling that when vsynced to 60 hz my water temps are as low as a the 5970 (about 4c above ambient when under load, furmark about 6c) . Not to mention the fact that i run higher AA modes in most games , higher frame rates and thats vsynced also.

Just ordered my third GTX 480 but i'm a bit worried as my mobo is the Asus P6X58D and it has a x16 slot and 2 x8 slots if run in tri SLI, some say the performance hit is negligable eg 3 % ? anyone running a config like this ?