This is a silly question (I know honest question is silly but i need to ask) I seen the gpu usage pics when you started the topic but is it actually adding anymore fps over normal sli. It is a pain as I wanted to get tri sli for bc2 and this does seem to be one game that does not like it for now.
Lol yes thats a good question, i cannot answer it right now tbh :oops: , i almost had a heart attack after disabling tri-SLI to try normal SLI, and back, my PC doesnt seem to like these changes. :|
Your not alone there Thales, it seems the drivers identify each piece of hardware, and thier location, I changed the cables at the back of the computer, which in theory should just change the L and R display over, which it didnt, and went back to one screen and dropped the two screens and gave me out of range notifications.
Same when changing from my 280's to 480's. It wouldnt recognise the cards without a re-install of the drivers or sli with out a reboot and wouldnt accept surround settings without a reboot. Also changing the L-M-R screens from 2-1-3 to 3-1-2 "seems" to have cured a funny "static like" haze that would appear intermittently on the right screen (black pixals would appear in lime green in varying intensity) although time will tell as to wether it appears again or not, but first useage, it appears to be gone.
On another note, whilst there is a bit more heat coming from the rear of the computer, the noise of the 480's is no more than my 280's produced (which was minimal at worst), if I had known this at the outset, I certainly wouldnt have gone to the trouble and expence of water cooling....
All the conjecture and speculation about it is exagerated IMO way out of proportion. My side case fan (220mm) is still the loudest part of my computer.
Thats my take on it from a very noob computer user in any case.....
No, the fourth monitor switch off when you activate surround. And when I power on the computer if surround is activated and the fourth monitor is attached I have a Windows Crash.
I have noticed this behavior with my fourth monitor that is analogic (VGA connector) and tactil if the fourth monitor is Digital I have no crash (but still it doesn´t be activated)
I hope in the future we can disable SLI for games that suffer from it, while still running surround..
It would also be nice to dedicate one card to Physx when necessary, while still running surround, for games such as Batman and Mafia 2. For some reason neither of my cards run at 100% with physx enabled...
Ugh I really thought ATI had Nvidia nailed with eyefinity, and even though Nvidia was late to the party it looks like they brought the right stuff.
As a 5870 user I like having only one card and the heat is more than enough already. I was quite happy to ditch my dual 4850's for a single 5870.
I cant upgrade to 2x GTX470's my mobo is CF only not SLI and my case is not really ideal for 2 cards as I found out with the 4850's.
So still I want to do my research and plan for the next build. A few questions for you guys that converted.
Does Nvidia have profile switching? so you can go from landscape (work mode mode where center monitor is task bar and all 3 monitors act as single monitors with extended desktops) to surround (play mode all 3 monitors act as one giant virtual monitor desktop and task bar span entire range of monitors) It only takes 5 seconds to do this with ATI and its something I use every time I play a game. Manually setting up surround is not an option for me, nor is just leaving it in surround mode for desktop work.
Is there any of "the line" issues with nvidia? - to this day its still my #1 issue with eyefinity I have a line of screen tearing going through 2 of my monitors and it just butchers the feel and quality of gameplay. Its not game related or vsync related its definitely an eyefinity issue.
Has anybody seen any cursor corruption? - This is another issue I suffer though its annoying its at least tolerable.
Hows the performance of dual GTX470's vs 1 5870? A 5870 is $400 and a a 470 is $300.00 so I expect a single GTX470 to perform very close to a 5870 for that price range. I know the GTX480 is supposed to be more or less equal but its well over $550... so I cant see them pricing the GTX470 where it should be in relation to price vs performance when competing against ATI.
I had the same "Line Problem" and battled with it constantly. I can say I have had no issues with anything at all . I also had the Cursor issue. But no more. Cant answer about the profile switching as I use surround 24-7, Sorry . I do have a performance increase that is quite noticeable. FPS about doubled in BFBC2. Which allowed me to jack up the settings.
After nearly a year of registry hacks, driver issues, driver mods (TwL drivers), performance issues and displayport issues, I sold my dual 5970s and 3x30" and went green. Too many people who had similar rigs I felt were being neglected.
Key points I noticed were:
1. Installation and setup were a breeze. Partly because I had some experience with Eyefinity, but in general, NV Surround seems more polished.
2. Performance-All I can say is that NVIDIA trounces Eyefinity.
HAWX Max settings @ 8080x1440 375 FPS Max, 75 AVE,
Dirt2 Max settings @ 8080x1440 76 FPS AVE, 31 FPS MIN (Post Processing Medium),
WIC Max Settings @ 2560x1440 230 FPS MAX, 85 FPS AVE, 16 FPS MIN.
Min FPS is all important IMO. Little/no microstuttering and games run seemlessly.
3. Setting up displays was a little troublesome. In games that don't run/look better @2560x1440, I had trouble setting up the display so it would run on the center display. Alot of headscratching and musical DVI port swapping, I finally got it working.
4. There is no "grid" feature to manage window resizing/multiple windows (aka ATI Hydragrid). I really liked this feature as I could have 3 windows open simultaneously with each set to a designated display.
5. The extra VRAM on GTX480 makes a difference in performance.
In conclusion, I will NEVER use ATI hardware again. I even swapped my 3870 on my media rig for a GTX250.
Great hardware, Shite software. A shame really.
NVIDIA drivers has it's own share of issues, however, the drivers are more polished.
Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z : i7 2600K @ 4.6 : G Skill DDR3 12800 RipJaws 16Gb : 2 x Vertex 3 120Gb : 4 x Seagate Barracuda XT 2Tb : Galaxy GTX 480 Tri SLI : SilverStone Stider ST1500 : Corsair Obsidian 800D : 3 x Dell U2711 : Windows 7 Ultimate x64 : Koolance WC CPU/GPU
Vicious - no cursor corruption, no impossible tearing (just normal 'no Vsync' tearing) no profile switching in 258.96. I think that's a 'for the future' thing. :)
Just to balance this out, I've always been happy (at the time) with whichever manufacturer I've decided to go with. I've rarely had issues with ATi (AMD) drivers - although I'll admit that I didn't do a lot of 'exotic' stuff where they seem to fall down - I know eZ` has had all sorts of woes with a dual monitor setup and some AMD drivers... but they've always been pretty good for me. I don't like CCC, though.
Having said that, with the GTX460, nVidia fixed most of my concerns with Fermi, and I admit freely that nVidia Surround is the biggest upgrade I've had to my gaming experience - bar none - since I got a Voodoo 1 card back in 1997.
i never used ATI in any of my machines.... intel+nvidia since it took 3dfx
on a side note i ordered my first 3D monitor and 3D vision kit to see what its like. ASUS of course..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236092
pretty good package if you never tried it before and the 120hz should look a bit strange
i wish my Trackir4 didnt break... (i got it for free from them) it was a nice combo with 3D vision when i tried it with cyan glasses. trackir5 needs to be hooked up.
and whatever happened to ABIT, im stilling using an Abit mobo and i havent seen any new ones.
ToCA EDIT - Over 10 Years of Game Modding and Research
I must say my card of choice right now wouldn't have a red badge, even after all the praise I have given ATi. Their driver support for eyefinity (not anything I have used/ experienced) has been enough to put me off for a while. The 6770 would need to be a monster card to get me interested.
Been monitoring this thread for a while. I do like my 5970 and have NOT had the line issue at all. Had the cursor corruption once in a while but no big deal. My friend is getting pretty much the same setup I have except he is getting 480's in sli. Will play with his and then will make a decision on my next setup. Was thinking of the 5970 replacement towards the new year as I think the microstutter is hardware problem not a driver issue. We will see. The good thing I do notice the microstutter that much.
