Widescreen Gaming Forum

I am trying to pair up a graphic card with the display system TH2G + three 19" LCDs to play games at 3840 x 1024. I have briefly looked at the sig of people here and form the list below with TH2G+3 LCD monitors (if I missed anyone, feel free to drop your opinion in as well! I have also included Dell 30" because its resolution of 2560 x 1600 is very close to 3840 x 1024. So, I expect driving this monitor imposes a comparable stress on a graphic card. Yes ?)

I am assuming you guys are using the native resolution of the respective mon size (eg using 1280 x 1024 for 19")

Ibrin / 7950GX2 / 30"Dell

JKeefe / 7900GT / 3x21" CRT (at what resolution?)

Tucson / 7800GS / 3 x 19"

MatroxRules / 7900GT / 3 x 17"

Paddy the Wak / 8800GTX in SLI / 3 x 20"

Paddy the Wak / 7900GTX in SLI / 3 x 24"

andybris / 7900GT / 3 x 19"

Akousticplyr / 7600GT in SLI / 3 x 19"

Tigertrash / 7900GT in SLI / 3 x 19"

So, would you guys be kind enough to give some feedback as far as what graphic card(s) needed to game at 3840 x 1024?

Particularly, I am hoping a SINGLE 8800GTX can handle FPS games like FEAR and HL2 and simulation games like FS9, FSX. Comments?

If one 8800GTX is enough, I will not be looking at motherboards with 680i SLI chipset but rather P965 or 975X motherboards, and not 800W psu but a 500-600W psu.

TIA :D :D

A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

JKeefe / 7900GT / 3x21" CRT (at what resolution?)

3072x768, because of the higher refresh rate (75 Hz and 85 Hz) available. Due to the 60 Hz refresh rate I don't use 3840x1024, so I'm sorry I can't comment particularly on that resolution. I will say, however, that my single 7900GT powers HL2 just fins @ 3072x768, so I would certainly imagine an 8800GTX would do just fine @ 38040x1024.

You are alos correct in thinking that 2560x1600 and 3840x1024 are comparable resolutions. While the picel count is similar, though, the different fields of view (4:1 triplehead ratio versus the Dell 30" huge but 4:3 ratio) mean that more objects may be rendered in the triplehead view, decreasing framerate.

A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

Thanks JKeefe and Paddy for responding.

Given that a single 8800GTX can drive TH2G's max resolution of 3840 x 1024, then may I ask in what situation/games do you use your two 8800GTXs in SLI ? Would Paddy comment on this please as I notice you have running that setup.

Thanks.

[quote]A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

Thanks JKeefe and Paddy for responding.

Given that a single 8800GTX can drive TH2G's max resolution of 3840 x 1024, then may I ask in what situation/games do you use your two 8800GTXs in SLI ? Would Paddy comment on this please as I notice you have running that setup.

Thanks.

Theres 2 reasons why dual 8800gtx's would be helpfull

1. You get higher FPS, The more FPS the better.
2. Futureproofing.

As DaFox says ...

Theres 2 reasons why dual 8800gtx's would be helpfull

1. You get higher FPS, The more FPS the better.
2. Futureproofing.

and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

[quote]
and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

$100 per letter is *nothing* compared to the costs per letter of 'married', 'wife', and 'children'.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[quote][quote]
and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

$100 per letter is *nothing* compared to the costs per letter of 'married', 'wife', and 'children'.

Sorry, couldn't resist.
:lol: Good one dude

I noticed this thread paused on december the 5th, which is a shame because these were exactly the kind of questions I was asking myself before I ordered the second 8800GTX, a Matrox TH2Go and a n680i motherboard.

I'm an Flight Simulator X fan and I like to have all options maximized. So far it hasn't been possible with a single 8800GTX on two monitors at 2560x1024.

I'm receiving my new hardware this week and I'll post the FSX frame rates here as soon as possible.

This will be the hardware:

Core2Duo E6700
2 x 8800 GTX in SLI
eVGA nForce 680i SLI
Matrox TripleHead2Go 3840x1024@60Hz
2 x 1Gig GEIL RAM 4-4-4-12@800Mhz
3 x 19" LCD Viewsonic VX922
1 x Antec Neo HE 550 (I'm betting this power supply will be enough)

I honestly don't expect a large increase in frames per second considering reviews which point to a 20-30% increase in SLI, but this will be necessary to at least keep the current quality while adding a third monitor to the system.

I'll keep you posted...

i take it you switched your mobo too? :)

bear in mind FSX isnt fully optimised yet, it might take some time :)

1 x Antec Neo HE 550 (I'm betting this power supply will be enough)

A minimum of a 450W power supply is recomended for the 8800GTX ... is 550 going to be enough for two of them ?

Most of my gaming is car racing, GTL, GTR2, NFSU so can't comment much on the FPS games, I run mine with enough "eye candy" to look nice from the cockpit and it plays fine.

I like your choice of monitors :) as they are 2ms and native 1280x1024 60hz so perfect for TH2G.

I use mine 80% for video/sound editing so I spent the extra money on Raid 5 so I didnt loose any work, I'm sure the 8800-*** would be the way to go (hint- if Paddy has it thats the one to upgrade to)

taking a massive chance on that psu in my opinion. just remember if that pops under load how much will it take with it? you really need to be looking at the 700+ range surely. what do nvidia recommend for sli?

I read your comments and gave them a good thought. Eventually I will buy a certified dual GeForce 8800 GTX power supply but for the moment I have to use the Neo HE 550 and I'm actually curious to see if it works.

I think I'll be ok because:
1. A dual GeForce 8800 GTX system with a Core2Duo X6800 draws up to 462 Watts at full load according to this article at PC Perspective http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=332&type=expert&pid=10.
2. The Neo HE 550 delivers "its full rated power" according to Antec. With 85% efficiency it draws up to 632 W, which leaves a reasonable 170 W margin with the test.
3. I only have a Core2Duo E6700 which draws less power than the X6800 used in the test. This should compensate the increase in consumption due to switching motherboards (the nForce 680i consumes more than the Intel 975X).
4. Right now I'm using one 8800 GTX and one X1950XTX cards at the same time in my system, as well as 4 hard drives. No power problems! The final configuration will be two 8800 GTX and only 2 hard drives. The power difference between the 8800GTX and the X1950XTX is less than the power used by the 2 retired hard drives.
5. The Neo HE 550 has all the circuitry protection systems necessary to prevent damage in case of over/under voltage.

The only things missing were 2 PCI express (6 pin) connectors which Antec has generously sent me a few weeks ago. This is one of the nice things about a modular power supply.

I'll give it a try and I'll post the results here...

Cheers.

Hi,

After a long night (until 4 am) I'm posting the preliminary results of my new dual 8800 GTX system.

The Antec Neo HE 550 power supply is enough for two 8800 GTX, with a Core2Duo E6700, one nVGA nForce 680i SLI, one Maxtor IDE disk, and one DVD drive. This is a temporary solution, but it works. If you're building a dual 8800GTX system from the begging DON'T buy this power supply because it lacks 2 PCIe cables and leaves little power margin for extra peripherals.

The system runs hot! The graphics cards go up to 87°C! nVidia's security limit for these cards is a shocking 125°C! The system gets loud when all the ventilators spin up during stress testing. This is in contrast with my previous setup which was very quiet while also running one 8800 GTX. And I might have to add an extra large fan in the front.

The system scores only 8900 3DMark06 points with one card, and 9400 in SLI - very dissapointing. I had better results with one 8800 GTX card on the 975X chipset! I have to see why this is. Today I'll check all image quality settings, remove nTune, and update the chipset drivers.

Tomorrow I'm planning on installing the RAID0 set, Flight Simulator X, Matrox TripleHead2Go on a clean copy of WindowsXP.

Any ideas why the graphics benchmarks are so low?

I'll post the test results of Flight Simulator X in 3840x1024 with the above configuration.

Any ideas why the graphics benchmarks are so low?

No idea ... a clean system may help ... with a clean system I got (Specs below) ...

and I thought that wasn't good enough !

Hi Paddy,

My latest result is 12134 3DMarks06!!! No overclocking.

I'm happy now! This performance helps me forget the heat and noise of my dual 8800 GTX system :-)

I updated the chipset drivers, changed the 3D settings to allow the application to decide and cleaned the registry "run" hive. I'm not sure which one of these had the most impact, but what matters is the result.

The Matrox TripleHead2Go is now connected and running well. I'll install Flight Simulator X tonight and let you know what the results are.

High frame rates here I come!! :-)

My latest result is 12134 3DMarks06!!! No overclocking.

... now that is much better for your system ... 8) :D

I am very happy to find my old post being revived!
Just very glad to see all these new posts and inputs here.
Guys, Keep them coming! :D :D