Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey guys.

I'm building a new gaming machine (donating the old rig to my wife so we can play SWTOR together), but I'm stumped as to what to get for GPUs. I had originally intended to get two 560 TIs to drive a single 27" display, but I'm now realizing that I can get three 22" monitors for practically the same price, and I thought that would be pretty cool. Judging by searches to various forums, this can often be a problem, especially with older games, but I figure this shouldn't be too much of a deterrent as I'm sure I can troubleshoot most of that without too many issues.

Here's the setup so far (Most of which is already bought or would need strong convincing to go otherwise):

- i7 2500K
- Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen3
- 60GB OCZ Solid 3 SSD (for Intel SRT)
- 500GB SATA HDD (had planned on 2x2TB RAID1, but I have to cannibalize a drive from my old rig since I don't plan on spending 200 bucks on a drive during the shortage)
- Corsair Professional 850W Modular PSU
- Some non-stock air CPU cooler
- Antec DF-85 case
- some set of three 22" LED monitors
- some optical drive
- Win7 Pro 64 bit


It seems like I've got quite a few options when it comes to GPUs, but I'm probably going to be constrained in some capacity by the PSU, which I unfortunately bought before I thought it would need to drive anything but 560s.

As far as target quality, I can live with not having 8xAA on every game, but I would like to play with at least 2xAA and 8xAF on most games. Obviously as close to 60FPS as possible. I absolutely won't skimp on texture or object quality (except for stuff like DX11 tessellation). Assume my GPU budget is under 800 bucks, but I'd rather not have to overspend. I don't have a preference with regards to the AMD v. nVidia debate, but as I understand it AMD cards are better at handling this sort of thing.

So I think I've narrowed down to (in order of cost)

-SLI GTX560 TIs
-6950s in XF
-SLI GTX 570s
-6970s in XF
-6990

I'm leaning toward one of the latter two, (6990 seems especially appetizing as it's a single-card solution) but ultimately I'm looking for the most cost-effective solution for my money. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

And how much would those Cards cost, at the vendor of your choice?

I Think 2 6950 would be best choice by Cost/Performance.
aren't 570 and 6970 about same price? But 6970 has 2gb Vram! 570 only 1.2gb
a 6990 has less power than a 6970CF setting (even though in AUSUM mode it should clock also with 880mhz) but with 2 Chips on 1 Board it's gonna get HOT! Way to much noise!


oh... and about PSU.... if you're not gonna OC your 2500K to 5ghz 850Watt might be enough for a 6970CF.

I could go into great detail on this subject but will keep it simple. You want to run 5760 x 1080 at close to 60fps with ultra textures and objects " I absolutely won't skimp on texture or object quality" with most eye candy turned on.
It would take a pair of 6990's or GTX 580 3gb cards to do that. I am running SLI GTX 570 2.5gb cards and I cannot run all games with those requirements. Now your psu @ 850 and your budget at $800 will get you med to high settings with some eye candy on the most demanding games. Your not going to run BF3 on ultra with aa on anything less then a top card. Now as far as a game like Dead Island my 570's chew it up. Also I have used up to 2300mb of vram on Crysis 2 on high settings and got around 45fps without max aa. So a 2gb card would chock at the same settings and only hurt performance.

In my experience, though, it's never texture quality that really drives the framerate down, at least not with all the single-screen gaming I've done thus far. Usually it's stuff like AA and DX10 and 11 effects that really do it.

i agree with ostrakon, lots of benchamrks will show similar results. which always boggled my mind. youd think more ram = better no matter what case closed. but often less ram with more effecient chips still take the cake. again most benchmarks arent done in a triple monitor config, so i duno if or how that would change that result or translate..

i saw pick your poison, everyone seems to favor either ati or nvidia. ive had both on and off for years, currently an nvidia fan. last couple games i played ati had driver issues for weeks before they got it right and nvidia did a little better (not that they are perfect either). i also hate catalyst control center with a PAssion.

but either way, and you can't beat the fact that the latest amd cards can rock triple monitors off a single card.

if you want to save cash, you can go last year and get a couple of 470s really cheap now adays if you poke around, and they still support everything and are awesome, they still beat out the 560s.

as for more modern i think you have good choices already. 2x 570s would be awesome. and i see you listed the 6990. if you can afford that, then why the hell not. you can run all 3 monitors off it and have all the performance you need. and you can get another later right? hehe