Widescreen Gaming Forum

To be honest, no I didn't do a search of the forums, I doubt there is a post out there like this.

First off... my setup...
Mobo: KDPE-D16
CPU: opteron 6172 12 core processor 2.2ghz each
ram: 16gb kingston ram
Gfx card: evga GTX 580
Gfx setup: I have a TH2G going to 3x 19" monitors

My problem:
I will be upgrading to 3x 24" monitors and need the best single card solution. My mobo is not compatible with SLI or crossfire - it is a server / workstation motherboard - I have every PCI slot filled and only have room for 1 GFX card - which must also only take up/cover 2 pci slots/areas

my current setup with the gtx 580 and TH2G will not support the large resolution i am looking for 5760x1080 and due that my current card is nvidia - it will not support 3 monitors on its own.

What ive looked into so far:
GTX 590 which has 2 onboard GPU's - allowing it to work with 3x monitors but i am worried about 1.5gb v-ram not being enough... (there is 3 gb total in the card but my understanding is that its 1.5 for each gpu and both sets of memory will contain the same data - correct me if im wrong on how vram/2x gpu works on a single board)

Radeon HD 6990 which again is a 2x gpu board, but has 2gb for each gpu

I have allways kind of been a fanboy of nvidia - and according to passmark the 590 out preforms the 6990

My question: Is there an alternative that anyone would recommend? or would you go with the 590? or the 6990? If going nvidia I think i should go evga, while if i go with radeon I would turn my scope to xfx

any recommendations would be awesome

Please help!

Since you say that the motherboard is a server/workstation type of board, then you probably have some specific needs for powering 3 monitors of this size. While on the nvidia side of things it is necessary to go with a single-card dual-GPU solution, the AMD/ATi side is a bit more simpler. Many of the mid-range to high-end cards feature outputs for powering three displays starting from the 5000 series. So it is not necessary to get a dual-GPU single-card solution to power 3 monitors. But the one thing we'd like to know if we're going to recommend something to you is this: What do you intend to use the rig for? Things like 3D rendering or maybe media editing, I wonder the necessity of getting such a high-end card. It may help us further narrow down and scope if we knew what we're looking at in terms of daily uses.

its my personal / contracting rig. I do work with photoshop / flash / visual studios and autocad
However I am also a gamer, wow running on all 3 screens mostly and starcraft 2 which i would want to just run on 1 monitor (as we are not allowed to multi monitor it) - also plan for GW2 and D3 when they come out.

its all about the power you need!
as you said the 590 would work. you would have 3 modes basically, SLI=on. which gives you two available monitors, each with their own native res, games will focus on which ever is primary. Surround mode, which will enable 3x displays as one single resolution and give sli performance. or SLI=off which will enable all three screens as their own individual res, but will only have the performance of a single card.

or you can take the ATI route, as said about most mid-high anything from the 5xxx series will support 3x monitors. So you can spend as little or as much as you want depending on your performance needs.

none of the games you mentioned require insane graphics cards though, 3x screens will definitely put more of a toll if you are 3x1 gaming of course, so keep that in mind.

i saw you just get what you think you need. no need to spend insane $ if you dont need the power, but if you think you might do heavier gaming and/or games that require more gpu, then that might be the choice.

as for nvidia ati, 1. its a personal choice on brand, and 2. with nvidia you are limited toat dual gpu card, with ati you have options. so again, how much performacne do you really need is a question

1 6970 will do the trick no problems :)

(there is 3 gb total in the card but my understanding is that its 1.5 for each gpu and both sets of memory will contain the same data - correct me if im wrong on how vram/2x gpu works on a single board)

Not sure about the cloning between sets of RAM but yes, pay attention only to the amount of RAM per card and not the total; because that second set of RAM wont do jack for you.

In the case of surround gaming I would recommend that you go with the option that has more VRAM per card. Your going to need all you can get.

Your problem i have...