Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello all!

First time member and soon to be multi-monitor gamer here. Been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out some things. Got all my new parts ordered except for monitor card and monitors. I was planning a triple monitor eyefinity setup. I mainly play fps games, with the possibility of mmorpg games. I also use the same system for work using mainly ms office, quickbooks, etc.

Here it is so far:

CPU: i5 3570k
CPU cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 evo
Mobo: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
SSD: OCZ Vertex 4 VTX4-25SAT3-128G 2.5" 128GB
HDD: Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB
ODD: LG DVD Burner
PSU: SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
Case: Antec p183 v3
KB: Razer Blackwidow Stealth
Mouse: Logitech g9x

Was thinking xfx 7950, but have been reading mixed reviews on them.

Regarding monitors, I've been searching for an ips, displayport, thin bezel, but these are expensive. If I go non-displayport I have more options, but have also read about problems with the adapters either not working well or not lasting.

Finally I have some space issues and was originally thinking of landscape mode, but now am thinking of portrait. Is it mainly personal preference or are there any incompatibility issues with gaming and other software going portrait mode? Are there issues doing 1920 x 1200 vs 1920 x 1080 in portrait with eyefinity?

Now I'm thinking of maybe trying 3 ips, non-displayport and adapter. Seems easier to find those type monitors locally. That way I could try it out.

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions?

An AMD 7950 or the Nvidia GTX670 would work well for you, the issue with displayport adaptors seems to be improving over the last year, although we do still hear of some tales it is nowhere near as bad as they once where.

You can check out our reviews of the 7950 and gtx670 for some comparisons on performance and thoughts about each card.

However Nvidia will only allow a 3x1L setup, no protrait support yet.

Personally I prefer 3x1L over 3x1P, however 5x1P does look impressive.
Eyefinity will support both 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 in both orientations

Once you have decided which card you would like to use and the configuration of monitors, we can certainly help you further with the cables you may require to make it work including any displayport adaptors that are known to work well.

As for displayport adaptor reliability, I have only needed to replace a single VGA adaptor out of my collection of 2x vga, 4x dvi adaptors since I got them back in early 2010.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably go 7950 or 7970.

I am having a hard time deciding on 16x9 vs 16x10. I currently use a 16x10. With three monitors, I'm not sure I'll have enough room to do landscape, which is why I was looking at doing a portrait setup. I've been eyeing the dell u2412hm. Price is a bit to swallow. The dell u2312hm has better pricing but they are 1920x1080 and there are brightness issues. I've been reading and reading as much as I can find on 16x9 vs 16x10, landscape vs portrait. Now I've also stumbled upon 3d gaming with 120hz displays! There's quite a bit of info out there, and lots of varying opinions.

Do you have any experience with either of those dell displays? Are there any other displays you'd recommend for a 3600x1920?

The graphics card I picked up recently, was the SAPPHIRE 7970 GHz Edition 6GB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102997

The 6GB of vram is awesome, especially if you can go crossfire.

For my monitors I went with 3x Asus VE278s. However honestly at a normal desk 3x 27" screens are a bit too big. Most monitor stands don't have enough space to hold them and viewing anything on them requires a lot of head turning. Stick to the 24" range for proper stand support and angle of vision.

I am now considering using an old 6870 card that I already own, at least to buy me some time. How seriously would this bottleneck my system?

kinda! the 2gb version? then you will run out of GPU power really fast!

but when you have the monitors you can always buy a faster GPU

I'd go for the 1920x1200 24" monitors. I have Dell u2311h and sometimes I think they could be higher. you do have an enormus width in Eyefinity.

Actually, it's a 1gig.

Decided on the Dell u2412. Now just waiting for them to restock. Found some 7970 and 7950 with a price diff of around $70-$80. At what price difference would you recommend the 7970?

Finally got my system built and everything set up. Thanks for all the help.