The best gpu for 3 moniters gaming. Under £330.

Itismax

Honorable
Feb 4, 2014
16
0
10,510
Hi all.

I am currently looking for a GPU that can pull 3 monitors while gaming.
The way I am going to use them for gaming is like: the middle one is used for the game, the left for my stream and the right screen is for browsing. :)

My system:
I7 3770
750 W PSU
ASUS P8Z77V-LX2
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
Gtx 650 2gb.
1 Samsung LS24B350 (Two being shipped atm.)
Windows 8.1
2 TB seagate HDD
Buying the samsung 840 evo 120gb ssd soon.


I am thinking of 2x 470 2gb (SLI) but will that work for 3 1080p monitor gaming?


Kind regards, Max :)
 
Solution
The addition of side monitors adds very little load to gaming.
I experimented in the past with a cheap gpu to supposedly offload the side monitor work, and found that it made no difference.
You can do the same my using the integrated graphics adapter of your 3770 if you want.

For gaming, I recommend using a single strong card when it will do the job.
Here is my canned rant on planning for dual cards:
-----------------------------Start of rant----------------------------------------------------
Dual graphics cards vs. a good single card.

a) How good do you really need to be?
A single GTX650/ti or 7770 can give you good performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.

A single GTX660 or 7850 will give you excellent performance at 1920 x...
The addition of side monitors adds very little load to gaming.
I experimented in the past with a cheap gpu to supposedly offload the side monitor work, and found that it made no difference.
You can do the same my using the integrated graphics adapter of your 3770 if you want.

For gaming, I recommend using a single strong card when it will do the job.
Here is my canned rant on planning for dual cards:
-----------------------------Start of rant----------------------------------------------------
Dual graphics cards vs. a good single card.

a) How good do you really need to be?
A single GTX650/ti or 7770 can give you good performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.

A single GTX660 or 7850 will give you excellent performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.
Even 2560 x 1600 will be good with lowered detail.
A single gtx690,7990, GTX780ti or R9-290X is about as good as it gets for a single card.

Only if you are looking at triple monitor gaming, or a 4k monitor, might sli/cf will be needed.
Even that is now changing with triple monitor support on top end cards and stronger single card solutions.

b) The costs for a single card are lower.
You require a less expensive motherboard; no need for sli/cf or multiple pci-e slots.
Even a ITX motherboard will do.

Your psu costs are less.
A GTX660 needs a 430w psu, even a GTX780 only needs a 575w psu.
When you add another card to the mix, plan on adding 200w to your psu requirements.

Even the most power hungry GTX690 only needs 620w, or a 7990 needs 700w.

Case cooling becomes more of an issue with dual cards.
That means a more expensive case with more and stronger fans.
You will also look at more noise.

c) Dual gpu's do not always render their half of the display in sync, causing microstuttering. It is an annoying effect.
The benefit of higher benchmark fps can be offset, particularly with lower tier cards.
Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

d) dual gpu support is dependent on the driver. Not all games can benefit from dual cards.

e) dual cards up front reduces your option to get another card for an upgrade. Not that I suggest you plan for that.
It will often be the case that replacing your current card with a newer gen card will offer a better upgrade path.
The high end Maxwell and amd 8000 or 9000 series are due the end of the year or next year.
-------------------------------End of rant-----------------------------------------------------------

 
Solution

Itismax

Honorable
Feb 4, 2014
16
0
10,510
The reason I said 2x 470 is because my father gave them to me as a solution instead of using a lot of money :)

Okay, sounds good, should I go after the msi gtx 760 4gb version?
 

Itismax

Honorable
Feb 4, 2014
16
0
10,510
The msi gtx 760 4gb costs ~ £200 here in Denmark.
And the msi gtx 770 4gb costs ~ £280
What about the EVGA GeForce GTX 770 4GB PhysX CUDA?
It costs ~ £310
 
Your 750w psu should be able to run sli GTX470 cards. Why not try them out first since they are free?

If you do buy a more modern card, your psu can handle any graphics card out there, including a $1000 GTX690.
Whatever, do not chase extra vram. It seems to make little difference in performance.
Here is a comparison of 2gb vs. 4gb.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
 


Triple monitor gaming takes serious graphics power.
Buy the strongest configuration you feel comfortable paying for.

I think that will be something like Dual GTX770 or GTX780ti .
Find some benchmarks for the triple monitor games you intend to play.