Building New Machine - Need Advice

[JavaKid]

I have the ASUS PT6 - V2 and I have 2 ati 5870's with 2 monitors I want to use with Eve-online utilizing the windowed mode for the game so I can run 2 accounts at one time with a window to each account, one on each screen.

How should I install these 2 5870's in a brand new build with Windows 7?

The machine is currently half put together on the dinning room table w all new components.

Should I,,,,Just install one card then load windows and the driver for the one card and get it working first, or just do both at the same time?



Also, can I crossfireX the 5870's to run the separate accounts windowed, each on a monitor at the same time or is that not possible to do the way I want to play.



Thanks for your advice....

JavaKid

 

[paperfox]

It should not matter if you install one 5870 or install both at the same time.

You will see the best performance if you don’t crossfire your cards. Just hook up one monitor to each card, that way each of your eve accounts will have its own graphics card to pump out the FPS.

I’m not sure if you can crossfire and have 2 monitors in extended mode, though you could turn on eyefinity and do it that way, but I think that would net you slightly less FPS compared to my first suggestion.

I personally run 2 eve accounts off of one 5870 dual screen 1680x1050, and both windows are capped at 60 FPS, so two 5870s is kind of overkill in my opinion.

 

[JavaKid]

Thank you, I will proceed with that advice.

JavaKid

 

[bystander]

I'd actually be curious if you could post us an update on it being setup in Crossfire with both monitors being plugged into 1 card, and having them out of crossfire, with a monitor on each card.

I have a feeling the 2nd setup would be better, but I'm curious if there really is a difference.

 

[JavaKid]

Well, thats what I was wondering. If the cards are sycned together (CrossfireX) and the two monitors are plugged into one card, like the pcie_1 slot card had the two monitor card plugged into it. The issue might be, if I'm reading the amd website correctly(Or I seemed to have read it somewhere), that when you utilize CrossfireX, you can only run a game in 'Full Screen' mode which would only allow me to see/play one of my eve-online accounts at a time.

I will try this and find out and then repost.

Best Regards,
JavaKid

 

[Nemi87]

I dont think you can run 2 accounts on 2 screens. That would take 2 active Windows boots. You can't run 2 accounts at once, unless you run one virtualy.

 

[cromedome]

a few years back my uncle had done the same thing with windows XP,,, but i'm not sure about if he was using 1 card or 2 cards, but he definately had 2 screens(2 active accounts) and one PC

 

[paperfox]

I know with EVE you can have as many active accounts open at the same time, but you can only have one trial account open.

For the eyefinity set each account to windowed mode and choose only you native resolution in the graphics settings(ex, 1680x1050) and not dual screen (3360x1050) that way you will be able to have 2 screens open.

 

[builderbobftw]

Why did you buy 2 5870's for EVE? Why not just stick to a 4850 or something. EVE isn't exactly Crysis.

 

[liquidsnake718]

Why did you buy 2 5870's for EVE? Why not just stick to a 4850 or something. EVE isn't exactly Crysis.

Yeah, why not just play with a decent laptop next to your crzy PC? You need two boot OS's to run two seperate screens, although can you ply with two windowed modes if you are playing the other game of another seperate HDD?

 

[paperfox]

You don’t need two computers, two hard drives, or even two screens for that matter to run two EVE online clients. They don’t even need to be in windowed mode, though be prepared to alt tap a lot. I remember along time ago a dev ran 12 of them on an overclocked P4 with two screens and the clients where only running at like 800x600 with the lowest texture settings.

 

[builderbobftw]

Still, am I the only one that thinks that using 2 5870s for EVE is like hunting squirels with an RPG?

 

[builderbobftw]

A 4850 is overkill for EVE, nevermind 2 5870s.

Recomended specs:
"Video: 256 MB Shader Model 3.0 Graphics cards such as GeForce 8 class card or higher, ATi 3000 series or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers"

http://support.eve-online.com/Pages/KB/Article.aspx?id=124

"2ghz"

 

[mohsentux]

you bought 2 5870s [:mohsentux:5]
that's something

 

[builderbobftw]

Yeh, a overkill.