3 monitor gaming with 2xGTX 285?

[1ManArmy]

The title is pretty much the question: Could I use 2 GeForce GTX 285's with 3 monitors (with or without SLI) and achieve 3-monitor fullscreen gaming, or would I need to bite the bullet and get a TripleHead2Go, a third graphics card, or something else?

 

[microterf]

I could be dead wrong, but as far as I know, Eyefinity is the only way to play games over 3 monitors as one big image, I do remember hearing that Nvidia was going to do something similar however, and the drivers would allow the last generation 2xx cards to do it as well.

 

[multiscreenz]

You're better off getting a Triple head 2 go for full screen gaming. Sometime it doesn't work as well across two video cards, but you can set it up that way in stretch mode.

 

[WR2]

NVidia Vision Surround (or 3D Vision Surround) is still waiting on the delayed 256 that should have been out last week.
They're saying end of June now.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-surround-technology.html

 

[1ManArmy]

@Microterf - I know that Eyefinity is a good solution provided by ATI, but I also know that there are other ways of doing it... You must have recalled what WR2 posted, which seems like the perfect solution, and which i'll get back to...

@Multiscreenz - I fear doing this (TH2G) because the cost is huge, and my monitors are all widescreen, 1080p, which none of Matrox's solutions reach. Furthermore, with two cards, I don't even know if SLI would route the graphics power to the "one huge display", although theoretically it would work fine.

@WR2 - I THOUGHT there was a solution coming from nVidia regarding this, but I wasn't confident enough to suggest it! From my understanding of reading the links you posted, I would SLI the two cards and plug the monitors in 3 of the 4 DVI ports, nothing else needed...

My only concern is with this excerpt from nVidia's website:

Only GeForce GTX 400 GPUs deliver the graphics horsepower needed to power 3x Full HD 1080p 3D displays for an incredible 5760x1080 3D experience (over 750 million pixels/second)

I certainly think that 2 GTX 285's could handle 3 1080p panels! Does that mean for one individual GPU, or will they limit such a resolution to the 400 series? Or perhaps this is the case for 3D displays, and doesn't affect me, since I would be running in 2D?

 

[WR2]

Correct. SLI the cards and plug a 3rd monitor into the 2nd card.
Eyefinity does it the other way. All monitors are plugged into the first card - even if you have a crossfire setup.

I think that's Nvidia quote is more of a marketing plug to push sales of 4xx video cards.
Everything I've seen says GTX 260 and above cards are good to go.

 

[1ManArmy]

Best answer selected by 1ManArmy.

 

[1ManArmy]

Correct. SLI the cards and plug a 3rd monitor into the 2nd card.
Eyefinity does it the other way. All monitors are plugged into the first card - even if you have a crossfire setup.

I think that's Nvidia quote is more of a marketing plug to push sales of 4xx video cards.
Everything I've seen says GTX 260 and above cards are good to go.

Awesome! Well, I look forward to this summer then! Thanks WR2, and everyone else that helped!