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This is worst time to buy cards for mult-monitor setup!

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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Graphics card Expert

I can't beleive I am in this situation:

I am not a fanboy either way, but I want to go Nvidia on this one because I already have the 3D vision kit, and I don't want to deal with displayport adapters which goes along with Eyefinity, and I do like Phsyx, so I'd rather have it than not.

So with that being said, I've been looking at cards from Nvidia's camp to run in SLI (you need SLI to run Nvidia Surround)

I want a card with lots of V-RAM, preferably 2GB or more because at the resolution I want to run (5760X1080) it takes alot of Video memory to allow things like AA.

Here is the issue: As of now there is only one card (available) with 2GB of ram, and that is a GTX 560ti.... altogether not a bad performing card when overclocked, but it is a Palit card, and has a horrible red PCB to boot.

The other option (it's not even listed on newegg anymore) is a GTX 580 3GB card (also by Palit) This card is not as ugly as the 560, and even has a decent cooler on it, but I want more than a single GTX580's performance (in fact I would need two just to run 3 monitors), I am coming from GTX 570 SLI, so I don't want to downgrade at all.

So you say: "Get two GTX 580 3GB for SLI" But my power supply is 850W so that's not happening, and no I don't want to get a 1K power supply because I feel bad for my parents electric bill as it is, lol.

So basically Nvidia has put me in this situation: Their only card with decent V-Ram is a mid-ranged gpu, the only other options is to SLI GTX 580 3GB which has insane power requirements, and they aren't even available for purchase.What I would love is GTX 570 with 2.5GB of ram, but of course that will never happen.


Somebody sympathise with me, or even try and convince me to go ATI on this one...

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Graphics card Authority

Judging by what you're saying, you should probably go with ATI on this one.

You did most of the legwork with the actual argument, that's just my personaly conclusion...

2 x 6950's/6970's, ATI have 3D as well you know.
Graphics card Expert

The pain of dealing with display port adapters is probably easier to deal with than selecting an nVidia card with the requirements you want.

Though you already do have the nVidia 3D Vision kit, which kinda makes it harder to switch.

You could probably live without Physx compared to the 3D kit though.

hm... u feel bad for your parents electrical bill what does that mean? seems like your planning to run at least 3 monitors and you say you got 570 in sli? not sure you care enough about your parents electrical bill... you want 3d surround on nvidia with all games cranked up across three monitors? your are going to need a lot of graphics power and that comes with a lot of power consumption... and a computer with a 1000w psu doesnt use 1000w all the time it is on... it uses up to 1000w... nvidia 3d surround is expensive... but if you really cared about electrical bills you should have gone ati
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Graphics card Master

tomate2 said:
hm... u feel bad for your parents electrical bill what does that mean? seems like your planning to run at least 3 monitors and you say you got 570 in sli? not sure you care enough about your parents electrical bill... you want 3d surround on nvidia with all games cranked up across three monitors? your are going to need a lot of graphics power and that comes with a lot of power consumption... and a computer with a 1000w psu doesnt use 1000w all the time it is on... it uses up to 1000w... nvidia 3d surround is expensive... but if you really cared about electrical bills you should have gone ati

But he wants hassle free.

yeah... just checked he was pretty clear about not wanting to deal with adapters...
i guess his parents are the only one who will have to go through a hassle of paying his games parts and electric bill
he seems to know what he wants not sure about what he is asking

sounds like its more your fault for being so pretentious about something that has no bearing on the cards performance( color of the PCB). suck it up and worry about performance rather that stupid stuff.
Graphics card Authority

wooodoggies said:
its also pathetic that you are gonna spend all this money to run the bills up but doesnt sound like HELPING PAY THE BILL has ever crossed your spoiled mind.


+1

This is confusing. You were kinda considering on getting GTX 580s in SLI configuration, you own 570 in SLI, yet you for some reason don't consider the option of purchasing a PSU to accommodate for 580s?

Despite you have a 570 in SLI configuration you were thinking of going down to 560?
You sir, makes no sense.
Graphics card Authority

Mousemonkey said:
Which bit of "I don't want to deal with displayport adapters which goes along with Eyefinity" did you not understand? :pfff: 


he said "Somebody sympathise with me, or even try and convince me to go ATI on this one... " so i think my post isnt that bad after all :) 
Graphics card Master

Derbixrace said:
he said "Somebody sympathise with me, or even try and convince me to go ATI on this one... " so i think my post isnt that bad after all :) 

I fail to see how that's a convincing argument to put up the displayport issues.
Graphics card Master

Derbixrace said:
isnt low enough power consumption so he can keep his 850W and much better bang for buck than GTX 580 3GB enough reasons? to me it is.

You have still not addressed the displayport adapter issue which is the reason given by the OP as to why they do not wish to use ATi/AMD cards so no, your reasons are not enough IMO.
Graphics card Expert

Wow, I feel like I've just been to an Annisman roast.

Let's get one thing straight, I do chip in on the electric bill over here, but I want to avoid a 'shock and awe' campaign when my parents see the bills coming in.

MM has done a good job of defending my dislike for ATI's solution, I just don't want to deal with displayport, and/or some funky version of 3D.

@ May1 Don't you understand, that is why I am in this situation....to get a card with decent V-RAM I would have to downgrade to a mid-end set of cards.

@ Derbixrace: your suggestion would be good, if I wanted to go ATI, and tbh I was never impressed with ATI's last round of cards (6*** series)

@ Tomate2 : give me a break brother.

@ CODFAN: I have seen numerous benchmarks where 1GB of VRam really holds back a setup.

Annisman said:
Wow, I feel like I've just been to an Annisman roast.

Let's get one thing straight, I do chip in on the electric bill over here, but I want to avoid a 'shock and awe' campaign when my parents see the bills coming in.

@ May1 Don't you understand, that is why I am in this situation....to get a card with decent V-RAM I would have to downgrade to a mid-end set of cards.



Seriously the only constraint you have against the 580 is that you don't want your parents to see the bills when they come in. You already HAVE a 570 SLI configuration. Upgrading it to a 580 SLI configuration, only has a marginal increase of 50w (use the power extreme calculator to do the maths). That's the equivalent of1 lightbulb. Assuming you turn on the PC and play games 2hrs a day, that's 01.kwh per day, or 3kwh per month. It depends on where you live, but that is no more than $2 a month increase for using that configuration.
With this in mind, it made no sense to me for you to go with 560 configuration when you have the money to buy 580s.
Graphics card Authority

Well, if you're monitors are 1920x1080 or less, you could use a passive adapter.

Since you don't want to deal with adapters, I say buy some DisplayPort monitors and side with the Next-Gen, royalty-free port.
Graphics card Master

Mousemonkey said:
I fail to see how that's a convincing argument to put up the displayport issues.


I fail to see where the "hassle" is in buying a $33 part

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55482.

What I fail to see is why you're always so adamantly against Radeon.


Anyway, OP, those 2gb 560's would be pretty good. Red PCB isn't really so bad! And then you get PhysX and 3D.

EDIT: Wait you already have 570s?? How about just trying those... You might have to do with less/no AA but otherwise they should do the trick just fine.
Graphics card Expert

What exactly is the issue with display port adapters? You get a $30 active adapter, plug it into your GPU, connect a DVI, or VGA cable to it, go into CCC and very quickly and simply configure your displays. If you can create a thread as long as this one, you can do ATI multi display.
Graphics card Authority

I wouldn't worry about the power bill (dual 580's). The cost would be small (definitely not a 'shock') even if you had those dual 580's running hard all the time. The cards idle at very low power, so anytime you are not playing games/folding/CUDA the cards will use about the same power as the 570s. See if you can find this guy anywhere: http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/item/21800-gainward-gtx...

I don't know anything about Gainward, but that is a beautiful card in my opinion.
Graphics card Expert

Annisman said:
Wow, I feel like I've just been to an Annisman roast.

Let's get one thing straight, I do chip in on the electric bill over here, but I want to avoid a 'shock and awe' campaign when my parents see the bills coming in.

MM has done a good job of defending my dislike for ATI's solution, I just don't want to deal with displayport, and/or some funky version of 3D.

@ May1 Don't you understand, that is why I am in this situation....to get a card with decent V-RAM I would have to downgrade to a mid-end set of cards.

@ Derbixrace: your suggestion would be good, if I wanted to go ATI, and tbh I was never impressed with ATI's last round of cards (6*** series)

@ Tomate2 : give me a break brother.

@ CODFAN: I have seen numerous benchmarks where 1GB of VRam really holds back a setup.



The best choice is just to wait. ;(
Graphics card Expert

Very true EXT64. Modern PC components are making huge leaps in the power efficiency
direction. The past years' releases are a testament to that. (Just went to the Chicago Auto Show, the same thing is happening in that industry). Let's give a big thanks to the engineers in our world! Great job!
Graphics card Expert

Ok. sorry guys, after re-reading my first post, I can see that I did not make some things very clear.

What I meant to say is that I am COMING from a GTX 570 SLI setup ( I had to sell my cards a month ago to help my brother pay some bills). The point is that I don't want to get less than that performance, or at least, much less.

For those of you saying the only thing holding me back is the electric bill, you are wrong.

Let me show you:

2X GTX 580 3GB (the extra ram also = extra watts) + my 8800GT for Phsyx, plus sound card, highly overclocked CPU, 12GB of ram...all my fans and hard drives etc...

The point is that I was probably cutting it close to my 850W limit back with the 570's... by going GTX 580 3GB SLI, there is no way I get away with a 850W power supply. Which bring me to another gripe, I don't want to upgrade my power supply, it's costly and quite frankly a PITA to swap one out and back in again.

Damn that does suck...


Between the hassle and (high cost) of a new psu, or an adapter for 3D vision/eyefinity. I would choose the red pcb gtx 560. Simply because, although it's a down grade, I doubt you'll feel like you're missing anything and it's the simplest answer.

I understand ur feeling about the aesthetics. That's half the fun! I think the red might actually look pretty damn good in that case.
Graphics card Authority

If you want my suggestion, go with two 6970's in Crossfire and suck it up with the DisplayPort scenario.

Aside from that, once again suck it up and upgrade your PSU to 1KW and get the GTX 580's in SLI.
Graphics card Expert

Griffolion, I love the way you think, I wish I had balls of steel like you man.

I actually did alot of 'looking into' an HD 6970 crossfire rig, and I was SOLD on it.... except for when I got to the end of all the reviews. Apparently crossfire 6970 is a NIGHTMARE when it comes to noise and gpu temps. From what I can gather, unless you can space the cards apart (I can't) then don't even try to do it. Then I looked for aftermarket versions of the 6970, and guess what ? There are none. Great.
Graphics card Expert

rhsnipes said:
Damn that does suck...


Between the hassle and (high cost) of a new psu, or an adapter for 3D vision/eyefinity. I would choose the red pcb gtx 560. Simply because, although it's a down grade, I doubt you'll feel like you're missing anything and it's the simplest answer.

I understand ur feeling about the aesthetics. That's half the fun! I think the red might actually look pretty damn good in that case.


Thanks for being sympathetic, everyone else wants to burn me alive. I mean, you pay thousands of dollars for your hardware, you want it to at least match when you put it in your case with a giant window!

I think I might have fun with the 570's, they're spunky little guys with lots of OC headroom (who wouldn't want a gpu running at 1GHZ ? Eh ?) Plus, if I can OC them that far, they will actually be equivalent with GTX 570 SLI performance, plus I will have the 2GB of V-RAM, so you could say, in a way, that I will be upgrading afterall.
Graphics card Authority

That's fair enough if noise is an issue, i can't say i've ever really been affected by noise as when i'm gaming i have my headset on and all i can hear is the sound of me getting my ass kicked on BC2.

But anyway, unless you want to go for two 2GB GTX 560's and overclock them, then you'll have to make a PSU upgrade and get a 580 with a view to SLI'ing a second in the future.
Graphics card Expert

Yeah, unfortunately for me, my great set of gaming headphones was stepped on by my infamous brother. (Siberian Steel Series 2)

And unlike some people, I wouldnt want my cards getting up to 95C, which apparently some CF 6970's do regularly.
Graphics card Authority

I think I have to recommend the 560s too. After looking at it again, it looks like it has pretty decent cooling and OCes well. The red is unfortunate, however I agree that >1GB of ram is essential for SLI/CF. So the 580s require a new PSU (and cost way too much $$), the 6970s won't let you use your 3D vision kit and require displayport and run hot when OC'ed, and the only negative of the 560s is that they are red and will run a little slower than your 570s. Seems to me the 560s would be what you'd have the most fun with, assuming the palits are decent build quality (anyone seen a review of them?).
Graphics card Master

Annisman said:
Thanks, but no thanks, I could never use anything other than Siberian Steel Series headphones, I'm not even making this up, they are that amazing.


Oh man I owned Steel Series 5H for about a day, they sucked so hard! The sound was super tinny and absolutely zero bass. I decided to spend the cash and bought Sennheiser PC350s when I returned the SS5Hs. These babies are fantastic.

And yeah 2gb 560 Ti SLI, overclocked, should work nicely.
Graphics card Master

wolfram23 said:
I fail to see where the "hassle" is in buying a $33 part

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55482.

What I fail to see is why you're always so adamantly against Radeon.


Anyway, OP, those 2gb 560's would be pretty good. Red PCB isn't really so bad! And then you get PhysX and 3D.

EDIT: Wait you already have 570s?? How about just trying those... You might have to do with less/no AA but otherwise they should do the trick just fine.


I've seen so many threads from folk who have bought various DP adapters and still failed to end up with some that work that I fail to see why you think it's such a good idea.
Graphics card Master

Mousemonkey said:
I've seen so many threads from folk who have bought various DP adapters and still failed to end up with some that work that I fail to see why you think it's such a good idea.


Well more than likely because I haven't seen such threads. But it may be true, I don't know.
Graphics card Expert

EXT64 said:
I think I have to recommend the 560s too. After looking at it again, it looks like it has pretty decent cooling and OCes well. The red is unfortunate, however I agree that >1GB of ram is essential for SLI/CF. So the 580s require a new PSU (and cost way too much $$), the 6970s won't let you use your 3D vision kit and require displayport and run hot when OC'ed, and the only negative of the 560s is that they are red and will run a little slower than your 570s. Seems to me the 560s would be what you'd have the most fun with, assuming the palits are decent build quality (anyone seen a review of them?).


This ^

These are words from a wise man.

And I can't find a review of the 2GB 560 anywhere.
Graphics card Authority

Yeah, that is what I was afraid of. I have no experience with Palit, so I know nothing of their build quality or service. However, the fact that they are the only ones smart enough to throw 2GB on a 560 speaks well of the company.

The few reviews on Newegg (I know, a stretch) seem to say the cards seem pretty well designed and run cool (as long as you have a well ventilated case).

I imagine the cards would run identical to the stock cards in single mode - the benefits of the 2GB would mostly be evident in SLI with high res and AA.
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