580, 6950, other & Display 1080p

[Guest]

Current system specs:

i5-2500k
MSI P67A-GD65
Antec 750w PSU
MSI 275gtx
8gb 1600
22" LG L227WTG 1680 x 1050
19" lcd garbage monitor I use to surf the web/netflix while gaming

Gaming PC. The only games I am interested in:
BF3, SW:TOR, Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3

K. I am resurrecting a previous thread because after reading a few things I think I have thoroughly wrapped myself around the axle.

I was originally looking at getting a 6970 and planned for about $300 to spend. After seeing some of the DX11/tessellation stuff I don't think I have adequately accounted for that factor for future games including the ones above which I am most interested in.

a) if I bumped my budget up another $100 I wondered if I would be better off to buy a 1080p monitor for say $150-$180 and buy the best card I can for $220-$250

b) just buy a better card with $400 (would likely wait for a 580 gtx to price drop)

c) try and find another 275gtx and sli

d) cf x2 6950's with 2gb each (i can OC minimally, I will not be replacing my PSU anytime soon)

e) breath, do nothing and wait and buy 2 weeks prior to one of the 4 releases (at which point I can hash all this out again later)

f) some other option which due to my stupidity, eludes me.

It seems like ram is going to be a problem for anyone wanting to enjoy the tessellation so does that mean 2gb becomes the min? hold out for a 3gb card? sli/cf two 2gb?

Like I said

 

[browsingtheworld]

Even if you get a 1080p monitor you don't really need anything more than a single 560 Ti/6950 to max out games. Unless you're planning to get 2 1080p monitors you're still only going to need a single card since they need to be the same resolution to extend games on them. You can use your existing monitors but you wouldn't be able to game on all 3 at the same time (not saying you would but if you were wondering).

That being said if you did want to use all 3 displays you should go with AMD unless you want to use 2 cards at the same time like a GTX 570 and your GTX 275. But you might get rid of the old monitor so it might not matter....

I would go to slickdeals.net, they have monitor deals all the time. But remember unless you're getting 2 of them you don't need to crossfire or SLi.

For 1080p you don't need more than 1GB of VRAM:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/331?vs=293

 

[Guest]

I would probably use 2 monitors like I do now. One to game on, the other for movies/web

 

[browsingtheworld]

It's still a single monitor for gaming purposes. The 560 Ti/6950 are good choices for that setting. Beyond that the GTX 570 can be found for significantly cheaper than the 6970 and would really be overkill.

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by vexille.