Physx and 3 Monitors?

[nsouter853]

So I'm planning on buying a custom gaming rig from CyberPower once the release date for SWTOR is announced. I want to run it with Physx and 3 monitors.

My first question is, how many graphics cards will I need to run an MMO on the highest graphics setting on 3 monitors? What graphics card/cards do you suggest?

Next, what will I need to do to get Physx on 3 monitors? Can I use the graphics cards I am already using (theoretically, once I buy them, I don't have anything yet) for the 3 monitor setup to run Physx? Or do I need to add a third card dedicated to running Physx?

If I do need a dedicated Physx card, does it need to be the same card as the other cards? Can I run Radeon cards and one Nvidia card (the Nvidia for Physx)?

Essentially, to run an MMO on full graphics on 3 monitors, AND Physx on top of that, what graphics cards will I need, and how many will I need?

Thanks to any help!

 

[nsouter853]

In case you need it, the monitors will be 23" with 1920x1080 resolution.

 

[benski]

If you want 3 monitors and dedicated physx you would need 3 nvidia cards (2 card to span the 3 screens and 1 dedicated physx) or one ATI card for the 3 screens (it would have to be a 6970 or 6990 to actually driive the 3 screens at a descent frame rate) and an nvidia card for physx and the hacked driver that lets you use physx with a radeon installed.

What MMO are you playing? I don't know of any that acutally use hardware physx so I think you would be wasting your time and money with a dedicated card.

If you really do think you need physx and 3 screens I would recommend dual GTX 570s in SLI for the 3 screens and a GTX 260 for physx so you don't have to mess with the hacked drivers.

 

[bystander]

I'd recommend getting dual 570/580's. You can look for double ram versions. They do make 580's with 3GB, you'll likely want those versions.

It'll be rare that you'll need a physX card, and when you do, you should have plenty of power with the 580's to use it.

 

[bystander]

I'd like to point out one thing. When using two forms of new tech, it becomes increasingly harder to get good FPS.

When I play with 470's in SLI (about the performance of 560 ti's), I can play Crysis 2 in Dx11, but when I attempt to use 3D and Dx11, I get sub 20 FPS. This is because my cards now have to generate 2 1080p images at once as well as performing all the Dx11 stuff. You are attempting to run 3 1080p monitors at once and PhysX or Dx11. When playing metro 2033, I can use physX, I can use Dx11, but not with 3D, two monitors worth is too much.

When it comes to PhysX, Dx11 and 3 1080p monitors, you will not likely be able to use all 3 of those at once the vast majority of the time. You'll be having to pick and choose.

 

[ubercake]

I think the unfortunate part is MMORPGs are typically CPU-intensive. Unless SWTOR is going to be different and revolutionary in how it operates, I'm thinking even if you had tremendous graphics capability, it would be under-utilized for your purposes.

 

[benski]

^Wait, you have Crysis 2 DX11 and 3D working at all? How? When I try and use 3D vision with DX11 enabled it doesn't work, it just stutters really bad at the splash screen with the cryeye and then 3D vision shuts down and enabling stereo 3d in the crysis menu does nothing. It works in DX9, but I read it won't work with 3d vision in DX11 until Nvidia releases a new driver.

What driver version are you using? And do you have everything else maxed in Crysis 2?

Directed at bystander.

 

[bystander]

I only tried it for a short bit in Crysis 2. I tried it with AMD's setup and Nvidia's. To be honest, I can't 100% remember what all worked and didn't. I thought I got it to work with Nvidia for a little bit with horrible results, maybe it was just AMD's version that worked, but FPS took a huge nose dive.

 

[benski]

Ok, thanks. I'm guessing it must have been AMD, everything I've seen says 3D vision isn't working with DX11 turned on.

 

[bystander]

I'll try it right now, now that I'm thinking about it. Just because it says it's not working, doesn't always mean it doesn't work, but it doesn't work well.

 

[bystander]

Ya, it must have been AMD 3d that worked, but with low FPS. The Nvidia 3D vision is only updating 1 eye. When I first showed up, it looked like 3D, as soon as I moved, the right eyes image never changed, which was really disorienting...now I know what a pigeon sees with eyes being independent on each side of it's head.

 

[benski]

Lol sound weird. On mine the green light on the transmitter dims right after launch and the glasses just stop doing anything at all other than looking dorky.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey