Altermatives to installing two 6990's?

For $1400 there has to be a better alternative! I want to set up a high end eyefinity rig using 3 monitors at 27" or 30". (Haven't decided yet which monitors). I would just like to know if there is a better alternative for the money. What would be second best?

Too may problems with CF. I'm about to give up on it. I want to just tell you to get 3x 6970's, but I can't honestly say that you will be happy with it.

I also can't comment on the 3GB GTX 580 SLI suggestion, since i never owned any. But I did have a GTX 570 SLI set up, and it was much less problematic then the CF set up I have now. FPS rates were a little lower but the games seemed a lot smoother.

I decided to go the AMD route because I thought that 4GB of RAM would yield better performance across 3 monitors then 2.5GB offered by 2x GTX 570's. I was wrong.

Some, not most. Modern computer parts go through zero QC, unless you are paying for the very top tier parts, like this one here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814121470. People get defective parts all the time and sometimes don't even realize it. There shouldn't be any user issues because everything is plug and play now.

When I first got my new GPU's, I forgot to plug in the 6pin power cables into one of my HD 6950's, it started emitting a terrible noise when powered on to get my attention. It's pretty much idiot proof.

My brother bought a HIS HD 5670 last fall. When connecting 2 monitors to the card, the screens would flicker randomly or when loading a video on youtube or hulu. Tech support tried to tell him that it's his computer and he needs to re install. Fortunately, he was smart enough to ignore the guy, RMA through newegg before the return period expired, and the problem disappeared. Didn't even need to reinstall the drivers.

So, I'm following suit. Just got an RMA# for one of my MSI HD 6950's which I believe is causing the issues. This thing gets louder then my blow dryer when running non demanding games while the other stays quiet.

what i meant by user issues soloman was not the hardwar,but the setting up of it.Drivers,how they are installed etc..


Sry purple,but a 580 does not beat the 6990 in all benchmarks,it wasnt about a 6990 against a sli 580,but 1 580.as quoted by you "A GTX580 is far more powerful than a 6970 "(which i believe you meant 6990)
Either way ,a 580 sli or a 6990 crossfire will probably be bottlenecked in some way by any cpu.

No I meant a single a 6970.A single GTX580 is more pwoerful than a single 6970.Since a 6990 is basicly x2 6970's on one card then it would be the same comparing a 6970 crossfire to a GTX580 SLI.A GTX580 SLI is more powerful than a single 6990.

A GTX580 SLI or a 6990 won't get bottlenecked as much as you'd think(of course anyone spending this much money on a GPU will have a powerful CPU to go with it).It's when you add the 3rd or 4th(6990 crossfire) card that it will start to get heavy for the CPU.That's where you need a fast CPU like a 2500k or 2600k.

GTX 580 SLI it is more expensive then a 6990, but only by about $130 or so.

the cheapest HD 6990 can be had for $710: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102927
with every 6990, you get free blow dryer sound effects that flips on every time the cards is pushed. nvidia used to be notorious for this. my old GTX 470's were the reason I went out and spent $180 on gaming headphones, i couldn't take the noise. when HD 6000 and GTX 500 came out, they seemed to have switched roles.

a pair of GTX 580 come out to $840 after rebates: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814162073
if you want reference 580's, you can take this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=3669 or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814500184

plus 2 free copies of batman, that can be resold for about $20 each.

In all honesty, I see absolutely zero reason to buy a 6990.

I went for HD 6970 in CF in place of gtx 570's i had a little while back just for the increased amount of VRAM. FPS rates went up but the games look like crap. Crysis 2 was much more smooth with the nvidia cards.

thats pretty much all of the games that i play. BF2, BF3, Crysis. I was thinking about getting Metro 2033, but people say it isn't worth it.

I do play black ops, zombie mode, but only on the PS3. the reason for that is because all my friends play it on the PS3.

I got a PS3 copy of that game for free, no sense buying it again. i started playing it, but don't like it. the trailers were very impressive though.

strange, it's the most i loved..... anyway i'm telling you that both AMD and nVidia GPUs depend on the game...

So with two GTX580's, could I make it do the same thing that eyefinity does? Is Eyefinity the gold standard for stretching the screen over 3 monitors? Does Intel have something just as capable?

If you want it to stay silent then the 6990 is definitly not the card you want unless you go with a water cooling solution.Since you already have one of the best version of GTX 570 ever made I would suggest getting another and O.C.ing.

and would be 2 GTX 570s in SLI capable of providing a great gaming experience at 5760× resolution with 1.5 GB of VRAM?

I guess my question above is what it comes down to or better yet, the last question that ilysami asked which is whether 2 GTX 570's are capable of driving 5760 resolution.

If they can't do it adequately, I guess it comes down to whether I will spend $1000 for two GTX 580's or $1400 for two 6990's. I guess I was just disillusioned because I thought that one 6990 would drive the 3 monitors or so I was told. There is a difference though between whether they will operate or whether they will operate smoothly.

oh you seem you don't get it, he is not gaming @ 1080P he will do Eyefinity (3 monitors on 5760x resolution) which will need at least 2GB available of VRAM to cope up with that resolution, and in order not to experience a lag of FPS he will need the most powerful GPUs such as GTX 590, HD 6990
check the link i provided above, a guy with 4-way 580 gets 43 fps when playing metro 2033 which isn't reasonable with 4-way SLI

All the games you mentioned not demanding games such as Crysis 2, Metro 2033, DXHR, BF3, the upcoming rage, Metro 2034.... no way HD 6970s CF /570s SLI

ilysami your on crack!


heres a vid I was just watching,not sure of the game,dont own it.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THytIxiIOSg

Ahh,your one of them,benchmarks mean crap,there just numbers,The vid wasnt posted for you,and if you actually read,i said i didnt know abvout the game,it was an example while googling 5760x1080 setups.

Try googling 5760X1080 and you will see many configs and what to expect from ACTUAL gameplay,not Numbers.

30 FPS is still playable in any game, but 60 FPS better for the eyecandy and the more FPS the more smooth and fast actions you feel and experience in front of you eyes
http://www.boallen.com/fps-compare.html

@ OP, a single HD 6K series from AMD that's eyefinity capable will run any game on 3 monitors, how smooth and fast is the game depends on how much powerful is your GPU and how many FPS you get.
580s SLI will require 1000W PSU, 6990s CF will require 1200W PSU (you'll add 300 bucks above your budget then)
6990s will give you the maximum performance while doing the eyefinity and will be some kind future proof for the upcoming games.

IMO, delay the eyefinity thing and enjoy gaming at 1080P with the single GTX 570 until the new AMD 7K series come out, 28nm is less power consumption & less heat and those GPUS are the new XDR2 technology which is twice faster than GDDR5, a single HD 7950 is said to be better than HD 6990 as some sites claimed

that's what i'm pointing at, but you can't deny that a lot of people can't differentiate between 30 FPS and more in gaming, but i noticed it with Crysis 2

The problem with x2 6990's is that almost any processor will bottleneck it.

yes, According to benchmarks AMD GPUs wins over nVidia on those games too

well, technically Deus Ex Human Revolution is the first games in series to have the "AMD Gaming Evolved Logo" so technically i was correct.
but i won't lie and say that i meant it... as i didn't get the chance to play those 2

and i just saw the intro of both on youtube, no "AMD Gaming Evolved" Logo is included