Considering a 2560 x 1440 display

[gatorguy89]

So I'm thinking of getting a 1440p monitor for gaming and video editing/graphics work, and I have some questions going into it.

1. To those who own such monitors, how do you like them, and would you recommend them? Any pros and cons I should be aware of? I currently have a 21.6" 1920 x 1080 monitor, is the difference between the two as big as I've been hearing/

2. What kind of GPU will I need to run games on this monitor at atleast 30fps with high settings? I'm currently using a Sapphire Radeon 6870 toxic and it says it can support 2560 x 1440, but I'm sure I'll need something more powerful. I can post the other specs of my system if need be.

3. Similar to the above question, but in regards to working with high def video around 1 hour in length.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[ulillillia]

One thing: do you mean 2560x1600 as a single monitor or 2560x1440 as a pair of 1280x720 monitors side by side? There's a difference. I would like 2560x1600 myself, but not for gaming, but rather for productivity reasons, but at $1000, it's not worth getting unless you're rich.

1. I have 1920x1440 on a CRT and compared to 1600x1200, it's nice having all that screen space available.

2. I would think you'd need at least a GeForce 580 for that though I'm fairly uncertain on that.

3. With 1920x1080 filling a 2560x1600 area, you'll definitely have plenty of room available for menus, options, and other GUI elements. Length doesn't matter - that's more of a CPU thing than GPU (GPU for decompressing the video, provided the video editing program you use uses the GPU).

 

[gatorguy89]

I'm not looking at a multi display setup, just a single 2560 x 1440 monitor. My current setup is an AMD/ATI rig, though i'm not opposed to getting a nvidia card i'd prefer the comparable ATI card if it's needed.

 

[blakphoenix]

I use the 27" apple led cinema display at work (2650x1440) and the dell 27" ultrasharp at home (2650x1440) & there is a MASSIVE difference for both gaming and productivity on a 1440p monitor.

1. Yes, I would recommend them both in a heartbeat! As a graphic designer, tv commercial/video editor and a gamer I can see huge differences in the way graphics are displayed and it is worth every penny to have the extra real estate and the true to life colours that both these displays can produce.

2. I am running a 6950 2GB at factory settings with 8GB ram and a i5 750 processor to run my 27" dell and i can tell you that games like BF3 get taxed a LOT at this resolution. Other games like EVE Online, WoW, Portal, etc work great on my setup however BF3 just on it's own really does bring my card to it's knees at high/ultra settings, low/medium and i can blitz the fps though at a very playable level. I've seen that dual 6950's ace games at this resolution however that's still a hefty price tag after the $500-$700 you shell out for a nice monitor at this res.

3. It will not matter the size of a monitor when you render video's that it completely dependant on your RAM & CPU.

Lastly i'd just like to say that in my view there is something very wrong about having an amazing machine and not giving it the best display possible, after all, what use are shiny graphics cards if you cant see they true shiny graphics on your shite monitor!

 

[thesnappyfingers]

for that resolution you will need a dual gpu setup if you want very good gaming performance when it comes to high demanding gpu games such as bf3, metro 2033, or crysis.

like pheonix said two hd 6950s 1gb would give you very good gaming performance or two gtx 560 tis.

One single hd 6970 or a gtx 580 would give you good gaming performance at that res.

AMD is releasing their new 7000 series real soon (I think it is out just not avalible to the public yet) so you might to wait to upgrade your gpu when these are released.

You could alternatively xfire your 6870 to get performance that exceeds the gtx 580 and 6970, however you run into issues such as micro stuttering and you also need a larger psu (stuttering might not be a big deal, however I don't run amd cards so i cant say for certain)

I would probably not opt for dual 6950s or 560 tis, if you already have one 6870, i would probably xfire the 6870, or wait for the 7000 series.

Edit- it is important to say that two 6870 in xfire will not give you 'ultra' or maxed settings most likely high settings at roughly 35+ fps. This fps is highly dependent upon the game and its settings.

here are the benches for xfire 6870's
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-crossfirex-review/13

 

[gatorguy89]

I was just going to ask, if I crossfire 6870's, would I need the exact same card again, or would any 6870 work?

 

[thesnappyfingers]

any 6870 would work, however the card with the lowest clock would become the bottleneck. Meaning getting one card with a higher clock would not mean that the lower clocked card would equal the higher one.

You could always OC your cards though just try to get cards that have relatively similar specs.

 

[gatorguy89]

Cool, thanks for the info!

Edit: trying to find another sapphire 6870 toxic but they're hard to come by now. Guess I'll have to OC the next 6870.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Here's the results of the cards mentioned herein at 1920 x 1200....

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite, COD-MW, Bad Company 2, Dirt 2, Far Cry 2, Metro 2033, Dawn of Discovery, Crysis Warhead. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:
.

$ 170.00 6870 (434/701) $ 0.39 - $ 0.49
$ 220.00 6950 (479/751) $ 0.46 - $ 0.59
$ 240.00 6950 Frozr OC (484/759) $ 0.50 - $ 0.63
$ 205.00 560 Ti (455/792) $ 0.45 - $ 0.52
$ 320.00 6970 (526/825) $ 0.61 - $ 0.78
$ 215.00 560 Ti - 900 Mhz (495/862) $ 0.43 - $ 0.50

Keep in mind that 2560 x 1440 is 1.6 times the load of 1920 x 1440


Grabbing a 2nd 6870 shud get ya 701 fps that seems ya best bet.....

Grabbing two factory OC'd 6950's shud get ya 759 fps

Grabbing two factory OC'd 560 Ti's shud get ya 862 fps

Note that higher resolutions seem to favor the ATI cards ..... might wanna run over to Guru 3D and make some comparisons ..... I don't think the 6870 will pass those 560's but I'd guess the 6950 has at least a 50/50 shot at doing so at that res.....the 6870 even more so .... I've never bothered to look

 

[gatorguy89]

OK, last question. Can I crossfire two 6870's if one has 2gb of ddr5 and the other has 1gb? And if so, how would that affect the crossfire?

 

[blakphoenix]

yes but as far as im aware they will work with the lowest common denominator. ie. they will both act as if they only have 1gb.

(can someone confirm this)?

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, if one card has 1GB of RAM vs. the 2nd with 2GB of RAM, both cards will effectively act as if having only 1GB of RAM.

This is because the same textures are loaded into both cards. The RAM does not become shared by both cards.