Need help for tripple screen display

[mileswestgate]

so basically, im looking into getting a 3 monitor setup, i currently have a custom made intel i7 desktop pc with 8gb ram, 1tb hard drive, gigabyte z68a-d3-b3 motherboard and a evga nvidea gtx 550ti graphics card.

i have been looking online and have been told that i can do this simply by buying a 2nd identical graphics card, but now im reading that i wont be able to play full screen across all 3 screens, among other problems can any1 help me out by telling me exactly what id need to buy or do to get 3 screens to play a full screen game across them all.

thanks.


Don't...

Bump posts


http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283384-33-read-first

 

[AdioKIP]

Buying another 550 would allow you to hook up more monitors, but its not the solution you're looking for. You want EyeFinity / Surround view (EyeFinity = ATI / Surround View = Nvidia). You need one video card that can handle all 3 monitors and make them into one large high resolution screen. Any of ATI 6 or 7 series cards can do this, or nvididias latest 6 series cards can. The more powerful the card and more Vram the better. I would recommend an AMD 7950 or 7970 for best results.

 

[mileswestgate]

so all i would need to buy is a amd 7950 or 7970 and that will do the trick? nothing else? is there a nvidea card you can recommend or are the amd ones better?

 

[mileswestgate]

will i need some kinda of adapter for the screens because looks like the amd 7950 only has 1 output?

 

[kit_fox]

so all i would need to buy is a amd 7950 or 7970 and that will do the trick? nothing else? is there a nvidea card you can recommend or are the amd ones better?

Personally I would recommend the new 6xx series nvidia cards as I feel their price and performance slightly edges out ATI, they will run with Surround View and allow you to play across 3 monitors with a single video card. What would your budget be if you are buying a new card so as I can make a recommendation.

 

[mileswestgate]

under £350 im looking at the amd 7950 at the moment if you can recommend one that rivals it and is cheaper or better in anyway please say

 

[kit_fox]

Might i recommend the following few options as a viable alternative to the 7950

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130779
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121635
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130771

All of which would outperform the 7950 and should be within your budget.

Some additional information about the 6xx series Nvidia cards lined up against the 79xx AMD cards can also be found at: http://hardocp.com/article/2012/05/14/geforce_680_670_vs_radeon_7970_7950_gaming_perf/4

 

[mileswestgate]

the amd 7950 will run 3 monitors playing say bf3 or wow on full graphics without any hickups tho right? if so id rather just buy that and get a ssd for my os

 

[kit_fox]

That is also dependant on your resolution but I would hazard to say that even with highend cards you may have a bit of a struggle to run a 3 display spread at full graphics without an SLI setup. If you want to still afford the SSD while going Nvidia for graphics you could scale back to a GTX 670 instead of the 680 and save quite a bit of money on the card to free up your budget.

 

[slapstick01]

With amd you will need to buy a active display port adapter to run 3 screens. With the 6xx's, you would not have to. I had a 7950 but it went bad, but it ran 3 monitors fine with that adapter unless you have a monitor with a native display port. With the new nvidias, you can run 3 off of one card without any adapters. I now have 2 670's.

 

[mileswestgate]

well i found a 7950 for £272 and a 30gb ssd for £40, and my motherboard isnt sli compatible only crossfire

 

[slapstick01]

The adapter doesn't cost that much, but I have read that people do not have much luck with them lasting more than 6 months to a year.

 

[kit_fox]

well i found a 7950 for £272 and a 30gb ssd for £40, and my motherboard isnt sli compatible only crossfire

sorry I meant to indicate SLI OR Crossfire

 

[mileswestgate]

so using the 7950 + an adapter will break after 6 months? so i should go for the nvidia gtx 670 or 680? and the nvidia will still play a game full screen across 3 monitors? and will last?

 

[mileswestgate]

okay so im looking at 670/680 thinking the 680's are out of my range so would the gtx 670 'ftw' card work?

 

[mileswestgate]

also would i need a splitter for the 3 screens into the card? or do i put 1 into my motherboard?

 

[kit_fox]

The 670 or 680 would not need any form of splitter, you would hook the 3 displays directly to the card individually.

 

[AdioKIP]

If looking at the stock 670's, they normally have 2 gigs of ram. Compared to the 79xx with 3 gigs, the 79xx cards from ATI tend to do better at higher resolutions (EyeFinity / Surround View resolutions of 5760x1080). I run a 7950 and love it. Works great and allows me to run 4 monitors. The card is definitely NOT powerful enough to max every game at EyeFinity resolutions but no single card can do this right now. As far as adapters, the current ones are much better than what originally came out when EyeFinity was first released with the 5xxx series. Before upgrading to monitors with displayports my HIS DP to DVI adapter worked fine for 2 years connected to my 5850.

 

[mileswestgate]

The 670 or 680 would not need any form of splitter, you would hook the 3 displays directly to the card individually.

looking at it i can only see 2 outputs on the 670 tho

 

[kit_fox]

looking at it i can only see 2 outputs on the 670 tho

Most of the 670 cards (all the ones I know of) do have two DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 displayport input on them but it is up to the manufacturer how they configure the 4 inputs. your monitor configuration would come into play at that point as most current monitors will support HDMI and DVI natively without an adaptor but not displayport.

 

[mileswestgate]

okay im getting 3 AOC E943FWS 18.5 inch Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/White (1366 x 768, 250 cd/m2) looks like there is only a d-sub onit so what would i need to buy to connect all 3 into the card? 2 dsub - dvi and 1 dsub to hdi?

 

[kit_fox]

okay im getting 3 AOC E943FWS 18.5 inch Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/White (1366 x 768, 250 cd/m2) looks like there is only a d-sub onit so what would i need to buy to connect all 3 into the card? 2 dsub - dvi and 1 dsub to hdi?

2 dsub - DVI and EITHER 1 dsub -hdmi or mini hdmi (depending on card manufacturer and whether they put a full size or mini port on the card) OR 1 dsub - display port

However alot of cards these days come with some adaptors so make sure you check what the card you decide on comes with before buying adaptors or you may end up with extras you dont need.

 

[mileswestgate]

looking at the 670's and 680's atm, there are so many to choose from and i dont know that much about them yet budget is £400 can you point me towards a specific one for my needs?

 

[kit_fox]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121634

is a very nice card within your budget though does not appear to come with adaptors so you would need to buy 2 dsub -DVI adaptors and 1 dsub to displayport OR 1 dsub to mini-hdmi to meet your 3 monitor requirement.

A good overclocking and performance overview for this specific card can be found at:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/21/asus_geforce_gtx_680_directcu_ii_top_gpu_review/1

Which compares the stock 680 versus the Asus factory overclock versus further overclocking by the author

 

[mileswestgate]

yh just watched that video so glad i did, that card is 12 inch's long and wont fit in my case so gutted looks amazing!

can you recommend another?