Comperable GPu but with 3 monitors?

[RichterFry]

Hi, I have a Geforce GTX 560 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500206) and I'm looking to get a different graphics card that would give about the same performance as this card, but would also be able to run on 3 monitors.

I use my PC for gaming but only use 1 monitor for gaming (my other monitor at the moment is used for streaming things/iTunes/whatever). I'd be willing to sacrifice some performance. I mainly play LoL, but I also play a lot of skyrim and some BF3. I've looked at some random graphs with statistics on them, but honestly those don't mean much to me. Would I see much of a difference between the card I mentioned above, and something like this?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202012&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-14-202-012-_-Product

Or perhaps are there any alternatives to getting a new GPU? I assume getting an AMD is either my only option, or at least my best.

 

[bigshootr8]

If you are looking for a 3 monitor setup. I would go with AMD. I've had both and I will say that AMD handles multi monitor support quite a bit better then the NVIDIA counterpart NVIDIA surround. Your assumptions it would be your best options given what you are after doing. And since you are playing skyrim you will have more ram to pull from with cards like the 7950 and the 7970 which stock versions come with 3. A 7770 the one you linked wouldn't be enough. A standard 7950 and 7970 could get the job done on a maxed out 1080p machine with out AA+AF you would more then likely need a 2nd of those cards to push everything on with a 3 monitor setup.

 

[blitzxgene]

Are we talking 1080p x3? If so, you'd need both quite a bit of vram (important) and a fairly high end card. I'm running an overclocked gtx 670 w/ 2GB vram at 2560 by 1440 which is able to play most games (minus the extremes like metro 2033) with highest settings without AA. For triple monitors you should probably go towards amd. Although nvidia makes cards with 4Gb of ram, the 256-bit bus really hurts the bandwidth of the cards at higher resolutions. In most cases, going from 4xaa to 8xaa on games will incur a severe performance hit because of bandwidth.

However, because i just finally read your post, your current card would actually work fine if you are only doing single monitor gaming. The 7770 you linked is a weaker card by quite a bit compared to the 560. This card however, would be a noticeable upgrade without breaking the bank: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999

 

[siddharthmukul007]

amd is indeed the best option when it comes to multi monitors.
I would suggest you go for the 7850 or better still the 7870
2gb of v ram helps a lot when it comes to multi monitors

 

[bigshootr8]

Right something in line with his previous card would be something like a 7850 a upgrade but hopefully you know what I mean same price bracket buyer. You could run decent settings just not the top stuff.

 

[RichterFry]

Are we talking 1080p x3? If so, you'd need both quite a bit of vram (important) and a fairly high end card. I'm running an overclocked gtx 670 w/ 2GB vram at 2560 by 1440 which is able to play most games (minus the extremes like metro 2033) with highest settings without AA. For triple monitors you should probably go towards amd. Although nvidia makes cards with 4Gb of ram, the 256-bit bus really hurts the bandwidth of the cards at higher resolutions. In most cases, going from 4xaa to 8xaa on games will incur a severe performance hit because of bandwidth.

However, because i just finally read your post, your current card would actually work fine if you are only doing single monitor gaming. The 7770 you linked is a weaker card by quite a bit compared to the 560. This card however, would be a noticeable upgrade without breaking the bank: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102999

Yeah I'm only going to be gaming on 1, maybe 2 monitors at a time. It's just that I have 3 monitors, and can only use 2 right now, and I really want to be able to use my third.

Go figure, the card you linked is $10 more in Canada. Of the specifications of that card, what am I looking for? I don't understand most of the important stuff when it comes to graphics cards. more RAM means better performance on higher res/more screens, I assume?

 

[bigshootr8]

Windows 8 handles multi monitor setups like you are talking about better I think with windows 7 you are stuck with 1 with a extended desktop stretching along 3 screens or games playing on all 3. However some games I think won't stretch to 3 screens.

 

[blitzxgene]

Yeah I'm only going to be gaming on 1, maybe 2 monitors at a time. It's just that I have 3 monitors, and can only use 2 right now, and I really want to be able to use my third.

Go figure, the card you linked is $10 more in Canada. Of the specifications of that card, what am I looking for? I don't understand most of the important stuff when it comes to graphics cards. more RAM means better performance on higher res/more screens, I assume?

Benchmarks are mostly what you have to go by for cards. There are factors you can look at to determine if the card is fast, such as core clock, memory clock, bit bus, and the amount of vram, but they wont tell you the whole story. In the case of multi monitor, you need a larger bit bus(ideally) and a larger amount of vram. The bit bus (256+ is standard for higher end cards) affects how much information at a given moment can pass between the gpu and it's vram. A smaller bit bus would be limiting things such as performance at higher resolutions. For vram, in order for a card to efficiently process information with 3 screens, it would be ideal to have visual data all stored on a larger amount of vram versus swapping the information out rapidly from a hdd/ssd. I'm not being entirely accurate, but that would be a general idea of how it works.

 

[Sunius]

I'd go for something like GTX 660. It will support 3 monitors and consume less power. It's also quite a bit faster than your current card.

 

[RichterFry]

Best answer selected by RichterFry.