Gaming Across Three Screens: GTX 460, GTX 480, And Quad-SLI

Conclusion

Looking at the average performance charts, one might be deceived into believing that four-way SLI is a dud. The truth is somewhat murkier however, as our maximum settings for two games required four-way SLI to achieve smooth game play. The problem is consistency, as it appears that CPU overhead has reduced the configuration’s maximum frame rate under moderate graphics load in a way that really hurts any analysis of average performance.

At the other end of the price spectrum, anyone who doesn’t require anti-aliasing will find the GeForce GTX 460 SLI configuration suitable for playing nearly any game across three 1600x900 displays. Some games can successfully be expanded to triple 1920x1080 displays using these cards, while others can handle the middle resolution with AA enabled.

In the middle, two GTX 480 graphics cards can handle three 1920x1080 displays, but occasionally require AA to be disabled. The added performance of three-way SLI, though signficant, is rarely a barrier-breaker.

Our biggest disappointment came from the monitors themselves. Playing at 1080p across three monitors is akin to sighting your enemy through a gun slit. Gaming aficionado Chris Angelini voiced an interest in large 4:3 displays, but this editor can’t think of any that are large enough to separate forward vision from peripheral vision.

Perhaps a triplet of 1920x1200 displays would be the best compromise, but the 16:10 aspect ratio is becoming difficult to find. Anyone who completely agrees with that assessment might want to take a small risk with a trio of these mid-quality units while they’re still available.