Widescreen Gaming Forum

Noob – preparing for thigh bugged test eyefinity setup 3x1 landscape / portrait

Hello guys – lately I noticed the eyefinity/ nvidia soround gaming setup and I would like to try this one – the problem is that in country that I live the ‘true’ active DP > DVI connectors are impossible to get and very expensive so I would like to avoid getting this connector (eastern part of Europe)

Since I am a rather odd gamer –really tight budget and I actually don’t chase newer titles, the gpu power isn’t *that* big of a mater for me (I plan to relive some of older games like HL2, System shock 2, Rfactor, maybe IL21946 on 3x1 or mass effect series) and the bugged is kind of important

at current time:
- I do not have graphic card bought that would support 3xScreen gaming ( I own older GF 9800 Pro series)
- I have only one 22’ 1680x1050 screen that has DVI and *DP* input (IPS spec hp screen)

What I plan to do is to get 2x1680x1050 22’ TN cheap after leased screens for side screens and ATI *or* GF card, something around 58XX maybe 6xxx series or equivalent on nvidia side. Since im running C2D6600 on P35 mobo, the 6xxx GF would be overkill I think …?

The question is will eyefinity or surround gaming work on such setup (2xDVI + 1xDP) without this active connector (2xDVI monitors AND 1x DP monitor) and what card should I look for nvidia or ati, in bugged range.

Which solution presents les problems in 3x1 gaming ?

if you want Nvidia you need GTX660 or better! Else you'd have to use 2 cards in SLI! two gts550 might be cheap if your Board supports it.
On the other Hand Most AMD Support 2x DVI +1x DP. If they have the connections.

what is the Limit you want to spend?

And how fast is your E6600? Overclocked?

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

GTX660 price tag is an overkill – what I’m planning to spend is around 500 zł on two 22’ TN screens (~150$) and no more than 400 zł (130$) on GF and that is my max

I’m more concerned in which solution to multi-monitor gaming presents less problem’s ATI or Nvidia ?

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

There are probably two things you should consider before anything else.

For Eyefinity, you'll need at least one monitor to have a DisplayPort connection or you will have to use an active DisplayPort adapter. Sounds like you're already in good shape in that regard. If you have a native DisplayPort on your monitor, you will not need an adapter. Any card in the 5XXX series or higher will technically support Eyefinity on a single card.

For NVSurround, you'll have to make sure that all the monitors have the same sync polarity. From my experience, this can be tricky. Almost no sellers list the sync polarity on their monitors and you may have to search around for a technical manual on any models you're considering to find their sync polarity before purchasing. Any single 6XX series Nvidia card will technically support NVSurround. 5XX series cards will support NVSurround, but only if you have 2 of them.

I've used both the 5870 and 7950 models from AMD in Eyefinity and generally been pleased. If you can find one still for sale, the 5870 shouldn't have any issues running older games in Eyefinity. HL2 and IL2 will certainly work well. You'd probably have no trouble with ME1 and ME2, but ME3 would be pushing it on a single 5870 in Eyefinity. Something newer like Battlefield 3 would probably require you to drop all the settings down to low and you might still be struggling to get playable framerates (I ran Battlefield 3 on 2 5870s and still had to drop my resolution from 5760x1080 down to 4800x900 and put all my settings down to medium or low for competitive play.)

One issue that exists in Eyefinity but not under NVSurround is screen tearing. If you're not using three identical connections in Eyefinity, one or more monitors may have tearing. Here's a Wikipedia article on the subject with a pretty good example of what it looks like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing. Using 1x DisplayPort and 2x DVI on my 5870, I never had any screen tearing. On my new 7950s I'm using 1x mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort, 1x DVI, and 1x HDMI and I do get tearing on my side screens. It's a little annoying, but your mileage may vary. I think it's the kind of thing that some people won't care at all about and others can't stand. If you're bothered by screen tearing when playing with VSYNC turned off, Eyefinity tearing will probably bother you even more.

Since I only have experience with AMD, I don't want to comment too much on NVSurround. But, word on the street has been that NVSurround has matured to the point that it competes well with Eyefinity and does quite a few things better. I'm pretty sure several WSGFers have switched from Eyefinity to NVSurround and been pleased.

You might want to look at the Matrox Triple Head to Go TH2G. You would not need any other equipment. The problem is that it is not cheap and has limitations on the resolutions you can use.

Edward - i actualy was looking at this ... but its quit problematic for me to get TH2Go in my country - and total cost is grater than Eyefinity, still thanks for bringingg this up


Haldi & Bifurk8 - these are exactly the informations i was looking for - thanks guys, once ill get the required hardware (probably next month after paycheck XD ) ill post the results how it went on 3x16:10 screens