Widescreen Gaming Forum

I am considering purchasing the GTX295 to drive three monitors using surround. Don't need 3d.

Anybody out there having sucess with this setup?

Thanks,

_________________
Brad

Windows 7x64

Triple Head To Go

I sold my GTX295 before NVIDIA announced their 3DVS support. I did test my i7-920 rig with a GTX295 using a Matrox TripleHead2Go. Only numbers that I know about.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/WS_and_WTH_Benchmarking_%28Core_i7_920_and_GTX_295%29

Unless you get really lucky and find one of the rare GTX295s that can actually drive three screens at once... you won't get Surround working with a single GTX295.

I'm using 2x 295s and the drivers currently don't "officially" support it in the current drivers. However, one of my 295s is the kind that can drive 3 monitors on it's own, so I gave Nvidia surround with only one 295 a try - It works just fine, and the setup is officially supported according to the requirements page. (http://www.nvidia.com/object/3dv-system-requirements-surround-technology.html) I saw similar frame rates (a bit lower, due to my weaker CPU/RAM) as the review Ibrin posted. Just make sure you purchase the dual PCB first generation GTX 295, that has an HDMI port. The single PCB /co-op edition card which lacks that HDMI port will not work with surround on it's own, you'd need a 2nd 295. Getting surround setup with the single 295 was a snap, no issues at all.

This is an example of one of the cards that CAN power 3 monitors on it's own: http://www.evga.com/articles/00446/

This is an example of one of the cards that CANNOT power 3 monitors on it's own: http://www.evga.com/articles/00478/

Be careful when browsing ebay or any site for these cards, I saw people frequently pulling images off places like Newegg and Tigerdirect, depicting a dual PCB 295, when they we're actually selling a single PCB 295.

As far as success goes, yeah, the setup works, but it gets choked up on VRAM in various games, especially Crysis. You should check out Paradigm Shifter's review on his 460s to see exactly how far VRAM goes in the surround world. The 295 only actually has 896MB of VRAM that it can use, before it starts offloading to system RAM.

I'm typing this on a gtx295h2oc powering 3 screens.

After dicking around with 2x gtx295s all weekend trying to get quad SLi to work correctly, we decided to try just my (1) H2OC card and use a DVI to HDMI cable in the third output and it runs everything faster than 2 of them.

I guess the support for Quad SLi is just not there so they don't mess with it much. Probably not many people that buy 4 gfx cards.

So yes, my Gigabyte GTX295H2OC (watercooled + 100mhz factory overclocked) card runs 3x 1920x1200 monitors without any issue at all.

Modern Warfare 2 - everything maxed, with NO Anti-Aliasing - 5903x1200 resolution, pushes 55-60 fps on most maps, some are 45-55fps. I was quite surprised.

Turn 2x AA and it runs 40-50fps on most maps. 4x AA starts to get in to the 20-30s on some maps and isn't playable.

Its for sale... make me an offer. I'm going to get 2x 570s to replace it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bbopptech/Triple#5549259689942485170

_________________
i7 sandy 4.4ghz with a snorkel
1080gtx
8gb RAM
Gigabyte P67-UD7 rev. B3
OS -Samsung 840pro 256GB ssd
Games -Samsung 840pro 500GB ssd
Pagefile -crucial 60GB ssd
Storage -2x 4TB WD
PWS -Seasonic Prime 1k Titanium

Interesting results.. I haven't done extensive testing with just one 295, just out of lack of time, pretty much. What games did you test?

I'm going to do some further testing and start prodding Nvidia, they really need to get their drivers together. I figure they may not be working on the quad SLI drivers too much based on the assumption that no one is using them..

With quad I tested MW2, Bioshock, CS:Source, and Eve Online. Game play in all but Eve was stuttery, choppy, and rubberbandy like the cards were out of sync. Eve ran fine until I saw about 50 ships at once which caused it to hard lock my computer and I had to restart.

After switching to a single gtx295, all games run smoothly and the stuttery sync issues are gone. Besides MW2 that I mentioned earlier, CS:Source runs at ~120fps solid (not that its difficult to run) and the other games run fine and are playable.

I can get some detailed fps numbers when I get home from work this evening if you'd like. I can even install Crysis (1or2), Fall Out 3, Far Cry 2, or anything else you'd like numbers in if I have the game.

Forgot to mention, this is running on:

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P v1.6 FE bios (which has been pulled for some reason)
this is a crossfire board but I'm running the SLi fix for Windows 7 x64 boot.
4 GB ram @1.8Ghz
q6600 G0 stepping @3.6Ghz h2o
Antec 1000 true power quattro
Gigabyte GTX295H2OC @stock oc

We know the SLi fix works on this board because I had my brothers 2x 470s in the board this past weekend with an SLi bridge and they were flawless. The quad SLi setup with the 2x gtx295s was also run with the SLi bridge.

Yes, that was my assumption as well. The majority are probably not even buying 2 video cards, let alone 4 so I can't see why they'd put many resources behind it.

It does however suck for those that did drop the coin on a quad setup only to find issues like this. Pretty bad on Nvidia's part but I'm sure their hands are tied in some way or another. The dollar dictates.

_________________
i7 sandy 4.4ghz with a snorkel
1080gtx
8gb RAM
Gigabyte P67-UD7 rev. B3
OS -Samsung 840pro 256GB ssd
Games -Samsung 840pro 500GB ssd
Pagefile -crucial 60GB ssd
Storage -2x 4TB WD
PWS -Seasonic Prime 1k Titanium

And oops, sorry...

this.
"my Gigabyte GTX295H2OC (w"

Its not Gigabyte, its BFG. Not sure what I was thinking.

_________________
i7 sandy 4.4ghz with a snorkel
1080gtx
8gb RAM
Gigabyte P67-UD7 rev. B3
OS -Samsung 840pro 256GB ssd
Games -Samsung 840pro 500GB ssd
Pagefile -crucial 60GB ssd
Storage -2x 4TB WD
PWS -Seasonic Prime 1k Titanium

If you truly have the time to do it, I would appreciate it, but you don't have to. I plan to do some of my own tests as well. I am curious as to what driver version you are running, though.

In earlier releases before the 260.xx drivers - quad SLI was completely unplayable (similar to the out of sync issue you described, constant stuttering), however with later drivers it is much better, though I still feel as if I'm not getting the performance I should. I am currently running the 265.90 drivers with an edited *.ini, but they are pretty much the same as the latest stable drivers.

Our testing last weekend was done with the latest WHQL 260.99

Make a list of games you'd like to see and what settings you want ran and I'll run it.

_________________
i7 sandy 4.4ghz with a snorkel
1080gtx
8gb RAM
Gigabyte P67-UD7 rev. B3
OS -Samsung 840pro 256GB ssd
Games -Samsung 840pro 500GB ssd
Pagefile -crucial 60GB ssd
Storage -2x 4TB WD
PWS -Seasonic Prime 1k Titanium