Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi (I'm a new guy), I am considering a multi screen setup and a friend recommended i check ur forums for consult. This section looked most fitting for this topic. ATM i have:
Intel i7-2600K@4,4Ghz
Gigabyte GTX 560 Ti (GV-N560OC-1GI)
ASRock P67 Extreme4/A/ASR
8GB RAM DDR3 ADATA 1600Mhz
Seasonic M12II Bronze 620W 80Plus PSU (2x24A @ 12V)
My main screen is iiyama ProLite E2403WS

I can't find any more of those (iiyamas) so i'll have to pick up new screens. I will need 3 new screens for the SLS and will use my current one as extension if possible.

Propably the most obvious choice would be to pick up another GTX560Ti but I dunno if my PSU can hold it. Also if I switched to SLI, the graphic cards would operate in double x8 mode instead of x16. You propably figured out my question by now. Is picking up another GTX560 for the sole purpose of Widescreen gaming worth it (considering PSU and x8 instead of x16 - i have no idea what impact it could have on performance) or should i sell my GTX560Ti and get a MultiGPU nvidia (590?) or some ATI alternative? In either case - is PSU upgrade also necessary?

I used to enjoy the beneficial impact that CUDA has on some of my video editing apps, but since i got the 2600K i don't consider it as important and am willing to betray Nvidia for the first time in my humble gaming history (if it pays off). I'm willing to pay up to 1500$ (+money from sold parts if upgrades are necessary). I want to be ready for the new Deus EX :)

:welcome

SLI running in 8x mode you should not notice much of a difference as the card does not saturate the bandwidth that pci-e 2.0 8x provides.
I am not sure about the PSU, it is of a good brand so it may be ok, although I would personally look at something a bit more powerfull around the 800/840w range.

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| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

:welcome

SLI running in 8x mode you should not notice much of a difference as the card does not saturate the bandwidth that pci-e 2.0 8x provides.
I am not sure about the PSU, it is of a good brand so it may be ok, although I would personally look at something a bit more powerfull around the 800/840w range.

I second this, a better PSU is going to be needed.

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System Core: | Intel Core i5-2500K + ASUS P8Z68-V + 16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz | Win7 x64 | MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB [1105/1400] |
Display: | 3 x Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC @ 7680x1600 | Dell u3011 |

To be fair, I had SLI GTX470s running off a 620w PSU, with a Phenom II 1090T, and it was fine.

Having said that, it's not something I recommend, and I swapped the PSU out for a more powerful one as soon as my order arrived (it had been delayed/lost in the post) but for a week I had considerably more power hungry cards and a more power hungry CPU, with sundry other devices (DVDRW, 3xHDD, fan controller) all happy.

Regarding PSU needs, everyone should have one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307319139&sr=8-1

Seriously, this little meter is a wonderful device and will tell you a lot about your rig's power needs. With my most recent build (hexacore, 5850OC, 2 optical drives, 4 hard drives, surround resolution) I wondered if my 600W could handle it. After putting various heavy loads through the Kill-A-Watt I discovered that my rig almost never broke a 400W draw. Question answered.

About NVIDIA vs AMD...it's mostly about preference. If you can make use of the card you already have that would be optimal for your wallet.

CUDA is nice, and has a head-start in the market, but OpenCL is also finding its legs. As you noted, though, the i7 relegates both to "nice but not essential" category.

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

Heh my rig has pulled 1.1 kW on my meter... 3 GTX 480's are juice-hungry.. :P

Heh my rig has pulled 1.1 kW on my meter... 3 GTX 480's are juice-hungry.. :P

haha...cooked any bacon in that rig? :D

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

If it's of any use in helping you decide, I have 2x GTX580 on my ASUS P8P67 Pro and it draws ~560W under load (3DMark/Unigine) which was less than I thought it would, but enough to warrant me upgrading to the 1200W PSU.

I have no optical drives, no HDD, and all non-essential ports disabled (Marvell SATA, USB3, etc).

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Rig 1: Intel i7-4790K Devils Canyon | ASRock Z97X Killer Intel Z97 Socket 1150 | Noctua D15 cooler | 16 GB G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 | 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD | Corsair AX1200i | 2x EVGA GTX980 4GB ACX2.0 (SLI)

Rig 2: Intel i5-2500K | ASUS P8P67 Pro Intel P67 LGA1155 | Corsair A50 cooler | 4GB G.Skill RipJawsX DDR3 RAM @1600mhz 6-8-6-24 2T | 128GB Crucial RealSSD C300 SSD | Corsair AX1200 | 2x Palit GTX580 1.5GB (SLI)

If it's of any use in helping you decide, I have 2x GTX580 on my ASUS P8P67 Pro and it draws ~560W under load (3DMark/Unigine) which was less than I thought it would, but enough to warrant me upgrading to the 1200W PSU.

I have no optical drives, no HDD, and all non-essential ports disabled (Marvell SATA, USB3, etc).

You are about perfect (50%) loading on the PSU for best efficiency too. Will just put my 2 cents in for a Corsair AX850 PSU, should allow passive (fan turned off) under idle, and quiet, stable operation under load.

Can't ever skimp on the PSU, well, you can, but you will end up being sorry (this being the person that had 1 garbage, 1 so-so and one high quality PSU die on him, before getting the PC PnC one I still use today (5 years old)).

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P8Z68-V Pro | 2600K | HR02 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 128GB M4 + 6TB | X-Fi > HD595 | AX850 | Tai Chi | PB278Q | G110 + Deathadder 2013
P8Z77-V | 3570K | Mugen 2 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 500GB | X-750 | Fractal R3 | U2212HM | G110 + G400
P8H77-I | G860 | 4650 | 2x2GB XMS | 320GB | CX500 | Prodigy | T22B350EW | MX518
DC3217IYE | 1x4GB Vengeance | 64GB M4 | TX-42VT20E

And when a cheapo PSU goes, it ALWAYS take out other components. I had a friend whos' PSU went berserk and it fried his mobo, RAM, CPU, one hard drive, Front panel, and an optical drive. And his apartment had the delicious smell of fried electronics for weeks.