Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi there

I was quite a while of WSGF (lots of work). Now I have a little more time for gaming and think about changing my GPU-setup. I game on 5760x1200 with one single ATI 5870 2GB (Saphirre Vapor-X). I had an aircooled 5870CF but these two cars were loud as hell. Month's later one card died and I kept the single 5870 Vapor-X 2GB for Eyefinity. It performs ok in my games, but I have huge banding issues and artifacts in some games as well as picture quality is not that good. Then even on desktop the picture seems to "reset" itself for a second from time to time and my mouse cursor changses occassionaly into a graphics failure ingame. So I'm not really lucky with my ATI Eyefinity.

So I consider going back to the green camp and have two options to go:

1. Buying a GTX 560Ti SLI 2GB for nvidia surround
2. Buying a single GTX 580 3GB (Gainward Phantom), add a GT430 and going back to SothTH

Both will cost me the same. I thought about getting evga 560Tis with 2GB and hope they are quiet enough. If nvidia would allow Triplehead on one GPU I would instantly choose a 580 3GB. Will the 560 SLI be the better option? How is overall reliability of nv surround compared to Eyefinity? Did anyone made the change from EF zu NVS? Or should I stick with my single 5870 2GB? What dou you think about the evga 560tis?

What would you do and why?
Thanks a lot.:)
Blue

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Intel i7 980X | MSI Big Bang Xpower X58 | 12GB G.Skill Pi Black DDR3-1600 | Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X 2GB | 2x Intel X-25M 160GB | SB X-Fi | Seasonic X-750 | Silverstone FT01 black | 3x HP ZR24w @ 5760x1200 Triplehead

AMD X2 4800+ | Gigabyte K8N Ultra-SLI | 2GB Kingston VS DDR1-400 | Zotac GTX260 AMP! + Gigabyte 8400GS | 3x Samsung HD 2.1TB | SB X-Fi | Seasonic M12-600 | Chieftec CS-601 blue | Dell 2407WFP + Dell 1707FP Dualhead

go for the 560's sli.
i went through a mix of dual 5870's and 5970's trying to get eyefinity to work. Eyefinity worked but i got sick of the driver issues , vsync, adapter issues and crossfire support so i went to dual 480's and all my problems disappeared and havent looked back,
K, nvidia sucks for desktop management, and arkward to swap between triple and single monitors like eyefinty does, but nvidia works in game wher it counts.

But thats just my opinion and everyone has one.

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intel x79
2 way 780ti's under water
Intel 4760 extreme @ 4GHz
3 x 42 inch screens @5860x1080
16 gigs xmp ram @2200

I wont be ditching eyefinity anytime soon, because they are the only solution that allows for 5x1.

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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 |

Guys, if you worry about desktop management, just download WinStep eXtreme (TM) Vista Start Menu and Maxtor PowerDesk.
A single card is not enough to power 5760 x 1080, and I wouldn't use some no name hacks and mix 2 different cards in SLI, that's just a recepie for troubles.

I personally don't think 2 x 560's is enough for 5760 x 1080 I was running crysis 2 with 2 x 480's and I was barely getting 60 fps with 98% GPU utilization.

Just by 2 x 580's, you can save money if you can get a lower vRam edition, 3GB is a waste of $$, all you need is 1.5GB

It all depends on what your happy with and what your running. Personally I'm still running XP with a Matrox Digital triple head to go.
I have always tried to stick with a single card solution to my 3 screens or 3+1 screens. This is the simplest most versatile set-up for me anyway. Less driver issues, more stable platform, and more air in my old case, lol. Each set-up has issues but I have tried to stay away from the SLI or X-fire do to their quirky works that i have read about. I know I am being limited in a number of ways with my set-up currently but it is almost plug and play with most games.
Currently thinking about upgrading to Win7 and maybe going to Nvidia surround, but only because I already am mostly there with my hardware anyway. Eyefinity sounds like a great way to go, and Im sure they will get some drivers out soon with some stability.

I'm happy with Eyefinity, but if you want to go NVIDIA I would get a pair of 2GB cards. The 3GB card is overkill, and I wouldn't go to SoftTH, unless you need some funky unmatched panel arrangement. You lose SLI/CFX with SoftTH, and have overhead on top of that.

SoftTH = DirectX9 only and lots of hassles = FREE, I used it for two years before finally buying 2 x GTX470s and would not go back. You really would miss the DX11 in some titles.

Also, soooo much easier to get games running with nVidia Surround 2D as compared to SoftTH.

I recently updated my drivers to nVidia 280.19 Beta and can once again run every game out there at max detail, texture and resolution (except perhaps GTA IV which allows crazy texture loads).

So would definitely recommend 2 x Nvidia whatever you can afford, would not go with X60's, go for 470/570 or 570/580.

I have never been happy with ATI from personal experience, don't like their video card or tv cards.

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Core i7-8086K @ 5.0 Ghz | H60 | Nvidia GTX 980 Ti 6GB | Soundblaster Z | Asus Z370-A

16GB DDR4 | Win10 x64 | 3x27" Asus IPS @ 5760x1080 | Samsung 970 1TB NVMe

Both sides of the fence are problematic. If you are looking for a largely trouble free solution you won't find it. All options have their down sides. It's the price to pay with having such a specialized setup.

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Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Thanks for the input guys. I know there is no clear winner. But what are the flaws of nvidia surround? OK, if SLI doesn't work, surround won't work either. What else?

@tricky
thanks for the reminder on dx9 in SoftTH. When I used SoftTH two years ago this wasn't a big problem but now its an argument.

Edit: What about a GTX590? And would my Seasonic X-750 handle it?

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Intel i7 980X | MSI Big Bang Xpower X58 | 12GB G.Skill Pi Black DDR3-1600 | Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X 2GB | 2x Intel X-25M 160GB | SB X-Fi | Seasonic X-750 | Silverstone FT01 black | 3x HP ZR24w @ 5760x1200 Triplehead

AMD X2 4800+ | Gigabyte K8N Ultra-SLI | 2GB Kingston VS DDR1-400 | Zotac GTX260 AMP! + Gigabyte 8400GS | 3x Samsung HD 2.1TB | SB X-Fi | Seasonic M12-600 | Chieftec CS-601 blue | Dell 2407WFP + Dell 1707FP Dualhead

I would never switch to surround unless they allow me to use only one card like amd does