Widescreen Gaming Forum

it just sucks that nvidias surround is gonna require 2 cards to work at all. thats alot of money for me.

OK, so now what ? I picked up a trio of 24's, they're sitting behind me brand new in the boxes. Should I set them up and download and run SoftTH ?
I know that Soft TH will not work with SLI, so I'll have to run all 3 monitors off of one card and my second GTX will be wasted as just a passthru for the 3rd monitor. What kind of performance do you guys think I'll see ? I'll be running 3 at 1920X1200 on basically 1 GTX280 card compared to the single 30" at 2560X1600 with 2 GTX's in SLI.

I really want to wait and see what nVidia does with their drivers but that could ba awhile and as long as I can decent performance with the triple setup in iRacing and IL2 then I'd like to go back to suround gaming. Guess I should just try it out hey :)

If anyone running 3X24's on a GTX280 is reading this, what kind of performance are you getting in games ?

Before I got my Eyefinity setup I configured my PC so it could output to my home cinema projector onto the 10ft screen at the other end of the room. Whilst gaming on such a big screen was quite a novelty, I actually prefer the wider FOV I get with Eyefinity on 3 x 24" monitors, as opposed to a standard 1920x1200 on a huge screen. Granted, the single game I have on my PS3, GT5 Prologue, is pretty cool on the huge screen and Eyefinity isn't an option on that anyway, but for PC gaming I'm sticking with triplehead all the way.

it just sucks that nvidias surround is gonna require 2 cards to work at all. thats alot of money for me.

Sure, but 3DVS requires nearly double the gpu-horsepower to run games smoothly in 3D. So it just won't make sense to power a 3D triplehead with a single nvidia card.

@shockabuku
WOW! :shock: I just love your home cinema. Great work! :rockout

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@shockabuku
WOW! :shock: I just love your home cinema. Great work! :rockout

Thanks mate, I love my man-cave :mrgreen:

[quote]it just sucks that nvidias surround is gonna require 2 cards to work at all. thats alot of money for me.

Sure, but 3DVS requires nearly double the gpu-horsepower to run games smoothly in 3D. So it just won't make sense to power a 3D triplehead with a single nvidia card.

@shockabuku
WOW! :shock: I just love your home cinema. Great work! :rockout
i totally agree here, but ill have to be going with ati since i can do what im trying to do with a single 5870 which is waaaaay cheaper.

I think one of the most important aspects of computing has been overlooked here, and that is using your computer for normal everyday operation.
In that respect, multi-monitor aces a single big-screen everytime. So for me the answer is simple.
If multi-monitor vs big single-screen is six of one and half a dozen of the other then it stacks up like this:

Multi-monitor:
Pros:
Gaming - awesome.
Normal use - untouchable.
Cons:
none.

Single big-screen:
Pros:
Gaming - awesome.
Cons:
Normal use - awkward.

It's an unfair contest if you ask me. To my mind I'd take Multi-monitor any day.

i hooked my rig up to a 52 inch 120 hz lg tv and i wasnt a fan. id take a 23 inch lcd monitor over it anyday, let alone 3 of em.

I have a 3x1680x1050 eyefinity group Then a 1920x1200 24 inch on a wall mount hanging above left of the eyefinity monitors that I have a dvr hooked up to. I also have a 19 inch tv monitor on the right of the eyefinity group for a fourth extended monitor so I can have teamspeak up and so forth while playing in eyefinity. It is also hooked up to my second dvr. On the other side of my basement I have a 73 inch mits diamond tv that is hooked to my ps3 and dvr with my 7.2 surround setup. with my 5970 and the eyefinity I have not touched the ps3 for gaming since I got eyefinity running right. It is the best thing to happen to gaming since 3d accelerated graphics came along.

My feeling all the way...

I have gone from a 52" DLP and a 40" LCD to my IPS Eyefinity setup and have NOT looked back since! Once you experience the immersion of the 3 monitors, it's VERY difficult to go back to the "blinders" type feel of a single monitor- which is how it felt when I disabled my side monitors to see how it felt after an evening of triple-monitor-gaming bliss.

As a side note, large, single displays DO of course have their place. Mainly, for games that don't support triple monitor properly, or games that are just TOO much for the ultra-resolutions that Eye provides (Crysis/WH, for example.). Actually, I will most likely add a 30" LCD in the near future to my Eyfinity setup- if for no other reason, to have TV/Video on while I work on my triple-monitor-desktop. (and for Crysis- yes, I DO still like that game. :doh )

So in a PERFECT world, I'd have both- but choosing, I'd rock the triple setup, hands down! :rockout

I think one of the most important aspects of computing has been overlooked here, and that is using your computer for normal everyday operation.
In that respect, multi-monitor aces a single big-screen everytime. So for me the answer is simple.
If multi-monitor vs big single-screen is six of one and half a dozen of the other then it stacks up like this:

Multi-monitor:
Pros:
Gaming - awesome.
Normal use - untouchable.
Cons:
none.

Single big-screen:

Pros:
Gaming - awesome.
Cons:
Normal use - awkward.

It's an unfair contest if you ask me. To my mind I'd take Multi-monitor any day.

well i wouldnt say that there are no cons using multi monitors... I think for 1 it helps to be somewhat tech savy if your going to invest that much money into a gaming/work rig, for the simple reason that compatability isnt always that easy to iron out. I myself have a 42 inch lcd for my home theatre which has the ps3, 360 and dvr box hooked up and I just purchased 2 more 22 inch acer monitors and now have a triple monitor set up with crossfired 5870's. I am having issues using crossfire with multi monitor gaming... in fact I disable crossfire everytime I go into group/EF mode which is very unfortunate because just about every game I play could use the extra kick. So far for me crossfire is a dissapointment but when eyefinity is working its the best blows away single monitor gaming by a long shot. To be fair I never had the pleasure to use a 30" 2560x1600 but I dont think it would have the same impact that my 3 22inch screens give me. I think in the future for games like ME2 I am going to wheel my rig over to my 42 inch and crank out the AA, alot of games just arent working all that well with eyefinity and then add crossfire on top and it can be messy and annoying.