Is one GTX580 enough for 3 monitors?

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jober1

Limp Gawd
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Oct 13, 2011
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Hey guys, I am running an i5 2500k @ 4.8 ghz and a GTX 580 @920 mhz, is that enough to run a three monitor setup acceptably?

Also, how does Nvidia's 3 monitor setup compare to eyefinity? Is it supported as well?

Is a triple display worth it? It looks really cool.
 
jober1 said:
Hey guys, I am running an i5 2500k @ 4.8 ghz and a GTX 580 @920 mhz, is that enough to run a three monitor setup acceptably?

Also, how does Nvidia's 3 monitor setup compare to eyefinity? Is it supported as well?

Is a triple display worth it? It looks really cool.
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IIRC Nvidia only supports TWO monitors, on their single gpu solutions, no matter how many connections the card has.
 
Depends on what game. For stuff like Source games, probably. For BF3 or Metro or Crysis, no.

EDIT: Also, like the gentleman who posted before me said, that card only supports 2 monitors. I've heard of 3 monitors with a GTX 590, though.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
IIRC Nvidia only supports TWO monitors, on their single gpu solutions, no matter how many connections the card has.
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Ah bummer, but 2 580's in SLI would do 3 monitors? I don't think I will get another one, too much power. I better just wait and see what the next gen GPU's can do, thanks.
 
Irregardless of whether you get another card or wait for next gen, if you are planning on staying Nvidia and going 3 monitors, you will need at least 2 similar cards. Only AMD allows you to run 3 monitors or more on a single card, that's unless Nvidia changes with their next gen.
 
If you are using max 1680x1050 res monitors you can use Matrox Triplehead2Go with one GPU. I'm using that and i5 2500k@stock and GTX580 and most games work fine using max details near 60 fps. Games like crysis, metro and BF3 struggle unless you are willing to drop to normal-high details.
 
svr said:
If you are using max 1680x1050 res monitors you can use Matrox Triplehead2Go with one GPU. I'm using that and i5 2500k@stock and GTX580 and most games work fine using max details near 60 fps. Games like crysis, metro and BF3 struggle unless you are willing to drop to normal-high details.
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Exactly. I had a TH2G for years on my 1280x1024 surround setup and worked great. However when I upgraded my monitors to 1920x1080 the TH2G couldn't operate at that resolution at 60hz. I believe it supports 50hz but my monitors didn't agree with that setting.

Before the 'birth' of eyefinity the TH2G was well established and could accomplish this for most people. I use to play Battlefield 1942 in surround with a TH2G back in early 2008. ATI didn't release the first eyefinity card until the end of September 2009.
 
Thanks everyone, right now I just have one 27" 1080p monitor, I was/am entertaining the idea of a 3 monitor setup.

I will wait until the new GPU's come out and see if that's worth it, but I could still run 2 GTX580's in SLI, I will need a new PSU though.

Can I pair a 3gb 580 with my 1.5gb, and take advantage of the extra vram for those ultra high resolutions? My understanding is your computer only makes use of the vram from your primary card.

Also, is there any advantage in AMD's eyefinity solution over Nvidia's?
 
i most definitely would NOT use one card for 3 displays. would definitely use sli to do that.
 
jober1 said:
Thanks everyone, right now I just have one 27" 1080p monitor, I was/am entertaining the idea of a 3 monitor setup.

I will wait until the new GPU's come out and see if that's worth it, but I could still run 2 GTX580's in SLI, I will need a new PSU though.

Can I pair a 3gb 580 with my 1.5gb, and take advantage of the extra vram for those ultra high resolutions? My understanding is your computer only makes use of the vram from your primary card.

Also, is there any advantage in AMD's eyefinity solution over Nvidia's?
Click to expand...

the main advantage is that amd can do up to 6 monitors and it is cheaper by alot.
two gtx 580's price comparison to two 6950 /6970s in xfire to achieve 6 displays compared to the 3 from nvidia is a good chunk of money. plus you wouldnt see a big difference in performance, you would be playing games/watching videos/multitasking not doing benchmarks, so you should see no real difference in performance.
 
by all means if you want to pay 2 times the price [almost and might as well be considering its only $289 for a 6950 while the 580 is $499] of a 6950 for a gtx 580, its not my money but i also look at the available memory per card, and 2gb ddr5 is a good chunk of memory in comparison per card
and this is where i realize why i dont buy nvidia products anymore...
 
caseychaos said:
the main advantage is that amd can do up to 6 monitors and it is cheaper by alot.
two gtx 580's price comparison to two 6950 /6970s in xfire to achieve 6 displays compared to the 3 from nvidia is a good chunk of money. plus you wouldnt see a big difference in performance, you would be playing games/watching videos/multitasking not doing benchmarks, so you should see no real difference in performance.
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... wow a 3gb 580. anyhow yeah you should be able to put them in sli, since its just the memory that is different. if anything you could actually sell your other card and just go. becuase the main problem with the 1.5 gb nvidia cards was that it didnt have sufficient memory to use on the 3 seperate displays.
 
If you are pushing 1920x1080 x 3 surround/eyefinity you really need atleast 2gb vram on each card. Maxing out BF3 at 5760x1080 easily chews up 2.3gb vram or more. Cut down texture detail and AA levels will help.

Best setup for highest details with smooth frames would be trisli gtx 580 3gb cards or trifire 6970/6950 oc'd which would make more economical sense. In that situation a 4.8ghz oc 2600k/2500k should help scaling efficency since the sb platform only has 16 pci-e lanes to the cpu.

If you sli a 1.5gb vram card with a 3gb vram card the later will only use 1.5 of the 3gb available.
 
Thanks noteworthy, that pretty well cleared up all the remaining questions I had. I really don't see an easy way for me to get a 3 monitor setup at this time. I think I will just get one nice 120hz monitor instead....maybe next build.
 
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