How Many 580's for 3x 30"?

Tooterfish

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 16, 2011
Messages
148
I own 3 u3011's now, and am looking at the Hydrocopper 2 GTX 580's with 3gigs. I'm curious if anyone is familiar with its performance in multiple monitor gaming setups, and if I should consider three as opposed to two of them.
 
Yes, get three, possibly four. One guy here is in your shoes with four 580 3GBs, he likes it. Three probably won't max everything.
 
Depends on the games...

Which titles are you looking at playing?

If it's left 4 dead then 2.
If it's metro 2033, then 4.

It's usually nice to go 1 per screen minimum. If you go 4 then it will be much more comfortable, and you can dedicate it to physx or something. Also, if you're not already doing it, make sure you overclock your CPU to suit. 4 GPUs really need it.
 
For 3 x 30 I;d recommend 3 at the very least. To me it's not about the resolution but the eye candy. Uber high levels of AA along with all the AA bells and whistles enabled requires serious GPU Horsepower. Vega has a sub zero liquid cooled rig with 4 Palit 3 GB GTX 580s and is pushing 3x30 bezel-less portrait eyefinity. You can PM him as he has benches and can tell you what type of gains you'll see by adding a 3rd and 4th 3GB card. PM him.
 
i would say look into getting 2 590s liquid cooled. using koolance water blocks you could have something nearly identical to those hydrocopper 580s for less than the price of 4.
 
i would say look into getting 2 590s liquid cooled. using koolance water blocks you could have something nearly identical to those hydrocopper 580s for less than the price of 4.

Negative, 2 GTX 590s are slower than 3 GTX 580s let alone 4, and worse yet only offer 1.5GB vram per gpu /facepalm. Pushing 3x30 eyefinity with any decent levels of image quality will require more Vram than 1.5GB.
 
Yes, you'll need 3GB GTX 580's because a regular 1.5GB will not handle 3x 30" monitors, and forget getting the GTX 590, the 1.5GB per core will just bottleneck the resolution and you will lose performance.
 
Or wait for the new ATI offerings. I love the 580s 3gb. Just not the price. At this level though, money does not appear important.
 
I had a 580, it couldn't even run the games I played that great on a single 30" - then I switched to the 590, which is pretty good for a single 30.

The single 580 pulled 50-55fps in BF:BC2, couldn't run Witcher 2 at full settings, etc. Going to 3x the resolution, seems like pretty simple math...you would need 3x the gpu to really max the settings out, which isn't available.

Based on my experience, you will need 3 580s to get started at that res, and 4 overclocked 580s to turn things up.
 
I wouldn't suggest the hydrocopper 580s... for a few reasons.
1) They lack 3gb.... and 3gb of ram will make a huge difference at your resolution.
2)The block is really restrictive.... so you will get crap flow through your cpu block if you are doing a single loop.
3)Get the 3gb version.. pick an ek (EN nickel, or copper), or koolance. As far as I know those are your only options for the 3gb cards.
4)Ek has the minor benifit of having spacers that make routing the blocks a piece of cake.
5)Please have at least a quad radaitor, a triple will suffice if they are in a loop by themselves.
6)Post pics :)
 
I would go with with 3x3GB 580s clocked as high as you can get it to start (850+) and then see if you need the 4th. 3GB VRAM is an absolute must. Do not get 1.5GB cards.
 
Yes, you'll need 3GB GTX 580's because a regular 1.5GB will not handle 3x 30" monitors, and forget getting the GTX 590, the 1.5GB per core will just bottleneck the resolution and you will lose performance.

Oh please. Two handles it fine most of the time. Even at 7680x1600 with only 1.5GB of VRAM. No it doesn't allow for higher levels of AA in many games, but it isn't a slide show either.

3GB GTX 580's are a better choice. I'm not denying that, but those of you who haven't run 3x30" monitors on two 1.5GB GTX 580's have no practical experience to back up your statements. Just data you've seen on the subject. I'm running that configuration and I assure you, it works fine. Would I like more performance? Sure would. Would 3 GTX 580's be better than 2? In most games, probably. Would 3GB GTX 580's make more sense? Yes they would. Is is true that "1.5GB GTX 580's can't handle 3x30" monitors?" No, that's bullshit. The only games my rig struggles with are Metro 2033, Crysis 2, and that's pretty much it. I've had to keep the AA to 2xAA or 4xAA in a few games running with all three monitors, but that's the worst I've had to do. I'm still not dropping levels of detail or anything like that to get games playable.

To be fair, the only reason I've got 1.5GB cards is because the 3GB models didn't exist when I bought video cards last time. The setup isn't optimal, but it works better than you'd imagine based on comments found on this forum.
 
To be fair, the only reason I've got 1.5GB cards is because the 3GB models didn't exist when I bought video cards last time. The setup isn't optimal, but it works better than you'd imagine based on comments found on this forum.

Agreed and the same boat I'm in as I bought my 580s at launch and the first 3GB cards didn't show up until a couple months latter and were very rare.

Of course I don't have 3x30" but 3D likes a lot of VRAM as well and I while not optimal the performance overall is pretty solid at very good settings. 3GB allows games to stretch their legs but I don't think 1.5 GB presents a huge problem 90% of the time even at 3x30".
 
Oh please. Two handles it fine most of the time. Even at 7680x1600 with only 1.5GB of VRAM. No it doesn't allow for higher levels of AA in many games, but it isn't a slide show either.
.

Dan, have you tried Witcher 2? That's the only reason I went to the 590 for the single 30...which was probably really stupid as it is a single player game.

Also what clock speed are you running your cards?
 
Cool thread [H].

Didn't realize 1.5Gb was fine(most of the time), even at astronomically high resolutions.

Post pics when you get this rig up and running OP. My 2x23" monitors are overwhelming when gaming; can't imagine 3x30". :D
 
Oh please. Two handles it fine most of the time. Even at 7680x1600 with only 1.5GB of VRAM. No it doesn't allow for higher levels of AA in many games, but it isn't a slide show either.

3GB GTX 580's are a better choice. I'm not denying that, but those of you who haven't run 3x30" monitors on two 1.5GB GTX 580's have no practical experience to back up your statements. Just data you've seen on the subject. I'm running that configuration and I assure you, it works fine. Would I like more performance? Sure would. Would 3 GTX 580's be better than 2? In most games, probably. Would 3GB GTX 580's make more sense? Yes they would. Is is true that "1.5GB GTX 580's can't handle 3x30" monitors?" No, that's bullshit. The only games my rig struggles with are Metro 2033, Crysis 2, and that's pretty much it. I've had to keep the AA to 2xAA or 4xAA in a few games running with all three monitors, but that's the worst I've had to do. I'm still not dropping levels of detail or anything like that to get games playable.

To be fair, the only reason I've got 1.5GB cards is because the 3GB models didn't exist when I bought video cards last time. The setup isn't optimal, but it works better than you'd imagine based on comments found on this forum.

Thanks a lot man I'm happy somebody running 3 30"'s has chimed in because I was starting to second guess my choices. You've given me the confidence I need to settle on 3 of the 3Gig 580's in 3-way SLI. Sounds like that should be sufficient enough.

Cool thread [H].

Didn't realize 1.5Gb was fine(most of the time), even at astronomically high resolutions.

Post pics when you get this rig up and running OP. My 2x23" monitors are overwhelming when gaming; can't imagine 3x30". :D

Absolutely. I'm also going to post performance videos and benchmarks on youtube. I'll shoot you a PM when I'm done.

Thanks guys for all the input, I really appreciate it!
 
Agreed and the same boat I'm in as I bought my 580s at launch and the first 3GB cards didn't show up until a couple months latter and were very rare.

Of course I don't have 3x30" but 3D likes a lot of VRAM as well and I while not optimal the performance overall is pretty solid at very good settings. 3GB allows games to stretch their legs but I don't think 1.5 GB presents a huge problem 90% of the time even at 3x30".

Yeah the 3GB cards flat out didn't exist when I got mine. I didn't even know they were planned. I'd like to have sold these off and grabbed a pair of 3GB cards but at this point I'm going to wait for the next generation cards. I'd have done it earlier but I'm trying to buy a house right now and as a result, I've got to be tighter with the money.

Dan, have you tried Witcher 2? That's the only reason I went to the 590 for the single 30...which was probably really stupid as it is a single player game.

Also what clock speed are you running your cards?

I have not. I've got zero interest in that game. I didn't enjoy the first one and honestly, fantasy RPG games are simply not my type of thing. I play stuff like that on extremely rare occasions.

Cool thread [H].

Didn't realize 1.5Gb was fine(most of the time), even at astronomically high resolutions.

Post pics when you get this rig up and running OP. My 2x23" monitors are overwhelming when gaming; can't imagine 3x30". :D

They are fine, but as others have pointed out, for 3D you'll want more. Especially on larger monitors.

save some money and grab 4 gtx570's with 2.5gb of memory. 379$ each. Use the extra money for waterblocks. :)

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=025-P3-1579-AR&family=GeForce 500 Series Family&sw

People seriously looking to buy 3 or more GTX 580 3GB cards probably don't care a lot about saving money on their purchase. Hopefully they'll shop around for a good price so they don't get raped but I doubt the savings they'd get by dropping down to lower end cards is as important as absolute performance.

Thanks a lot man I'm happy somebody running 3 30"'s has chimed in because I was starting to second guess my choices. You've given me the confidence I need to settle on 3 of the 3Gig 580's in 3-way SLI. Sounds like that should be sufficient enough.



Absolutely. I'm also going to post performance videos and benchmarks on youtube. I'll shoot you a PM when I'm done.

Thanks guys for all the input, I really appreciate it!

Well I don't know if it's sufficient or not, but it's the best you can really do right now. 3x GTX 580 3GB cards are the way to go for a 3x30" setup.

GTX 590s are slower than 3 GTX 580s let alone 4

Indeed they are. They gimped the clocks and gimped the memory. I don't know why NVIDIA even tries with their dual GPU cards. They are obviously not interested in doing it right. AMD definitely has done better with those cards, drivers aside anyway.

Good point here. The [H] review on 3 x SLI's 580 had to run a 2600K @ 4.7ghz to eliminate CPU bottlenecking.

Indeed. ;)
 
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