5040x1050 (1680x3) eyefinity - 1gb vs 2gb

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FinalAura

[H]ard|Gawd
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I'm planning on possibly getting an eyefinity set up with 3 1680x1050 monitors. I was looking at 5850's and 5870s and noticed that there are 1gb and 2gb flavors.

Would I need to get the 2gb for my resolution? Also, could I get away with a 5850 with my resolution, or would a 5870 be the way to go? I'm also wondering what kind of adapter I would need... would I still need that $100 adapter from dell (no cheaper alt?)?

Thanks all.
 
2gb is a waste for you unless you plan on going crossfire down the road, but then i question whether your rez would need it.

depends on the games your are playing. i'm rocking 1360*768 eyefinity (4080*768) and thought a 5850 would be fine. i jumped on a 5870 cuz i found one cheap. glad i did. playing metro 2033 now and the 5870 barely gets it done. i'm turned down to 1024*768 on each monitor with max settings.
 
I have the 1 gig version of the 5850. So far I have ran into any problems, but you usually can't have all the game settings on max. In BC2 I have everything on High, with 2x AA.

I would say that if you can afford the 5870 get that. Ultimately the 1gig version will be alright, but down the road it might start suffering... I see myself Crossfiring in the future.

I'm not sure if you have bought the other monitors already...?

If you haven't I would get the Dell P2210's. The have native Display Port connectors, so no need for the adapter. NOTE: You will need to buy the Display Port cable, it doesn't come with one.

The P2210's in my experience look damn good both in games, text, web, etc and just as a monitor. The bezel is small, has a swizel base, and you can easily change how high or low you want the monitor. The monitor also doesn't get very hot after long usage.
 
if you don't plan on going any higher than *1080 rez on each monitor you can nab a dp to vga adapter for 35.00. just make sure you get the right one. i have another thread titled "my eyefinity" in this area with a link to a great adapter.
 
wadec22 said:
if you don't plan on going any higher than *1080 rez on each monitor you can nab a dp to vga adapter for 35.00. just make sure you get the right one. i have another thread titled "my eyefinity" in this area with a link to a great adapter.
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What you need to stress is that it MIGHT work. I run 5040x1050 and the vga adapter did not work for me.

You're better just getting the active adapter instead of jacking around with the VGA adapter. But if you want to try it out I'll sell you mine for $23.
 
I've had the 5850 since Novemeber, running eyefinity at this res. I would recommend the 5870 if you weren't planning on crossfiring. Keep in mind there have been some stuttering issues when some people crossfire an eyefinity rig. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1506951

If I had the choice, I would go with a 5870 if I was planning any eyefinity resolution.
 
SeaFoam said:
What you need to stress is that it MIGHT work. I run 5040x1050 and the vga adapter did not work for me.

You're better just getting the active adapter instead of jacking around with the VGA adapter. But if you want to try it out I'll sell you mine for $23.
Click to expand...

did you use the specific adapter i recommended? if so, you are the only person i have seen have any problems with it.
 
none, unless you are going to run a xfire setup. see the [H]'s review of the 5870 6 eyefinity for detailed info.
 
Mayenard said:
Were any of the 1GB vs 2GB benches done in an eyefinity resolution?
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yes, right here on the [H]. look up the 5870 6 review. eyefinity rez still showed no benefit of 2gb, until they pitted two 2gb cards against two 1gb cards. when they did that, there was a clear benefit.
 
wadec22 said:
yes, right here on the [H]. look up the 5870 6 review. eyefinity rez still showed no benefit of 2gb, until they pitted two 2gb cards against two 1gb cards. when they did that, there was a clear benefit.
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They never pitted 2 2GB cards against 2 1GB cards. They pitted 2 2GB cards against the 5970, and did not clock the 5970 to 5870 speeds. With the exception of AvP, all the differences that I see are most likely clock speed related.

AVP at 5760x1200/No AA was the only true test that shows a framebuffer limitation at 1GB per GPU. All other games are far too shader limited to cause framebuffer issues.

I consider 8xAA at eyefinity resolutions (The BC2 test they couldn't complete) to be ridiculous.
 
dook43 said:
They never pitted 2 2GB cards against 2 1GB cards. They pitted 2 2GB cards against the 5970, and did not clock the 5970 to 5870 speeds. With the exception of AvP, all the differences that I see are most likely clock speed related.

AVP at 5760x1200/No AA was the only true test that shows a framebuffer limitation at 1GB per GPU. All other games are far too shader limited to cause framebuffer issues.

I consider 8xAA at eyefinity resolutions (The BC2 test they couldn't complete) to be ridiculous.
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snipped from the article; "Though we could not show you a graph, this confirms to us that the performance differences are real; the 2GB frame buffer helps in CrossFireX at high resolution."

clearly the [H] would disagree with you. they couldn't get the BC2 test you refer to run, which they blamed on the 1gb buffer.

another snip; "We came away from this evaluation with the clear conclusion that 2GB matters at Eyefinity resolutions. It seems to matter most in a multi-GPU configuration."

and again... "ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 CrossFireX was the clear winner across the board in providing the best gameplay experience at 5760x1200. We were able to run at a higher resolution in Metro 2033, turn AA up to 4X AA in Bad Company 2, and play with "Very High" texture quality in Aliens vs. Predator. All of these quality options are directly related to the frame buffer size, higher resolution, higher AA level and higher texture quality."

did you read or skim the article?
 
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wadec22 said:
snipped from the article; "Though we could not show you a graph, this confirms to us that the performance differences are real; the 2GB frame buffer helps in CrossFireX at high resolution."
Click to expand...

8xAA is not important to me.

clearly the [H] would disagree with you. they couldn't get the BC2 test you refer to run, which they blamed on the 1gb buffer.
Click to expand...

Of course.... but 8xAA is not worth $300 to me.

another snip; "We came away from this evaluation with the clear conclusion that 2GB matters at Eyefinity resolutions. It seems to matter most in a multi-GPU configuration."
Click to expand...

There's hardly enough data here to come to that conclusion. 2 5870 1GB's were not reviewed. The 5970 was NOT run with identical clock speeds.

and again... "ATI Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 CrossFireX was the clear winner across the board in providing the best gameplay experience at 5760x1200. We were able to run at a higher resolution in Metro 2033, turn AA up to 4X AA in Bad Company 2, and play with "Very High" texture quality in Aliens vs. Predator. All of these quality options are directly related to the frame buffer size, higher resolution, higher AA level and higher texture quality."
Click to expand...

I disagree with the first 2. The AVP benchmark and 8xAA in BC2 are the only two benchmarks that clearly show 2GB being a benefit. The proper comparisons just weren't made here.
 
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to the OP, i think the article will give you enough insight to reach or own conclusion. good luck with your purchase.

to dook43; both the article and myself never said the 2gb was better value. clearly the 5970 you are rocking is better bang for your buck. that however doesn't change the fact that in some situations, you would get better performance with two 2gb cards.

either way, the article link is great reference material for the OP and the decision he is trying to make. and to him i recommended a 1gb card.
 
Thanks for all the insight guys.

I honestly don't think I will ever have a crossfire configuration because I don't want to get another psu (perfectly happy with my hx620 corsair). So would I be right assuming that a 1gb should be fine? I don't need 8xaa, i'm fine with 2xaa, but don't mind none at all. I already know that I won't be able to totally max out the latest games with an eyefinity setup, but i'm hoping I still get good enough frames that allows games to still be very playable.

As for the 5850 vs 5870... i'm still not sure yet. I'll probably wait a little longer and go for a 5870.

As for the adapter, I'm going to be using nec 20wmgx2's so i'm hoping that vga adapter will work fine.
 
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