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AMD Eyefinity vs. Nvidia Surround 2D

1-anh

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 30, 2010
Messages
98
I was wondering which way to go for triple monitor support and was wondering what people thought about eyefinity vs surround. I am planning on running 3 Dell U2311H monitors. I am aware that AMD allows eyefinity off a single card which is a plus compared to nvidias requirement to have SLI in order to use surround, but I am planning on crossfiring/SLI a mid end card or a single high end card anyway so its not a big deal. If people could share their opinions that would be great.
 
Dual 460's are the best price but spanning across 3 screens with anything not mid/high end will yield lower than 60FPS.

What games do you plan to play? are you using the 3 monitor span for anything other than gaming?
 
460's would be the lowest card I would go with, but considering that 560's dont seem to be too far away or even 570's I would just wait for them if I went the surround route. The game's I am planning on playing are team fortress 2, cod: black ops, and maybe some RTS/RPG's. I also plan on playing diablo 3 and sc2. I do also plan on using the 3 monitor span for everyday use as well as writing reports for school.
 
With rumors of the 6950 being very close to 580 GTX performance, and the 6970 being 30% faster then a 580 GTX.

Wait it out for 2 more weeks to see whats the best option.
 
I think I will wait, if crossfire scaling has improved drastically then I may consider getting 2x6950's for an eyefinity setup.
 
why not get an eyefinity card instead with 2GB of memory?
what is the total resolution of your triple monitor set-up?

i checked its 1080P, maybe this video will convince you that for most games out there, the eyefinity is more than enough GPU power.
 
Ya, I saw that video already but if the rumors are true about the Radeon 6970 having 2GB of memory. If the price is around $500 and is cheaper than 2xGTX 570's with similar performance then I will probably go ATI. However considering the GTX 570's rumoured price of around $350-360 at launch, and I plan on building my system monitors included in may-ish then the prices should drop to around $300 per GTX 570 which is mighty tempting considering SLI's superior scaling. However time will tell. I do also like ATI and if I can get great performance from eyefinity with a single 6970 then that will be the way to go.
 
i still prefer single-gpu solutions, avoid all the micro stutter.
im waiting for the 6970's to launch, so i can get a cheaper E6. :D:D:D
 
Ya, I saw that video already but if the rumors are true about the Radeon 6970 having 2GB of memory. If the price is around $500 and is cheaper than 2xGTX 570's with similar performance then I will probably go ATI. However considering the GTX 570's rumoured price of around $350-360 at launch, and I plan on building my system monitors included in may-ish then the prices should drop to around $300 per GTX 570 which is mighty tempting considering SLI's superior scaling. However time will tell. I do also like ATI and if I can get great performance from eyefinity with a single 6970 then that will be the way to go.

To be honest? The HD6870 already proved again, (after the HD4890's and HD5770's excellent CF scaling results) the HD5870's CF scaling was an abnormality, and not the norm for ATi.

However, CF+ Eyefinity has been known to be a general fail... (though I only tested HD5770 *2 CF + 2 1600x1200 monitors before...)
 
...I plan on building my system monitors included in may-ish...

If you're looking to build your computer 5 months from now, don't even waste your time researching now. Prices and tech are going to change significantly from now to then. Check back a 2-4 weeks before you plan to buy your components.
 
If you're looking to build your computer 5 months from now, don't even waste your time researching now. Prices and tech are going to change significantly from now to then. Check back a 2-4 weeks before you plan to buy your components.

yeah, for all we know, AMD might release a HD6990 with perfect Eyefinity+CF scaling and 6DP ports native ~5.01 months from now :p
 
yeah, for all we know, AMD might release a HD6990 with perfect Eyefinity+CF scaling and 6DP ports native ~5.01 months from now :p

Haha, true I probably shouldnt be researching now. But it is nice to know what the current tech is and if its really good, obviously in a few months non reference cards will be on sale and at lower price than when they debuted.
 
The perfect triple surround setup is 20" Portrait + 30" Landscape + 20" Portrait. I do not understand why AMD or nVidia hasn't bought out SoftTH and incorporated that into their drivers somehow.

Which ever ones of these companies offers P+L+P, I will buy in 2seconds.
 
The perfect triple surround setup is 20" Portrait + 30" Landscape + 20" Portrait. I do not understand why AMD or nVidia hasn't bought out SoftTH and incorporated that into their drivers somehow.

Which ever ones of these companies offers P+L+P, I will buy in 2seconds.

SofTH is a bit buggy, though that is more of an artifact of them being a very, very, very tiny company (reading their forums... is it just one person?).


From what I see, it creates a single virtual DirectX display of that "virtual" resolution size, and manages it across the displays. I dunno if that tech is patented somehow? Anyhow, multiple DX devices can also cause issues with PunkBuster, though I dunno if that is the case.
 
The perfect triple surround setup is 20" Portrait + 30" Landscape + 20" Portrait. I do not understand why AMD or nVidia hasn't bought out SoftTH and incorporated that into their drivers somehow.

Which ever ones of these companies offers P+L+P, I will buy in 2seconds.

Naw, 3x 30" in portrait beats that easily. ;)

As for the original question, nVIdia Surround with SLI beats Eyefinity and Crossfire. I've tried high end setups on both and the SLI scales and just works a lot better.
 
Naw, 3x 30" in portrait beats that easily. ;)

As for the original question, nVIdia Surround with SLI beats Eyefinity and Crossfire. I've tried high end setups on both and the SLI scales and just works a lot better.

I agree with this as the current truth. Although the new 6900 series is a week away. The technology those are packing seems interesting. AMD has a chance to break the pattern with these chips. Wait and see very soon.
 
I love my 3 U2311H in Portrait mode. I am playing Batman now first time and man I feel so into it. It's powered by 2 480's in SLI. You can check out the specs on my pc on my sig.

I dont trust Ati from my personal experience when it comes to CFX. If you want a single card solution I would not hesitate Ati, but if you want a dual card solution, Nvidia is the way to go in my opinion. This is from what I have seen first hand. Granted I have not mess with AMD's new series of video cards but from their 5000's series in CFX/surround horrible experience.

Thats my 2 cents
 
I love my 3 U2311H in Portrait mode. I am playing Batman now first time and man I feel so into it. It's powered by 2 480's in SLI. You can check out the specs on my pc on my sig.

I dont trust Ati from my personal experience when it comes to CFX. If you want a single card solution I would not hesitate Ati, but if you want a dual card solution, Nvidia is the way to go in my opinion. This is from what I have seen first hand. Granted I have not mess with AMD's new series of video cards but from their 5000's series in CFX/surround horrible experience.

Thats my 2 cents

Awesome to hear that you have the setup that I am hoping to get in a few months. If going nvidia 2 x GTX 570's should get around the same performance as 2 480's so hopefully in a few months time seeing some performance reviews between Nvidia and ATI will give a clear winner as to who is better in multi gpu and monitor gaming. Thanks again.
 
I love my 3 U2311H in Portrait mode. I am playing Batman now first time and man I feel so into it. It's powered by 2 480's in SLI. You can check out the specs on my pc on my sig.

I dont trust Ati from my personal experience when it comes to CFX. If you want a single card solution I would not hesitate Ati, but if you want a dual card solution, Nvidia is the way to go in my opinion. This is from what I have seen first hand. Granted I have not mess with AMD's new series of video cards but from their 5000's series in CFX/surround horrible experience.

Thats my 2 cents

Kinda hard to check the specs in your sig when there isn't one.:p

I'm more interested in Surround, since it's designed with multiple gpu's in mind. At resolutions of this size, you really need multiple gpu's to fully drive it.
 
Kinda hard to check the specs in your sig when there isn't one.:p

I'm more interested in Surround, since it's designed with multiple gpu's in mind. At resolutions of this size, you really need multiple gpu's to fully drive it.

Hmm click on my name, then click on public profiles and you get the following;

Phantom Case
I7 950 @ 4.1 HT/Turbo On
Asus Rampage III Formula
6 Gigs Patriot Gaming Ram
Intel 80 Gig SSD OS drive
2 Samsung F3 in Raid 0 as Game Drive
Eco 240 as my CPu cooler
2 MSI 480 in SLI
3 Dell U3211H in portrait Mode
 
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