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So two weeks ago I jumped on a deal for 3 zr2740w's feeling my 3007wfp-hc was getting up there in age. I also wanted to switch to displayport cabling thinking I could clean up my setup a bit by using daisy-chaining. I thought this as for two (three?) years I've been reading that the advantage of displayport over hdmi/dvi was the increased bandwidth granting the ability to daisy chain.
I was under the impression any card with a single displayport 1.2 output could run my screens, but of course this capability has yet to be implemented and now I'm sort of stuck with what to do. Additionally, I'm now unsure if even dp 1.2 with an MST hub has the bandwidth for 3 2560x1440 displays.
Additionally, because daisychaining is not an option that means I've got to switch to AMD to run them from DP, and I'm less familiar with how Eyefinity works: IE, I've read all my displays need to be connected to a single card even in a crossfire setup, so I need a card with 3+ dp ports? Also I've read about tearing when using a mix of DP and dvi ports?
If that's the case seems my options are:
1. asus 6950/70 directcu ii with 4 displayport outputs, $250/350ish
2. 6990, $500-600 on ebay
3. 7970?? stock vs 6GB flex vs 1335MHz
I'd really like to go for the 7970 for a few reasons:
1. dont want to throw $500+ after last gen vid cards
2. I do a lot of CUDA rendering (more than gaming, only an hour of BF3 now and then) and am looking forward to the extra compute performance for AMD this generation, will have to switch to an OpenCL renderer but I'll manage.
3. Would be fun to run BF3 on all 3 displays in eyefinity full res (have to do 3840x720 or single 2560x1440 now)
4. new MB (sandybridge maximus gene-z) will supposedly have pci-e 3.0 support when I drop an IB proc in it.
My main question is how long these non-reference cards usually take to come out, and what would be in my best interests given my port needs and resolution. I have the gtx460 (sold my 480s and need to ship them out on Tuesday) I can pull from my HTPC to run 2 of the displays until the 9th but I'd like to get everything up and running ASAP.
Given all of the factors above, I'm still wondering about what I should get:
1. Reference 7970: port issues? overclocked to 1125MHz even gets close to a 6990, so 1 of these now and another one or a 7990 later should be enough for full res goodness in BF3?
2. 6GB 7970 (sapphire flex): Guaranteed no port issues, but will there be any benefit from that much ram? IE: am I overpaying for RAM I don't really need just to get the right ports?
3. toxic/etc: WRT to #2: would this be more beneficial? Or am I locked into the 6GB card because of tearing issues when mixing and matching ports. Reading that an 1125MHz 7970 performs like a 6990 and people are running trifire 6970 to get good results at this rez, maybe crossfire oc'ed 7970s would be best(similar but better than quadfire 6970s)
TL;DR: CANDY!
I was under the impression any card with a single displayport 1.2 output could run my screens, but of course this capability has yet to be implemented and now I'm sort of stuck with what to do. Additionally, I'm now unsure if even dp 1.2 with an MST hub has the bandwidth for 3 2560x1440 displays.
Additionally, because daisychaining is not an option that means I've got to switch to AMD to run them from DP, and I'm less familiar with how Eyefinity works: IE, I've read all my displays need to be connected to a single card even in a crossfire setup, so I need a card with 3+ dp ports? Also I've read about tearing when using a mix of DP and dvi ports?
If that's the case seems my options are:
1. asus 6950/70 directcu ii with 4 displayport outputs, $250/350ish
2. 6990, $500-600 on ebay
3. 7970?? stock vs 6GB flex vs 1335MHz
I'd really like to go for the 7970 for a few reasons:
1. dont want to throw $500+ after last gen vid cards
2. I do a lot of CUDA rendering (more than gaming, only an hour of BF3 now and then) and am looking forward to the extra compute performance for AMD this generation, will have to switch to an OpenCL renderer but I'll manage.
3. Would be fun to run BF3 on all 3 displays in eyefinity full res (have to do 3840x720 or single 2560x1440 now)
4. new MB (sandybridge maximus gene-z) will supposedly have pci-e 3.0 support when I drop an IB proc in it.
My main question is how long these non-reference cards usually take to come out, and what would be in my best interests given my port needs and resolution. I have the gtx460 (sold my 480s and need to ship them out on Tuesday) I can pull from my HTPC to run 2 of the displays until the 9th but I'd like to get everything up and running ASAP.
Given all of the factors above, I'm still wondering about what I should get:
1. Reference 7970: port issues? overclocked to 1125MHz even gets close to a 6990, so 1 of these now and another one or a 7990 later should be enough for full res goodness in BF3?
2. 6GB 7970 (sapphire flex): Guaranteed no port issues, but will there be any benefit from that much ram? IE: am I overpaying for RAM I don't really need just to get the right ports?
3. toxic/etc: WRT to #2: would this be more beneficial? Or am I locked into the 6GB card because of tearing issues when mixing and matching ports. Reading that an 1125MHz 7970 performs like a 6990 and people are running trifire 6970 to get good results at this rez, maybe crossfire oc'ed 7970s would be best(similar but better than quadfire 6970s)
TL;DR: CANDY!