Eyefinity without breaking the bank

[oldpablo]

I'm kind of hoping this thread serves as an information source that helps a lot of people out that are wanting to try Eyefinity for cheap (well, cheaper). I'm hoping to get a few options and pricepoints posted for people to choose from with links to hardware, etc. I don't need the highest-end setup, I mostly play EVE Online, TF2, L4D, etc., games where the focus is more fun than stop and stare at the visuals. So I'm thinking of just going the 5770 route since I have a 4870 512MB right now and I'm perfectly happy with it, AND I can take the savings from a 5800 series and cover a lot of the third monitor since I'll be buying three. Now I'd like to do a balancing act involving excellent ROI, and I realize there's a fair bit of leeway here. Here are my questions:

*Will I or users like me (who've never touched Crysis/FC2 nor care too) regret the 5770 purchase? Will it be able to generally do fine pushing 3x 1920x1080 displays when in eyefinity (3240x1920)?

*What's the cheapest 3x 1080p screen purchase? I don't care about the panels or color saturation, it's just gaming geez. I really hate to buy anything less than 1080p since it's the generally accepted standard these days, however if anyone knows of any really sweet deals on 1680x1050 triple combos then it might be worth it since technically you are still gaining a lot of space via Eyefinity and just having triple monitors.

*I'd like to be able to rotate the displays vertical and it'd be nice to have a displayport option to save on the DVI>DP dongle which I hear is expensive. Is either option generally too large a bump in price though to even consider? Remember the price difference can add up between three displays.

What's the cheapest successfull 3x Eyefinity setup that you guys are aware of?

 

[vjcsmoke]

What's the cheapest successfull 3x Eyefinity setup that you guys are aware of?

5770 + 3xWFP2007 + HDMI to VGA adapter.

5770 $159 MSRP
3x Dell WFP2007 (Total 4800x1200 or 3600x1600 rez) $300-450
HDMI to VGA adapter $20.

Best case - roughly $500.

 

[Unknown-One]

You're suggesting 3x 1920x1200 (4800x1200) with only an HD5770 to back it up???

I have a GTX260, which is faster than the 5770, and I'm running 3x 1680x1050 (5040x1050). My GTX260 is just barely cutting it, and AA is out of the question in a number of titles at this resolution because the card simply doesn't have the horsepower for it.

I can tell you right now, you will not be happy with a 5770 at 4800x1200, and considering it's slower than this GTX260, you probably wouldn't be happy with it at 5040x1050 either..

 

[oldpablo]

I could honestly care less about AA. These days I just want to enjoy a game, I pretty much never bother changing any values from the detected defaults. What can I say, I growed up. I imagine there are some like me, where having the ability to play with three monitors for a decent price trumps things like amazing image quality with massive AAA, etc. And I'm saying 1920x1080 not 1920x1200. But I think it's almost worth it to drop lower given the fact that you are going to be using three monitors. However if the 5770 is going to be horrible with three monitors in most current games then yeah let's make it known.

 

[Unknown-One]

However if the 5770 is going to be horrible with three monitors in most current games then yeah let's make it known.

The HD5770 will do 5040x1050 (triple 1680x1050) ok. Not amazing, but you should be able to get playable framrates in most games if you drop the settings a bit. Don't expect to be able to run any AA at all unless we're talking fairly light games (like Source engine games such as Left4Dead and HalfLife2).

At 4800x1200 (or 4800x1080 as you're suggesting) it'll obviously be worse. I would go with an HD5850, at minimum, for resolutions that high.

 

[alxnet2003]

You're suggesting 3x 1920x1200 (4800x1200) with only an HD5770 to back it up???

Most any game is playable with a 5770 at those resolutions as long as he realizes that he needs to scale back some of the settings. Great thing about PC games is the ability to scale things up and down depending on your equipment. I have a 5870 and play at 6144x1152 with AA off. The minor sacrifice of AA is more than surpassed by the Eyefinity experience.

 

[revenant]

I am really thinking more and more about eyefinity.. so a single 5850 can really push 3 24" LCDs with reasonable frames??

 

[oldpablo]

Maybe this is a good way to go about it. Since desk real estate can be tricky and most seem to prefer eyefinity in the vertical format, what's the cheapest LCD panels conducive to eyefinity regardless of resolution? By conducive I mean they rotate and have the right connectors?

 

[oldpablo]

These are the best I've found so far for decent LCD's that swivel AND have DP built-in (so no adapter needed):

20" 1600:900 $179
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-8321

22" 1920x1080 $199
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-8323

Found per Kyle's links (thanks!)

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/28/amds_ati_eyefinity_technology_review

That's still at least $700 including the 5770, damn. Maybe I should get out the hammer and saw and just hack up the current LCD's I already own.

 

[Unknown-One]

Vertical? I thought most people were going for horizontal setups for the added field of vision.

 

[oldpablo]

Vertical? I thought most people were going for horizontal setups for the added field of vision.

Well I'd prefer vertical personally to save on desk space. Also depending on how it's setup you could be swiveling your head side to side a lot sticking to landscape. Or maybe not, but I'd still prefer vertical. You'd still have a lot more resolution than usual so it's still a win.

 

[Unknown-One]

Well I'd prefer vertical.

Then don't count on getting cheap monitors.

TN-Film LCD's, which is what most of the cheap ones are, have issues with gamma shift. Turning such a monitor monitor 90 degrees and putting it in portrait mode will make the shift immediately apparent, and believe me, it isn't pretty.

 

[oldpablo]

I'm almost positive I used that 1600x900 Dell I linked above at a previus job, and I used it vertical just because I liked surfing the web that way. I don't remember having any issues. Is that a TN panel?

 

[oldpablo]

Okay so after looking at the 5770 benchmarks I'm starting to fear it won't due too well for eyefinity and large monitors. I don't mind having less detail, but I want at least a little bit of longevity on a purchase. Has anyone come across any eyefinity specific benchmarks for the lower end cards?

EDIT: Found this, not too comprehensive though. Not as bad as I thought though I guess.

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTI1NTM3MDIzM0V1a09USndMa01fMV85X2wuZ2lm

 

[Deadgye]

How would 5770 x2 in crossfire work with 5760x1200; or can we not guesstimate yet due to crossfire and eyefinity not working together yet? Because with my current budget I can only afford one monitor and a 5770, but in the near future there's a possibility I could upgrade to eyefinity.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

There is no cheap eyefinity setups, not only do you need X many monitors (presumably 3) you also need a powerful variant of the 5xxx card to back it up for good frame rates, I'd say the 5850 minimum although for maxing out settings or for lots of AA/AF use you're probably going to want a 5870 or a 5970.

 

[oldpablo]

Well yes and no. Since there are multiple components to buy the price can be pretty modular/linear. Or I can choose to save money here and spend more there, for example instead of buying the DVI>DP adapter I can instead choose to invest that $100 into an LCD that does DP natively. I can choose to buy three 1600x900 monitors or buy three that are a little larger but cost several hundred dollars more. But both will be enjoyable in eyefinity. The price difference going from a 5770 to a 5800 series card can be double the cost. There's a lot of pricing options I'd say. What I'm looking for is the most inexpensive eyefinity setup that is still successfull and provides the experience. Bang for buck.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

But even with a low resolution of 1600x900x3 is 4,320,000 pixels which is more than a 30" 2560x1600 single display. Most people with that panel are going for either 5870 or 5970 solutions because to drive that kind of resolution needs a lot of horsepower.

What people keep forgetting about eyefinity is that it's not some magical fix for adding more pixels with no rendering cost, as you scale up the number of pixels you need more graphical horsepower to drive the display.

Quite frankly I dont think eyefinity can be done for cheap and still get a good gaming experience, as you start cutting corners and getting tiny resolution monitors you also get lumped with pretty bad TN panels which look pretty awful and washed out and will be even worse when you start putting them at angles where the colour/brightness starts to shift dramatically. With a low cost eyefinity setup you gain a ultra wide display but at what cost to image quality and performance?

 

[oldpablo]

It's obvious you have a much higher requirement for fun then I and many others I'm sure do. I've played TF2 on an onboard Radeon 3200 at 1024x768 with everything set to low and still had a blast. IPS panels, bigass resolutions, extreme AA, none of these are required to have a fun experience.

 

[oldpablo]

Okay here's a crazy thought. What if you went the 4:3 aspect ratio? It seems to me it'd be cheaper and would it really be worse an experience for gaming? It'd be worse just doing stuff in windows, but this will be a primarily gaming PC, I have other PC's for office work, etc.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=320-1097 (for example)

Think this is just a bad road to go down? It's roughly $200 cheaper than the 22's above that are 1080P, and it almost seems like it's a good middle ground between portrait and landscape.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

3x1024x768 is still 2.36Mpix, thats about 1920x1200 equiv, you're going to want at least a 5850 for that, not exactly cheap. Are you trying to stick to the budget range of the 5750 or 5770? If so then eyefinity isnt really going to be worth it.

 

[oldpablo]

3x1024x768 is still 2.36Mpix, thats about 1920x1200 equiv, you're going to want at least a 5850 for that, not exactly cheap. Are you trying to stick to the budget range of the 5750 or 5770? If so then eyefinity isnt really going to be worth it.

Since the 5700 series support eyefinity I'd say it's debateable that it's worth it. If I had to choose between a budget eyefinity setup and none at all I'd still get some enjoyment out of eyefinity even if I didn't have all settings on max. I'd rather play on a big screen with lowered settings than one regular screen with settings cranked up. I want three screens regardless for use in Windows and other games that I play windowed with multiple clients (EVE Online), as well as an updated video card, so in that respect eyefinity is a free bonus really. I figure there's others like me somewhere.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

It's obvious you have a much higher requirement for fun then I and many others I'm sure do. I've played TF2 on an onboard Radeon 3200 at 1024x768 with everything set to low and still had a blast. IPS panels, bigass resolutions, extreme AA, none of these are required to have a fun experience.

Yes they are.

 

[oldpablo]

Yes they are.

You are correct, fun was only invented when these technologies came along. The enthusiast threads are that way ---->. This is the bang for buck/budget thread for those that want to have fun without devoting entire paychecks to it.

 

[SixtyWattMan]

You are correct, fun was only invented when these technologies came along. The enthusiast threads are that way ---->. This is the bang for buck/budget thread for those that want to have fun without devoting entire paychecks to it.

You can't have fun without money.

 

[oldpablo]

You can't have fun without money.

Heh now I know that you are a troll.

 

[harmattan]

In my experience with eyefinity the lowest card you want is a 5850. I'd avoid x-fire 5770s since only a handful of games (only two out of 15 games that I've played) support dual cards in eyefinity.

as for the portrait vs. Landscape debate, portrait is my preferance by far for everything except racing games. Landscape is just downright annoying for most fps, rpg and start games as well as day-to-day use since you keep having to turn your head to focus on the side screens -- 'tennis match head' as I call it.

if you really want to go cheap without a pivoting monitor, but still go prtrait, most non-pivot stands are standard 100x100 VESA so you can unattach/reattach the screen vertically (as long as the stand is high enough).

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Since the 5700 series support eyefinity I'd say it's debateable that it's worth it. If I had to choose between a budget eyefinity setup and none at all I'd still get some enjoyment out of eyefinity even if I didn't have all settings on max. I'd rather play on a big screen with lowered settings than one regular screen with settings cranked up. I want three screens regardless for use in Windows and other games that I play windowed with multiple clients (EVE Online), as well as an updated video card, so in that respect eyefinity is a free bonus really. I figure there's others like me somewhere.

Well at the end of the day it's preference, yes a cheap eyefinity setup can work but you have to sacrafice a lot, either you put up with:

a) Spending lots to cover the hardware
b) Slow frame rates
c) Very bad graphcis

If you're prepared to dump all the graphics settings down and/or put up with a bad frame rate then sure eyefinity for cheap is possible, but for me personally thats way too much of a sacrafice, I think the overall quality is going to be better with a single high quality panel running a resolution your hardware can support without struggling.

 

[harmattan]

Well at the end of the day it's preference, yes a cheap eyefinity setup can work but you have to sacrafice a lot, either you put up with:

a) Spending lots to cover the hardware
b) Slow frame rates
c) Very bad graphcis

If you're prepared to dump all the graphics settings down and/or put up with a bad frame rate then sure eyefinity for cheap is possible, but for me personally thats way too much of a sacrafice, I think the overall quality is going to be better with a single high quality panel running a resolution your hardware can support without struggling.

agree competely. If you have the choice of high quality iq and res on a single scren vs. Low quality iq on crappy screens in eyefinity, definitely go with the single screen. The trade off just isn't worth it.

 

[oldpablo]

UNLESS you want three screens for other Windows work and due to the nature of wanting three screens you are forced budget-wise to spread your cash amongst three smaller screens rather than one large one. As is my case.

 

[dslrjunky]

why don't you go the use route?? local craigslist not all of them sell inside a white van you know!
also find the 3 cheapest LCD you like and factor in a DVI or VGA to Displayport Active adapter and that is $99 unless there is a cheap solution now, but for eyefinity you need atleast one of those connector (but of course if 5770 doesnt have a DP?)

 

[Kowan]

Keep saving up while you are deciding. Don't let the upgrade bug force you to invest in a setup you might not be happy with just to say you have Eyefinity.

 

[oldpablo]

It's more needing three monitors and figuring why not have some fun with eyefinity as a bonus. And it seems pointless to invest in a dongle when you can get LCD's with displayport for $200 and lower.

 

[Kowan]

I'd agree, a LCD with a DP would be my choice over an adapter.
Have you looked at Dell's Refurbished monitors?.

 

[dslrjunky]

It's more needing three monitors and figuring why not have some fun with eyefinity as a bonus. And it seems pointless to invest in a dongle when you can get LCD's with displayport for $200 and lower.

I agree if you can buy <$200 w/DP that's the route you should take... and to feed your upgrade bug:

all bought them at local craigslist 2x2408WFP +2407WFP-HC

 

[PrincessFrosty]

And you can already tell the middle monitors blacks are much worse than either sides, so already theres a fairly noticeable image quality problem. You really need to be careful which panels you get especially for the side ones which are at a finer angle. Try and stick with the same panel for all of them.

 

[Kettchxxii]

Ok the dirt pictures did it for me. I have two 2408s right now, how to you like the 2407, and do you notice the difference? Whats your system specs?

 

[dslrjunky]

And you can already tell the middle monitors blacks are much worse than either sides, so already theres a fairly noticeable image quality problem. You really need to be careful which panels you get especially for the side ones which are at a finer angle. Try and stick with the same panel for all of them.

if I have to pay <$230 with 2 yr warranty from dell, I wouldn't worry too much about it, base on experience dell exchange policy is awesome as the warranty I have does advance exchange, not bad for the price...

 

[sachem87184]

I ended up getting this setup for my eyefinity and it cost about $1,000.


Monitors- Samsung 2343BWX $199.99 x3
Video Card - Sapphire HD 5850 $299.99
Adapter- Accell DP Adapter $99.99

 

[PS3]

For now just go with one big monitor. You can get a nice 50" plasma for like $500.