Gaming @ 2560x1600

I'm going to try to sidestep the nVidia vs AMD war that seems to be raging here, and answer the OP's question directly.

I own a Dell 3007WFP-HC v.1 (the single DVI-D connector version)

I play games such as DiRT2, BattleField Bad Company 2, Rift, BioShock 1 and 2, StarCraft 2, etc.

I am currently running a stock speed HIS HD6850 1GB on a C2D E8400 with 4GB of system ram.

The best example of direct DX11 performance is with DiRT2 and BFBC2, so I will focus on those two specifically. In DiRT2, I have all settings to ultra (or high if ultra is unavailable) and 2xMSAA. I average 40-45 FPS in all races, 60-80 on menu screens (fully 3D, but not complex or rapidly moving).

In BFBC2, I have all settings to high, 2xMSAA. I get ~38-45 FPS depending on amount of scene complexity (jungle levels are killers XD).

So, to answer your direct question: yes, a single GTX580 will do you well for 2560x1600 gaming if you are willing to be part of the crowd that considers anything 30+ fps to be eminently playable. If you need to be above 50-60 FPS, then you get more value, if your system can handle it, out of two GTX570's in SLI. Scaling is usually 50-80% of single card performance, meaning that if, on a single GTX570, you'd arbitrarily get 40 fps in a complex scene, then you'd theoretically achieve 57-70 FPS by adding the second card, bringing you well in line with 60 FPS.

Hope this slightly tech headed post helped ^_^
 
Dan_D said:
Either the GTX 580 3GB or the 6990 are the top choices. You can of course get away with using a 6970 or an unlocked 2GB 6950. A single GTX 580 1.5GB will probably work as well, but you may have to keep AA levels lower in some games. I've not checked the memory usage in such scenarios so I can't say for certain.
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Thanks Dan. By the way, I was looking at the HD 6990 review, and under the Overclocking and Power section (specifically the Power Draw), it shows that the total system wattage without a video card was 190W. Did that include the Dell 30" monitor, or was that just the system alone? I'm just trying to gauge if I would be able to run a 6990 on a 600W Silverstone PSU.
 
I currently run crossfire unlocked 6950's on my ZR30w, and they work quite well. Tomorrow my 6990 arrives and I'll be running trifire so we'll see how that goes, should really allow me to crank up that AA and maintain a solid 60fps in most games :)
 
Running 1x580, I can tell you that you'll be craving more power at that rez. Esp in the future. Couldn't play Metro 2033 maxed @ 1680x1050.

2 would be just fine tho ;)
 
Tyler582 said:
Running 1x580, I can tell you that you'll be craving more power at that rez. Esp in the future. Couldn't play Metro 2033 maxed @ 1680x1050.

2 would be just fine tho ;)
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That's what I'm starting to gather. And since my build is most probably going to mITX, it looks like I'll be going with the 6990.
 
crazjayz said:
That's what I'm starting to gather. And since my build is most probably going to mITX, it looks like I'll be going with the 6990.
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if you are thinking of the SG07, you're probably going to do some modding to get rid of the other GPUs heat :(
 
jeremyshaw said:
if you are thinking of the SG07, you're probably going to do some modding to get rid of the other GPUs heat :(
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Yeah, I'm thinking of just cutting the front so it can vent and making some sort of duct to close the 0.2" gap.
 
vagabond142 said:
I'm going to try to sidestep the nVidia vs AMD war that seems to be raging here, and answer the OP's question directly.

I own a Dell 3007WFP-HC v.1 (the single DVI-D connector version)

I play games such as DiRT2, BattleField Bad Company 2, Rift, BioShock 1 and 2, StarCraft 2, etc.

I am currently running a stock speed HIS HD6850 1GB on a C2D E8400 with 4GB of system ram.

The best example of direct DX11 performance is with DiRT2 and BFBC2, so I will focus on those two specifically. In DiRT2, I have all settings to ultra (or high if ultra is unavailable) and 2xMSAA. I average 40-45 FPS in all races, 60-80 on menu screens (fully 3D, but not complex or rapidly moving).

In BFBC2, I have all settings to high, 2xMSAA. I get ~38-45 FPS depending on amount of scene complexity (jungle levels are killers XD).
Click to expand...

To give the OP a bit more data, I have a the same Dell 30" monitor as vagabond and I'm running 2x reference 6950 2GB (not flashed/OC'ed yet waiting on summer heat). BFBC2 maxxed, 8xMSAA runs 65-75FPS. My lone 5870 was getting about the same FPS as Vagabond but w/o AA & HBAO. IMO there is a huge difference between mid 30's and mid 60's in FPS responsiveness but YMMV.

5870 xfire hit the wall with 8xMSAA in BFBC2, FPS was in the teens (not enough VRAM). Because of that if you go green I'd be hesitant to buy any cards except 580's as I'd worry about hiting the VRAM wall, expecially if you SLI. On the red side, xfire 6950's or 6970's will work as well. IMO the 6950's give you the best bang for the buck /w a single 30" panel, but if you don't mind spending the cash any of them will be good choices performance wise.
 
I am reasonably satisfied with my 570 at 2560x1600, its a big step up from 1080p for sure. I found that I had to bump some settings down. Even so, I find that right now I'm not interested in any demanding games. I've been hooked on RTS's like Civ5 and SC2.
However messing around with benchmarking, maxing AA and the like, I'm getting pretty low frames.

I'm strongly considering selling the 570 and buying a pair of 2gb 6950's. I believe in going with whatever is the best value at the time. I don't really have any strong brand loyalty.
 
Meh, I run 3 x 30"rs (albeit not maxed settings) on a single 5870 2GB and a C2D @ 3.6GHz. If you have to have maxed settings on every single, sure get another card, but any modern gaming card (5850 or higher / 460 or higher) should be able to run 2560x1600 decently.
 
nimbyfaygo said:
I am reasonably satisfied with my 570 at 2560x1600, its a big step up from 1080p for sure. I found that I had to bump some settings down. Even so, I find that right now I'm not interested in any demanding games. I've been hooked on RTS's like Civ5 and SC2.
However messing around with benchmarking, maxing AA and the like, I'm getting pretty low frames.

I'm strongly considering selling the 570 and buying a pair of 2gb 6950's. I believe in going with whatever is the best value at the time. I don't really have any strong brand loyalty.
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I'm at 2560x1440 (not exactly 1600p...), and with a single HD5770 and a single GTX570 for now. I do have a HD6950 2GB incomming, I am going to try and find the difference between the two in SC2 :D

EDIT: I don't use any AA, so I dunno if that applies?
Only comparison between HD6950 2GB and GTX570 in SC2 I found is this:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20126/10

at 1600p, however, it uses 4x AA, which I think it utterly useless with MLAA and the fact that the U2711 I have has a high enough PPI that AA just looks wierd....
 
jeremyshaw said:
I'm at 2560x1440 (not exactly 1600p...), and with a single HD5770 and a single GTX570 for now. I do have a HD6950 2GB incomming, I am going to try and find the difference between the two in SC2 :D

EDIT: I don't use any AA, so I dunno if that applies?
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I would like to see a comparison between the 2. I don't use AA in SC2, its not supported natively in the game. And I've never noticed it being worth the huge hit in performance.

EDIT* LOL Ninja adding a link. That's about right on the money. I see about the same results in game.
 
yeah, I'm switching out my X3440 @ stock for an i7 2600k @ stock (mITX OC constraints :D). So my results may arrive around when you fold and get a HD6950 CF setup :p
 
Metro Aah that's where nvidias superior tessalation comes in. That game runs better on nvidia gpus op
 
Since i dropped eyefinity and went back to 2560x1600. I will DEF comment on this one.

You can run 1 6970 easily at that Resolution and save yourself ALOT of money.

The running hotter and slower comments people make in here are fanboi's.

Save yourself some money and get a 6970....you wont regret it.
 
suiken_2mieu said:
Meh, I run 3 x 30"rs (albeit not maxed settings) on a single 5870 2GB and a C2D @ 3.6GHz. If you have to have maxed settings on every single, sure get another card, but any modern gaming card (5850 or higher / 460 or higher) should be able to run 2560x1600 decently.
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I found my 5970 wasn't enough in some games at 2560x1600. So I can't agree with you.
 
As pointed out above, a HUUUUUUUUUUGE draw on cards is AA. Sure, it means you get a prettier picture, but as a purely subjective example, I just hopped into DiRT 2, did the Malaysia rally course with AA on, averaged 43 FPS with 4xMSAA. Turned down to 2xMSAA, did the same run, 47 FPS avg. Same run with NO AA? 56 FPS avg.

Rmember, though, that is SUBJECTIVE. My system is not your system nor will it ever be. But that DOES show that AA is a big draw on the GPU and the texture memory itself, as it has to pass the same scene through processing multiple times (hence the "multisampling" of MSAA). And honestly? DiRT2 runs just fine and pretty with no AA (full res screen from replay):

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk13/Vagabond142/dirt2_game2011-04-1922-58-45-62.jpg
 
Vagabond142 nailed it; it really comes down to high AA modes and a few advanced effects such as ambient occlusion. These all kill framerates; if you're OK with this sort of stuff off then you need exponentially less graphics power than you do if you want it on. The only games my 5870 couldn't really handle at 2560 was Metro2033, Crysis, & ARMA II, everything else I *could* run at 60FPS (and those 3 I could run at 30+). But I wanted to turn on the eye candy so I moved to xfire 6950's. And if I start forcing some of the advanced effects in the driver (edge detect, MAA) I still kill framerates so 2x6950 isn't enough in all games if you want that stuff on.

With console ports ruling the day you don't need this much graphics power in a lot games; games like MA2 or Borderlands run at the 60FPS vsync lock with everything max'ed on a single 5870. Which is why there are such varied opinions, depending on what games people are playing and how much eye candy they want the amount of required graphics power varies widely.

Since the OP was considering spending $1,000 on graphics cards I'm assuming he wants eye candy on, in which case he's looking at 2x (or 3x) cards to do that in all games. If he's OK with eye candy off and/or playing less demanding console ports then one card is plenty, and and any NVidia card with enough VRAM is probably going to be overkill.
 
addictedto60fps said:
Yeah, that's mainly it, I believe. In terms of raw horsepower, 5970 is still a pretty good card. It's the VRAM that's holding this card back at higher resolutions.
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That's definitely a limiting factor. Especially at Eyefinity resolutions or when AA beyond 2x was used.
 
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