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Second 6950 or two more monitors?

R

russilker

n00b
Joined
Nov 14, 2010
Messages
62
Hi,
I'm still in the process of organizing my new build, and with the release of the 69xx series I'm having trouble deciding between two options:

1) Crossfiring 6950s with my 1920x1080 23" monitor, or
2) Buying one 6950 + 2 more 1920x1080 23" monitors for eyefinity

Both would come out to $600.

A few questions that I'd VERY much appreciate to have answered:
- Would bezel correction work with mismatched monitors (2xG235H + 1xH223H)? They're pretty much the same spec wise, but I read that the EDID of the monitors needs to be the same so can this be faked without flashing the monitor? This is very important to me.
- What kind of performance could I expect from a single 6950 at 5760x1080 (can't find any reviews for single card eyefinity yet..)
- Do I still need an active displayport adapter for the new 69xx cards?
- How serious of an issue is microstuttering/CFX driver issues nowadays?
- Would a Corsair 750tx be enough to power an overclocked i5 750 rig + two 6950s?
- Seeing as how the 6950 crossfire and GTX 570 SLi are similar in performance, how would those two configs scale in Eyefinity and Surround? Would two 570s in Surround give better performance than two 6950s in Eyefinity?
- Would an i5 750@4ghz perform as well as an i7 870@4ghz with hyperthreading off, and is it as easy to get the i5 to 4ghz as it is an i7 (and is it even possible with the 212+ for a first-time OC'er like me)?

The way I see it, the two additional monitors would be a better option for me, because if the one 6950 isn't giving me the framerate I need across all 3 displays I can always just game on one monitor, seeing as how one 6950 should be able to handle any game out there maxed out at 1920x1080 at the moment. I could also add a second 6950 in about a year by the time more demanding games come out (hint hint, Crysis 2). But, if I go for the single display/dual 6950s, I'd have to watch out for crossfire driver issues and microstuttering, plus I wouldn't have two additional displays to play with.

I think I answered my own question while writing this (will probably be going for the two monitors + single video card), but I'm still curious to hear what you guys might suggest.

Just for the record, this is what I'll probably be going with (I'm not including an optical drive or hard drive as I already have some at home):
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12907251
My single-monitor option would be the same exact build, except with two 6950s and no additional monitors.

My other 3-monitor option is SLi'ing two GTX 460 2gb cards together, but that's more expensive, would force me to get a Rosewill PSU and Biostar MB because of price constraints, and wouldn't allow me to drop in another video card in the future.

So many choices... :eek: Any thoughts?
 
i myself love eyefinity.. the extra desktop space is really nice.. i would go with the monitors..
 
Thanks, what cards are you using and what framerates at what resolution in what games are you getting? I personally have NO idea what kind of performance to expect from a 6950 at 3x1920x1080, which is why I'm asking.
 
I'm assuming you'll eventually end up with Eyefinity + CFX 6950's. That said, I would get the second 6950 first and then get the monitors later. This way you'll have the max performance possible all the time as opposed to running things at lower settings with a single card for a while.

As for your questions:
1) Bezel correction might work, but we can't tell for sure unless we can check the EDID of the monitors. Personally I dont use bezel correction as you're missing some of the picture.

2) I would estimate performance of a single 6950 would be a bit better than a single 5870 at Eyefinity resolution. Right now I have a single 5870 on three 1920x1080 monitors and in BC2 I get about 45fps avg with 2x MSAA and 16x AF. All the other settings are maxed. In JC2 I had to turn some settings down to medium IIRC.

3) Yes, you'll need an adapter unless your monitors support DP (you can hook 2 monitors DVI and 2 monitors DP on a 6950).

4) Back when I had CFX 5850s and 5870s I never noticed microstuttering.

5) A TX750 should be ok, but an upgrade would add some peace of mind. Plug your CPU in a PSU calculator to see what it's power draw is. I was able to run CFX 5850s on a 750W PSU with my OC'd i7 920.

6) The CFX 6950s will best the 570 at Eyefinity resolutions.

7) Probably. There might be a few more architectural tweaks with the i7's to make them faster though (not by a whole lot though). Should be doable with a Hyper 212+. OCing is pretty simple now-a-days.
 
I have an i5 750 with a Hyper 212+, no problems getting it to 4ghz but I run it at 3.5 now so that I can run turbo boost, etc... that way the processor downclocks correctly when not in use, save power...
 
heck this may sound funny but i just run eyefinity with one overclocked 6850 and im happy with it. can put on 16x aa and junk but i can run most all games on high.. im very happy with it. i run 1600x1200 x3 and a x4 amd at 3.6ghz 4gb ram. but i turn on 16x aa or even anything above 4x it lags really bad.
 
Thanks guys, that's pretty helpful. I guess I could get the two 6950s now and two more monitors later, I was just really hoping to experience Eyefinity for myself haha.
I also updated the eyefinity wishlist with an 850tx since I can afford it, and I would like the peace of mind for sure.

Any other thoughts/suggestions? I can't wait for some 6950/6970 eyefinity reviews, in the past it seemed that Surround scaled a lot better than Eyefinity and I'm wondering if that's changed recently.

EDIT: bdavis, that sounds to me like it could be hitting a VRAM wall, since AA taxes vram pretty heavily, especially at ultra-high resolutions. That makes me a little more comfortable knowing that I could probably play most all games at high settings with 3 monitors and just one 6950, aside from Crysis or Metro 2033

EDIT2: That reminds me, I was originally going to go for a 1055t or 955BE, either of which would be cheaper than the i5 750, but decided against it because I read that its harder to get the AMD processors to 4ghz, and the i5/i7 series are significantly faster clock-for-clock even in games. Since the 2.66ghz i5 750 beats a 3.2ghz 955BE, would you say the i5 750 is my best choice for a gaming system for the money?
 
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