sidegrade from a 280GTX?

[bobstone]

hey all, I am looking to upgrade kinda.

I am happy with the horse power of the 280 as far as all the games I play, but. I want to use 3 or more monitors.

the game I want that support for I already know will work at 5760x1080 res with most any basic card that supports multi moniters.

so given the 280 as a base mark, and a price range up to 300 (want to pay more in the 100-200 range, so budget cards are a welcome suggestion)

to sum it up, 3+ monitors with a shared res i.e. 3 = 5760x1080, 6= 5760x3240, got access to some spare monitors.

and be able to play any modern game same or better as my current card at 1920x1200 res (don't care if it is only 5% better, as long as it is better)

mostly play skyrim, supcom, indi simple graphic games. and some modern fps's, again for speed comparison it would be for single monitor gaming, I already know the game I need the multi support will work fine.

been searching but finding all the cross comparisons to bridge the gap from the 280 gen card to the modern cards is hurting my head.

Thanks for any help and suggestions.
Bob

oh... p.s. the lower the power consumption the better.

 

[bobstone]

would a 6950 1gb/2gb with the firmware upgrade thingy I am reading about be a good choice? and if so is gigabyte a safe brand for the update ?

or a 6870? maybe

 

[-Sn1PeR-]

I would go with the 2GB card - a 6950 2GB is a great choice for multi monitor gaming - buying the 1GB is never a good idea for the resolutions that you are talking about and the relatively small price difference between the two. Another option you may not have considered is finding another 280 cheap and running SLI. You can game on 3-monitors in that configuration as well. With the rumors of the next generation die shrunk GPU's being right around the corner finding a cheap 280 to hold you over might not be a bad option.

 

[MavericK]

GTX 280 SLI is about on par with a GTX 570 or so...Good setup, I ran that for quite awhile. With multi-monitor gaming, though, you might want to think about a 2 GB card. The upside of the SLI is that you can get a GTX 280 for pretty cheap (probably like $80-100 or so), but you also mentioned power consumption, which the GTX 280 draws a LOT...so SLI is double that.

Your best choice overall is probably going to be the 6950 2 GB, though that will put you closer to $300 than anything. If you can find a shader unlocked one, even better. If you want to stay nVidia, maybe look into getting a 560 Ti 2 GB...though I'm not sure if there is one that has 3+ monitor support?

 

[happymedium]

6870 2gb for 179$AR at Newegg.

 

[chithanh]

to sum it up, 3+ monitors with a shared res i.e. 3 = 5760x1080, 6= 5760x3240, got access to some spare monitors.

and be able to play any modern game same or better as my current card at 1920x1200 res (don't care if it is only 5% better, as long as it is better)

All Radeon cards support 2 DVI/HDMI monitors + as many DisplayPort as there are connectors. (The exception are the Sapphire Flex series which support 3 DVI/HDMI.)

If your mobo/case allows installing a triple-slot card, then the cheapest card which allows you to connect 6 monitors is the ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 ($269.99AR): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121431

These Sapphire cards will work for up to 5 monitors,
6950 Flex $244.99AR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102929
6870 Flex $159.99AR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102924

If your monitors don't have DisplayPort connectors, you need to add the cost of active adapters ($25 a piece).