Three 30" monitors, ATI or NVDA ?

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gonerogue

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Im building a high end system ... with a core i7 extreme 965, 12 gb ram, 1200w power, vista 64bit, asus rampage II extreme motherboard, liquid cooling ...etc ...top of the line everything ...

This will be primarily a multi-monitor workstation computer with 3 30" samsung 305T's. There will be occasional gaming and occasional blu-ray viewing also. Im a trader, so the 3 30" monitors will be handling a ton of stock tickers and charts.

Ive read everything on the forum and i cant decide whether to get dual gtx280s 1 gb sli or dual hd4870 x2 2gb crossfire.

I don't care about the cost, i just want the solution that can best handle 3 30" multi-monitors.

What do you all recommend?

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
It doesn't matter either way, you have to disable Xfire (IIRC) or SLi to use more than 2 monitors anyway. So whatever you prefer.
 
nvidia just released a driver enabling sli multimonitor support on some cards and im an nvidia fun but....

ATI
 
If I were you I'd get one 4870x2 and see how it goes. Not too sure if there is really a performance increase with 4870x2 CF.Definitely go with ATI especially for 2560x1600 gaming.
 
CaptainSoble said:
If I were you I'd get one 4870x2 and see how it goes. Not too sure if there is really a performance increase with 4870x2 CF.Definitely go with ATI especially for 2560x1600 gaming.
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he needs to drive 3 displays, so he'll need 2 x2 cards
 
Can give exact info for TRI monitor. My 4870X2 works Ok with dual monitors, and Catalyst 11.08 returned BluRay playback on extended desktop mode, that was failing on 9.08 e 10.08.

Anyway be ready for some on-off driver support problems in the future, multi monitor solutions simply do NOT combine with multi GPU solutions.
 
the 4870x2 is a strong card but i dont think ATI drivers support multi monitors with crossfire. nvidia recently released drivers to drive 2+ monitors with 2+ cards. not sure how well either works in these situations.
 
You can get a 2x GTX 280 setup for the primary monitor and then a third "random" nvidia card for the 2 secondary displays. Personally, that's what I'd do. It'll be more powerful than a 4870x2 on the primary.
 
ATI dopes support multi monitors on Xfire they did it some time ago but it is onyl 2 monitors i recall.
 
iceredwing said:
he could tri sli, since he will need to run 3 cards & wants to game with it.
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yeah BTBH why even enable SLI if each monitor is gonna be driven by a separate card?
by enable i mean in windows, not in the MB, the MB might need it on to give each card a full x8 or x16.
 
2 GTX280s in SLI, and a lower end something or other card for the third monitor. I havent kept up much with ATI, but if ATI supports more than one monitor with CF now, than a 4870x2 + lower end something or other would be more cost efficient for occasional gaming, but not as fast.
 
nissanztt90 said:
2 GTX280s in SLI, and a lower end something or other card for the third monitor.
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why, maybe he wants full graphics power on all 3?

"I,m building a high end system ... with a core i7 extreme 965, 12 gb ram, 1200w power, vista 64bit, asus rampage II extreme motherboard, liquid cooling ...etc ...top of the line everything ..."
 
OmegaAvenger said:
why, maybe he wants full graphics power on all 3?

"I,m building a high end system ... with a core i7 extreme 965, 12 gb ram, 1200w power, vista 64bit, asus rampage II extreme motherboard, liquid cooling ...etc ...top of the line everything ..."
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Who the hell would need full graphics power on three 30" monitors? Do you have any idea how many pixels that is? Whats he gonna play? The original Doom at 2560x3600? One single 30" pretty much means top of the line everything for one...

Disclaimer: An exagerration or two.
 
someone who does some serious e-peen flexing. I personally would want all my monitors to have the same graphics capability. thats one of the reasons I don't have 2 or 3 monitors. it would cost me too much. but he wants top end so....
 
OmegaAvenger said:
someone who does some serious e-peen flexing. I personally would want all my monitors to have the same graphics capability. thats one of the reasons I don't have 2 or 3 monitors. it would cost me too much. but he wants top end so....
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Ha...alright alright, were on the same page.
 
I think that 2x HD4870 X2 would support 3 monitors but I'm not sure when in CrossfireX mode. Since you are going with 3x 30", make sure that the cards support dual link DVI on both DVI port.
 
alg7_munif said:
I think that 2x HD4870 X2 would support 3 monitors but I'm not sure when in CrossfireX mode. Since you are going with 3x 30", make sure that the cards support dual link DVI on both DVI port.
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pretty sure 4870x2s would have dual-link on both ports. seeing as they are high end.
 
alg7_munif said:
I think that 2x HD4870 X2 would support 3 monitors but I'm not sure when in CrossfireX mode. Since you are going with 3x 30", make sure that the cards support dual link DVI on both DVI port.
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CFX would only support 2 monitors that are plugged into the main GPU, you would have to disable CFX in order to run 3 or more unfortunately
 
dajet24 said:
Would this be helpful for this situation

Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital Edition T2G-D3D-IF VGA Interface

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815106011



OR

would this 4 dvi 4850 X2 card be a possible single card solution for him?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809

i assume since it has 4 dvi it can have 4 monitors plugged in and used at 1 time ?
just throwing out some suggestions.
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I believe he could run a single 4850x2, the matro has limited resolution

"Features a dual-link digital input for high-end workstations and DVI monitors.
Brings digital monitor support to systems with an analog (VGA) output.
Flexible device supports both dual-monitor configurations at a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1200 (2x 1920x1200) * and triple-monitor configurations with a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1024 (3x 1280x1024)1 with digital or analog monitors.
Harness your existing graphics hardware's full capabilities for 2D, 3D and video.
Experience Surround Gaming by expanding supported 3D games across three displays; achieve a much wider in-game field of view.
Experience Surround Graphics and execute your workload faster by expanding your desktop across three displays.
Includes Matrox Monitor Bezel Management software feature for an enhanced gaming experience**.
 
yang88she said:
I believe he could run a single 4850x2, the matro has limited resolution

"Features a dual-link digital input for high-end workstations and DVI monitors.
Brings digital monitor support to systems with an analog (VGA) output.
Flexible device supports both dual-monitor configurations at a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1200 (2x 1920x1200) * and triple-monitor configurations with a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1024 (3x 1280x1024)1 with digital or analog monitors.
Harness your existing graphics hardware's full capabilities for 2D, 3D and video.
Experience Surround Gaming by expanding supported 3D games across three displays; achieve a much wider in-game field of view.
Experience Surround Graphics and execute your workload faster by expanding your desktop across three displays.
Includes Matrox Monitor Bezel Management software feature for an enhanced gaming experience**.
Click to expand...

+1 for HD4850X2

...

I wish I had that much money.
 
alg7_munif said:
Yeah, that's true, nVidia is much better with the driver, I mean much much better, especially with dual cards. Like I said before in other threads, I can spend all day to find people having problems with their nVidia driver but what do all these show?

Well I said it before and I will say it again, both companies have their own driver problems, most of the problems are actually caused by the user. There is no such thing as poor driver support from ATI or from nVidia.


Btw nissanztt90, did you enjoy your vacation?
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I did enjoy it actually, i got alot done on modifying my case. The funny thing is i dont even have to read the threads you linked to know that they wont be resolved by nVidia driver updates, because they arent driver issues. I mean, can you imagine a BETA driver wouldnt allow a miniscule change? Of course linking days old driver issues most certianly have nothing to do with the driver and not the user of course...:rolleyes: I mean, who could imagine having to use nVidia driver scaling when you set the resolution to the same resolution as the display? Seems you have a habbit of posting crap that tries to make a driver issue out of user error...not that that is a surprise or anything...:)
 
If you will be using this system for trading either will work. I have a six monitor set-up for trading and I am still using dual Opty's. If you are a serious trader I would suggest a dually mb for stability purposes.
I would spend more on the cores, mb and the ram. However, don trust me, ask Dan the mb moderator.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Wow, this is odd. I was just talking to a friend of mine about Getting 3 30" monitors for stock Trading. :eek:

Personally, i would suggest getting 3 GTX 280's running two of them in SLi and reserving the third card for the third monitor.

Here is some info on the Nvidia Multiple Monitor Configurations with the newer drivers.
http://www.slizone.com/object/sli_multi_monitor.html
 
theseeker said:
If you will be using this system for trading either will work. I have a six monitor set-up for trading and I am still using dual Opty's. If you are a serious trader I would suggest a dually mb for stability purposes.
I would spend more on the cores, mb and the ram. However, don trust me, ask Dan the mb moderator.
Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

skull trail ftw! :p
 
Thanks alot for all the feedback. Im leaning towards the ATI's right now, but haven't made a final decision. From what im reading hear and elsewhere, it seems the ATIs might be a little better at handling the multi-monitors.

I currently have a 5 year old, 3-monitor setup with a matrox 3-head card and a 2 year old, 4-monitor setup with 2 nvidia workstation cards. From my experience the matrox and nvidia workstation cards are fine at handling multiple monitors but they are poor for gaming and video. With this system, I hope it'll be good for work and play.
 
nissanztt90 said:
I did enjoy it actually, i got alot done on modifying my case. The funny thing is i dont even have to read the threads you linked to know that they wont be resolved by nVidia driver updates, because they arent driver issues. I mean, can you imagine a BETA driver wouldnt allow a miniscule change? Of course linking days old driver issues most certianly have nothing to do with the driver and not the user of course...:rolleyes: I mean, who could imagine having to use nVidia driver scaling when you set the resolution to the same resolution as the display? Seems you have a habbit of posting crap that tries to make a driver issue out of user error...not that that is a surprise or anything...:)
Click to expand...

If you want to turn a blind eye on nVidia driver problems, then it's your call. At least the OP and others will know that there is no company with a "perfect" driver. :D If ATI has a poor driver support in your eyes, then it's too bad for you because the card in my system is running fine without any problem, not only me but also some others as well. :cool:

I know that the driver is not perfect and some people are having problems with the ATI driver but at least I also know some people with nVidia cards are also having their own share of their driver problems. ;) With that said, I don't want to go over this discussion again because I don't want to hijack this thread. :)

To the OP, just get which ever solution that you think will suit you well, just don't let the "ATI driver sucks" or "nVidia driver sucks" statements influence your judgement too much.
 
Not sure how SLI multi monitor works. If you can get 2 GTX 280s to drive 4 displays Id go for 2 GTXs. If not the X2 is the way to go. I had a X2 for my 30" and it was great. I downgraded since I do not game much. Just need to run TF2.
 
alg7_munif said:
If you want to turn a blind eye on nVidia driver problems, then it's your call. At least the OP and others will know that there is no company with a "perfect" driver. :D If ATI has a poor driver support in your eyes, then it's too bad for you because the card in my system is running fine without any problem, not only me but also some others as well. :cool:

I know that the driver is not perfect and some people are having problems with the ATI driver but at least I also know some people with nVidia cards are also having their own share of their driver problems. ;) With that said, I don't want to go over this discussion again because I don't want to hijack this thread. :)

To the OP, just get which ever solution that you think will suit you well, just don't let the "ATI driver sucks" or "nVidia driver sucks" statements influence your judgement too much.
Click to expand...

I agree totally...there is no perfect driver!:) Comparing the nVidia and ATI boards though, there is clearly a superior driver. If you want to turn a blind eye to that, then thats your call. At least the OP and others will know that there is a superior driver, if they choose to do a little research. If they both have equivalent driver support in your eyes, then its too bad for you because most (all in reality) nVidia drivers run fine when coupled with an intelligent user (read: a semi-moderately intelligent user)...not only for me but most others as well.
 
nissanztt90 said:
I agree totally...there is no perfect driver!:) Comparing the nVidia and ATI boards though, there is clearly a superior driver. If you want to turn a blind eye to that, then thats your call. At least the OP and others will know that there is a superior driver, if they choose to do a little research. If they both have equivalent driver support in your eyes, then its too bad for you because most (all in reality) nVidia drivers run fine when coupled with an intelligent user (read: a semi-moderately intelligent user)...not only for me but most others as well.
Click to expand...

How superior is the superior driver? <-----> this superior? <-------------> this superior? How can you campare the drivers since they all run on different cards and have different problems :rolleyes:

First you said there is no perfect driver then you said all nVidia drivers run fine, did you mean that there is no perfect driver except for nVidia drivers :eek:
 
I would do dual 280s in SLI for the center display and a third 280 (not in SLI) for the outer two.

 
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