Can I have 3 monitors on quad 6990 crossfire

[jewfromdahood]

I am building a kick @$$ gaming rig in a soon when the socket 2011 comes out. LSI Megaraid card, 8 hard drives 1-3TB each on RAID 10 with 2 Intel 120GB MLC SSD's on RAID 0, Intel Extreme edition CPU, and Intel X79 motherboard, X-Fi Titanium, 16GB or more of Corsair XMS3 RAM. All with a silverstone 1,500 Watt PSU, and Silverstone RV03 case. And a Corsair H80 liquid cooling system. I plan to overclock it of course, and basically there will be no bottle necks on this machine, as I need it for both gaming and work. I have to test 3D software for the doctors I work for. As well as some linux stuff I do, so it will dual boot linux of course.
I want to do dual GPU's so I was planning on 2 x ATI HD6990's with 3 x 23" monitors. So I was wondering. If I play a game on one monitor can I still crossfire with the other monitors still on. Or do I need to disable the other monitors before I play?
Also which ATI board manufacturer has the best quality, as well as the best cooler built in.

 

[Kari]

you can create separate monitor 'groups' with the eyefinity tech, so I'd guess it should work...

as for the manufacturers, I've always liked Asus and Sapphire. HIS is fine as well.


ps. you can spell overkill, can't yah? lol awesome setup


edit: party like it's 1999! (posts)
prince/symbol/artist formerly known as prince rocks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGbK_H1O8PI&feature=related

 

[jewfromdahood]

you can create separate monitor 'groups' with the eyefinity tech, so I'd guess it should work...

as for the manufacturers, I've always liked Asus and Sapphire. HIS is fine as well.


ps. you can spell overkill, can't yah? lol awesome setup

It might be overkill But I am dealing with high-end 3D imaging as well for these doctors. Personally I don't need the Pixel Precision of the FirePro cards. I just need to see how well these run with 3D DICOM files as we are testing new dental and medical imaging yet to be released in the US. And we will be the first one to push it to the market.

 

[gnomio]

1 6990 will be able to pull 3 monitors. If you playing games you can stretch it across all 3 screens if that is what you asking.
Why not got for the 6990+6970 setup?

Btw 3D rendering programs like video editing programs don't work in crossfire.

 

[Kari]

well i don't know anything about dicom images, so can't help you there...

 

[jewfromdahood]

1 6990 will be able to pull 3 monitors. If you playing games you can stretch it across all 3 screens if that is what you asking.
Why not got for the 6990+6970 setup?

Btw 3D rendering programs like video editing programs don't work in crossfire.

Video editing no that is not what we are talking about. We are talking full on 3D X-ray, and Cone Beam CT. like a 3D MRI sort of... http://vimeo.com/2573692 is an example but merely the tip of the iceberg. as this is for orthodontics. For example, we need to figure by moving the jaw a certain way repositioning teeth, how it will affect the look of the whole face, down to how the skin will look from that shift. And plan out ahead their entire treatment. Without having to figure it out from visit to visit.
For the actual diagnostic computers doing this they will have FirePro graphic cards, I just need to test it out, and report bugs to the developers. When I am at home.
I am not a doctor but I am one of their IT people. So I have to test all updates and upgrades prior to rolling them out to all of the clinics. I need to deal with thousands of slices and piece them together in 3D and do real time rendering.
Then I also work with Solidworks which is a CAD program but the best one out there.
But I personally don't want to fork over massive money for the FirePro's for my personal computer.

 

[Kari]

if you are doing any software QC, you really should use similar hardware as to what it will be run on...

 

[jewfromdahood]

if you are doing any software QC, you really should use similar hardware as to what it will be run on...

Of course. But we test for the lower end PC's... If you can call them that. And my PC will fall in that class. The good workstations in the office are all top of the line HP corporate line Z series desktops. They are blazing fast.

 

[gnomio]

Video editing no that is not what we are talking about. We are talking full on 3D X-ray, and Cone Beam CT. like a 3D MRI sort of... http://vimeo.com/2573692 is an example but merely the tip of the iceberg. as this is for orthodontics. For example, we need to figure by moving the jaw a certain way repositioning teeth, how it will affect the look of the whole face, down to how the skin will look from that shift. And plan out ahead their entire treatment. Without having to figure it out from visit to visit.
For the actual diagnostic computers doing this they will have FirePro graphic cards, I just need to test it out, and report bugs to the developers. When I am at home.
I am not a doctor but I am one of their IT people. So I have to test all updates and upgrades prior to rolling them out to all of the clinics. I need to deal with thousands of slices and piece them together in 3D and do real time rendering.
Then I also work with Solidworks which is a CAD program but the best one out there.
But I personally don't want to fork over massive money for the FirePro's for my personal computer.

still does it support crossfire? I know crossfire and sli is a gaming feature not a professional application feature.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

quadfire is pointless from what ive heard , and the 6990/6970 combo should do the trick and scale better if yuo really want the power

 

[jewfromdahood]

still does it support crossfire? I know crossfire and sli is a gaming feature not a professional application feature.

this software i will be working with does indeed support Crossfire. Plus ATI/AMD has Crossfire Pro as well on top of the consumer pro. I just don't want to pay $2,800 per FirePro V9800

 

[gnomio]

this software i will be working with does indeed support Crossfire. Plus ATI/AMD has Crossfire Pro as well on top of the consumer pro. I just don't want to pay $2,800 per FirePro V9800

ok. Always better to make sure rather than finding it out after a purchase. firerpro cards are basically the same cards but they're more tuned reliability than speed. Consumer cards are tuned for speed and the consumer don't mind the crash now and then the drivers might give them or so. But Professional cards are slightly slower clocked with better heatsinks and more robust driver support because crashes means money lost and its unacceptable in the professional industry. That's basically the difference between them.

just add one 6990. It will be more than enough. For such applications you will need a very good disk setup as well as I can you see you already started with that. Will you be using a PCI-e raid controller?

 

[illfindu]

Wait for the 7xxx serious get two of those and run any thing you want for 3 years+

 

[jewfromdahood]

ok. Always better to make sure rather than finding it out after a purchase. firerpro cards are basically the same cards but they're more tuned reliability than speed. Consumer cards are tuned for speed and the consumer don't mind the crash now and then the drivers might give them or so. But Professional cards are slightly slower clocked with better heatsinks and more robust driver support because crashes means money lost and its unacceptable in the professional industry. That's basically the difference between them.

just add one 6990. It will be more than enough. For such applications you will need a very good disk setup as well as I can you see you already started with that. Will you be using a PCI-e raid controller?

Yes I have a 3Ware 9650 in mind for the physical disks. As it is only 8 port. with a BBU for it as well. the SSD's with be RAID 0 on the motherboard as the bandwidth between the two would have completely ate up the 3ware seeing as it's only SATA II. As I plan to go with Intel's own X79 motherboard. Reliable, blue, and the skull looks tight. Plus the slot set up is perfect for me. with two dual slot GPU's, a RAID card that needs x4 or x8 if I change my mind. and a x1 for the X-Fi titanium. I will remotely mount the BBU with a custom rigging I will do. I will probably do a whole UV blue sleeving and connectors on the PSU and UV lighting in the case. On top of the discs I have. I will build a decent low-end RAID linux box for a NAS box.
The 3Ware should be more than ample for me. Nothing extremely fast but fast enough. I'll probably only store the OS and critical files and a couple games on the SSD, on top of my Linux install. Can't wait until Elder Scrolls V. My Xbox 360 will be envious, as it will be demoted to media center. At least until Gears Of War 4, and Mass Effect 3.
And a correction I plan on 3 27" monitors, from Viewsonic, they got good ratings. I will buy a pretty huge desk. And hook up a nice surround sound system for the home via optical toslink to it. I chose those monitors as well for the reason they have HDMI and I can plug my xbox via the home theater receiver to the monitor.
It probably won't be built for several months.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

Wait for the 7xxx serious get two of those and run any thing you want for 3 years+

im sorry but to predict somethign like that blindly isnt credible

 

[gnomio]

Yes I have a 3Ware 9650 in mind for the physical disks. As it is only 8 port. with a BBU for it as well. the SSD's with be RAID 0 on the motherboard as the bandwidth between the two would have completely ate up the 3ware seeing as it's only SATA II. As I plan to go with Intel's own X79 motherboard. Reliable, blue, and the skull looks tight. Plus the slot set up is perfect for me. with two dual slot GPU's, a RAID card that needs x4 or x8 if I change my mind. and a x1 for the X-Fi titanium. I will remotely mount the BBU with a custom rigging I will do. I will probably do a whole UV blue sleeving and connectors on the PSU and UV lighting in the case. On top of the discs I have. I will build a decent low-end RAID linux box for a NAS box.
The 3Ware should be more than ample for me. Nothing extremely fast but fast enough. I'll probably only store the OS and critical files and a couple games on the SSD, on top of my Linux install. Can't wait until Elder Scrolls V. My Xbox 360 will be envious, as it will be demoted to media center. At least until Gears Of War 4, and Mass Effect 3.
And a correction I plan on 3 27" monitors, from Viewsonic, they got good ratings. I will buy a pretty huge desk. And hook up a nice surround sound system for the home via optical toslink to it. I chose those monitors as well for the reason they have HDMI and I can plug my xbox via the home theater receiver to the monitor.
It probably won't be built for several months.

are those 3x 1080p monitors? The 6990 will handle them. You can always throw in a 6970 later on if you want. It outperformed 3x Gtx 580s last time when they benches it over at Hardocp.com.
You can have a look here at different disk performances
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/storage

They bringing out raid ssds out now as well.

 

[bmouring]

The Xorg setup may be a bit tricky, be prepared to look into the Xorg logs and wade through the AMD/ATI Linux forums

 

[jewfromdahood]

The Xorg setup may be a bit tricky, be prepared to look into the Xorg logs and wade through the AMD/ATI Linux forums

I'm used to linux. Been using it since I was 9. Give you a hint. Linux was created the same year I was born. So I am no stranger to the Xorg. And i have only ever used ATI in all my setups. With the exception of Intel integrated. Never had an AMD CPU, nor an Nvidia GPU. Never really liked them much... Personal preference I guess. My Videocards were either straight from ATI or Visiontek. This computer will be the first one with a company outside that I guess. Motherboards have always been Intel only. Just seemed more stable to me. Didn't really care about the fancy OC stuff then. Now they can OC quite well. Not super OC, but good enough for me. I'll be happy if I can get the CPU to do 4.4Ghz-4.6GHz and it shouldn't have an issue doing that seeing as i plan on using a Corsair H80 liquid cooling.
But these days I am kind of lazy with setting up linux, used to have my own version some buddies and I made. I just stick to Xubuntu or Ubuntu. Don't like Unity so I will probably go with Xubuntu. Played with it recently and really like it. Has sort of a Mac feel which is great as I am currently using a MacBook Pro.

 

[jewfromdahood]

are those 3x 1080p monitors? The 6990 will handle them. You can always throw in a 6970 later on if you want. It outperformed 3x Gtx 580s last time when they benches it over at Hardocp.com.
You can have a look here at different disk performances
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/storage

They bringing out raid ssds out now as well.

Yeah they are 1080p. I figured that resolution was good enough for high quality gaming. Especially if I can get it across 3 monitors. But I also wanted to use them as a TV, so I needed HDMI so I can get a cable box or Xbox connected. and at 27" who needs a TV? Plus if I buy a second or even third Xbox 360 I can play Forza Motorsport 3 with Panoramic View. Just an idea. That would be sweet. Which reminds me I need to get a racing wheel and flight stick for my PC.

 

[bmouring]

I'm used to linux. Been using it since I was 9. Give you a hint. Linux was created the same year I was born. So I am no stranger to the Xorg. And i have only ever used ATI in all my setups. With the exception of Intel integrated. Never had an AMD CPU, nor an Nvidia GPU. Never really liked them much... Personal preference I guess. My Videocards were either straight from ATI or Visiontek. This computer will be the first one with a company outside that I guess. Motherboards have always been Intel only. Just seemed more stable to me. Didn't really care about the fancy OC stuff then. Now they can OC quite well. Not super OC, but good enough for me. I'll be happy if I can get the CPU to do 4.4Ghz-4.6GHz and it shouldn't have an issue doing that seeing as i plan on using a Corsair H80 liquid cooling.
But these days I am kind of lazy with setting up linux, used to have my own version some buddies and I made. I just stick to Xubuntu or Ubuntu. Don't like Unity so I will probably go with Xubuntu. Played with it recently and really like it. Has sort of a Mac feel which is great as I am currently using a MacBook Pro.

Wow, using for that long and been using ATi, you must me a masochist or something (has horrible flashback to setting up the fglrx driver on my mobility 9700 *shudder*)

Intels are pretty damn friendly to deal with if you only need light graphics grunt, nVidia would be a real pain in the ass if the drivers don't just install, but usually they would and they'd give you pretty respectable performance when comparing the same card running under windows (I mean it makes sense that you spend time and effort tweaking for the majority, so I don't really hold any animosity to companies that care enough to put together any sort of support for Linux, since so few do)

 

[gnomio]

Yeah they are 1080p. I figured that resolution was good enough for high quality gaming. Especially if I can get it across 3 monitors. But I also wanted to use them as a TV, so I needed HDMI so I can get a cable box or Xbox connected. and at 27" who needs a TV? Plus if I buy a second or even third Xbox 360 I can play Forza Motorsport 3 with Panoramic View. Just an idea. That would be sweet. Which reminds me I need to get a racing wheel and flight stick for my PC.

that's a bit too much gaming lol later on its prostitutes and credit cards lol

Anyways one 6990 will be enough to pull 3 monitors. Beyond 2 Gpus the scaling is pretty pathetic on these cards both Amd and nvidia and there's no use going 3x way unless you got a stash of LN2 in your basement and want to break records at hwbot.org.
For your needs one will do. Maybe the newer cards next year they release a real gem which your probably going to jump onto then lol.

 

[jewfromdahood]

that's a bit too much gaming lol later on its prostitutes and credit cards lol

Anyways one 6990 will be enough to pull 3 monitors. Beyond 2 Gpus the scaling is pretty pathetic on these cards both Amd and nvidia and there's no use going 3x way unless you got a stash of LN2 in your basement and want to break records at hwbot.org.
For your needs one will do. Maybe the newer cards next year they release a real gem which your probably going to jump onto then lol.

Maybe I will buy just one GPU for now get the high end intel and motherboard and ram and etc. Then wait for the 7xxx series to come out with a dual GPU

 

[illfindu]

And what i said is proven bye history if you bought almost any new generation chip and crossfires two of them you would be able to run basically every game for the next 3 years I never said any thing about settings I said it would run them considering how many games can still run on a 9800 It would be silly to think two 7xxx series wouldn't be able to do some thing cards have been doing for along time. I see you commented on some thing i said in another article also with out doing your home work so i did it for you http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-fuzion-lucidlogix-hydra,2526-3.html take a moment read that article take a close look at x-mode and the example of using both a 5870 and a gtx285 the fuzion chips let you mix vendor cards for a combined gpu experience some thing you where smugly sure you couldn't do .