Gaming Across Three Screens: GTX 460, GTX 480, And Quad-SLI

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I think you guys misunderstand the intended purpose of 3 and 6 displays. It is not to create a large flat surface. Right now they are working within the limitations of the shaders. The real purpose is to create a 360 box of vision, and that amount of displays is perfect for such a goal.

However, in order to do it you need to purpose build your shader and displays for such a setup. For instance if the military expanded their simulation technology, they would probably pick an HD5870 Eyefinity 6. In the shader they would create 6 cameras (Up, Down, Front, Left, Right, and Back) Then have them displayed in the appropriate directions in real life for a full 360 degree viewing area. This can also be done at the consumer level if the developer extends such features onto the user. However such a setup does not make sense for a consumer. 3 Displays for a 180 degree vision range makes more sense.
 
Yes the SLI route is too expensive for most, and quad sli is just silly. I was personally thinking that cheaper 22" monitors with lower res are the the way to go for most.

The 1650x1050 res allows for slower setups like 1x 5870 or 2x5850/70
The trouble is SLI/crossfire solutions require one to be quite tech savvy with most power supplies not supporting enough PCI-X connectors and one has to modify cabling, praying that your system doesnt go up in smoke.
A single card setup needs an active displayport to DVI converter something that should now be available for relatively cheap.

The only trouble is that the 22" monitors are all old tech. I guess I am not alone when I say that they should bring back the more useful resolutions such as 1920x1200 instead of 1080p. I don't particularly want to buy old tech monitors right now, but 1080p x 3 might be too heavy for a single 5870 to handle. Toms says, playing on 3 x 1080p is like playing through a gun slit, I completely agree. Maybe three of the 4:3 19"ers is the poor man's solution. :)
 
Two way SLI is still the safest way to go, GTX480 is perfect for the fit if you still want to play crazy games 2 years from now with 3d and DX11... by then we should have DX12 however... still power, heat, and price will haunt Nvidia for the remainder of the GF100's life no matter how "efficient " they make the chip...
 
Im still not sure why would you play "through a gun slit" when you can simply rotate your displays 90 degree. I use 3x30" monitor for that (and it doesnt have to cost THAT much - there is plenty of second hand displays from professional use, offering good quality for games at much more moderate price), and pivot them for 4800/2560 resolution (15:8 ratio).

Btw with some sacrifice to display quality 5870x3 offers satisfying framerate, but be wary of possible display bugs with crossfire and multimonitor (by now they are mostly solved but sometimes show up still).
 
[citation][nom]xvim[/nom]Im still not sure why would you play "through a gun slit" when you can simply rotate your displays 90 degree. [/citation]
That would make a rabbit look like a duck.
 
Viewing angle will prevent you from rotating your TN displays. I agree that 4:3 is indeed much more suitable for a 3 monitor setup.
Two monitors are also not ideal, because de middle of your screen will be occupied by the bezels.
 
[citation][nom]xvim[/nom]Im still not sure why would you play "through a gun slit" when you can simply rotate your displays 90 degree.[/citation]

I dont think that an affordable monitor (e.g. 1080p 23") works well for anything other than games in Portrait mode. You can't browse (most pages hang off the 1080 width) or do any work on a 23" tilted 90 degrees and I still want to use my PC for everyday work.
I actually just turned my 23" to see what it would look like and it is just funny 😀. Also, most screen cannot be turned as they dont have a tilt function.
 
Wow, the electricity bill and air conditioning for one GTX480 is already astranomical let alone to have two, three, and four of these. And on top of that three 1080 LCDs? Its like me asking for a divorce from my wife and just giving her everything. No thanks! I'll stick with Dual SLI 4870's on a single 26" LCD. Perhaps getting two 5870's and sleeping on the couch for a couple of nights and then "make-up Sex" is a much better solution. Come on Toms is nice to see those tests but think "real world".
 
Very informative. Well-written. And absolutely unaffordable at the moment. Well... at least now I know that if I won the lotto, I would not want to buy that 4th gtx480.

When are those no-bezel/edgeless displays going to start showing up on retail?
 
[citation][nom]xvim[/nom]Im still not sure why would you play "through a gun slit" when you can simply rotate your displays 90 degree. I use 3x30" monitor for that (and it doesnt have to cost THAT much - there is plenty of second hand displays from professional use, offering good quality for games at much more moderate price), and pivot them for 4800/2560 resolution (15:8 ratio). Btw with some sacrifice to display quality 5870x3 offers satisfying framerate, but be wary of possible display bugs with crossfire and multimonitor (by now they are mostly solved but sometimes show up still).[/citation]
Um not all of us can afford 3 ips panels especially 30" ones. You try rotating a tn panel 90 degrees and tell me how great it looks
 
[citation][nom]Gin Fushicho[/nom]"Mid-budget"I think anyone who can afford three monitors is going to be rich enough to buy four GTX480's. There is no "Mid-budget" for three monitors, just "costs too much you rich jerks".[/citation]
Unless you have previous monitors, I had 2 19" monitors and I used them with my 22". I hardly use more then the single monitor, but it's nice to have a multi monitor setup when you already have more then one monitor.
 
[citation][nom]dalta centauri[/nom]Unless you have previous monitors...[/citation]

The trouble is that the resolution of all 3 monitors has to be the same, and it helps to keep the aspect ratio the same also. If the monitors are not the same size you will see weird "fisheye" effects. Great for bioshock 😛

It's one thing to read mail on a second monitor and another to game on 3 monitors.
 
Seriously, just get a 52" LCD tv and sit about 40 inches from it. The effect is better, with more vertical visuals and no bars. And it works with every game. I've been doing that for a year and it's incredible.
 

I do believe that some people don't have room for a 52" to be on or mounted on the wall above their desk and want to be spaced away from the screen because the rapid flashes of a huge screen is making them blind when playing a fast motion game.
 
WOW, SERIOUSLY impressed with that OCZ 1000w PSU, running 4xGTX480 and 980x, that is the real news to be taken from this test, congrats OCZ, I was looking for a PSU to replace my corsair hx750w for tri-xfire 5850 setup.
 
I would really have liked to see some benchmarks for 3D vision across 3 monitors. I currently own a 3D 1080p monitor and two gtx 480s and was thinking of upgrading to a 3-monitor setup. Would 3 480s be sufficient or do I really need four?
 
I would really have liked to see some benchmarks for 3D vision across 3 monitors. I currently own a 3D 1080p monitor and two gtx 480s and was thinking of upgrading to a 3-monitor setup. Would 3 480s be sufficient or do I really need four?
 
In my opinion, the best three monitor setup for gaming is a 30" 2560x1600 panel flanked by two 20" 1600x1200 panels in portrait orientation. Unfortunately, neither nVidia nor ATI currently support a PLP monitor configuration or even monitors with different resolutions. Having played some games with this setup with softth though, I have to say, nothing else compares.
 
there is a technology called iray a new rendering soulution in 3ds max uses gpu/cpu for rendering i wonder how this Machine will perform when it used with iray
 
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