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

[Crashman]

Display spanning is quickly becoming the high-mark for serious gaming machines of all budgets, with more powerful cards allowing higher resolutions. Yet, as panel resolutions higher than 1080p become harder to find, do we really need more than two cards?

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

 

[amk09]

sweet jesus, quad sli uses enough watts to power a small town

 

[Bluescreendeath]

GTX480 Quad SLI - Yes, it can play Crysis. Maxed out at 5760x1080 too!

 

[duk3]

Sapphire’s 700 MHz cards
They look like sparkle cards to me.
EDIT: Now fixed, I thought it was funny that sapphire made gtx460s

 

[damasvara]

[citation][nom]Bluescreendeath[/nom]GTX480 Quad SLI - Yes, it can play Crysis. Maxed out at 5760x1080 too![/citation]
It's so hot, it can also make steak BBQ for you! Watch out for anti-terrorist bust over the Fermi thermal suspicion though... :lol:

 

[Guest]

Now i am curious to see a performance difference between tri and quad sli in triple 30" 2500x1600 monitors (7500x1600 resolution).

 

[hurt74]

@duk3

Isnt it nice to know that sappire tech now makes NVIDIA cards because the last time i know they are an ATI exclusive. Good job toms

 

[vicskyline96]

cool, so the drivers support quad 480s now? i wonder if they support tri SLI 200 series cards, i'm sure theres still people out there who want to try this on their older generation cards

 

[joytech22]

Wow, that power usage is insane! it's hard to believe that these 480's use so much power.. you'd need like a thermaltake toughpower 1500w or something, or maybe 2 PSU's!

 

[andrern2000]

4 GTX 480s are a gig. But how much price is it is totally another matter. I prefer to 2-way SLI GTX 480.

 

[vicskyline96]

cool, so the drivers support quad 480s now? i wonder if they support tri SLI 200 series cards, i'm sure theres still people out there who want to try this on their older generation cards

 

[taso11]

Has anyone ever seen and article or test that compared gaming success/kills/scores at 1920X1200 versus 1280X720? I do understand that playing at native resolution will give best image quality versus forcing a lower resolution will be blockier image quality wise cause of blended pixels. The reason I ask is because when I'm normally playing a first person shooter im not looking at how nice the grass or pavement is rendered. I'm trying to locate a threat and avoid being shot. Are threats easier to locate high detail and smaller size or low detail and bigger size on the same size monitor?

 

[taso11]

@vicskyline96

I am currently running 3 GTX 260's in triple sli on three monitors in surround mode on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. It works great!

 

[cscott_it]

I think you guys should do an article comparing multi-display and 3d vision between AMD & Nvidia.

Considering the next gen (The enthusiast cards like Cayman, not the Bart XT cards) will support Eyefinity5 and 3DHD (unsure of the names).

I'm more interested in the multi-monitor gaming aspect, but it would be nice to see an apples to apples comparison of the platforms. To see where Nvidia's implementation stands against the more mature eyefinity platform and Nvidia's more mature 3D platform against AMD's new platform.

 

[silversurfernhs]

Why no 2 way in the lineup!? sheesh - most common of the sli setups... you guys left that out though it woulda been simple to add. Why no Eyfinity in their for comparison purposes either??

 

[silversurfernhs]

My bad - i just found it (must be late for me) Still, wheres the Eyefinity for comparison?

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]wasabiman123[/nom]What's wrong with gaming on one bigger screen instead, more than one screen for gaming is overrated IMO, I do think however that Nvidia's 3D vision is a really cool idea and has great potential in the future.[/citation]

The short answer is cost. Three small displays offer more "real estate" for less cost vs. a single 30" monitor capable of 2560x1600.

 

[gaborbarla]

[citation][nom]wasabiman123[/nom]What's wrong with gaming on one bigger screen instead, more than one screen for gaming is overrated IMO, I do think however that Nvidia's 3D vision is a really cool idea and has great potential in the future.[/citation]

I think the great merit of Eyefinity/Surround is the fact that your Field of vision becomes huge. Vistas are rolling by in simulators and in multiplayer FPSs you can see the little ah heck hiding in the bush in the corner of your eye.

 

[gaborbarla]

Why is there no single or double 5870/5850 thrown in there for good measure? I know there was one or two reviews of eyeFinity but it would be good to see in reference for the ton of us that have those cards as opposed to the few that have 480SLI setups.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

The good news for mid-budget gamers is that spanning across three 720p displays

"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".

 

[SpadeM]

You can always purchase 3 Samsung 2343BW LCD monitors and go with the portrait route .. that gives you 3456 x 2048 resolution ... better for fps.

 

[Scanlia]

[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]
Your just jealous...

Jokes...

 

[Scanlia]

[citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]You can always purchase 3 Samsung 2343BW LCD monitors and go with the portrait route .. that gives you 3456 x 2048 resolution ... better for fps.[/citation]
Agreed.

 

[Jarmo]

[citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]You can always purchase 3 Samsung 2343BW LCD monitors and go with the portrait route .. that gives you 3456 x 2048 resolution ... better for fps.[/citation]

Right, doesn't need to be Samsung either, I'm using two pivoted Eizos (for page layout though, not gaming).
Three would be pretty sweet for gaming.

 

[andrern2000]

One question: does 'three monitors' have the same price as four GTX 480? I think four GTX 460 is still more expensive.