Help on Triple Monitors Set up

[CrazyDan]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to multi monitor gaming and would like to know what kinda of hardware I would need to run 3 1080p monitors.

My current setup is:
i5 3570k @stock
8GB corsair vengeance LP 1600MHz ram
Sapphire 7850 OC 2GB
750W PSU (Might need upgrading)

Now my question is would my i5 be OK with triple monitor gaming or would I need to bump that up to an i7? The main game I would be playing in triple monitors would be the F1 series games as I'm a big F1 fan and would like a triple monitor set up for it.

As for GPU's I'm not confident that my 7850 would be able to handle 3 monitors and run the game with decent settings on, and hold a consistent 60 FPS. So what kind of GPU do people recommend?
I've been told the 7970 Asus matrix platinum 3GB card would be idle for the set up I'm trying to achieve but as I stated earlier I'm new to this and would like some more opinions on the matter.

Anything else I should consider on setting up a triple monitor system?

My preferred hardware website would be Scan.co.uk so any links would be appreciated

Thanks
Dan

 

[jaguarskx]

The i5 will be fine. The main difference between the i5 and i7 is that the i7 has Hyper Threading (HT). The only game that has been proven to benefit from HT is Battlefield 4, but only in multiplayer mode.

The i5-3570k is fine. You need to worry about the graphics card. The more powerful, the better. The more VRAM, the better. You are correct that the Radeon HD 7850 is pretty weak for Eyefinity. However, I do not believe F1 is very demanding. You might as well just check out how well or poorly it can handle playing F1 @ 5760x1080 resolution. I think the performance will be low, but it does not cost you any money to just try...

I recommend you look through the following review of the GTX 760 which also includes other cards as well to help you gauge which card you should buy.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_760_HAWK/

 

[CrazyDan]

Ok thanks,

my set up at the moment can run the game on ultra little over 60. So I would defiantly need a more powerful card.

I don't have all three screens at the moment as I was going to buy the 3rd monitor along with the GPU.

I've done some looking into this and found that the 7970 has a lot of Vram and that would be the best bet for me. My problem is what type of 7970 should I go for?

I've found two that other people recommend but I am unsure on which or even any of the two to get.

http://www.ebuyer.com/481966-radeon-hd-7970-6gb-gddr5-oc-ghz-pci-e-2xdvi-hdmi-2xm-dp-11197-05-40g

http://www.ebuyer.com/392962-sapphire-hd-7970-vapor-x-ghz-edition-3gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-11197-12-40g

I'm not sure if the 6GB one is a bit overkill or not and would it be a good idea to get the 3GB one?

As for connecting all the monitors would this be suitable and would it work?

As the two monitors I have now are VGA and on both of the 7970's I've listed above have 2 DVI and one HDMI and 2 mini display. I can get a DVI to VGA adapter and I've already got a HMDI to VGA cable. Then the 3rd monitor can be connected via display port. Would this work or would I run into problems as I've heard VGA isn't the best for eyefinity.

Sorry if that didn't make any sense kinda new to this kind of thing.

 

[jaguarskx]

Wow, more than £100 extra for the additional 3GB of RAM.

Based on the benchmarks in the following thread, the increase in performance is minor with the exception of Mafia II where the 6GB version give you a bit more than a 10% increase in performance.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/sapphire_hd7970_6gb_vaporx_ghz/5.htm

 

[CrazyDan]

Ok thanks, for the help.

I've decided that I'm going for a 7970 Asus Matrix Platinum as the benchmarks seem to be able to handle it self with 5760x1080 resolution.