Radeon or Nvidea for 3 monitor gaming.

[dudeguzman]

Hello,

Im putting the below pc together for the purpose of playing BF3 on a 3 monitor set up. Im tossing and turning with the ideas of who's video card to use. For now I have about $400 bucks to throw at the video card. Not to crazy to add any more money in the future for it, maybe another $200 bucks. I know that Radeon has the EYEFINITY which seems to make it easy to do the 3 monitor thing and it seems they can use any monitors. The Nvidea product seems that all monitors must be identical and I dont know how the set up process works or how to accomplish it. Is it hard to do. Im truely a newbie and really dont want to go into much trouble getting it done. Whats your thoughts?

1.EVGA P67 Micro SLI LGA 1155, Intel P67 chipset
2.Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo), Quad-Core, 6 MB L3 Cache
3.Cooler Master Hyper TX3
4.SAPPHIRE 100311-2SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX
Support Video Card with Eyefinity
5.Mushkin Enhanced Redline 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) 240-Pin DDR3-1600 Kit, Dual-Channel Desktop Memory Kit
6.Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB Cache SATA 3Gb/s
7. Sony Optiarc DVD Burner 24x DVD Burner
8.Corsair CX600 V2 600 W ATX12V, EPS12V, 80 PLUS-Certified

 

[zhihao50]

THink you need 2 Nvidia cards in SLI in order to be able to connect 3 monitor.

AMD does come with more memory which will be used well for multi monitor setup.

 

[bucknutty]

Getting a 3 or 4 monitor desktop to work for productivity tasks is very easy. Getting a 3 monitor setup to work in a game is a little tougher. To just get the desk top up it does not matter what type of monitors your using or if they are the same res.

As it stands now both companies require that all 3 monitors run the same resolution to span games across all three.

All the new AMD cards support Eyefinity and should be able to run 4 or 6 monitors.
Its real easy you just plug them in turn them on and then arrange them the way you want in the catalyst control panel.

Nvidia cards only have a dual ramdac so even if there is 3 outputs on the card you can only use 2. In order to get 3 or 4 monitors with Nvidia you need 2 cards. Same deal though just plug the monitors in and adjust them the way you want in the control panel.

I currently have a 24 wide as my main display and to 19 standards on the sides. This works well because the 24 screen size is almost the exact same height as the 19s. On the down side getting games to work like this sucks. I have to use a couple of cracks and hacked programs to compensate for the fov and aspect ratio.

 

[vitornob]

U already asked this in this thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/329307-33-radeon-nvidea-monitor-gaming

Why would u open another one?

 

[elibinladot]

multiple graphic cards won't work. my suggestion to you dudeguzman is to look in your area a hardware: (NComputing X550 if it's available) because in can accommodate six (6) monitors in one (1) system unit and it works, but this design is not for gaming only for net surfing.

 

[dudeguzman]

Recent changes...


Changes since that was posted:
I already purchased the i7-2600k cpu, and 2tb Western digital green hard drive.

The rest is up for grabs.

Still debating motherboard. Im looking at this:GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Power Supply :Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-850M 850W ATX 12V v2.3 & SSI EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Certified CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R1 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+

The HD6970HD 2gb ASUS card seems to be the cards of my choice because I want to crossfire them for the ease of the eyefinity as mentioned above. What I hate is that its a 3 slot card.