Triple monitor setup with the Alienware x51 (eyefinity)

[Alex2051]

Okay so I plan on getting the Alienware x51 with the following specs:

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4770 processor (8M Cache, up to 3.9 GHz)
Windows 8 64 bit
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600Mhz
2TB SATA 6Gb/s (7,200RPM) 64MB Cache
AMD Radeon™ R9 270X with 2GB GDDR5

Graphic card ports:
1x DVI-I
1x DVI-D
1x mini HDMI
1x DisplayPort

Monitors:
3x Asus VN247H-P
1080p

Each monitor has:
2x HDMI
1x D-sub (VGA)

The monitors will be connected from the Radeon R9 270X to the monitors with the following PASSIVE adapters.
DVI-I to HDMI
DVI-D to HDMI
DisplayPort to HDMI

I only plan on gaming in 2D, not 3D. Will this configuration work with Eyefinity? Do I need active adapters instead of passive adapters (if i do, for which ports)? Any problems in my setup? Is there anything else i should know or check? Thanks.

 

[tiny voices]

Your GPU is not going to be powerful enough to play at more than medium settings with 3 monitors.

 

[Alex2051]

Your GPU is not going to be powerful enough to play at more than medium settings with 3 monitors.

Are you sure?
Would the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 Ti with 2GB GDDR5 be better then the R9 270X? These are my only two options, and based on my research the GTX 760 is only a little bit better, so i chose the R9 270x because i would prefer eyefinity over surround (but either one is fine). Which one would you recommend? Is there a huge difference in performance? Thanks.

 

[tiny voices]

Well there is no such thing as a 760 ti (if its even out yet) would be better I guess. Both will be about the same though.

Honestly if you plan to play modern games on 3 monitors, you will need a better card for better than medium settings.

 

[bryonhowley]

With either the GTX 760 or the R9 270X you would need Crossfire or SKI to run Eyefinity at a frame rate that would be playable period. The R9 290x might have the power to run without Crossfire or the GTX 780ti but even then I am not sure if they would be good enough without Crossfire/SLI to handle Eyefinity/Surround setups. Pushing 5760x1080 is a lot of pixels to be moved around for a single card.

I have three Eyefinity/Surround setup all have Crossfire/SLI setups and it is needed for all of them to run with that setup. But I can run all of them at 5760x1080 ultra/max at 60fps Vsync'ed with no problems.

If you are really wanting to get into a Eyefinity/Surround setup do it right and get a Crossfire/SLI setup.

As far as driver problems I have not had any problems for quite some time. The drivers for AMD and Nvidia have really gotten much better and therefor game problems in Crossfire/SLI setup are very uncommon now.

 

[Alex2051]

Well there is no such thing as a 760 ti (if its even out yet) would be better I guess. Both will be about the same though.

Honestly if you plan to play modern games on 3 monitors, you will need a better card for better than medium settings.

The GTX 760ti I think is OEM,

This guy has the same configuration but with a GTX 660 (my 760 should be better) and I think the games play really well on his three monitors using nvidia surround: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheStarFireGaming/videos

In one of his videos he was playing Battlefield 3 on 3 monitors while recording with fraps, and he said the frame rate was above 60. Not sure if it was on low, high, or ultra, but it looks good enough for my use. Anything else i should be worried about?

 

[tiny voices]

Chances are he is playing at low settings if he only has a single 660. I have a 660ti and I can't even max all current games on 1 1080p monitor.

 

[Alex2051]

With either the GTX 760 or the R9 270X you would need Crossfire or SKI to run Eyefinity at a frame rate that would be playable period. The R9 290x might have the power to run without Crossfire or the GTX 780ti but even then I am not sure if they would be good enough without Crossfire/SLI to handle Eyefinity/Surround setups. Pushing 5760x1080 is a lot of pixels to be moved around for a single card.

I have three Eyefinity/Surround setup all have Crossfire/SLI setups and it is needed for all of them to run with that setup. But I can run all of them at 5760x1080 ultra/max at 60fps Vsync'ed with no problems.

If you are really wanting to get into a Eyefinity/Surround setup do it right and get a Crossfire/SLI setup.

As far as driver problems I have not had any problems for quite some time. The drivers for AMD and Nvidia have really gotten much better and therefor game problems in Crossfire/SLI setup are very uncommon now.

(sorry this comment is similar to the one above)

Yea if i could have dual graphic cards, i would. I chose the x51 because of portability, and i wanted more power then a laptop could offer, as well as the ability to run three monitors. Take a look at this guy's setup: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheStarFireGaming/videos . He has an alienware x51 with the same configuration, but with a GTX 660 (which should be less powerful). He can run battlefield 3 on three monitors at 1080p with nvidia surround. He says the FPS is over 60 while gaming and recording with fraps. Not sure if he has it on low, high, or ultra but the videos on his channel look amazing.