RSharpe

Yay. Do they make changes between the previous Beta and the WHQL drivers?

So because your one limited experience with Crossfire with one video card and one game didn't work ("a long time ago"), ALL Crossfire and SLI configurations are a waste of time and money? Multi-GPU gaming can be hit-or-miss, but support and scaling is getting better and better over time. There is considerable hype behind Crossfire and SLI, but I can assure you that it's not all an illusion. There are hard performances benefits. For my situation, I know that DCS A-10C can get by on one GPU 1920x1200 monitor, but there really are no single GPUs that can run 3 1920x1200 monitors to my satisfaction. Multiple 6970s/6990s in Crossfire or 3GB 580s in SLI were my only option.

Oh it's automatic? Well that's great then. I think I'm out of activations with games like Wings of Prey, and I have to go out of my way to contact technical support, to convince someone that I'm not a criminal, or a piece of software that I paid for.

THis is what I hate most about Starforce games. Who really remembers and has to the time to go around each StarForce game, find the buried deactivation application, and go deactivate the game? I've lost so many activations because of this. At least I hear ED is good about refilling activations, but I just know I will run out because of the number of times that I change hardware.

These are my game settings. My guess is that anti-aliasing is either off or turned way down in the case of the 5970. It's hard to tell what the image quality is, and the video doesn't look quite as smooth as what I have right now. 6970 in Crossfire is probably fine if you dial back the AA. I just find that you need AA, or edges become really jagged.

I probably reinstalled my OS about a 20 times in the last 6 months. I always keep a copy of my Steam directory, but I delete all other programs from my D drive. I always wipe out C entirely and start again. When I reinstall Steam, the client just updates the games and reinstalls the MS redist packages. Non-Steam games usually have to be reinstalled however.

Tell me about it. It barely fits under my desk/.

I wouldn't be able to say since I have no experience with those. But would they not add additional cost anyhow? Triple Head to Go doesn't support 1920x1200 monitors and above either?

Yeah. AMD's 2GB per GPU cards is an improvement from Nvidia's typical 1.5GB, but even 2GB isn't enough on triple monitors when you start using anti-aliasing. The premium for 3GB 580 cards is so high, but once you have it and forget that you've spent the money, it's really nice to have.

I wish I could transfer my license to Steam.... I hate Starforce. I've reinstalled my system many times over the last six months, and I've lost all of my activations because who could honestly remember to deactivate all of the games that have this kind of silly DRM?

I run a HAF X, and the case itself. That's with all fans installed for me, which includes 3 200mm fans, 1 140mm fan and 2 120mm fans. However, since the case is quite open, graphics cards throttling up to high RPMs will be heard. A 590 could be problematic, since it's blowing air to the rear and to the front of the case. You may not want to use the ducted 120mm fan. Just install another 200mm fan and let those things pull out as much hot air as possible out the top. The ducted fan is designed for other reference cooler designs not including the 590.

$150+shipping. Roughly 7 months old, run stock. Surplus to my needs. Comes with everything that it came with as pictured. This card is Eyefinity ready, and runs games like COD Modern Warfare 1 and 2, and Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 at 5760x1200 with great smooth framerates.

Running multiple screens requires a lot of video memory. 1GB won't cut it at all. I'm running across three 1920x1200 monitors, with two 3GB 580 SLIed consumes around 2.5gb on my system. You also need a lot of GPU power to push close to 7 megapixels.

?

It's definitely a nice case. It was one my short list of cases to get.

The NZXT Phantom is a fairly cool case. Check out OC3D's review on it. Depending on your needs, it may not be as big as some cases though I'm running a HAF X and it's quite decent. It's quite ugly, but it offers great air cooling and there's lots of room inside to work with. I'm just finalizing the configuration and it's still a mess inside, but you can see how much room there is inside. There's a 200mm ducted side fan that blows air right on top of the video cards, and the 120mm ducted fan pushing cool air at the front of the video cards also helps with GPU temps.

Has anyone tried to epoxy these things? They need to be reinforced. The breakaway design is just the dumbest thing I've seen on a computer peripheral in a long time.

Except that a 6950 will never clock as well either in the core or the memory as a real 6970.

Does anyone else hate the design of this POS? I've gone through 2 so far. The first lasted a couple of months. I contacted NaturalPoint and they sent me another. THat lasted just 1 month before it broke like the first at the joints.

What are you talking about? Both the 6970 and the 6990 are 2GB per GPU designs. The two 6970s should be slightly faster and less noisy though.

I meant that *I* haven't been paying attention to DCS A-10C personally as I've had other things to deal with. That's why I've lost track of the patches, and I'm never sure if I'm up to date or not. When I check the patch page, I see the version number but not when it was released, so I'm still unsure if I need to patch or not.

DCS A-10C has taken the backburner for other things and I don't read the forum as much anymore, and I've not really been paying attention to the various versions and patches being released. Are there any plans on an auto updating application or something? At the very least, it would be nice to have the release date on the download pages.

The Noctua coolers are excellent. They'll beat those cheap "watercooled" kits any day.

I agree. I feel ripped off having bought it. It's so linear and the opposite of epic. It's not that action and animation that made DA: O shine, it was the open nature of the game and the choice the player had in playing it the way they felt like which made that game. The new art and fighting animations felt too much like an anime to me.

That's fantastic. Thanks!