Need recomendations on PC parts

[Lallan]

thanks,, I run a 30" monitor @ 2560x1600 and a 24" touchscreen at minimum,, i was about to hook up a 3rd monitor via Eyfinity on my Radeon HD 5850, but didnt get that far,,, does the 570 line support 3 monitors? or just 2?

 

570 will support 1 monitor unless you are running 2 or more (SLi)

ATI will support several monitors depending on who makes it and what not

 

In your case i would go for ATI if you are planning to run on several monitors

[Fakum]

thanks,, so it seems that the 6970 is the best choice for the budget of $300 -$350 for at least a 2 monitor config,,,, when are the prices dropping as I have been reading they should be with the releases of the 7k series?

[Lallan]

thanks,, so it seems that the 6970 is the best choice for the budget of $300 -$350 for at least a 2 monitor config,,,, when are the prices dropping as I have been reading they should be with the releases of the 7k series?

 

The AMD has already released the 7970 .... so prices should be in there way to fall slowly. The 7K series will most likely be released in Feb or March (don't hold me to that though :lol:)

 

One last thing is make sure that you get one with AT LEAST TWO FANS!!!!

MSI as mentioned previously is the best 6970 as it is great for the money and also is a fantastic over clocker.... so I can not emphasize anymore that, that should be the card for you to go for

 

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[EtherealN]

570 will support 1 monitor unless you are running 2 or more (SLi)

 

2 monitors.

(nVidia cards do support two monitors, though it remains two even if the card has three ports - my 560Ti has two DVI and one HDMI, but just two monitors at the same time)

 

Also, you do not need SLI to go above that. For example, you can run two monitors off of a 570, and then another two off of either a non-SLI 570, or even a completely different card like an old 9800 or whatever.

[Fakum]

Hmmmmmmm,,,, hmmmmm,,, got me thinkin now. I'm not absolutly commited to the use of 3 monitors,, I am certainly going to run a 30" as my main at 2560 x 1600, and the 2nd is a 23" touchscreen Im using for Helios,, so if I decide to just do the 2 monitors only, I am feeling pretty good about the 6970, but would I benefit more from an Nvidia card instead for just 2 monitors? Hmmmmmm

[EtherealN]

I'd say that in this case the red-team/green-team thing isn't really relevant, any performance card will do good. I'm slightly skeptical about the 6970, but only because it scaled in weird ways compared to the 5970 (actually doing worse in some games!). But quality is quality.

 

Another option is to run your main screen on a 6970, and the Helios screen off of the 5850 you already have, as long as your mobo and PSU allows for this. (And assuming AMD drivers don't freak out when doing this, but AFAIK it should be fine.)

[Lallan]

2 monitors.

(nVidia cards do support two monitors, though it remains two even if the card has three ports - my 560Ti has two DVI and one HDMI, but just two monitors at the same time)

 

Also, you do not need SLI to go above that. For example, you can run two monitors off of a 570, and then another two off of either a non-SLI 570, or even a completely different card like an old 9800 or whatever.

 

Im sorry but why would you consider running a 570 and then a 9800 if you "claim" that a 570 can run on two monitors?

 

and beside AMD GPU will usually out perform a Nvidia on 2 monitors due eye finite running better as its tech is mopre advanced than Nvidia surround. Im not saying this because I'am an AMD fan which I'm not... I prefer Intel/Nvidia but AMD will be better in this situation!!

[EtherealN]

Im sorry but why would you consider running a 570 and then a 9800 if you "claim" that a 570 can run on two monitors?

 

It's not a "claim", it's a fact.

And the reason to consider it is simple: allows the 570 to use all it's resources on the graphically more intensive main screen, and use a 9800 on the less intensively loaded secondary screen. Especially considering the high resolution of the proposed main display.

 

and beside AMD GPU will usually out perform a Nvidia on 2 monitors due eye finite running better as its tech is mopre advanced than Nvidia surround. Im not saying this because I'am an AMD fan which I'm not... I prefer Intel/Nvidia but AMD will be better in this situation!!

 

Eyefinity is better for a single-card multi-screen solution, yes, but it has drawbacks due to it's implementation - it's really awesome for creating a larger synthetic main display out of two or more physical displays, sort of like good old Matrox TripleHead. But if this is not the intended use, running multiple cards is a better option performance-wise.

[Lallan]

The thing is when you start crossfireing 6970 with 5850, and SLI' ing Nvidia with x,y micro-stuttering will almost defiantly occur and that will make games pretty much unplayable.... STICK with the 6970, yes it does not perform as well as a 570 but it will run better on 3 monitors than a 570

 

Also how do we know that the Mb that he is buying will support crossfire let alone SLi??

[EtherealN]

You're not getting the point that I explicitly laid out: there is no crossfireing or SLIing involved. You do NOT need to use those technologies to power extra screens. SLI and Crossfire is used to power a single screen with multiple cards, not necessarily to power multiple screens with either a single card or multiple cards.

 

Multiple cards of different type can sit on the same system - indeed, as long as you're careful with your drivers you can run a GTX 570 to run one screen, and a 6970 to run a second screen, on the same computer.

[Lallan]

You're not getting the point that I explicitly laid out: there is no crossfireing or SLIing involved. You do NOT need to use those technologies to power extra screens. SLI and Crossfire is used to power a single screen with multiple cards, not necessarily to power multiple screens with either a single card or multiple cards.

 

If I said that is eye finitty is needed to power one monitor then please apologies for that misleading info.

 

However, if the computer is then not running in SLi or crossfire then i will FINALLY concur with you that that would be a good solution to running multiple monitors and one solution that i did not even consider :megalol:

[Lallan]

I think though a Final verdict needs to be given though for this thread or EtherealN and I will just have long discussion/dispute :P

[EtherealN]

However, if the computer is then not running in SLi or crossfire then i will FINALLY concur with you that that would be a good solution to running multiple monitors and one solution that i did not even consider :megalol:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1380239&postcount=30

 

"Also, you do not need SLI to go above that. For example, you can run two monitors off of a 570, and then another two off of either a non-SLI 570, or even a completely different card like an old 9800 or whatever."

 

As you can see, what you responded to was explicitly stated as not being SLI... ;)

[Lallan]

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1380239&postcount=30

 

"Also, you do not need SLI to go above that. For example, you can run two monitors off of a 570, and then another two off of either a non-SLI 570, or even a completely different card like an old 9800 or whatever."

 

As you can see, what you responded to was explicitly stated as not being SLI... ;)

 

OK now lets not be pedantic about this AND JUST conclude that the 6970 is best for him AND if he wants then he can run his 5870 as well

 

OK??????

[EtherealN]

I'll accept that. I'd say the 570 and the 6970 are possibly a wash, but the fact that he has a 5870 retained as an option makes the 6970 win due to simplification of drivers in case such a setup becomes attractive.

[Fakum]

Mmmm,,, I appreciate the deep debate,, I am very appreciative to now understand that I can have (2) seperate video cards at the same time. If I grasp this correct, If my PSU can accomodate a 5850 and a (570 or 6970), which I believe it can (I have to check the PCI-e cable abundance) its a 1000w, my Mobo is going to be an ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe/Gen 3. This is a whole new picture for me. My 1st thought is OH NO,,,,driver issues! I have never dabled into multiple GPUs of potential different MFG's and models,,, but it sure has my attention,,,, is this more trouble then its worth though? I have NEVER come accross a thread discussion on this,,,I do thatnk you both on your insight.

[EtherealN]

Yeah, it's sort of specialized and usually workstation-oriented, but definitely possible. I've mainly seen it with nVidia setups (i think it was a 470 and 8800), but the theory holds true for AMD as well. The only really bad complicator is if you have cards from separate vendors - like one card form nVidia and one from AMD - since windows doesn't like running multiple drivers like that, but both nVidia and AMD are acceptably proficient at making drivers that can accomodate different cards. Might be worth checking first though, but with a 6970 you are definitely less likely to have trouble combining with your old card than if you go 570. (Which is still possible, but this I've mostly seen for things like Folding@Home, and I'm made to understand that it can cause a mess if you slip up.)

 

What I'd probably do, if I were you, and if you have a secondary drive that is big enough to house an image of your OS drive, is to get the system up and running with just the 6970 first, then make an image of it and save that on the secondary. Then install the 5850 and see how it goes. This way, if things go south, you can always restore to a completely clean image. (Windows restore SHOULD work for the same purpose, but it does sometimes mess up.)

[Fakum]

thanks for the feedback, I am certainly going to make an attempt. And I always make backup images using Acronis and external ESATA backup drives as I like to experiment at times, sure makes it easier to take chances knowing you can restore from an image file. Thanks

[Fakum]

Another question,,, I am going to try and insatll both my existing ATI HD 5850 to run my 24" Toushscreen for Helios, and I will be purchasing a new HD 6970 to run my main 30" screen at 2560 x 1600.

 

Based on this picture of the motherboard, and they are both PCI-e 2.0 cards, there are (2) PCI-e 3.0 slots and (1) PCI-e 2.0 slot at the very bottom. I would think that I should use the very top PCI-e 3.0 slot for the new HD 6970 GPU, and the very bottom PCI-e 2.0 slot for the HD 5850 card, this will keep some decent spacing for airflow, and there will be no performance impact correct? Thanks

 

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[scheffchen]

well you just have to try!

install any monitoring program to watch your temperature of CPU and GPUs!

Me for instance, I have 4 PCIe slots (named from top to bottom 1,2,3,4). However I could not use no. 1 and no.4 because no.1 was getting too hot sitting next to the overclocked CPU (both >80°C). So I had to switch the GPUs to slot 2 and 4, and reclock the CPU from 4.0Ghz to 3.8GHz. That´s how life treats you with its bittersweat lemons ;)

Oh and be sure to have very good airflow in the case..

 

A good benchmark for stressing CPU and GPU is battlefield 3: It fully supports multi-GPU and multi-CPU systems (multicores). I dont trust synthetic stressmarks such as furmark or that pi-stress test ;))

 

Greetings

boris

[EtherealN]

scheffen, relying on a game - especially singular - in place of a proper testing suite for overclocking purposes is one of the most horrible ideas you can possibly come up with. Do not even think about that.

 

Why? Because games are not stresstesters! Games have a job to do, and that is to be "fun". A stresstester has another job to do - and that is to fully load every single bit of the hardware involved. If you test with a given game you may get completely fine temperatures only to find your processor melting when you, 6 months later, decide to have a go at video encoding.

Edited February 4, 2012 by EtherealN

[Fakum]

I was more concerned with taking a performance hit with that configuration. Using a pci-e 3.0 slot for a 2.0 card sorta question. if theres no hit, then I will keep them spaced out

[EtherealN]

Yeah, there's no worries at all with doing that.

 

The on thing to look at really is how the controllers are set up, and I'm unfortunately a bit foggy on that. You'll get better performance if you ensure that the card sits in a position where it can be governed by the CPU's integrated PCIe controller as opposed to a controller on the mobo. I never checked if the CPU can switch which PCIe ports it'll talk to or if it is one specific.

 

This is obviously N/A if the CPU doesn't have a PCIe controller - in this case, a PCIe 3.0 port is obviously on the mobo. Not sure whether you'll actually notice the difference though.

[Fakum]

Thanks,, I did not see a controller diagram in the manual, nor did I find one yet on the internet. I appreciate the feedback,, I'll continue this over at overclockers forum and see if I can get more definative and report back,, thanks for the help

[Fakum]

Well,,, I havnt got the Motherboard or CPU yet, and the HD 6970's are hard to find now. I guess I have to look at the 7000 series cards instead of the HD 6970. Any feedback on a comperable HD 7xxx card for the same $300 -$350 to run the 30" monitor at 2560 x 1600?