Are HD5870 crossfired enough to play games on 3x 2560x1440 Samsung SA850s?

[ganganputput]

apologies about my english, it isnt my first language.

Hi all, i was trigger happy and bought 3x 27" samsung SA850D monitors giving a resolution of 2650x1440 each. i initially wanted to get the dell u3011 but saw that with that money i could get 3 samsungs in portrait mode with eyeinfinity and run them for a bigger overall screen, plus immersion experience.

1. My question is i currently have 2 HD 5870s (sapphire 1gb each) driving these monitors using one display port cable and 2 dvi cables. Are my 2x HD 5870 sufficient to drive the 3 monitors for games like Battlefield 3 in full res, all options enabled? 3x2560x1440?

what got me questioning was when i tried to play a .MKV movie at recorded at 1080p, it started to judder. mkv at 720p were fine.
I tried loading up NFS hot pursuit on max res. it was fine except i could now see some jagged edges on the cars when previously on my single 23 inch monitor i saw none. . i didnt load up any more FPS as i have to finish up my dissertation and dont wanna spend more time getting into gaming right now, but wanna plan what cards i need to upgrade to if needed.


If my Xfired 5870s cant run these monitors at the specs i want, , what card/s i need to get to drive these three monitors for FPS games without getting Frame rates less then 30 fps? also want the recommended cards to future proof for games to come for about 2 years at least. so that my FPS doesnt dip. the new games should be playable and smooth with almost all the major eye candy turned on.
Willing to upgrade PSU if necessary
i heard there are new Radeon cards and the new Nvidia card going to be lanunched soon, please consider these if they are feasible?


my pc details are as follows.

System Specifications:
I. Processor/CPU:
i5 760 currently not overclocked but i have the Noctua NH D14 mounted with 3 cooling fans (coolermaster)
II. Current Graphics Card:
2x sapphire HD5870 Xfired, slightly overclocked using the CCC auto tune function

III. Display Resolution:
2560x1440 X 3 monitors running in eyeinfiniy

IV. Power Supply Unit Specification (Brand, Wattage, Ampage, Age). If possible, please provide a link to a website containing the power supply specifications:
seasonic 620W 80+ bronze

V. Case Specifications(N/A, Model, Length, Low Profile, Cooling, HTPC, Water, Silent):
Superflower casing SF1000
http://www.super-flower.com.tw/products_detail.php?class=1&sn=10&ID=2&lang=en

i added one more exhause 120mm coolermaster and 3 more intake 120mm coolermaster in addition to the huge side fan and huge top fan

Purchase Details:

about 2000 Singapore dollars.
I. Budget? Please be sure to include currency (If not USD), retailer preferences & specify whether rebates are a viable option.


II. Any particular preferences (Manufacturer[nV or AMD], Brand[XFX, Sapphire, EVGA, etc], Cooling Solutions)?
i heard GTX580s beat teh radeons well, and radeons had microstutter i think. Nvidia maybe? but i am open to suggestions, prefer a cooler card.

III. Do you plan to have any Multi-GPU solutions such as Crossfire or SLI?
yes. If my tri monitor cant be run by a single high end card, im willing to X fire again

IV. Have you previously looked at a product(s) which you feel would fit your needs?
not sure what is sufficient

V. What are your needs for this GPU? Which games(If any)do you intend to play? If you have this information at hand, what are the desired detail levels?
details level as mentioned earlier,

VI. Do you plan on overclocking the card you intend to purchase?
slight overclock as long as card is not too hot. and can last 2 years on overclock.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Maybe on the lowest settings or dang close to it?

1GB cards?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Even a 7970 CF won't manage 3 times 1600p / eyefinity

 

[Ieat]

Most games will have poor frame rates and studder because the 1gb of vram is not enough. The only viable option right now is to get 2 HD 7970 3gb cards in crossfire. However that still won't get you highest setting in Battlefield 3 at that crazy resolution.

 

[Snowshredder102]

Unrealistic purchase imo. 2560x1440 monitors are very demanding on GPU's and to have three puts an intense amount of pressure on video cards. 1GB of Vram is laughable for three monitors at those resolution, hell even a 3GB card is not enough Vram for those resolutions. CF 7970 minimum to run anything worth a crap, probably a tri-fire or quad-fire solution would be needed.

 

[ganganputput]

so i see that i over killed myself by buying 3 27" 2560x1440 monitors at high resolution. What can i do to solve this issue?
1. either i sell them off again. and get one 30" 2560x1600?
2. buy sufficient cards with enough ram to get more graphic card output?
3. run the games at less eye candy settings? if i do this will i miss out on alot? (i can just play the game on one monitor if necessary. but this will be only if i have no choice left.
4. run the monitors at lower resolutions? it looks blurry. can that be fixed?


what about HD 6990 that has 2 gpus? i heard it comes with 4 gb ram. if not sufficient, can i crossfire these?

is GTX 590 the dual gpu solution for nvidia? is that enough?> what abt SLIing them? sufficient enough?

what about the new Radeons and the soon to be launched Nvidia cards, would they come in dual GPU solutions? any rumors?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

6990 has 2 cards with 2gb each, 4 total, but 2 usable... Marketing.

590 is worse than the 6990.

Whats your budget? Do you have two x8 PCIe slots total?

 

[Snowshredder102]

The minimum VRAM you need is 3GB and that's the highest that anycard has, the 6990 will not be enough. I sometimes almost hit my VRAM usage at 2560x1600 with 2GB of VRAM.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

AA is going to be the biggest vram hog outside of custom texture mods.

4xAA at my res can double vram usage.

 

[ganganputput]

6990 has 2 cards with 2gb each, 4 total, but 2 usable... Marketing.

590 is worse than the 6990.

Whats your budget? Do you have two x8 PCIe slots total?

i can blow about $2.5k or $3k more. also im willing to wait till there are better cards on the market to support my 3x monitors.

with regards to my mobo, its the p7p55d-e-pro. I think it has 2 8x pci-es total? do i need more? i can upgrade mobo if needed.
thyank you so much for taking the time to reply my post and help me out.

 

[Jacky60]

so i see that i over killed myself by buying 3 27" 2560x1440 monitors at high resolution. What can i do to solve this issue?
1. either i sell them off again. and get one 30" 2560x1600?
2. buy sufficient cards with enough ram to get more graphic card output?
3. run the games at less eye candy settings? if i do this will i miss out on alot? (i can just play the game on one monitor if necessary. but this will be only if i have no choice left.
4. run the monitors at lower resolutions? it looks blurry. can that be fixed?


what about HD 6990 that has 2 gpus? i heard it comes with 4 gb ram. if not sufficient, can i crossfire these?

is GTX 590 the dual gpu solution for nvidia? is that enough?> what abt SLIing them? sufficient enough?

what about the new Radeons and the soon to be launched Nvidia cards, would they come in dual GPU solutions? any rumors?

I have 6990's crossfired and from the research I've done I don't think they're up to running 3x1920/1200 monitors never mind 3x2560/1440 without seriously reducing the eye candy. For a lot of games they would be fine (console ports) but BF3 or Arma 2 or Metro 2033 and you're looking at very depleted image quality compared to whats achievable on a single monitor which I would find annoying (perhaps you wouldn't).
I think Tri-fire 7970's and a 4.6ghz 3930k would probably get to where you'd like to be but even that may not be enough.
5870's haven't a hope in hell of fulfilling your ambitions (I came from 5970/5870 trifire and found the 1gb ram then a limitation)

 

[ganganputput]

i tried battlefield 2 out. its playable on Low setting with 5870 x fired. medium setting i get artifacts. just some info to let you guys know.

not really relevant but the 3 monitor setup in windows helps me out heaps cause im doing a qualitative research for my dissertation and have to have several document files open at the same time to refer back and forth.

 

[Jacky60]

Also you'll want a Mobo with 3x 16 Pcie slots ideally PCie3 and be sure that the case you buy can take 3 big cards plus you'll want at least 12gb RAM.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

It's going to be awhile before Kepler dual cards come out, no way to know for sure but probably summer?

AMD should have their dual card out before that though.

Either keep your current platform and wait for 28nm dual gpus, personally unless kepler is amazing I'd just wait long enough to get the dual gpu AMD card.
Or go socket 2011 and grab 3 or 4 7970s or 7950s.

You have the budget to do either one I think, lol.. Up to you really.

I held off on suggesting 1155 because even though there are boards that I believe would support 4 way CF, they're all PCIe 2.0 and if anyone would be affected by bandwidth it's you.

 

[ganganputput]

Thank you jacky and Balla,
things are much clearer now.
If i sell off my monitors, i lose money. new cards are ex. but i have the cash. but looks like tech doesnt even support the setup displays i bought.

What i can do is to play games on one 27" 2560x1440 first with my 5870 x fire first. No biggie as i was using a 23 inch 1920x1080 to play my games before. while i wait for the market tech to mature and deliver cards capable in Tri fire or Tri SLI to support my setup.
then do a mobo upgrade and ram upgrade. also move on to the new CPu intel has in the works.

any opinions my friends? this a logical thing to do given the limit of tech currently available to support my 3 monitors? i can wait till september or even december if needed.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Sounds good to me, Intel won't have a new chip on 2011 until next year probably, however 1155 with get PCIe 3.0 support with Ivy Bridge on 1155 in a few months.

There are always other options, besides spending a ton of money

Lowering res/settings is the first place to start.

 

[Jacky60]

I think thats the best solution there are some older games you may be able to run acceptably witht the 5870's in eyefinity. I don't really understand why AMD don't at least offer enthusiasts the choice of a GPU with lot more vram on their cards given they introduced eyefinity and such a setup will most likely be bought by people with plenty of cash. That's m another story though.

 

[mosox]

Try running your monitors at 1920x1080 with your current cards and come back with your opinion. Try more resolutions. IMO 1080p is good even for 27" monitors with 3 monitors you don't sit close anyway. Then you can get two HD 7950/70 3GB and call it a day. You will be able to run some games on your maximum res, and some on 1080p.

 

[Don Karnage]

1GB VRam = Limitation

 

[T_Yamamoto]

1GB VRam = Limitation

this

and also the fact that youre on a crazy res

 

[ganganputput]

Try running your monitors at 1920x1080 with your current cards and come back with your opinion. Try more resolutions. IMO 1080p is good even for 27" monitors with 3 monitors you don't sit close anyway. Then you can get two HD 7950/70 3GB and call it a day. You will be able to run some games on your maximum res, and some on 1080p.

Hi mosox i took ur advice. tried to run my 3 monitors on 1080p. guess what , i can play battlefield 2 on medium settings and even increase the antoscropic filtering to 8x and vsync on. i get avg frame rates about 40 plus.

wow! didnt know that my 5870x2 were still this capable.. and to others who are in my shoes, although my 3 monitors are 7680x1440, playing games at 5760x1080 still very clear!

1. to mosox and others who replied me earlier, now that the GTX680 is out do you think i should get one? or get one of the 4gb one which will be out soon.

2. will one GTX680 be better then my two 5870s? or i wont see much difference? what abt 4gb variant?

3. based on one very recent quad gtx680 and dual 680 review, what r ur thoughts with regards to my situation? what about dual 4gb 680s.

thank you all again for your kind replies!

 

[Subyman]

Just game on one monitor until you get it sorted out. I'd say one 7970 would be enough to run stuff on medium, but the sky is the limit when you are trying to push higher end games at ultra settings.

 

[TidusZ]

I use a 5870 on a single 1600p monitor and its fine for starcraft 2 but more intense games aren't great. I would say 2 5870 is not enough for 3 x 1600p at all.