Dual GPU and multi monitor setup (VRAM)

Nov 23, 2011
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My friend is curious on a three monitor setup at 2560x1440. My concern that a resolution that high would run out of VRAM even if you got a 7970 with 3gb. I am not sure how you even set this up, but is it possible to tri-fire/tri-SLI and connect one monitor to each separate video card so you don't divide the VRAM usage and use one video card to one monitor?
 

Lonyo

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Aug 10, 2002
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1) It probably could in some games/situations, which would probably impact minimum fps and potentially cause some fps drops.
2) No you can't. It doesn't and can't work like that due to the method used for SLI/Crossfire.
 

PrincessFrosty

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Feb 13, 2008
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3Gb is a lot but then so is 3 monitors.

It's going to depend almost entirely on the games, with such a high resolution 11 MILLION pixels the VRAM usage will be through the roof especially if Anti-Aliasing is used, the thing you have to factor in though is that to get acceptable performance with 11 Million pixels you need to throw a lot of GPU power at it.

This idea of running out of VRAM is one to keep in mind, but with modern games I suspect the GPUs are going to be struggling to keep performance playable before you actually run out of VRAM.

In short I suspect there's very some games that will be able to max out the VRAM, I think those at risk of doing so are more likely to be running into FPS issues long before VRAM is a concern, for example you might not be able to use 8xAA due to VRAM limitations but if your GPUs can only provide like 10fps in this config anyway then who cares.

You can't share monitors/VRAM like that,
 
Nov 23, 2011
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You can't share monitors/VRAM like that,

Pretty much all I needed to know. A 7970 at 2560x1440 would run fine on its own, I just didn't know if you could separate the GPU usage by connecting different video cards to different monitors. 1gb of VRAM per monitor at that resolution would obviously fail, even before the GPU power if you were to tri-fire them imo.
 

Lavans

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Sep 21, 2010
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This idea of running out of VRAM is one to keep in mind, but with modern games I suspect the GPUs are going to be struggling to keep performance playable before you actually run out of VRAM.

This.

Even when going CF/SLI, triple monitor gaming is going to heavily tax the GPUs. Most benchmarks portray the HD7970 struggling to maintain 30fps average at 5760x1080. Further yet, a lot of Eyefinity/Surround benchmarks show little-to-no difference between 1Gb cards and 2Gb cards of the same series.