Help: Need your opinions - 2 cards, 3 monitors setup

[spikegifted]

I currently have a pair of ViewSonic VP2130b 22" 1600x1200 LCDs powered by a GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB card. Unfortunately, one of the ViewSonics are going south on me so I'm looking to both upgrade and expand...

I'm looking to get myself a pair of Dell U2412M 24" 1900x1200 LCDs and a GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB card and ditch the ViewSonic that it's going south.

I have two main motivation for these three monitors: desktop real estate and multi-monitor gaming.

My questions are:
1) How shall I arrange the monitors? V-D-D or D-V-D?
2a) How shall I hook up the monitors to the cards:
660Ti - D+D; 560Ti - V; or
660Ti - D+V; 560Ti - D
2b) Should I ditch the 560Ti and get myself a AMD HD7950?

I'm using Windows 7 Professional and I generally play RPGs (Elder Scrolls), strategy games (Civ4), management games (CityXL, FM13) and, very occasionally, FPS.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Sell the 560 and get a 7970. They will run 3monitors easily and overclock like a dream. What games are ypu tring to play

 

[spikegifted]

Thanks, Pedroc1999.

7970 is a little out of my league. I'd settle for a 7950.

I generally play RPGs (Elder Scrolls IV and V, X3TC), strategy games (Civ4), management games (CityXL, FM13) and, very occasionally, FPS.

 

[Pedroc1999]

Yes for those games you will be fine. Just for your knowledge but the 7950 will reach 7970 power with a medium overclock. Just so might u consider it

 

[KingFatty]

Be careful in your decision whether to go Nvidia or AMD.

It's possible that you won't be able to mix and match your different monitors to achieve multi-monitor gaming, because your three monitors have

1) different resolutions
2) different aspect ratios

Can you sell the viewsonic and buy 3 dells?

You might be able to swing the different monitors using an AMD card, but please check to see what resolutions the viewsonic is reporting that it is capable of running. Can it report to the computer that it supports any kind of 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio?

It will depend on the EDID info that the monitor will make available to the computer, so your computer knows what resolutions are supportable. It is possible to edit the EDID info to make your computer believe the monitor supports additional resolutions, but why go through that if you can simply sell the monitor?

 

[spikegifted]

Thanks, KingFatty.

I see that most 7950s have DVI, HDMI and 2 mDP, I pretty much have to go for monitors what will support these.

Here is what I'm thinking: 3 Dell panels is just too steep for now. I'd go for 3 iiyama 24" ProLite E2481HS-B1 Slim Bezel (D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI). If I only have to use just 1 mDP-to-DVI, I should have minimal signal quality loss. Does that make sense?

Does the 7950 support 3 x 1920 x 1080 (ie. 5760 x 1080) in 3D?

 

[KingFatty]

I would assume it's possible to support 3D, but here is the complication:
For AMD, to get triple monitor, you will have to use at least one of the [mini] displayports. That means using an adapter, or making sure at least one monitor supports displayport.

If you need to use an adapter, the issue is you can use a ~$25 single-link adapter or a ~$100 dual-link adapter (to provide DVI or HDMI).

The single-link is good up to around 1920x1200 resolution (I'm currently using my displayport-DVI adapter to support that resolution). However, this is at 2D rates. I wonder if at 3D rates, maybe you'd push too much data through the adapter and would need a dual link version.

But, these issues are moot if you have a monitor that supports displayport. Or, use Nvidia (assuming all 3 monitors are identical) because they can do 3 monitors without a need for using displayport (I believe, I don't have Nvidia card at the moment to verify).