Need advice on six-monitor setup

[CalicoJack]

I am planning to upgrade my work/gaming rig to a six monitor setup and I could use some advice. I have been an nvidia guy for a while now and have been using evga cards. I've been doing some research for this upgrade and I think I probably want to go with a couple Radeon cards this time.

I want to make this system as flexible as possible and the eyefinity stuff appears to be the way to go. I don't necessarily see myself using all six monitors for gaming. More likely I'll want to use 1-3 monitors for game display with browsers, chat, stream viewing on the other three. (This will be a 3x2 configuration.) I'm hoping either the Radeon experts can help me with card selection or someone can convince me that nvidia will work better for what I want to do. I'm obviously willing to spend some money here. I've been looking at the 79xx series of cards. I hear some troubling things about the drivers for these. These negative reports can get overblown so I'd like to hear from some experienced builders/gamers on this. If there are issues with the 79xx cards, is there another model that has decent performance and better stability?

Also looking for advice on manufacturer. XFX and Sapphire seem to be well recommended. What about ASUS?

I don't play shooters on the pc, so I won't need to worry about being able to support BF3 on six screens or anything. I play some MMOs (SWTOR, LOTRO), Fallout 3&NV, and plan to pick up skyrim sometime soon. I've also been dipping a toe into EVE online and I can forsee wanting to run 2-3 EVE clients on various screen combinations. I could see it working out something like this for EVE:

|4|5|6|
|1|2|3|

Screens 1&2 main eve client
Screen 3 second client
Screen 4 video/stream/tvshow, etc
Screen 5 browser, irc, vent, misc
Screen 6 third eve client
Just an example of the kind of thing I'm thinking about. Trying to emphasize that I am not doing this to have a single game stretched across all six screens.

With flexibility in mind I've been looking at these monitors that have HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort connections: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236123

I'm not decided on monitor supports yet. I'm leaning towards three stands that hold two monitors vertically. (Flexibility again.)

I know there's probably not to many people who have worked on a setup like this but any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would also love to hear any general thoughts on the 3x2 setup, especially from someone who's running one. Is there something about it that you don't like, etc.

 

[pcm81]

I pushed 6, yes 6, eve online clients on low res with 2x6990s in window modes tiled on 27 inch display. System lag was noticible, but i suspect limited by 12GB of ram running 4VMs. two 7970 or one 7990 whe that comes out, should match my graphix horse power.

browser, irc, vent, misc, tv shows etc are irrelevant in terms of graphics power. they will probably take up 5% of the eve load...

EDIT:
5 EVE clients did not lag the system.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I would suggest looking into some of the Samsung multi-monitor set-ups to save some money if you want to go that route.

 

[DigDog]

i should probably say something along the lines of "people who bot" on MMORPGs

 

[CalicoJack]

I would suggest looking into some of the Samsung multi-monitor set-ups to save some money if you want to go that route.

I have looked at the samsung Syncmaster MD stuff if that is what you're talking about. It didn't look that good. They make a six-panel display and it's got a really cool control box that handles all six. If you have an issue with one of thep panels you have to take the whole thing apart to get one panel fixed or replaced and the rest won't work until it is re-assembled. Don't like the sound of that at all. Plus they're a lot more expensive than buying 6 monitors and some mounts.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

For 6 monitors even if each is just 1080p get at least 7970 oc quad fire

 

[chimaxi83]

For 6 monitors even if each is just 1080p get at least 7970 oc quad fire

lol four cards. what do you mean "at least 7970 oc quad fire"? there is no at least, quad is max.

7970 Crossfire is more than plenty for EVE (even more so overclocked, as a single overclocked 7970 comes very close to 6990 performance, sometimes beating it), as long as you have the required outputs on the cards. You'd want something similar to 7970 Lightning cards because of the 4 DP connectors on each card.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I mean for games like bf3 and other modern games

 

[chimaxi83]

I mean for games like bf3 and other modern games

That makes sense. OP mentioned his games though

I don't play shooters on the pc, so I won't need to worry about being able to support BF3 on six screens or anything. I play some MMOs (SWTOR, LOTRO), Fallout 3&NV, and plan to pick up skyrim sometime soon.

 

[CalicoJack]

lol four cards. what do you mean "at least 7970 oc quad fire"? there is no at least, quad is max.

7970 Crossfire is more than plenty for EVE (even more so overclocked, as a single overclocked 7970 comes very close to 6990 performance, sometimes beating it), as long as you have the required outputs on the cards. You'd want something similar to 7970 Lightning cards because of the 4 DP connectors on each card.

That link seems to take me to some SDRAM at newegg. But I looked up the 7970 Lightning, which I hadn't seen before. This is PERFECT! Thanks so much for pointing me to that card.

 

[chimaxi83]

That link seems to take me to some SDRAM at newegg. But I looked up the 7970 Lightning, which I hadn't seen before. This is PERFECT! Thanks so much for pointing me to that card.

Oh crap, mixed up my link and pasted what also went into a thread in Memory and Storage lol, sorry. Glad you found it though :thumbsup: