newegg special poses question: 2 x 5770 or 5850

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v8envy

Platinum Member
Sep 7, 2002
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It sounds like Multi-GPU would be best for multi-monitor gaming then?

Three Nvidia GPUs on three 1080p monitors would have the same input lag as one Nvidia GPU on one 1080p monitor?

No, that's not how it works. Each card is not rendering a different scene independently. The display is stretched across 3 monitors, so as far as the hardware is concerned it's rendering to a single gigantic monitor with a bazillion pixels.

What you described would be SFR, with the frame data arbitrarily partitioned into monitor sized chunks.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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No, that's not how it works. Each card is not rendering a different scene independently. The display is stretched across 3 monitors, so as far as the hardware is concerned it's rendering to a single gigantic monitor with a bazillion pixels.

What you described would be SFR, with the frame data arbitrarily partitioned into monitor sized chunks.

Oh you are right.

If a single Fermi renders 1080p at 60 FPS (16.6 ms) that would be a much lower input lag than Three Fermis rendering triple 1080p @ 60 FPS (50ms if each of the three Fermi is responsible for 20 FPS).
 

marmasatt

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2003
6,576
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Here. A factory OCed 5850 w/ Free MW2 for $300. That's -$30 if bought from ebay. Plus another -$9 w/ bing cashback.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131351

Two 5770's would be good too though. The choice is easy for me since I only have one x16 slot.

I guess since you spent the cash on an XFire board (and if you don't want/need two 5850's) might as well take advantage of it.

Hmmm. So where does it say this comes w/ a free copy of MW2? I don't see it in the description and the picture looks like it may only be an insert, not a full game. And the warranty is only 2 years...Not bad, but not great.

So what card and where did you buy, OP?
 

Patrick Wolf

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2005
2,443
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Hmmm. So where does it say this comes w/ a free copy of MW2? I don't see it in the description and the picture looks like it may only be an insert, not a full game. And the warranty is only 2 years...Not bad, but not great.

Hm, it was listed on PowerColor's website... Only the Dirt 2 one is listed. I think the insert has a code to download the full game, doesn't actually come with a disk.
 

looper

Golden Member
Oct 22, 1999
1,655
10
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Someone's quote above:
"The 5850 (if you get one with tweakable voltage and unlocked bios) is a true monster overclocker though..."

Which specific 5850 comes that way?
 

SRoode

Senior member
Dec 9, 2004
243
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Both my XFX and HIS 5850 allows voltage tweaking through MSI Afterburner... Which ones don't?
 

NoQuarter

Golden Member
Jan 1, 2001
1,006
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It sounds like Multi-GPU would be best for multi-monitor gaming then?

Three Nvidia GPUs on three 1080p monitors would have the same input lag as one Nvidia GPU on one 1080p monitor?

We've yet to see exactly how NVidia's implementation is going to work but it will likely be AFR with each card rendering the full 5760x1080 frame and then passing the frame buffer across the SLI link to the cards with the monitors attached. In this case the input lag will still exist.
 

Magusigne

Golden Member
Nov 21, 2007
1,550
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Sorry to de-rail this thread but...

Does the XFX 5870 come with a non-reference cooler? I noticed its a fan placed in the middle of the card versus some older reference pictures i've noticed with a small fan placed opposite of the vents.
 

Dark4ng3l

Diamond Member
Sep 17, 2000
5,061
1
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Sorry to de-rail this thread but...

Does the XFX 5870 come with a non-reference cooler? I noticed its a fan placed in the middle of the card versus some older reference pictures i've noticed with a small fan placed opposite of the vents.

Well It's a non reference design for sure. But if you look at many 5870s they have similar fan in the middle designs now as well. for example

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814161329
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814102883

So it seems that many manufacturers are going towards that kind of board design.
 

redrider4life4

Senior member
Jan 23, 2009
246
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Just some more information, I have a nice 600w modular OCZ Obsidian power supply so I don't think I'll have an issue.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 2 x 5770 in xfire because I'm looking for pure performance for Diablo 3, bad company 2, and FF14. I have until the 12th to decide so I will make my final purchase by then. I'm also purchasing a 750gb WD caviar black hdd and a 24 inch monitor as well.
 

T2k

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2004
1,665
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The downsides: microstutter, input lag, lower performance in games without a crossfire profile and the occasional issues running multiple games windowed (think "multiboxing" MMOs). Higher power suck at idle. And for the extreme geeks, no Linux support.

I've never seen any of these during my 4850 X2 2GB days last year.
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
3,050
65
91
Just some more information, I have a nice 600w modular OCZ Obsidian power supply so I don't think I'll have an issue.

Right now I'm leaning towards the 2 x 5770 in xfire because I'm looking for pure performance for Diablo 3, bad company 2, and FF14. I have until the 12th to decide so I will make my final purchase by then. I'm also purchasing a 750gb WD caviar black hdd and a 24 inch monitor as well.

You sure you don't want a 5970 for that? :D
 

redrider4life4

Senior member
Jan 23, 2009
246
0
0
You sure you don't want a 5970 for that? :D

I'd love a 5970 if it could be had for around $300 haha.

Another question, below is my PS and a lot of guys on tomshardware forums are experiencing issues with power supplies that don't have 40A rails apparently. I noticed this only goes up to 25A, should I be worried I'll experience freezing/lines on my screen?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
7
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Doesn't really sound significant.

It shouldn't be anyway. You're already running double buffered, maybe even tripled buffered, which causes frame lag anyway.

A card twice as fast as to render a frame ahead (2 frames).
Two cards would each render 1 frame, in double the time per frame. Should work out to be the same amount of input lag.

(I could be wrong about this)
In a 60fps game, you already have 50ms of lag with triple buffering. 33.33ms of lag with double.
In a single buffered game, you still have 16.67ms of lag, since you have to wait for the frame to be rendered before it gets displayed. The only way to avoid lag, would be to do immediate rendering, in which case you would see things being drawn onto the screen. (and no conventional display device would support it anyway)
In a 30fps game, your lag would double.