suggestions for eyefinity/surround gaming?

[MuchTooSexy]

I currently have three monitors in 5760x1080 eyefinity being driven by two 7950 in crossfire. the cpu is an ivybridge i5.

I play a wide variety of games like battlefield 4, swtor and civ V.

what would be a current, single card solution that would exceed my 7950s in performance?

if i decide in the future i would like to upgrade to three 1440p at 144hz, is there a single card solution that can handle that? or would crossfire/SLI eventually be necessary?

thanks

 

[Headfoot]

The best current single card solution for this is an aftermarket 980 Ti. 3x1440p@144hz is not going to be possible on today's hardware. CPU also starts becoming an issue once you're getting to 100+ FPS.

At this resolution its probably best to get a single 980 Ti and then when 16nm hits to upgrade to the second to top chip at that time.

 

[flopper]

single fury x.
Best single solution for eyefinity.

Next years die shrink will make single card viable for better 1440p eyefinity.
I am eyeying that atm also.

 

[MuchTooSexy]

the 980ti and fury x individually would cost more than what i paid for the pair of 7950s three years ago. other than being single card solutions, would the newer cards' performance also be better than what i have currently?

 

[RussianSensation]

I currently have three monitors in 5760x1080 eyefinity being driven by two 7950 in crossfire. the cpu is an ivybridge i5.

I play a wide variety of games like battlefield 4, swtor and civ V.

what would be a current, single card solution that would exceed my 7950s in performance?

I would say GTX980 or Fury or faster.

if i decide in the future i would like to upgrade to three 1440p at 144hz, is there a single card solution that can handle that? or would crossfire/SLI eventually be necessary?

thanks

No, there is no single GPU that can drive 3x1440P displays at 144Hz. In fact, you probably need at least GTX970 SLI just to drive a single 1440P display at 144Hz in modern games maxed out.

Some good upgrade options for you are used R9 290/290X CF, or going all the way up to an after-market GTX980Ti. Of course in the games where CF doesn't work well, even a single 980 would be close to double of your 7950 so it's not easy to answer your question.

Another strategy is you could coast to 2016 and just get a pair of new 16nm HBM2 GPUs but expect to spend $600-800+ on those ($300-400x2).

If you can't wait that long, maybe selling your 7950s and buying 2 used R9 290/290Xs from say Sapphire Tri-X or similar could be a good strategy that's not overly expensive.

 

[MuchTooSexy]

i guess my question would actually be: could a current high-end card be a part of a 3x1440p/144hz solution when in CF/SLI?

or should i consider any card i get now to be just an upgrade for the 5760x1080 setup, and wait for future cards to support the 3x1440p?

thanks for the replies.

 

[flopper]

i guess my question would actually be: could a current high-end card be a part of a 3x1440p/144hz solution when in CF/SLI?

or should i consider any card i get now to be just an upgrade for the 5760x1080 setup, and wait for future cards to support the 3x1440p?

thanks for the replies.

My take, crossfire/sli isnt to be recomended for any set up.
While one could argue that you need the fps you also have driver issues, microstuttering and such also with multi gpu. For me I rather lower settings and grab the best single card for my money.
Its a better gaming experience with single cards.

I plan to add 2 more acer xg270hu screens next year and then get the best card of the next generation 16nm from amd to run such eyefinity setup. Until then I make due with a 390.

 

[MuchTooSexy]

My take, crossfire/sli isnt to be recomended for any set up.
While one could argue that you need the fps you also have driver issues, microstuttering and such also with multi gpu. For me I rather lower settings and grab the best single card for my money.
Its a better gaming experience with single cards.

I plan to add 2 more acer xg270hu screens next year and then get the best card of the next generation 16nm from amd to run such eyefinity setup. Until then I make due with a 390.

i already have crossfire with an eyefinity setup so i am aware of the negatives and thus i was asking for a single card solution that exceeds the 7950s.

the crossfire thing was just a bonus question looking towards running eyefinity/surround in the high resolution future.

thanks for the reply

 

[Headfoot]

i already have crossfire with an eyefinity setup so i am aware of the negatives and thus i was asking for a single card solution that exceeds the 7950s.

the crossfire thing was just a bonus question looking towards running eyefinity/surround in the high resolution future.

thanks for the reply

A single 980 Ti aftermarket would drive your current eyefinity set up pretty well. Moving up to 1440px3x144hz is what would require going multiple GPU. I run a single OC'd 290 on 3x1080p eyefinity right now and I have to turn most everything down to medium to get 60fps.

 

[RussianSensation]

i guess my question would actually be: could a current high-end card be a part of a 3x1440p/144hz solution when in CF/SLI?

or should i consider any card i get now to be just an upgrade for the 5760x1080 setup, and wait for future cards to support the 3x1440p?

thanks for the replies.

I'll make it super easy for you. At current market prices, the only cards that make any sense for you are $280 R9 390 (and possibly an R9 390X if you can find it closer to $330) and a $650 GTX980Ti. 970 makes no sense for SLI on 3x1080P / 3x1440P since it's a dead weight with its 3.5GB of VRAM and it's proving to be inferior in DX12 performance compared to the 390. 390 already beat the 970 on a single 1440P. 980 makes no sense because 390X is nearly as fast for way less, and the $450 980 is even worse considering it's possible to purchase R9 290 CF for ~$460, or R9 390 CF for $560. Thus, GTX980/Fury are overpriced and are barely better than the 390/390X cards, while Fury X/Nano are slower than the 980Ti. 980Ti has huge overclocking headroom which allows it to beat Fury/Fury X and Nano and it also has 6GB of VRAM.

At this point you have 3-4 main options:

1) Option #1 - sell 7950s and get a stop-gap R9 390 card*; then upgrade to 16nm HBM2 GPUs.

2) Option #2 - keep 7950s and go all out on 16nm HBM2 GPUs in 2016

3) Option #3 - sell 7950s and buy a GTX980Ti. 980Ti is the best option to consider adding a 2nd card later since it's the fastest card out now, has more VRAM than Fury cards and has the highest overclocking headroom out of the flagship cards.

4) Option #4 - Best Bang for the buck -- sell 7950s and buy used after-market 290/290X cards such as Sapphire Tri-X 290s. That will give you a huge boost in performance and allow you to coast to early 2017 or later to upgrade.

* Another option is to wait for a deal on a 390X or try to catch an EVGA B-stock GTX980 for $370-380.

So pretty much, 390X/980 aren't really fast enough over the $280 R9 390 to warrant their $100-180 pricing premiums, Fury/Fury X/Nano are all overpriced vs. the 980TI and 970 loses to the 390.

That means for you, really only the 390 or the 980Ti make any sense imho, unless you can score some deal on a 390X/980/Fury.

 

[flopper]

i already have crossfire with an eyefinity setup so i am aware of the negatives and thus i was asking for a single card solution that exceeds the 7950s.

the crossfire thing was just a bonus question looking towards running eyefinity/surround in the high resolution future.

thanks for the reply

best option is next years die shrink.
stop gap card until then.
the industry is making a leap again

 

[desprado]

I would say GTX980 or Fury or faster.

No, there is no single GPU that can drive 3x1440P displays at 144Hz. In fact, you probably need at least GTX970 SLI just to drive a single 1440P display at 144Hz in modern games maxed out.

Some good upgrade options for you are used R9 290/290X CF, or going all the way up to an after-market GTX980Ti. Of course in the games where CF doesn't work well, even a single 980 would be close to double of your 7950 so it's not easy to answer your question.

Another strategy is you could coast to 2016 and just get a pair of new 16nm HBM2 GPUs but expect to spend $600-800+ on those ($300-400x2).

If you can't wait that long, maybe selling your 7950s and buying 2 used R9 290/290Xs from say Sapphire Tri-X or similar could be a good strategy that's not overly expensive.

For multi monitor AMD is the best.

 

[MuchTooSexy]

i hate getting all this great advice and end up not doing anything but waiting for better options in the future.

i will just stick with the 7950s for a while longer. thanks, guys.

 

[Headfoot]

Try overclocking them and see how much you can get, especially if you've got the launch versions @800mhz. Lots of those 7950s hit 1200 mhz core

 

[MuchTooSexy]

I have MSI twin frozr 7950s. In 5760x1080 in battlefield: hardline, i get around 55-70 fps with high settings. playable, but not the best.

I've overclocked them to 1050 mhz, but the screens start glitching if i go past that. (i haven't touched the voltages since my room is hot enough in the summer. )

 

[KaRLiToS]

I also have eyefinity (7680x1440) and the best suggestion I can tell you is wait for 2016 and 16nm + HBM2. This is what I am personally gonna do.

I haven't upgrade since 2013 (GPUs) and I'm still on my Rampage IV Extreme (2011) and nothing seems worth it as of right now.

 

[tweakboy]

Can't wait until the 980 Ti killer come in nVidia flavor of course. Trust in green, The devil is red. thx gl

980 Ti can handle 4k but if you want 60fps all throughout you need a heavily OCed 980 Ti. gl

 

[tweakboy]

Or 980 cant handle 4k gaming.. and drops to 30fps..

 

[IEC]

I'm with KaRLiToS. Nothing terribly exciting to me until Skylake-E + 16nm HBM2 GPUs.

290/X or 390/X Crossfire is just too good.

 

[Stuka87]

My take, crossfire/sli isnt to be recomended for any set up.
While one could argue that you need the fps you also have driver issues, microstuttering and such also with multi gpu. For me I rather lower settings and grab the best single card for my money.
Its a better gaming experience with single cards.

I plan to add 2 more acer xg270hu screens next year and then get the best card of the next generation 16nm from amd to run such eyefinity setup. Until then I make due with a 390.

There is no Micro-stutter with AMD's implementation when using a 290/390/Fury.

But to answer one of the OP's questions. A 980Ti/Fury will be a more consistent experience than what you have now. Your FPS may not see a huge jump over your current SLI (Some jump, but not huge), but you wont have any of the multi-GPU issues to worry about.

Also, AMD's solution for multi monitor is quite a bit better than nVidia's. You can mix and match screen resolutions if you like with AMD, so run a 1440P center display, and 1080P side displays.

 

[MuchTooSexy]

Also, AMD's solution for multi monitor is quite a bit better than nVidia's. You can mix and match screen resolutions if you like with AMD, so run a 1440P center display, and 1080P side displays.

This includes older cards like my 7950s?

also... can you mix refresh rates? 60hz with 144hz?

thanks