Buy 5970 or SLi 285's

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realitycheck

Weaksauce
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Jan 11, 2010
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OK guys, need some advice. I've been chewing on this for a while now and maybe there is something I'm missing

I want to go three three monitors. We all know ATi has Eyefinity, and since I want to be able to crank it, I was thiinking the 5970 would work for me.

But word on the street is nVidia will make it so older cards can achieve their version of eyefinity.

If I got tream Red, I'll have the huge cost of the 5970, the display port adapter, and I might have to worry about shitty frame rates sooner rather than later, especially since newer games are popping out. I won't lose the PCIe 2.0 feature though.


OR, I could get myself two 285's, or even two 280's and save a ton of money. Of course I'll lost PCIe 2.0 AND....AND.....I'll drop from PCIe 16 to PCIE 8x since I have a P55 motherboard.
 
2 x 285's as far as anyone knows will never support mult-monitor gaming in the same fashion as eyefinity. 5970 is your best and only option for this if you want to actually be able to play games in the next 3 months or so.
 
Hamish Campbell said:
2 x 285's as far as anyone knows will never support mult-monitor gaming in the same fashion as eyefinity. 5970 is your best and only option for this if you want to actually be able to play games in the next 3 months or so.
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That's sorta was I thought. We don't even know what Nvidiias "eyefinity" solution will be.


hmmmmm.....now.....how do I sneak this past he wife lol
 
I'd go with the 5970 if I were going to buy a video card today.
 
You realize you can't run SLI on a P55, correct? Also, 285s still run pretty high cost. The 5970 makes much more sense.
 
silent-circuit said:
You realize you can't run SLI on a P55, correct? Also, 285s still run pretty high cost. The 5970 makes much more sense.
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Yes you can. There are specific boards that support SLI on P55 Express. The ASUS Maximus III Gene does as does the P7P55D Deluxe, and the P7P55D-E Premium.
 
5970, no question about it, unless you want to wait for nVidia's new series.
Dont even think about getting the 285's!
 
2 285s will perform significantly less than a single 5970 and will cost you more money. There really is only one option here that makes sense.
 
Easily the 5970, for all the reasons posted above.

Also, Nvidia's 3-monitor solution is software based with a currently unknown overhead, which is probably rushed out to compete with Eyefinity. Just based on pre-release hype and FUD, it has its work cut out to compete with Eyefinity, which has 6 months of headstart and a lot of R+D behind it.

I wouldn't plan on unknown tech. I'd either get a 5970 now or wait until Kyle has benchmarked the crap out of the alternative, so you can make an informed decision at that time.
 
Finkus said:
Easily the 5970, for all the reasons posted above.

Also, Nvidia's 3-monitor solution is software based with a currently unknown overhead, which is probably rushed out to compete with Eyefinity. Just based on pre-release hype and FUD, it has its work cut out to compete with Eyefinity, which has 6 months of headstart and a lot of R+D behind it.

I wouldn't plan on unknown tech. I'd either get a 5970 now or wait until Kyle has benchmarked the crap out of the alternative, so you can make an informed decision at that time.
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A few years ago didn't nVidia already have a solution for "merging" multiple monitors together? I distinctly remember being able to do horizontal or vertical spanning with nVidia graphics cards a while back.
 
Finkus said:
I wouldn't plan on unknown tech. I'd either get a 5970 now or wait until Kyle has benchmarked the crap out of the alternative, so you can make an informed decision at that time.
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Exactly my thoughts, plus in ~2 months when Fermi hits those 280's and 285's are gonna drop like a sack of rocks in price. I'd definitely be pissed about paying full price for them right now.
 
night_2004 said:
A few years ago didn't nVidia already have a solution for "merging" multiple monitors together? I distinctly remember being able to do horizontal or vertical spanning with nVidia graphics cards a while back.
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There have been solutions for a while but they were not ATI/Nvidia developed. I think Matrox have a hardware thingy and there is a SoftTH software one but I can't say I ever looked into them or know much about them. I heard that the performance overhead was significant on the software based one (?).

Widescreengamingforum would have lots of info on it, if you're interested in the history of it. (I can't say that I am, tbh)
 
5970 - Low power draw for its performance, dx11 compatibility, eyefinity, superior performance to any other single card on the market.

2x 285's - Power hogs with a huge draw of power for the performance you're getting(relatively speaking), no dx11 compatibility, and Nfinity could be a toss with these cards.
 
You guys are right, I must have had some crack slipped into my food earlier.

I'm just a littler nervous about dropping that much cash on a card....that's a lot of money. THen I either have to get two more Hanns G 28's, or sell my one and get three Dell 24's.....

HOw long do you guys think 5870's will be able to push eyefinity in the newer games coming out?
 
Samson4EiT said:
Exactly my thoughts, plus in ~2 months when Fermi hits those 280's and 285's are gonna drop like a sack of rocks in price. I'd definitely be pissed about paying full price for them right now.
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there won't be any 280 or 285 by that time trust me
 
I went from SLI GTX 285s to a 5970 (and then 5970+5870) and I would say that the 5970 is the better choice. The performance between the two is a lot closer than some will make you think however, but the 5970 is definitely the way to go if you're going to spend that much.
 
realitycheck said:
How long do you guys think 5870's will be able to push eyefinity in the newer games coming out?
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Depends a bit on what you consider acceptable image quality in terms of resolution and AA. Some 5870s are having some issues with 1080p across three monitors when you turn on the AA. A lot seem to speculate it may be due to the 1GB of ram isn't really big enough for the frame buffer and various people throw around number saying 'Yes, it is' and 'No, it isn't'. I think if your willing to consider dropping you resolution to 1650x1050x3 monitors and slowly drop the aa from say 4xaa to 2xaa and then zero aa, a 5870 will probably safely run triple monitors for a year and a bit I'd guestimate. Just a guess though.

By that time, the 68xx series should be out though and possibly its refresh so as long as you don't mind spending around $350.00 once every year and a few months, I suspect you can keep eyefinity going as long as you want it to. That works out to what, $15.00 a month? Cheaper than wow and looks way better lol.

If you wanted a more future proof card for eyefinity and care about anti-aliasing, you'd almost be better of waiting for the 5870 models that are suppose to be coming out with 2GB of ram and/or the 5970 with 4GB for the larger frame buffer size imo. If anti-aliasing isn't such a big deal to you, I'd just buy a 5970 or 5870 now.
 
I got my 5870 for $350, the 5970's are like $650. I would get 1 5870 now and then when / if required, pick up another for cross-fire. I doubt you would need 2 of them unless you plan some eye-finity at high ass resolutions. 2 5870's will dominate a 5970, hell, 1 5870 is pretty damn close per the benchmark tests posted so far.
 
A 5970 is competitive to 3 GTX 285, costs significantly less, supports Eyefinity and DX11. Do the math. There is only one reasonable choice here.
 
wait and buy a 5970

That's what I'm doing. Waiting for better heatsinks/coolers, more RAM (4GB!), and drop in price. Also, more mature drivers (more time tested to work out the kinks I'm seeing a lot).
 
+1 for the 5970, hands down, i made that mistake of getting two 260's I should have waited.
 
2 GTX 285's will support Nvidias version of Eyefinity and also do it in 3D. They havent released the drivers yet but I saw this work at PDXLAN.... There are probably some videos up on youtube if u search. Just Wont support DX11..... The New Nvidia GF100 / 104's will support triple monitor 3d and regular gaming and Also be DX11....
 
The 2 GTX 285s are still slower though Elmy and I think most gamers considering investing $650+ dollars in video cards would like to see the most longevity out of them as possible. At this time, DX11 is a better feature set that'll give the OP more longevity in my and most other responder's opinion. I atm though, he updated this question to 'How long will eyefinity run new games with 3 monitors and a 4870?' (paraphrased) so I think that's the new issue to discuss since it seems he's made a decision and/or is leading towards ATI.
 
Dan_D said:
I'd go with the 5970 if I were going to buy a video card today.
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Same, and the 5970 is one powerful card at stock and has massive overclocking potential which is what you need for powering multiple screens. Plus it comes with DX11 support and eyefinity works out of the box right now.

Just Wont support DX11..... The New Nvidia GF100 / 104's will support triple monitor 3d and regular gaming and Also be DX11....
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I thought all currently planned Fermi cards are only a dual output, so you need SLI to run 3 monitors?

Lets face it Fermi will probably be more expensive, if price of the 5970 is an issue then going for 2x Fermi is going to be even more expensive.
 
What happened to the GTX 295(or SLI of that if possible) anyhow? I rarely hear it mentioned.
 
On thing you haven't considered is the enormous headache most people who use an active DP adapter are facing with the 5970 (myself included). The cutting-in/cutting-out of the monitor attached to my DP adapter (I've been through three different Bizlink and Accell models at this point...) has made my $1800 setup a huge disappointment.

I'm very interested to see if nVidia's dual card configuration fixes (or avoids altogether) the DP adapter issues. I would actually wait and see... Also, if you wait, more than likely the nV release will drop the price on 5970.

Yes, the 5970 will perform much better than two GTX 285s... but if you have to deal with triple monitors with a DP adapter it's not currently worth it imo.
 
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