Looking to upgrad my video cards need some ideas

[lokka's]

Right now I'm running 2 ati hd 5770's on 3 monitors. I just started 10 boxing while in org I'm getting just a bit of lag, so once my toons are 85 I can tell that there will be lag once spells are going off. I'm thinking about getting 2 gtx 570's or something around 400$ per card. Also I want to get away from ati being that everything in my pc is intel. So any ideas would be great to hear.

Pc specs
Windows 7 64 bit
Asus p6t7 ws motherboard
24gib DDR3
Intel i7 980
950 watt ps
intel 320s SDD
4x 500 gib HD

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Do you have a 3+ monitor setup? Just wondering why you'd go with multiple cards versus one really good 3GB card.

[Targ]

Dual Display adaptors only share the GPU load when running SLI/Crossfire and the single application is in full screen mode.
When your multiboxing the expensive second GPU is not doing a thing.
If you want to validate this load MSI afterburner(its free) it will show you the load on each of your GPU's.

You will get more GPU horse power for multiboxing by spending more money on a single Display Adaptor that can support 3 monitors.

I know you don't want to go with ati/amd but a single 6970 can support 4 monitors.
A 6970 has 2 dvi and 2 mini-display ports.
Note to run a third or fourth display the displays must each have an active adaptors, they cost $120 each.
I have one 2 GB 6970 with a pair of Accell B087B-003J mini-display port to dvi active adaptors running Four 1920 X 1080 displays.

A Radeon 7970 can support 3 monitors, it has one dvi and 2 mini-display ports.
So for a budget of around $840 you could go with a 3GB 7970 ($600) and a pair of Accell mini-display port to dvi adaptors(2X $120).

It is worth a thought.

[lokka's]

Do you have a 3+ monitor setup? Just wondering why you'd go with multiple cards versus one really good 3GB card.

right now im running 3 monitors yes and have a 4th that im not using

[Khatovar]

Dual Display adaptors only share the GPU load when running SLI/Crossfire and the single application is in full screen mode.
When your multiboxing the expensive second GPU is not doing a thing.
If you want to validate this load MSI afterburner(its free) it will show you the load on each of your GPU's.

You will get more GPU horse power for multiboxing by spending more money on a single Display Adaptor that can support 3 monitors.

Granted, I'm no hardware guru and we may not be talking about the same things, but you seem to be saying that a secondary card will never be used. That's not what I see with my setup.

You don't use SLI/Crossfire for multiboxing, you run the cards independently and set the loading preference in WoW's game options. That is, you aren't pooling the cards and letting them spread out the load, you run the cards independently and split the load. I run 2 cards, each with their own monitor and each of my cards are utilized while multiboxing.

Unfortunately, I don't have my slave accounts subscribed, so all I can show is loading the login screens, but -

Here's MSI Afterburner showing WoW1 on card/mon 1. GPU2 is flatlined because I'm not running my slave accounts. About a third of the way in, I launch my slave accounts and GPU2 is active.

msi1.png

And here's where I close my slave accounts...GPU2 flatlines out again. I then change the settings in WoW1 to load on card/mon2. I close out WoW1 and GPU1 flatlines. I load up WoW1 again and it launches on card/mon2, clearly using GPU2.

msi2.png

While there is no doubt that a single, more powerful card is the preference for any number of reasons, you can effectively make use of multiple cards. The second card doesn't simply sit there doing nothing.

[MiRai]

a pair of Accell mini-display port to dvi adaptors(2X $120).

You need to start shopping at Monoprice if you're able to.

While there is no doubt that a single, more powerful card is the preference for any number of reasons, you can effectively make use of multiple cards. The second card doesn't simply sit there doing nothing.

Truth.

[lokka's]

Granted, I'm no hardware guru and we may not be talking about the same things, but you seem to be saying that a secondary card will never be used. That's not what I see with my setup.

You don't use SLI/Crossfire for multiboxing, you run the cards independently and set the loading preference in WoW's game options. That is, you aren't pooling the cards and letting them spread out the load, you run the cards independently and split the load. I run 2 cards, each with their own monitor and each of my cards are utilized while multiboxing.

Unfortunately, I don't have my slave accounts subscribed, so all I can show is loading the login screens, but -

Here's MSI Afterburner showing WoW1 on card/mon 1. GPU2 is flatlined because I'm not running my slave accounts. About a third of the way in, I launch my slave accounts and GPU2 is active.

msi1.png

And here's where I close my slave accounts...GPU2 flatlines out again. I then change the settings in WoW1 to load on card/mon2. I close out WoW1 and GPU1 flatlines. I load up WoW1 again and it launches on card/mon2, clearly using GPU2.

msi2.png

While there is no doubt that a single, more powerful card is the preference for any number of reasons, you can effectively make use of multiple cards. The second card doesn't simply sit there doing nothing.

this is how i run mine card 1 just runs my main screen card 2 runs the 2 slave screens i would like to stay with 2 cards as ill be adding a 4th monitor.

[Bollwerk]

You need to start shopping at Monoprice if you're able to.


Truth.

Unfortunately, Eyefinity requires Active display adapters for the 3rd and 4th monitors (which means they require separate power, usually through a USB connector) - http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/...y-dongles.aspx
Unfortunately, I could not find such an adapter on Monoprice. Maybe they exist elsewhere for a good price.

[Bollwerk]

I'd give serious thought to a couple of these - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130687
GTX 570 is a solid card and this version has double the amount of video RAM compared to other 570s.
Hell of a deal for $350, IMHO.

[Oatboat]

I got 3 active display adaptors for like 20 bux each.