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.

534

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.

535

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 (http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428) 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.

534

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.

535

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 (http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428) 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/Pages/eyefinity-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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130687
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.

[MiRai]

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/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx
Unfortunately, I could not find such an adapter on Monoprice. Maybe they exist elsewhere for a good price.

Noted.


I'd give serious thought to a couple of these - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130687
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.

Wait a few weeks for Kepler and nVidia will be dropping prices on their Fermi cards across the board.

[crowdx]

So running two cards? One for the main display and the second card for the slave accounts gives the main the same performance as if it were running a single account (apart from the CPU load) ? I am considering upgrading from a 6970 to a 7970 due to a monitor upgrade and so I am wondering which would be the better upgrade, a second 6970 which would allow crossfire in other games and still give me good performance in Rift or going with the single 7970 which would cost about $200 more that the 6970. My main display is running at 2560x1600 and the 2 secondary displays are at 1600x1200.

[crowdx]

So can anyone confirm that running ISBoxer with main screen using one video card and two secondary screens using a second video card would provide a similar gaming perfomance on the main screen as if it were running a solo characters? I know CPU/memory might be an issue, but strictly on the video card front would it be a true statement???

[Khatovar]

I can't confirm ISBoxer but, it should provide the same as running solo assuming you have the settings in your slave WoWs to run from the secondary monitors. But, I'm no hardware person so I could totally be wrong.

[shadewalker]

As long as you keep each instance of wow on it's own monitor/video card then theoretically yes. As soon as you move an instance from one card to another you take a performance hit.


There are quite a few older threads on this with more details. If I can get to a computer I'll see what I can find.

[crowdx]

Well I purchased a 7970 and it should be here today. I may try and run it along with my 6970 but I am not sure my power supply has enough power or enough connections :)

[crowdx]

I got the new card and installed it. Overall I went from average of around 22fps and this now has gone up to 33fps. In the process I downloaded the AMD system monitor tool from AMD and it seems the bottleneck is not the 7970, it is maxing out at 66% utilization in Rift with 5 clients running. My cpu is also maxing out at 70% and memory is at around 8gig out of 12gig available. The main drive is a 120gig SSD.
So kinda strange, I presume it is just a badly optimized engine in Rift.

[Lyonheart]

The 680s are out btw and they are cheaper and faster than any single GPU out atm.

[crowdx]

The 680s are out btw and they are cheaper and faster than any single GPU out atm.
For me the reason I went ATI was that I could run the 7970 and 6970 in crossfire (basically I think it would be the same as 2 6970s in crossfire) which looking at preliminary reviews would be faster than the single 680 and get me some better long term value.

[MiRai]

For me the reason I went ATI was that I could run the 7970 and 6970 in crossfire (basically I think it would be the same as 2 6970s in crossfire)
I'm no pro when it comes to Crossfire but... I don't think you can do that.

[crowdx]

This article talks about crossfire X which allows mixed cards
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-crossfire-review-2-and-3way/4
This is straight crossfire
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-crossfire-nvidia-sli-multi-gpu,2678-6.html

[MiRai]

This article talks about crossfire X which allows mixed cards
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-crossfire-review-2-and-3way/4
This is straight crossfire
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-crossfire-nvidia-sli-multi-gpu,2678-6.html
I already knew that Crossfire was more flexible than SLI but, in the past you would have to keep a 58xx card with a 58xx card and you couldn't do a 58xx and a 68xx together (as the Toms's review shows). If it's changed and they let you merge up different families of cards then that's cool but, besides that Guru3D article mentioning it I don't see anyone else trying this in a quick Google search.

[crowdx]

Do a search on Crossfire X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_CrossFireX

[MiRai]

Do a search on Crossfire X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_CrossFireX
Which pretty much backs up what I'm saying...


So a 5800 series GPU (e.g. a 5830) can run together with another 5800 series GPU (e.g. 5870). However GPU's not in the same hundred series cannot be crossfired successfully. (e.g. a 5770 cannot run with a 5870)

How about this... Why don't you just try it out?

[crowdx]

So I think you are correct and a 6970 and 7970 may not work. Fortunately my first test is to hook up the 6970 to power two secondary monitors for my slaves and run the main account on the 7970. I am not sure how this will work and I cannot do until I get a new PSU that supports two PCIE cards.