Widescreen Gaming Forum

Apparently the ATI 5770 have been released and it's about $160 and should be cheaper if you get discount/shop around.

it supports eyefinity.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ati+5770&x=0&y=0

Supposely it is around the speed of a 4870/4850. So it can play older games or newer games at lower settings at triplehead mode.

Wow that's cheap. gotta pick one up for my HTPC after I fix it! :D

Not bad but I wouldn't buy into it for eyefinity because you would be so limited in what you can play with only th power of a 4850/4870.

I dont think I would even feel comfortable with a 5850 though I have not actually looked at the benches of it yet, if its like the 4850 vs 4870 there was not a very large difference, the main advantage was the memory.

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Regular GPU + Inexpensive PCI-E GPU = SoftTH.

Triplehead for cheaperer :D

Regular GPU + Inexpensive PCI-E GPU = SoftTH.

Triplehead for cheaperer :D

Bandwidth between the cards is very important for SoftTH, so you can't go too cheap. You'll need your secondary card to be at least PCIe 1.0 8x, or PCIe 2.0 4x compliant so you have enough bandwidth.

The speed of the secondary card in-general also seems to have some impact on performance. I upgraded my secondary card from an 8400GS to a 9800GT (so I could also use it as a dedicated PhsX card) and saw my minimum frame rate increase by about 5FPS across the board.

I can't tell if that performance boost came from the 9800GT's faster internal memory interface, or if it's because the 8400GS was PCIe 1.0 and the 9800GT is PCIe 2.0 (offering double the PCIe bandwidth).

Bandwidth between the cards is very important for SoftTH, so you can't go too cheap. You'll need your secondary card to be at least PCIe 1.0 8x, or PCIe 2.0 4x compliant so you have enough bandwidth.

Although you can get a PCI-E card for less than $50 if you look in the right places.

Speed of the second card should have no impact on performance, because it doesn't do any processing of the image. Although bandwidth is key factor in bottlenecking performance.

Speed of the second card should have no impact on performance, because it doesn't do any processing of the image.

How much processing the secondary card does depends greatly upon how you set up SoftTH.

If you're rendering 5040x1050 and you're sending over full 1680x1050 frames in RGB32 mode to the secondary card, then PCIe bandwidth and the cards own memory bandwidth are all that's important.

If you're rendering 5040x1050 and you're sending over 1440x900 frames in RGB16D mode (settings that save on PCIe bandwidth), then the secondary card has to do up-scaling and dithering.

As I noted, going from an 8400GS to a 9800GT as my secondary card gained me about 5 FPS. More PCIe bandwidth, more memory bandwidth, faster GPU. It makes a difference.

Edit: I'm not recommending a 9800GT as a secondary card for SofTH, but something newer/faster than an 8400GS might be beneficial.

Regular GPU + Inexpensive PCI-E GPU = SoftTH.

Triplehead for cheaperer :D

yeah but wouldn't u need to get a decent primary card also?

this 5770 eliminates the need for the 2ndary card.

[quote]Regular GPU + Inexpensive PCI-E GPU = SoftTH.

Triplehead for cheaperer :D

yeah but wouldn't u need to get a decent primary card also?

this 5770 eliminates the need for the 2ndary card.but includes the need for a $100 adapter or DP monitor.

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The speed of the secondary card in-general also seems to have some impact on performance. I upgraded my secondary card from an 8400GS to a 9800GT (so I could also use it as a dedicated PhsX card) and saw my minimum frame rate increase by about 5FPS across the board.

I thinks thats because of the 9800GTs PhysiX feature.
Please try it with PhysiX on and off!

I can't tell if that performance boost came from the 9800GT's faster internal memory interface,

The memory of the second card is absolutely unused when using softth.
The Bitmap image comes from the System Ram, goes through the second cards GPU to the monitor. without any delay (regulary).
Graphiccard VRam is only used/needed when a graphiccard is rendering any videomaterial. but the second graphiccard in a softth-array is just idling (more or less) :D

or if it's because the 8400GS was PCIe 1.0 and the 9800GT is PCIe 2.0 (offering double the PCIe bandwidth).

I'm not sure but i don't think the bandwidth can improve fps at all...