Widescreen Gaming Forum

I am trying to pair up a graphic card with the display system TH2G + three 19" LCDs to play games at 3840 x 1024. I have briefly looked at the sig of people here and form the list below with TH2G+3 LCD monitors (if I missed anyone, feel free to drop your opinion in as well! I have also included Dell 30" because its resolution of 2560 x 1600 is very close to 3840 x 1024. So, I expect driving this monitor imposes a comparable stress on a graphic card. Yes ?)

I am assuming you guys are using the native resolution of the respective mon size (eg using 1280 x 1024 for 19")

Ibrin / 7950GX2 / 30"Dell

JKeefe / 7900GT / 3x21" CRT (at what resolution?)

Tucson / 7800GS / 3 x 19"

MatroxRules / 7900GT / 3 x 17"

Paddy the Wak / 8800GTX in SLI / 3 x 20"

Paddy the Wak / 7900GTX in SLI / 3 x 24"

andybris / 7900GT / 3 x 19"

Akousticplyr / 7600GT in SLI / 3 x 19"

Tigertrash / 7900GT in SLI / 3 x 19"

So, would you guys be kind enough to give some feedback as far as what graphic card(s) needed to game at 3840 x 1024?

Particularly, I am hoping a SINGLE 8800GTX can handle FPS games like FEAR and HL2 and simulation games like FS9, FSX. Comments?

If one 8800GTX is enough, I will not be looking at motherboards with 680i SLI chipset but rather P965 or 975X motherboards, and not 800W psu but a 500-600W psu.

TIA :D :D

A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

JKeefe / 7900GT / 3x21" CRT (at what resolution?)

3072x768, because of the higher refresh rate (75 Hz and 85 Hz) available. Due to the 60 Hz refresh rate I don't use 3840x1024, so I'm sorry I can't comment particularly on that resolution. I will say, however, that my single 7900GT powers HL2 just fins @ 3072x768, so I would certainly imagine an 8800GTX would do just fine @ 38040x1024.

You are alos correct in thinking that 2560x1600 and 3840x1024 are comparable resolutions. While the picel count is similar, though, the different fields of view (4:1 triplehead ratio versus the Dell 30" huge but 4:3 ratio) mean that more objects may be rendered in the triplehead view, decreasing framerate.

A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

Thanks JKeefe and Paddy for responding.

Given that a single 8800GTX can drive TH2G's max resolution of 3840 x 1024, then may I ask in what situation/games do you use your two 8800GTXs in SLI ? Would Paddy comment on this please as I notice you have running that setup.

Thanks.

[quote]A single 8800GTX can handle FEAR and HL2 at 3840x1024 no problem ... better than two 7900's in Sli ... :shock: 8) :D
I haven't had FS9 or FSX(demo) installed since having the 8800's and I can't remember the frame rates when using the 7900's but they ran OK with two 7900 in Sli. I never tried just one.

A good CPU and plenty of RAM is also recomended ... IMHO

Thanks JKeefe and Paddy for responding.

Given that a single 8800GTX can drive TH2G's max resolution of 3840 x 1024, then may I ask in what situation/games do you use your two 8800GTXs in SLI ? Would Paddy comment on this please as I notice you have running that setup.

Thanks.

Theres 2 reasons why dual 8800gtx's would be helpfull

1. You get higher FPS, The more FPS the better.
2. Futureproofing.

As DaFox says ...

Theres 2 reasons why dual 8800gtx's would be helpfull

1. You get higher FPS, The more FPS the better.
2. Futureproofing.

and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

[quote]
and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

$100 per letter is *nothing* compared to the costs per letter of 'married', 'wife', and 'children'.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[quote][quote]
and ... the more FPS you get the more chance you can run games with everything turned up to the MAX ... :D

everything is such an expensive word!
Adding a 2nd 8800GTX + switching from a P965 mb to a n680i mb + upgrading the PSU would cost about US$1000 (?!) for this 10-letter word.

This translates to about US$100 per letter. hmmm...

$100 per letter is *nothing* compared to the costs per letter of 'married', 'wife', and 'children'.

Sorry, couldn't resist.
:lol: Good one dude

I noticed this thread paused on december the 5th, which is a shame because these were exactly the kind of questions I was asking myself before I ordered the second 8800GTX, a Matrox TH2Go and a n680i motherboard.

I'm an Flight Simulator X fan and I like to have all options maximized. So far it hasn't been possible with a single 8800GTX on two monitors at 2560x1024.

I'm receiving my new hardware this week and I'll post the FSX frame rates here as soon as possible.

This will be the hardware:

Core2Duo E6700
2 x 8800 GTX in SLI
eVGA nForce 680i SLI
Matrox TripleHead2Go 3840x1024@60Hz
2 x 1Gig GEIL RAM 4-4-4-12@800Mhz
3 x 19" LCD Viewsonic VX922
1 x Antec Neo HE 550 (I'm betting this power supply will be enough)

I honestly don't expect a large increase in frames per second considering reviews which point to a 20-30% increase in SLI, but this will be necessary to at least keep the current quality while adding a third monitor to the system.

I'll keep you posted...