Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey Guys,

Thanks to an extended warranty plan I'm going to be getting my hands on a 5850. I want to hook up (x3) 23.5inch screens to my system and my board has (x3) PCI-E x16. I'm looking for the best in terms of performance, as I want to run the screens at their 1080p spec with everything cranked. So I'm considering picking up (x2) more 5850s for a total of (x3) for the system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believed I read that Eyefinity would be supportive over (x3) video cards and that each card would be dedicated to a specific screen. Would this be the same for rendering within the game as well? As in the game will be rendered on all (x3) cards specific to the monitor their associated with? If so, then that would give me the performance I would like to achieve.

I'm just wondering if this is possible, or even logical, I haven't seen anyone else post a rig setup like this and I certainly wouldn't like to plunk down the cash only to have to bring it back again.

Your feedback and discussions will be greatly appreciative.

That setup will only work if you play FSX (Flight Simulator X) since that game can support for as many monitors/video cards that you can throw at it. This I've tried for myself (1 GPU for 3 monitors and another 1 GPU for the 4th monitor). But for most games, I really don't think this will work.

Eyefinity will require all 3 monitors to be on the same card.

While in theory it's a great idea for the extra horespower required for such extremem resolutions, in practice it doesn't pan out as well. Tri-fire (3x5850, 5970+5850, etc...) is NOT very well supported in Eyefinity. I had two extra 5850s in addition to my 5970 and sold them, as there was no real gain to be had. This may be resolved down the road with future driver releases, but as of now, it's kind of a waste.

Single monitor gaming does see a nice increase in some games. But not so for Eyefinity- at least not yet... :x

Thanks for the feedback, it's exactly what I was looking for. :)

Glad to help. :rockout

You would probably be better off spending the money on a 2GB version of the 5870 for eyefinity. The extra memory is more useful at higher resolutions, you gain 160 more shaders over a single 5850 and you avoid any crossfire problems.