Widescreen Gaming Forum

Ugh I really thought ATI had Nvidia nailed with eyefinity, and even though Nvidia was late to the party it looks like they brought the right stuff.

As a 5870 user I like having only one card and the heat is more than enough already. I was quite happy to ditch my dual 4850's for a single 5870.

I cant upgrade to 2x GTX470's my mobo is CF only not SLI and my case is not really ideal for 2 cards as I found out with the 4850's.



So still I want to do my research and plan for the next build. A few questions for you guys that converted.


Does Nvidia have profile switching? so you can go from landscape (work mode mode where center monitor is task bar and all 3 monitors act as single monitors with extended desktops) to surround (play mode all 3 monitors act as one giant virtual monitor desktop and task bar span entire range of monitors) It only takes 5 seconds to do this with ATI and its something I use every time I play a game. Manually setting up surround is not an option for me, nor is just leaving it in surround mode for desktop work.


Is there any of "the line" issues with nvidia? - to this day its still my #1 issue with eyefinity I have a line of screen tearing going through 2 of my monitors and it just butchers the feel and quality of gameplay. Its not game related or vsync related its definitely an eyefinity issue.



Has anybody seen any cursor corruption? - This is another issue I suffer though its annoying its at least tolerable.


Hows the performance of dual GTX470's vs 1 5870? A 5870 is $400 and a a 470 is $300.00 so I expect a single GTX470 to perform very close to a 5870 for that price range. I know the GTX480 is supposed to be more or less equal but its well over $550... so I cant see them pricing the GTX470 where it should be in relation to price vs performance when competing against ATI.

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I had the same "Line Problem" and battled with it constantly. I can say I have had no issues with anything at all . I also had the Cursor issue. But no more. Cant answer about the profile switching as I use surround 24-7, Sorry . I do have a performance increase that is quite noticeable. FPS about doubled in BFBC2. Which allowed me to jack up the settings.

After nearly a year of registry hacks, driver issues, driver mods (TwL drivers), performance issues and displayport issues, I sold my dual 5970s and 3x30" and went green. Too many people who had similar rigs I felt were being neglected.

Key points I noticed were:

1. Installation and setup were a breeze. Partly because I had some experience with Eyefinity, but in general, NV Surround seems more polished.

2. Performance-All I can say is that NVIDIA trounces Eyefinity.

HAWX Max settings @ 8080x1440 375 FPS Max, 75 AVE,
Dirt2 Max settings @ 8080x1440 76 FPS AVE, 31 FPS MIN (Post Processing Medium),
WIC Max Settings @ 2560x1440 230 FPS MAX, 85 FPS AVE, 16 FPS MIN.

Min FPS is all important IMO. Little/no microstuttering and games run seemlessly.

3. Setting up displays was a little troublesome. In games that don't run/look better @2560x1440, I had trouble setting up the display so it would run on the center display. Alot of headscratching and musical DVI port swapping, I finally got it working.

4. There is no "grid" feature to manage window resizing/multiple windows (aka ATI Hydragrid). I really liked this feature as I could have 3 windows open simultaneously with each set to a designated display.

5. The extra VRAM on GTX480 makes a difference in performance.

In conclusion, I will NEVER use ATI hardware again. I even swapped my 3870 on my media rig for a GTX250.

Great hardware, Shite software. A shame really.

NVIDIA drivers has it's own share of issues, however, the drivers are more polished.

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Vicious - no cursor corruption, no impossible tearing (just normal 'no Vsync' tearing) no profile switching in 258.96. I think that's a 'for the future' thing. :)

I will NEVER use ATI hardware again.

And i have never used ATI hardware.

Just to balance this out, I've always been happy (at the time) with whichever manufacturer I've decided to go with. I've rarely had issues with ATi (AMD) drivers - although I'll admit that I didn't do a lot of 'exotic' stuff where they seem to fall down - I know eZ` has had all sorts of woes with a dual monitor setup and some AMD drivers... but they've always been pretty good for me. I don't like CCC, though.

Having said that, with the GTX460, nVidia fixed most of my concerns with Fermi, and I admit freely that nVidia Surround is the biggest upgrade I've had to my gaming experience - bar none - since I got a Voodoo 1 card back in 1997.

i never used ATI in any of my machines.... intel+nvidia since it took 3dfx

on a side note i ordered my first 3D monitor and 3D vision kit to see what its like. ASUS of course..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236092
pretty good package if you never tried it before and the 120hz should look a bit strange

i wish my Trackir4 didnt break... (i got it for free from them) it was a nice combo with 3D vision when i tried it with cyan glasses. trackir5 needs to be hooked up.

and whatever happened to ABIT, im stilling using an Abit mobo and i havent seen any new ones.

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and whatever happened to ABIT, im stilling using an Abit mobo and i havent seen any new ones.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/abit-motherboard-exit-universal,6278.html

I must say my card of choice right now wouldn't have a red badge, even after all the praise I have given ATi. Their driver support for eyefinity (not anything I have used/ experienced) has been enough to put me off for a while. The 6770 would need to be a monster card to get me interested.

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Been monitoring this thread for a while. I do like my 5970 and have NOT had the line issue at all. Had the cursor corruption once in a while but no big deal. My friend is getting pretty much the same setup I have except he is getting 480's in sli. Will play with his and then will make a decision on my next setup. Was thinking of the 5970 replacement towards the new year as I think the microstutter is hardware problem not a driver issue. We will see. The good thing I do notice the microstutter that much.

If Nvidia ever adds quick profile switching between Extended Desktop and Surround modes, I'll immediately dump my HD5850.

Come on Nvidia; ATi can't get their drivers right, maybe you can...