Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey everyone. I was looking at some videos earlier yesterday and saw some thing about eyefinity and thought it looked really cool since I'm a PC gamer. I started looking up videos on YouTube and such and sure enough, I feel converted and really want to do this. When I looked at my graphics card's box, I saw that it said it supports Eyefinity, too, and that's when the deal was sealed.

I have a ATI HD 5750 which I bought a little over a year ago, which some have said would be fine, and some videos show that it does indeed work well with some modern games, but some people I've asked have also said that I should upgrade first because it's not good enough, and others were caught in between yes and no, saying it would last a while, but I'll need to upgrade in a few months. So as you can see, I'm completely stuck as to who is right and who isn't. I stumbled upon his forum while looking at gameplay of Sonic Generations on YouTube in eyefinity (which I really would love to do), but... yeah.

The second thing is, I have a 22'' Hannspree. I'm aware I need 2 DVI ports and a DisplayPort (which my card has all three of, plus HDMI). My current monitor is connected into one of the DVI ports. I'm a bit strapped for money, but I managed to find this 22'' Samsung monitor on Craigslist for $30 in good condition, and was wondering if you guys think it would do? It has a VGA and DVI port, it's cheap because the guy can't find anyone to sell it to and recently upgraded. For the third I thought about maybe just buying an Acer 21.5'' for $89 since 22'' are hard to come by anymore, and then getting a DisplayPort adapter to go into either VGA or DVI, since I can't seem to find any cheaper monitors for the size I'm looking for with a DisplayPort adapter.

Does my plan sound good at all? I've done as much research as I could in one day, and I don't want to screw this up. The prospect of playing games like this does indeed excite me... also, I imagine if a game doesn't work on all 3 screens, I could play it on a single screen like normal, yes?

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read. Please help out with any advice you'd have! It's greatly appreciated!

:welcome

Helo Hiero, it appears that you have done your homework alright :)

Note when using eyefinity, all the monitors will need to run at the same resolution and refresh rate, so just make sure the monitors you get all support the same.

The 5750 is a mid range card, it will certainly handle eyefinity and will play a good number of games in eyefinity, although some of the newer ones may require you to lower some of th graphics settings, dont expect to play on max settings.
If your motherboard and PSU support it, you could potentially add another 5750 or 5770 card to run in crossfire with your exisiting card at a later date when they are going cheap to get a little extra performance boost.

You can of cause switch back to a single screen for gaming for any titles that are either very demanding or dont support eyefinity.

If you feel compelled to upgrade your graphics card, then at present I would consider looking at the ATI 6950, this is a good card for performance to cost ratio.
Futher more it is possible to unlock addtional shader cores by editing the BIOS of the 6950 so that it matches a 6970 card, giving you extra performance by a BIOS tweak and saving your self around £100.

Once you go 3 screens you never want to go back, so I would say to you.. get your monitors and experience eyefinity with your current card.
If you enjoy eyefinity that much and feel like you would like some extra performance then take a look at crossfire or upgrading.

I hope this info helps you, or at the least confirm what you have found in your research :)

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Thank you very much! I've since had someone else told me very harshly that upgrading would be a bad idea and to get a new card or another for crossfire, but I really like your logic more in that I can try it out and see. Besides, if it doesn't work, I'll have 2 extra monitors for use at a later date.

Also I think you're more qualified most likely to give a good answer than most people. I'm going to be looking into getting that monitor I saw used and also maybe swing by Best Buy for a looksee.

Thanks~

You are welcome :)

If you require any addtional support then you know where to find us, so please feel free to search our forums for any similar questions you may have or make a post so that we at WSGf may help you to the best of our abilities.

Good luck :)

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| Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WiFi Skt2011 | i7 4820k @4.4GHz Watercooled (Ivy Bridge-E) | Corsair Vengence 32GB @2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T Quad-Channel (8x4GB) | AMD R9-Fury-X 4GB @1140/505MHz + EKWB Watercooled | 256GB Crucial MX200 SSD | 8x 1TB Samsung F3 SATA-II | Corsair 850W TX PSU | 3x Dell S2209W 22"wide TFT's (5760x1080res) | Logitech Z-5400 5.1ch speakers | Win7 Ultimate x64 |

Highly recommend the 6950 for fantastic value-for-money. 8)

(Not as long or as detailed a reply as Delphium's but it's all you need ;) )

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It is my understanding that the Radeon HD 7000 series will be coming out in early December or early next year (saw this on another forum). If this is the case than the HD 6950, 6970, and 6990 may be coming down in price. So it might make sense to wait a little bit to see what happens.

What do others think?

with the 7000 series coming up it might be good to wait just a month or 2. Just get yourself 3 monitors to play around with. I think that monitor-wise it is the best to keep all the monitors at the same size and resolution.

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The 7000 series are being "launched" on the 5th December, AMD shall go through specifications and hopefully lead times on the parts anyway.

Hopefully Jan - Feb next year, I really want the 6950 replacement, I have been in need of an upgrade since the 4000 series lol.

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