GPU Upgrade Advice Needed...

[Toasticuss]

So I am in need of upgrading an aging XFX 1GB 4870, as I now have 3 screens, one 1920x1200, the other 2 1920x1080, only two of them can be used at the moment because of the 4870 having two DVI ports. I emulated an eyefinity setup with the two screens using SoftTH and it was wonderful even though it was split on two screens, I want to do more of that!

But I wanted to go Nvidia after being burned with driver problems with the 4870 and it being outmatched by 9800 GTX's when on benchmarks it wasnt, but it looks like if I buy another ATI card I can save another 300-400 dollars and get all 3 screens working on one ATI card, instead of buying another Nvidia card since Nvidia only supports 2 screens per fermi chip.....

So I came down to a 6970....

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

These two to be specific, I'm still very much open to an Nvidia route but it seems like its going to be quite a bit more expensive to get all 3 screens running at the same time...

It looks like I would also need an adapter to get the 3rd screen to work with eyefinity... Does anyone have some suggestions for the cheapest adapter that won't fail in a year? I need a DVI or HDMI adapter...

Does anyone have some advice they could give me? I want to enjoy Battlefield 3 with it looking good but without breaking the bank.....


System Specs -

i7 920 2.6 GHz
16GB of DDR3 1600 MHz
750W PSU - Newegg.com - PC Power and Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
That one to be exact, I looked into the power requirements and found it was capable of handling 6970s crossfired or 570's SLI'd....

 

[patonb]

What board do you have?

As If you have the open pci-e, just get a low powered ati/amd card to just run the 3rd screen.

The 4870 isn't a slouch yet, so why not. a $50 card is all you need.

 

[Toasticuss]

What board do you have?

As If you have the open pci-e, just get a low powered ati/amd card to just run the 3rd screen.

The 4870 isn't a slouch yet, so why not. a $50 card is all you need.

Motherboard is an ASUS P6T, because I don't think a $50 card can handle a 1080p screen for movies and SoftTH....

 

[patonb]

Well actually a $50 card can easily do 1080p.. and gaming would still be done on your 4870.

You'd just be running or 3rd screen off it.. Btw this is assuming youre not trying to run a game across all 3 screens at once.

 

[Toasticuss]

Well actually a $50 card can easily do 1080p.. and gaming would still be done on your 4870.

You'd just be running or 3rd screen off it.. Btw this is assuming youre not trying to run a game across all 3 screens at once.

I'm sure that it could output a 1080p resolution, but if I were to drag any HD movie on to it, it would just die, and I believe SoftTH puts all the load on the primary video card and just lets the other card output the data instead of making it process it along with the 4870. So I believe it could participate in the 3 screen gaming....

Do you think the Nvidia or ATI cards will drop in price near the release of Battlefield 3?

 

[patonb]

No, there rarely are drops in prices, and doing so just gets you into a waiting loop... Decide what you want.. and shop the best price.

The 6970s great, a 6950 and 560ti or 570 is perfect too.

I think you have the wrong impression of the offloading to a 2nd card.. it needs to be 2 nvidias, and you need to have phsix setup. ATI/AMD won't do it.

 

[Toasticuss]

No, there rarely are drops in prices, and doing so just gets you into a waiting loop... Decide what you want.. and shop the best price.

The 6970s great, a 6950 and 560ti or 570 is perfect too.

I think you have the wrong impression of the offloading to a 2nd card.. it needs to be 2 nvidias, and you need to have phsix setup. ATI/AMD won't do it.

Hmm, I guess it would make more sense for manufacturers to raise prices because of demand.....

What are you talking about for the off loading?

Do you think those two 6970s I listed would have noticeable differences in performance?

 

[patonb]

Offloading is when the one gpu does the thinking, and the other does the displaying.

Newegg hotlinks and this forum doesnt play well with my computer for some reason, but you will see a good performance, just from the 4 series to 6 series jump.
Heres a great comparison Radeon HD 4870 512MB vs Radeon HD 6970 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

All in all you wouldnt be disappointed or ripped off getting a 6970.

editg Got newegg working.

The cheaper cards your better choice. It has a lifetime warrenty, its down side is it is 20mhz slower, but you can fix that in 30secs for free.

My only hmmmmmm, is, are both cards 1x single dvi and 1x dual link dvi.

 

[Toasticuss]

Offloading is when the one gpu does the thinking, and the other does the displaying.

Newegg hotlinks and this forum doesnt play well with my computer for some reason, but you will see a good performance, just from the 4 series to 6 series jump.
Heres a great comparison Radeon HD 4870 512MB vs Radeon HD 6970 – Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare

All in all you wouldnt be disappointed or ripped off getting a 6970.

editg Got newegg working.

The cheaper cards your better choice. It has a lifetime warrenty, its down side is it is 20mhz slower, but you can fix that in 30secs for free.

My only hmmmmmm, is, are both cards 1x single dvi and 1x dual link dvi.

Both cards have the limited lifetime warranties, Newegg is just missing it on the comparison page. I think all XFX cards have the life time warranty...

Can you refresh my memory of the downside for single DVI and dual link DVI?

What would that affect specifically that would be bad?

 

[patonb]

Dual link i believe allows for multi-monitors, the eyefinity thing.

Though I'm not up on my ati/amd card specifics