AMD RADEON 6970 HD - can it play games on 3 monitors?

[jase888]

Hi

Im buying a pc (i7 processor, 12gb ram, 2gb amd radeon 6970 hd) will that graphics card play the latest games over 3 monitors smoothly?

Or should i get say 2 x 1gb amd radeon 5870 hd?

[Aaron_8015]

I posted in your other thread here...

Better PC than Dell XPS 8300? Better GPU?

[jase888]

What gpu card will allow me to play games like battlefield on 3 monitors smoothly? Would 2 x and radeon 5870 HD do the trick?

[Aaron_8015]

What screen resolution are the monitors?

Im going to assume they are 1920x1080.. With 3 monitors that would make 5760x1080 (not factoring in bezel correction). To run games at good settings on that screen resolution, you will need either x2 6970 or x2 GTX580.

[jase888]

I'm buying a pc custom built to my requirements i will be using it for photo editing and website building mainly, but I'd also like to play few games like (bbatlefields, mmo, etc) and I have asked question around internet and everyone says I need 2 x gpu for good performance on 3 monitors.

Big question is which two graphics card should i get? Im inclined to go with ati/amd so thats sorted but dunno which to go with as want to be able to game on all monitors well but not spend loads on gpu.

1) 2 x ati 5870
2) 2 x ati 6950
3) 2 x ati 6970

Any suggestions?

[JLK03F150]

IMO two HD 6950 2GB would be the best bang for your buck. The 6900 series is supposed to scale much better in CrossfireX compared to the 5800 series. Also the HD 6950 can easily run at the same clock speeds as an HD 6970.

If I were building an Eyefinity gaming system right now that would be my choice.

[RicheemxX]

threads merged, no need to start an entirely new post for the same basic question.

I'm not sure who keeps telling you need two gpu's for three monitors. A single eyefinity card can run up to 6 monitors at good resolutions with decent frame rates.

It also helps to know exactly which games you are looking to run, what resolutions ect.

[jase888]

Ahh didnt thing anyone would see it question unless started a new thread. Some people on another forum said to play games like battfield 2 and crysis on 1980 x 1200 on each monitor so about 5980 x 1200 over 3 i believe. So would you say just one 2gb amd radeon 6970 be ok for that?

[RicheemxX]

Sorry but your posts don't really make much sense. You seem to be spending a ton of cash, mention only being an avid gamer and don't want to spend a bunch on your GPU's. Well you def. don't have to, if you aren't a totally serious gamer you can run the games fine at lower setting with a single card!

Photo editing and website design, def don't require any of what you are even talking about adding to your build. You could build a mid-range system, add in a better gpu and still probably be under the price you are talking about in this thread

But if you are looking for the best possible performance then as Aaron already answered, for intensive games like that you are def. going to want to run dual 6970's or dual GTX580's. But that is only if you are looking for top notch performance.

[jase888]

ok thanks, i know dont make lota sense but want the option to be able to play the latest games if i decide and thats why i want to consider it all now really.

Think il go with 2 x 6950 as there bit cheaper than 6970s and supposadly not much difference.

[jase888]

if i have 2 x amd 6950, do i need an extra cooling fan or something, just read some reviews saying they get extremely hot?

[stroyal]

It depends on what you have now for case fans, and if the 2 cards are right next to each other.
Post a link to your case and motherboard.

If this is still the XPS 8300, it only has 1 PCIe x16 slot, so 2 cards won't be a problem.

[RicheemxX]

Well even with a single card you need adequate cooling with dual cards you need even more. What case are you going to be getting? How many fans does it have? and what size?

edit: I think the OP had decided on a custom built rig and not the dell but IDK anymore?

[jase888]

thanks for the replys, the case is COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE

Also can you look at pc specs and tell me if everything seems ok for photo editing, web designing/building and gaming (battlefields, crysis, over 3 monitors 1920x1200each) just dont know much about specs. Also is motherboard any good?

• Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
• ASUS® P8P67 DELUXE (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI
• 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
• 2 x 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
• 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
• CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

Thanks for any help

[ShyguyXPC]

Corsair TX series 750W will be MORE than enough for your system, no need to spend on the 850 model. (save some money)

My system specs are in my sig below, and my TX 750 (1st revision, not the recently released 2nd revisions), is more than enough for those specs and with power to spare.

[RicheemxX]

What is your total price and where are you ordering it from?

16Gbs of RAM really??? That's some overkill there.

Oh and with that case you shouldn't need to buy any more fans. It should come with plenty of fans already in it.

[jase888]

ok shyguy il downgrade to 750w save a bit of money then, i just thought needed 850 dunno why lol. Im going with 16gb of ram because i'l be multitasking on 3 monitors and don't want it running slow, think it wasnt really much more from 8gb to 16gb thats why ive gone with it aswell.

Im getting it from pcspecialist.co.uk and id say its around £1350 maybe little less now im gettin smaller psu.

Also does anyone know if that motherboard ive said is any good, i don't really know much about motherboard?

[ShyguyXPC]

You could save some more money, if you don't plan on any Overclocking of your CPU, you can get a Non "K" version and save some money, K versions only have unlocked Multiplier for easier Overclocking, thats the only difference between them and non K versions, yet they command a premium price over the non K.

Same thing with the RAM, you could try and get some DDR3 1333MHz and be fine with that, instead of 1600MHz, as the latter is also an Overclocking Rated Speed.

Most likely it won't even run at 1600 when you put it in the system, its only labeled 1600 as thats what its rated for, for max clock speeds.


As to the 16GB over 3 Monitors thing, 3 monitors will tax the Video card Memory more than system Memory, you won't use that much more RAM for additional desktops in Windows, since this can be done with a single monitor as well, run more than 1 desktop. Its more of a Video memory issue than System RAM.

but 16GB should be more than enough for Photo Editing, Web design and building.

and honestly I would think 8GB would be enough for that, unless your doing some abnormally large image files, and website files, it shouldn't be using anything beyond 8GB.

for the gaming issue, even with a 64-bit OS, you'll be lucky if those games use more than 3 or 4GB of the system RAM.

Crysis originally had a 64-bit DirectX 10 mode, I've run on my system, and even with most settings set to about 75% of max, I never saw the game use more than 2 or 3GB of System memory.

Most games are actually coded to use a max of 2GB no matter how much memory is available, as this stems from the 32-bit Compatibility many of them have to maintain, so as to not use up all 4GB's of a 32-bit OS's limit.

[jase888]

ahhh didnt realise 1600MHz was max setting may aswell just get the DDR3 1333MHz.

Still a little confused about the multi tasking on 3 monitors because most people told me that you need a good processor and a good bit of ram and that the gpu doesn't do the multitasking. So when you say video card will be operating speed of multi-tasking do you mean itl be the 2x hd 6950 and will they be sufficent

[RicheemxX]

You are a bit confused, multi-tasking in and of itself has nothing to do with the number of monitors you run. I can run a ton of apps on a single monitor and that will tax my system more than someone only running a few apps on several screens. Pushing it out to 3x monitors doesn't put much more strain on the system ram or cpu as its just video being sent out.

The actual act of multitasking with a bunch of apps is what pushes your cpu and ram usage not the spanning them to the separate screens. To use anywhere near 16gbs of ram you'd have to really be pushing your system. Basic photo edits and web design software aren't going to need anywhere near that. Now if you are talking running photoshop, dreamweaver, flash mx and a few other high end apps maybe.

edit: I should add, the flip side is that many apps like photoshop now use gpu acceleration to help speed up rendering so you are taking even less of your system and putting it more on the gpu.