Out of Pod Experience

So I've been playing EVE in 3840x1024 for a while now. I'm been using 2 ancient nVidia 8800GTX Ultras in SLI through a Matrox TripleHead2Go to achieve it. It runs okay for the most part. Jita is laggy, but then again, I think everyone lags a bit there. Incarna put some strain on the setup with the captain's quarters as well, but overall, its been running fine.


With the newest expansion, I'd really like to crank it up to 11, and max the settings. However, I'm also tossing my 3 screen setup for a 5 screen. I want to run 6000x1920 (5 screens, each 1920x1200 in portrait mode).

Now a normal 1920x1200 does about 2.3mil pixels multiplied by FPS.
My setup would do about 11.5mil pixels x FPS.

So I'll need some much more modern GPUs. However, I haven't bought any computer equipment for years obviously, and I'm a bit out of the news on it. So here's my questions:

1) What kind of GPU will run or support 5x1 portrait settings? (I know ADM's "Eyefinity" software does, but no word on GPUs, and I'd prefer nVidia to be honest)
2) What other components of the computer will need to be upgraded besides the mobo/CPU/RAM to accomodate the new graphic cards?
3) Has anyone done this themselves, and if so, was there any compatibility issues or anything to get EVE to run at this resolution?
4) Lastly, any suggestions or concerns would be appreciated. In case its needed, I was hoping to spend less than $1,500 for the hardware (monitors not included).

I don't have direct experience in such "complicated" sli setup but I'm running a multimonitor rig myself on a gtx 670 + Ivy i5 3570k oc'd at 4.3Ghz.

The cpu shouldn't be a problem (tbh I think even a sandy 2500k should fit just well since it's very easily oc-able at 4.4/4.5Ghz too). Of course it's all about having the proper sli setup. So, my single gtx 670 handles 2 monitors at 1920x1200 just fine, adding a 3rd starts to make it work pretty hard. I'd recomend a 2-way sli for a 3 monitor setup, assuming your resolution.

In your case it looks like you could handle the 5 monitors with a 2-way sli but a 3-way should be the way to go. I don't think a 2-way of 680 would change anything but the cost of the rig so prolly also a 3-way of 660Ti could be a valid choice even if thinking to build something which lasts at least 2 years the 3-way of 670 is the best again.

There are related "secondary" issues though related to such a rig, called microstuttering and (over)heating. I don't know how you're going to cool your gpu's but an appropriate mobo should be choosen according to the possibility of mounting aftermarket coolers on your cards, and such mobo's are quite expensive, in the range of the 200+ $. The accelero mono plus is terribly ugly, quite fat (keeps 2.5 slots per card) but it's stupid cheap and works like a charm. If you don't want to use aftermarket coolers you should be heading towards a gigabyte windforce or an asus dc II, but again be sure to have more than a couple of millimiters between your gpu's once rigged or the 2nd and 3rd will suffer from overheating.

The microstuttering issue is hard to tell and mostly depends on drivers and the game itself, so some have it others don't but the more gpu's you rig the higher is the chance to face it.

Going liquid would be best but you must add 100-ish $ per gpu for that, and since said cards aren't exactly that cheap already..... meh!

Could be worth saying in about 4-5 months we will have the next gen popping out, so the gtx 7xx, but of course at the day-1 costs or you should wait few months to have more solutions (like the 760Ti) or cheaper prices for the 770/780, as usual. But a 2-way sli of those would be able to support your 5 monitors for sure, at said resolution.

GL ;)

from what I've been reading it doesn't depend directly by the gpu load rather than by the sli support. No idea about the 4-way sli but from what I've read the 3-way is way more affected by that issue than the 2-way which is generally..... working as intended.

Should it depend on how the games are coded or how the drivers are written...... no idea, should be both but somone "fixed" it using older drivers or at least not the last one nor the beta. Or playing with the nvidia control panel/game settings and such. So it's not a really terribad problem, but if you spend some money on a new rig to play at the best and you have to turn down features, effects and such to be able to play smoothly, it sucks.

Btw, Xfire is the same + other driver related issues even if it seems the last ones increased performances and general quality quite a lot.

Thanks for this thread and the linki to that forum.

I am considering upgrading my rig to have four screen, two above each other, all at 1680x1050.

I so mostly coding (I work from home) and sometimes having two screens isn't enough and I am looking to update to a four screen rig with small screen bezels.

The only game that I am interested in is Eve and if I can make this future proof on here then all well and good.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1220962/vegas-heavyweight-display-and-computer-edition-2012/850#

This is what I was shooting for.

Also, Myfanwy Heimdal, I'm not sure if you are doing a 2x2 full screen, or if you're using one of the rows of screens for spreadsheets/browser/etc, but a warning: I wouldn't recommend doing a 2x2 full screen, otherwise whatever you play (EVE or otherwise), the middle of your screen is one big crosshair bezel.

Thanks for that Shalaan. At the moment I have two screns with a massive bezel and I just use them as two seperate screens.

So, if one had four screens then what would the best option be. I don't really see me needing to go for more, but, I suppose if I have five screens in porttait then this would be a good set up as I am looking at the middle screen.

I really need to think about this.

Gosh, so I would need five decent monitors, the right video cards and then the right motherboard for this.

- Myfanwy

It really depends on how you want to use the screens. You said you use them separately, so for something like that, I'd use a 3x1+1 setup. Basically you would have a center screen...scratch that, let me grab a pic.
http://www.tukui.org/storage/images/521227tukzpc2012-eyefinity.jpg (ignore the 5th screen on the upper left)

So you would get the full 3 screen panoramic view for the bottom 3 screens, and the 4th you could keep as a browser/extra one.

The only other way to have screens on top of one another single screen surface is using a 3x3 (9 screens) setup, but that's just silly...

In that case, I would just recommend adding only 1 more screen, especially since it looks like you're short of available space.

Here's the setup I've been using since ~2008. Please ignore my failed attempt to black out the sun with the cloth:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/205623_101235726553763_6710814_n.jpg

Depending on how you have it setup, you can set your windows to maximize along all 3 screens, 2 screens, or 1 each. When I'm not gaming, I prefer 1 each, it really increases productivity!

Shalaan, I have measured my desk and it can take five monitors even with thick bezels in portrait mode.

Thanks for the picture of your rig but don't you find that you're sitting too close to the screens? I go to my friend's place and when I sit at his screens I swear that I am getting sunburnt as they're only about eighteen inches from his face.

Gosh, you lot have given me food for thought; do I want five portrait, three landscape and one up, or three and three?

Whatever it is it's got to be a decent monitor (I can't stand the matt ones) with next to no bezel. I can see my monthly screen recalibration taking forever...

Thanks for the pointers; at the moment the three across and one up is winning and, of course, that can always be expanded into a two rows of three...

Ye Gods! Spent how much for to play a game? Is the man insane?