Some Guidance would be appreciated

[Randhart]

hi guys,

I currently run two HD5770’s in X-Fire water-cooled in a pretty decent system. I am currently deployed and on my return I want to use some of my bonus to upgrade my system. I am definitely getting a DELL U2711 27” screen this will be in addition to my two Phillips 22” displays which I will be using in the Portrait mode with the 27” in Landscape… I got the idea from a dude in Europe somewhere who made a custom table system with this configuration in Monitors… anyway i digress…

It isn’t often that I have spare cash to splash on my PC so I have been thinking…

GTX690
- awesome card, scalability and I can say I have a COOL CARD
ASUS GTX 680 DCII TOP
- from what I have read it is a pretty decent card and for the same price I can get possibly a second and SLI it
2x ASUS GTX 670 DCII TOP in SLI
- Similar price to a 690 and from what i have read the performance is up there… but I can possibly add water-cooling blocks to them Over-clock them and have a decent system

After every tour I get myself a present for being stuck in a dump for 6 months and this will be it… last time I upgraded the PSU, MB, CPU, RAM and treated myself to a SDD, this time it’s time to upgrade the display and I won’t upgrade for a few years after this… possibly.

I use the system for Picture editing using PHOTOSHOP, playing EVE-Online and making gaming related videos.

Your Help greatly appreciated
R

[Domestic_Ginger]

The 690 will use SLI as the other options you have listed. The alternative from AMD (or ATI as we know it) are the 7970 and 7950 which will use xfire.

I suppose its going to be all about benchmarks for the most powerful combination and price performance comparison. Waterblocks should be available although I would be sure to get a reference PCB to make getting waterblocks easier. 680 SLI is better than the 690.

680sli is variable with 7970xfire

Take the benchmarks with a pinch of salt; driver upgrades and results not being updated may make some incorrect. The extra 110W for the 7970s is a little high!

For EVE I imagine a single card would be more than enough at any resolution.

[Phage]

IIRC the DC II is a triple slot cooler so I'd be checking that your MoBo can handle the width. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
my 2p ? A 690 isn't worth the dosh over a single 680. At those massive resolutions wouldn't the 7970 be a better idea ? Perhaps two 7970 Boosted in x-Fire ?

[shaithis]

At 2560X1440, I would probably wait for the new nVidia cards....if you are going to multi-monitor all three, then i would definitely wait for the new nVidia cards.

The nVidia 600 series cards start to lose their edge over certain resolutions due to restrictive bandwidth....the new cards coming soon will have the bandwidth the 680 should have had.

[Randhart]

Thanks for the help thus far

I'm looking at a nVidia card purely because CCP, the makers of EVE are in cahoots with nVidia and last year at FanFest they were demoing some new tech they are brining in on a 660Ti and it looked absolutely amazing.

Current,ty the X-Fire 5770's are coping but at 1Gb with the new Dell 27" I think they will start struggling at the larger resolutions.

Do you know when the new nVidia cards are being released?? Just thinking that it may be worth holding on and getting the 680's on the cheap

Ref the three slot layout... I will be water oolong them from the off because the loop already exists for my 5770's so just a matter of plumbing them in

Thanks again for the help... The comparison site is über usefull!!!

[Willzzz]

HardOCP have a lot on extreme SLI and multi-monitor setups:

http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/gpu_video_cards/

[RhinoUK]

Have a safe tour mate
Something good to look forward to when you get home.