Need help picking out a GPU(S)

urchin

Hi,

I'm doing some work with a simulator based on the Unreal 3 engine. We're looking at running a 3 monitor setup - a small game window and then a bunch of control/frame grabbing/mapping software written in java. Since our rigs right now don't have SLI mobos, I'm going to make blind guess that an eyefinity card is the cheapest solution. I don't have any sort of feel for the different levels of power in ATI eyefinity cards though, so I could use some help estimating how powerful a card is needed. Thanks!

Dark Shroud

You want no less than a 5770. If you're going to run 3 monitors a 5850 would be a better choice power wise. I wouldn't recommend past a 5870 as the 5970 is a duel GPU card.

urchin

Thanks for the input!

Scrublet

If your work isn't TOO time critical I would almost recommend waiting for the Fermi launch late this month from Nvidia. I mean all signs seem to point to this being a paper launch that doesn't beat ATI's cards for value and performance, but still. If that's the performance level you're looking at it might be worth waiting just to confirm.

Dirtmuncher

Dont wait for fermy, it wont run 3 monitors on 1 card, only 2. 3 in SLI.
Fermi wil set you back 300+ euros, a 5770 wil set you back 100-150 euro or a 5850 for 200-250 euros.
So cheap and able to do what you want or an expensive fermi.

Fermi might just bring the prices down but dont bet on it, availability might be an issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZXhR1ibj8

urchin

Alright, I think I'll go with the 5770 then. We're running on a Nvidia 9800GT right now and the benchmarks I'm looking at have the 5770 running about 20fps faster with all the eye candy and post-processing stuff maxed out, so I think it'll do the job.