Hallo everyone Hoppin' forums you got here, glad I found them (thanks to the latest issue of CPC that I just got). I was wondering if you gurus could please help me out cuz I'm not too well-versed on this. I mostly play FSX Acceleration and some other FPS games. But my primary "gaming" is on the FSX flight sim. I'm basically looking for a new graphics card because I have two 20" widescreens and I want the EyeFinity feature so I can play FSX across two monitors. I did read the great article in the latest CPC but what's confused me is the sheer range of cards on offer. I'm confused with all the HD5850 companies and the variations of cards/coolers! I can drop about £265 on a new graphics card and I have decided on the HD5850. Which one to go for? There's one by Asus, another by MSI, another by HIS... aahhh Oh and is the HD5850 a rare card - I see a lot of them are not in stock - are those the ones that are the best ones? Should I wait for them to come into stock. Are any of these good choices (I'm not familiar with XFX - they from Taiwan?) XFX http://tinyurl.com/35fp9jc Sapphire Toxic http://tinyurl.com/37lnluf Are those good choices? My other questions! (1.) I have two monitors - does EyeFinity *HAVE* to be with 3 monitors? Can I use it on two? (2.) I might later upgrade to 2 X 24" widescreen monitors with a 1920x1080 rez will this 5850 handle that? (3.) I have seen videos on YT and read articles about a three-screen EyeFinity setup causes silly-looking stretching on the two outer screens. Playing FSX on 3 screens would be grand - anyone on here with a 3-screener who plays FSX? Do you see the scenery looking odd on the outer two screens? My system specs: Core i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz 3GB DDR3 HD4870 1 GB 2 X 20" widescreen LCDs (each 1680 X 1050) Windows 7 HP 64bit ATI HD4870 1GB I would also like to take this chance to thank the CPC crew for the most excellent article on selecting a new graphics card in the latest issue! Well written! Thank you guys look forward to your thoughts!
IF I was going to upgrade during this generation of gpu, I would go for this one: http://www.overclock.net/ati/710652-powercolor-5850-pcs-thread.html I'm a real sucker for phat aftermarket coolers! However, given my 4890 has handled every game I've tried on it without breaking into a sweat, so far, I'm personally in no rush to upgrade. Sorry, Ati!
whats the point of eyefinity with 2 monitors? uness you really enjoy having a 2cm wide bezel right down the middle of the screen.
I've got one of the Powercolor cards with the non-standard cooler. It's very quiet - I have replaced standard coolers with Zalmans on my last three cards but on this one I've not needed to. It;'s slightly overclocked out of the box, and runs very cool. One caveat though - the Powercolor uses a lot more power than other implementations, so you'll need a beefier PSU. I was looking at the Sapphire Toxic edition, but IIRC I read somewherethat the cooler's actually quite noisy.
Mmmm... Yes. Eyefinity is 3 or 6 monitors. Never heard of anyone trying two. As was pointed out, that bezel will be a real issue in fps games. Most people seem to think that 3 is the most practical.
Of course, when we get bezel-less monitors 6-way Eyefinity might actually be worth trying. At the moment it's a bit pointless IMHO. I'm guessing you'll also need a monster card to run 6 screens at decent quality settings - can't see my 5850 running Crysis in 5040*2100 Not that I care too much - I imagine the cost of 6 bezel-less monitors is going to pretty much rule it out for me anyway..
Thanks for the replies guys. First off - no arguments with what ya'll have said: can't beat a 3-screen setup. Thing is when playing a flight sim game it doesn't matter if you only got two screens. This is because when you're in FSXs virtual cockpit the pilot "seat" is offset to the left (or right) with the cockpits central pillar in the middle (where the bezel happens to be anyway) so it's all good. I know this because I used to play flight sim across two monitors on Windows XP when the dual-monitor function was enabled in the OS before MS stupidly removed it in Vista & W7! To think that you now need a TH2G or Eyefinity to do what XP can do natively is a bit gutting! Oh well. Anyways I digress - primary reason for Eyefinity is FSX. For other games I'm not fussed about it and will use one screen. Having said all that my plan is to enjoy the 5850 on 2 displays for now. When the 6000 series cards come out I shall get a hi-end 5000 series for cheap and hook it up to three new 24" displays. So this is kind of a stop-gap until then hee hee. Thanks for all the info on the graphics cards will make a decision in the next two days cuz dang it - its time for some dual-screen SIMMING
I doubt an HD5850 can handle FSX at Eyefinity resolutions with a 30+ framerate. However, considering its the best card in your price range, I would suggest going for the Asus version as the voltage tweaking software is handy for overclocking while the Asus incarnation is probably a few pounds cheaper.
