Currently running a 2709W Dell monitor with a stand in old ATI card. Want to try Eyefinity, the info I have been able to gather seems a bit conflicting. WOuld a 6970 be a good buy to run Eyfinity with games like BFBC2 ? Could I use my existing monitor with two more (as the 2709w does display port) or would I need to match the sizes up ? Don't want to spend more than 5 ton total.
If you're only going to be using 3 monitors I'd ditch eyefinity and go with three cards in crossfire or sli, which will support a monitor each. You'll need the extra power to drive a 5940x1200 resolution. If your motherboard doesnt support triple SLI, and you don't want to upgrade that too, then expect your games to be a slideshow at that resolution.
in all honesty eyefinity isnt all its cracked up to be, hence why ive stopped using it. you get better results if you use identical monitors from a similar or same batch (I ashamedly have a habit of collecting monitors and I've tried lots of combinations, and identical same batch monitors do work by far the best) there are some driver issues with the DP though, like sometimes the monitor wouldnt be recognised by the GPU (tried it on 3 separate eyefinity capable GPU's all with same issue 5750, 5970 & 6970) you should be able to run BFBC2 with a 6970 at that res, because with tweaks ( abit of OCing etc, not using full AA&AF) the 5750 can manage it in 6048x1080.
Thanks for all the info. I suppose the sorts of monitors I can afford would look a bit crap after my Dell, which is a PVA. I might just stick with it and buy one 6870, but to be honest all the graphics card I have looked at , 460, 5850, 6850, 6870 etc seem to be very similar, it is confusing these days as when a new batch used to come out, i.e.the old 8 series they kicked the ass of the old 7 series, now the new series are sometimes slower, what's that all about ?!
Having one PVA display and two TN panels isn't really a problem as long as they are the same size. I run a similar setup, and it looks alright. I must warn you though, the eyefinity system isn't perfect. If you plan on running it in span-mode all the time then you'll be fine, but switching between span mode and individual display mode is less than perfect. For each switch your display position will be reset, making the DP port your leftmost display. (I suspect you want this to be in center). It also forget the position of any window you happen to have open. AFAIK they still haven't fixed this...
wow... i really don't understand all the negativity towards eyefinity. I've used it with 3 different monitors, and it's been a dream come true. I suppose it's a personal thing then. What you REALLY need: 1) 3 monitors of same size and resolution. One of those must use DP, the other two use DVI/HDMI 2) some time and patience to fiddle with settings. Remember that you are pushing the limit, so it's going to take some input from your side to get it to work. If you want smooth as a baby's bottom user experience, buy an XboX. 3) a huge desk. 4) one good graphics card, preferrably two. I've run 5760x1200 on a single 5870, and i've had very little framerate problems. Most games do require you turn off AA though, and sometimes you need to tweak the settings, but i've yet to encounter a game that wasn't playable. Even Crysis worked. And let me tell you, i'd have the extra immersion of eyefinity over AA and a little more shadow detail any day. However, i'm thinking b 5 ton you mean you want to spend less then 500 pounds on GPU + 2 extra screens. That's just not going to happen, unless you are looking at 3 22" or 23" screens.
running 5760x1080 here on a 5870, with no issues at all, seems to run most games i own maxed out, crysys and metro2033 require a bit of tunning down but they are known hogs. As for the switching from span to extended, there is an issue where the monitors do not always correctly align however apply the extended profile again and everything lines up exactly as it was before, i ended up making a batch file that applys the profile twice when it is called to get around this issue. I would also recommend checking widescreengamingforum.com who appear to have a geat amount of detail regarding eyefinity, surround and other technologies, including patchs and mods to improve a number of games for running in eyefinity/surround modes.
