3 monitor setup on a Radeon HD 5750?

L

liquidsoap89

New Member
Hey all,

So I'm getting 2 additional monitors for christmas (Samsung 23" Syncmaster e2320x's) and I've already got one set up. Right now I'm rocking a Radeon HD 5750 and it's performing pretty well (minus a computer crashing issue that I'm blaming on it, but that's another story...). I play a lot of games (everything), and I use video editing and animation software fairly often. Now I see on the back of my card that each video output is a different slot (I don't know the names of each, other than DVI and HDMI slots). I'm sure I can figure out how to get 3 monitors setup on this card, and I'm guessing I'll have to pick up an adapter or 2 to fit the cards in the different slots, so that's not a problem. What I'm wondering is how much of a hit does the bigger resolution take on the card? Doing my regular tasks in windows will likely be fine, but I'm guessing gaming is where I'm really going to notice a performance drop.

Are there any tips/recommendations you can give me as to what I might additionally need, or want to set up before hand? I'm planning on just winging it until it's all working (that's generally how I go about working on my computer o_O), and I'm also not opposed to buying a new card if I'll notice a big difference. And if that's the case, are there any recommendations you can give me on a good upgrade to look at? From what I understand, a Radeon card seems to be what I will want to go with if I'm using a multi monitor setup, but truth be told I've had better experiences with my old Geforce 6800 than I have with this one.

So yea, tips/tricks, ATI/Nvidia, single card/crossfire, whatever comes to mind with regards to this topic... I'm all ears!

THANKS!
 
What are your other specs?

Also, to get the third monitor working you'll need whats called an Active Display Port to DVI adapter :).
 
Alright, what kind of cards would you recommend? I hear ATI is the best when it comes to support for 3 monitors with Eyefinity, but I'm assuming Nvidia can still at least manage 3 monitors... I would like to eventually try out 3D gaming as well, and for that I hear it's basically Nvidia or nothing, but I'm not really sure.

As for my other specs, I've got...
An i7 950 at 3 GHZ.
6 GBs of DDR3 RAM.
Windows 7.
2 HDDs (500 GBs for Windows, 1 TB for junk).
a 650 Watt PSU (I THINK, not entirely sure)
And that should be about it I think...

let me know what you recommend. And like I said, I've had a better experience with Nvidia in the past, but if an ATI card is what I should be getting for this setup than I'll have no issues trying another one (or crossfire :D) out.
 
We would need to know exactly what psu you have. This just makes sure you can have a more powerful card.

For the guys above to help they need to know make, model and power rating.
 
Right... So it's an Antec TP-650, 650 Watt PSU. On the box it says it'll support 2 GPUs, although I'm sure that's just their marketing team saying it because it's "possible".
 
beautiful card, wish I had one. Performance on that over 3 monitors will be alright, but not running-at-full-settings-full-AA good. To have truly awesome performance, get 2 :D
 
I agree with MikeB, the 6870 is the way to go for triple monitors.

I ran a 5760x1080 eyefinity setup on a 5830, which is considerable stronger than a 5750, and even in call of duty WAW (a relatively non graphically challenging game) I only got 45 FPS average. Overclocked I did average more than 50, and game play was smooth, but for tons of other games it wouldn't have been enough. The 6870 is a really strong card, good enough for most games at 5760x1080. Now thats with NO eye candy though, no AA or AF. To run those you'll need a 6950 or 6970, which is out of most people's price range.

As others mentioned, you'll need a display port adapter. Here's a good one for fairly cheap thats confirmed to work with eyefinity-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814999030

As for the PSU, the antec 650 should be able to handle a 6870 no problem. Your PSU claims it can run two cards, but it just means it has two PCIe 6 pin connectors that can run two mid to lower end cards, or one good card. The 6870 requires two 6 pin connectors.


If you can swing it, there's a 6970 for sale on the forum now for $250 which is a steal. and will play 5760x1080 effortlessly with some eye candy on most games.
http://www.computerforum.com/204727-his-radeon-6970-fs.html
 
Last edited:
87dtna said:
I agree with MikeB, the 6870 is the way to go for triple monitors.

I ran a 5760x1080 eyefinity setup on a 5830, which is considerable stronger than a 5750, and even in call of duty WAW (a relatively non graphically challenging game) I only got 45 FPS average. Overclocked I did average more than 50, and game play was smooth, but for tons of other games it wouldn't have been enough. The 6870 is a really strong card, good enough for most games at 5760x1080. Now thats with NO eye candy though, no AA or AF. To run those you'll need a 6950 or 6970, which is out of most people's price range.

As others mentioned, you'll need a display port adapter. Here's a good one for fairly cheap thats confirmed to work with eyefinity-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814999030

As for the PSU, the antec 650 should be able to handle a 6870 no problem. Your PSU claims it can run two cards, but it just means it has two PCIe 6 pin connectors that can run two mid to lower end cards, or one good card. The 6870 requires two 6 pin connectors.


If you can swing it, there's a 6970 for sale on the forum now for $250 which is a steal. and will play 5760x1080 effortlessly with some eye candy on most games.
http://www.computerforum.com/204727-his-radeon-6970-fs.html
Click to expand...

I could swear that the card linked to in mikebs post is a HIS IceQ X HD6950, not A hd6870.

Do you have antect 650 tp new? (OP that is), if so I have that psu and there is enough there to power a HD6950/6970 be best to make sure you put on separate 12v rails, rather than all on the one, but the TP new 650 makes that quite easy.
 
Last edited:
Awesome. So it looks like something in the 6800-6900 range will be good for this.

I'm not too bothered by having the graphics turned down a bit, usually I'll lower particle effects or ambient occlusion or something in order to get my AA up a bit, but I'm not a fiend when it comes to maxing out the options.

Just out of curiosity, is a 6950-6970 significantly faster than a 68** card? I'm willing to spend the extra money if I'll notice a difference, but if it's just a decent improvement, or barely noticeable I'll probably stick with what you've recommended.
 
Yeah they are significantly faster.

The 6970 in the classifieds is a great deal at $250 it's less than a 6950 new.

CrayonMuncher said:
I could swear that the card linked to in mikebs post is a HIS IceQ X HD6950, not A hd6870.
Click to expand...

Hah, oops. I could have swore it was a 6870! lol, not sure where I got that from. Honestly though the 6870 would give satisfactory frame rates with 5760x1080 without the AA or AF cranked up, but the 6950/6970 would allow some and be more futureproof.
 
At this point for your budget, if you can get the guys 6970 out of the classifieds your laughing. They are really good cards and for that price a snatch. And the guy selling it is an absolute enthusiast so you can rest assured its in good condition.

I have the same style as the one he is selling and they are quite cool even under load.

A 6970 will allow a beter future proofing too, as you can get another when they go down in price next year after the 7000series launch.

For your question on how much better they are than the 6800 series http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/09/16/his-hd-6970-iceq-turbo-2gb-review/5

The 6850 is towards the bottom whereas the 6970 is much higher up.
 
Who mentioned a 6850?

The comparison was between a 6870 and 6950, which are fairly close in performance (obviously the 6950 is better but not by any huge margin). But yes, as I've already stated, the 6970 for the same or less price than a 6950 is a better deal and if he can swing it go for that.

The 6950 is around 15% stronger than a 6870 on average.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top