2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
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- Minion to the Exalted Pooh-Bah
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Continue from another thread:
If I want to drive a triple monitor setup with one screen for game play at max setting, what's the recommended motherboard/gpu setup? Single card? dual card (8x/8x, 16x/4x, 16x/16x)?
If I want to drive a triple monitor setup with one screen for game play at max setting, what's the recommended motherboard/gpu setup? Single card? dual card (8x/8x, 16x/4x, 16x/16x)?
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- Grand Pooh-Bah
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
If you're going to CrossFire/SLI, then balanced is the most desirable PCIe lane configuration. 8x is plenty.
Depends on what you want to play. CrossFire/SLI speedup is heavily driver dependent. In the best case you'll see near 2x vs. single card, but in the worst case it's no speedup. 3x1080p is within the single card range for the last generation of GPUs, depending on the settings.
Depends on what you want to play. CrossFire/SLI speedup is heavily driver dependent. In the best case you'll see near 2x vs. single card, but in the worst case it's no speedup. 3x1080p is within the single card range for the last generation of GPUs, depending on the settings.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Agreed, Radeon 6950's are certainly capable of this on paper. I haven't gotten around to testing it though. This thread answers your question from an nVidia card perspective: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2245070. Note that GTX5xx cards didn't support 3 monitors unless they were in SLI, so it's likely not cost effective to go with an older generation of nVidia cards.Jonathan wrote:3x1080p is within the single card range for the last generation of GPUs, depending on the settings.
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- Minion to the Exalted Pooh-Bah
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
I haven't looked for a while, but my issue has been finding a card with 3 (dvi/hdmi) outputs.
Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Most of my cards have 2 DVi and HDMIx1 but you can't output to all 3 at once. I went from 2pcs 3 LCDs 1 netbook to 1 PC w/ LCD & HDTV (thru receiver with hdmi)
This setup for work or home? What do you plan on paying with 3x LCDs?
This setup for work or home? What do you plan on paying with 3x LCDs?
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
no, games will only be on one screen, but when I do some programming at home I really could use the 3 monitor setup
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
My Radeon 6950 from Sapphire has two mini-display port and two dual-dvi outputs. Theoretically, each of those dual-dvi ports should be able to drive 2 monitors at 1080p. Each displayport port should be able to drive up to 3 monitors. AMD/ATI drivers have been flaky though. Some updates have messed up HDMI output and I've had to get beta drivers to get a fix.
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- Grand Pooh-Bah
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Yeah, for physical reasons display port is the way to go here.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
And for price reasons, maybe not.Jonathan wrote:Yeah, for physical reasons display port is the way to go here.
Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
I totally was mistaken.
I just hooked up a LCD (not dvi) & HDTV (hdmi) to my laptop and all three were able to display. So including the laptopscreen, I can have 3 screens active at once.
I just hooked up a LCD (not dvi) & HDTV (hdmi) to my laptop and all three were able to display. So including the laptopscreen, I can have 3 screens active at once.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
That's actually pretty common at my current and former workplaces for people to have their laptop hooked up to two external monitors and still have the attached screen also working... I'd do it at home, but I don't have a place to leave two monitors just sitting around, nor would my wife appreciate me spending money on more screens in the house. Maybe when my son is older and starts playing computer games too, I can somehow justify it. I'm happy to game on a single lcd tv. Maybe one day it'll be a 4k tv when prices become reasonable during some holiday sale.
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- Grand Pooh-Bah
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
4k displays will get not silly-priced when HEVC gets cheap enough to implement that 4k isn't a huge processing burden.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Well, the standard is published, so people will certainly be coming out with hardware to accelerate decompression. Hopefully it won't take super long for costs to come down. Maybe 2-4 years of scaling if hardware costs are high now? That much scaling should make it reasonable by then I'd guess. Of course, oversupply could also cause a price drop, but demand will probably stay ahead of that possible issue for a while.
Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
Where's the 4K content going to come from, though? This technology seems likely to follow 3D TV's path. Expensive equipment with expensive, generally mediocre content is not a great business strategy.
I feel like I just beat a kitten to death... with a bag of puppies.
Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
I already can't stand 1080p movies, looks too much like I'm actually on the movie set, and no illlusionary feeling of low-def fuzziness. Even porn, HD = no thanks, I don't need to see those pimples.
Only sports I would like seeing in 4K and from multiple cameras.
Only sports I would like seeing in 4K and from multiple cameras.
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7089/gefo ... -vs-pcie-3So, what this essentially means is that one can use a PCIe 3 x8 slot for any current GPU without worrying about bandwidth constraints, since offers the same bandwidth as a PCIe 2 x16 slot.
Hey, look! I'm right.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
You could just sit further from the screen and that can create your low-def fuzziness... Personally, if a movie is shot at a nice location, I'd like to be able to see the landscape and not some splotchy bunch of color. I'd like the trees to have leaves/needles and not just a general shape of a tree.Dave wrote:I already can't stand 1080p movies, looks too much like I'm actually on the movie set, and no illlusionary feeling of low-def fuzziness.
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
People's cell phone cameras, soon enough. Sensors and screens can already handle 4k and greater resolutions. It is the bandwidth (and compute associated with reducing that bandwidth) that is the real block.George wrote:Where's the 4K content going to come from, though? This technology seems likely to follow 3D TV's path. Expensive equipment with expensive, generally mediocre content is not a great business strategy.
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- Tenth Dan Procrastinator
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Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
And once it starts coming from cameras, then it'll be available on youtube. If not, then it'll drive personal storage again because people will want to be able to keep their memories and without exorbitant monthly costs. Also, it'll need to fit on some sort of disc which will be a blu-ray derivative (either DBXL which most players don't support or move to HEVC on the disk too) since that seems to be how many people still consume their movies at home. Yeah, it'll be one more big upgrade cycle :-\ And we're still in the tail end of the last upgrade cycle to HD.Jonathan wrote:People's cell phone cameras, soon enough. Sensors and screens can already handle 4k and greater resolutions. It is the bandwidth (and compute associated with reducing that bandwidth) that is the real block.George wrote:Where's the 4K content going to come from, though? This technology seems likely to follow 3D TV's path. Expensive equipment with expensive, generally mediocre content is not a great business strategy.
Oh, major movies are being captured in 4k resolutions now and then sampled down to HD, so they'll be ready to go. Just like many movies are filmed in 3-D just to have it available if it eventually does catch on. Now, a jump to 8k screens would kinda mess this up and probably not be possible as quickly.
Re: 2012 Computer Notes (advice welcome!)
I just bought a scratch and dented Lenovo H430 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883265611 ) for $170, as both my gaming pc and old dell (wife's pc) died around the same time. I'll see what condition it is in when it gets here!
It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.