Triple Monitor Gaming on a Budget: SLI vs. Crossfire vs. Single High-end GPU

Neither. I just had a lot of glitching, erratic frame rate problems & crashing to desktop while playing. (No. It wasn't my PSU)

Interesting, I guess it is worth buying a single card rather than 2 I guess

Your mileage may vary, don't let me put you off but there are pitfalls that are inherent with multi gpu setups. If you decide to go with it I wish you the best of luck. As for me... I'll stick with single cards.

Plus some games scale really badly so it basically kills the point of the 2nd card

Wondering why you skipped over the 7870. It also comes close to the 7950 at times and is cheaper than a 660Ti.

Ah, my bad. That 4T i5 should of read 4T i3 (or any AMD CPU).

Ah yea, I don't need that link... Mainly because it only shows 4 games out of 1000, and not even the best ones. If you think those 4 games tested are a full representation of multi-threading performance in games, then you stopped yourself short. Juss sayin.

I've built every computer I've ever owned, each costing at least $2000 (piece by precious piece). Click my name and take a look at my specs.

For the games I was playing at the time, and following all major CPU and GPU reviews, I knew I could get by with an i5 2500K @ 4.5GHz, but the majority of gamers on a budget, buy i3's and AMD CPU's, and we all know about i3's and AMD CPU's, which makes this multi-GPU review quite confusing on why they left out budget CPU's? I get the whole bottleneck thang, but budget gamers are MORE likely to already have bottlenecks, so showing, for example, 2 660Ti's getting 60fps @ 5760x1080, is not a true representation of what a budget gamer with an Phenom II 980 or Athlon II X4 will experience... IMO, and by the looks of it, others here too.

I mean, when we (me anyway) look at single GPU reviews using a single monitor, and see a range of CPU's tested with ours included in them, we can honestly expect to get VERY close to that performance.

When you show half the story, you get half the facts.

Maybe you need to visit your forums once in a while.

Just out of curiosity, could you please link me the review, or multiple ones as well, where I see a full representation of multi-threading performance in games? I'm always willing to learn something new.

That link also wasn't intended for you. It is for people who are new to the whole thing. Also, you made your profile private so people like me aren't allowed to drool over your specs.

I see what you are saying with not including low-budget CPU's, but this review isn't meant to review CPU performance in triple monitor setups. It's a standoff of

"SLI vs. Crossfire vs. Single High-end GPU"


I don't think this review is trying to say "this is a budget build that is perfect for triple monitor gaming", simply "this is how budget SLI vs. Crossfire vs. Single High-end GPU will compare against each other when CPU bottlenecks are eliminated". TechSpot could/should do a follow up review saying something along the lines of "based on our recent review about budget triple monitor graphic card configurations, we found Crossfire 2GB HD 7850's to be the best value solution. Now let's see how low we can go with processors that are cheaper than an 1155 i5 3570k/2500k without bottlenecking the GPU's performance."

I hope TechSpot would do that, as part of a "Budget gaming series" or something. I'm sure we would agree that that would be beneficial, informative, and educational to all of us.

I was planing to buy a MSI Lightning 7970 for 5760x1080 resolution. The plan is after purchasing this bad boy, I will purchase one more cheap 7970 or a 7950.

I was wondering few things

1. If I will push Lightning 7970's overclocking potential, do I need a second one ?
2. Should I go for 7870 crossfire instead of a 7970 ?
3. I have a 1366 X 768 montor (Please dont laugh) . Though I have plans for upgrading the display but....Can I add 2 more monitors of same resolutions for playing games ? will it look good.

Ohh that is pretty cool of a gaming gear men, but pretty cool budget too

1. For the resolution you play at NO.
2. No, stick with one high-end card if you can.
3. You can add two more 1366x768 screens but I wouldn't bother. A single cheap 27" with a 1920x1080 resolution would look much better in my opinion.

@Steve, we gotta work on get your likes further up the charts. You and the other article contributors do so much more for TechSpot than myself, I feel ashamed to have the score I do.

Jeet, a single 7970/7950 will suffice....but always use latest driver from amd (13.2 beta 6 at present) and happy gaming.....

and ,as for 1080p is only noticeable if you are using 40"+ big monitor and several inch away from monitor...
don't go for market scam,720p hd is still a great resolution for gaming man....see the below uld for that...

Market scam? you genuinely can't see the difference between a 1366x768 resolution monitor and a 1920x1080?

Because the difference is pretty noticeable, I presume any retina display is also marketing rubbish as well?

http://www.geek.com/hdtv-buyers-guide/resolution/

"That all said, if you are considering buying a smaller television, or even if you just want to save a couple of hundred bucks, 720p is a perfectly acceptable resolution that will still impress eyes used to the blurry appearance of standard definition television. All 1080p content will still be watchable on your 720p display, with a marginal decrease in quality. In addition, most streaming high definition media maxes out at 720p, as well as all Xbox 360 content. If you need to save some money or your HDTV is primarily aimed at gaming or streaming media, going down to 720p is a decent bang for your buck."

(Our eyes can see millions of pixels but our brain determines how much we can analyse it.....720p vs 1080p is barely noticeable unless the conditions and screen I posted above...if those people wants to spend money on bigger monitors then it's their choice)

Also dislike these,
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090430163643AAfA12P
http://asia.gamespot.com/forums/topic/25969416
http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-t...tell-the-difference-between-hdtv-resolutions/

Any diff-??

A lot of pro gamers on xbox and PS3 actually like using small computer monitors for some reason

Maybe it has something to do with the field of view... I am actually pretty interested why.

Completely disagree. First off, all console games are just 720p upscaled to 1080p, so using them as a comparison is irrelevant.
Play games at 720p and 1080p on a PC and there is a big difference in scale, ecpecially for games like Starcraft, Dragon Age, Warcraft, SimCity, etc etc. Shooters are programmed to fit to scale so other then a cleaner look sometimes they won't look much different, its technologies like dynamic range, PhysX, MSAA/TXAA, advanced lighting effects etc etc that set them apart.