What card do you use with your 30"?

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I ordered an NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi earlier this week. I'm currently running a gtx260 and want to have an idea of what I need to drive a 2560x1600 monitor when I upgrade again in the future.

So what are you guys running & for what?

[Taskforce]

I put single, a single card like a GTX285 or 5870 is plenty enough, plus multi cards don't scale well.

[RADCOM]

Even my Quadro FX1700 drives dual 30" monitors, I think most mid/high range single cards would drive 2560 x1600

[Xcel]

I use a single 4870. More than enough for my needs, I don't like Crysis etc.

[STEvil]

2D is nothing.

4870x2.

[iTravis]

If you don't game then any cards that support 2560x1600 are fine, but speaking of gaming that would be a very different story since even the fastest card or multi GPUs will be struggle at that resolution in some games. Having said that you might consider several solutions such as HD5850/5870 CF, HD5970 or GTX 470/480 SLI depends on how much you're willing to drop in order to have great gaming experience @2560x1600.

[Bolas]

I'm running a single Radeon HD5970 graphics card to support three NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi. Still in the build stages though, haven't had it powering more than a single monitor for anything other than 2D yet.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I'm curious to see my gtx260 struggles with this resolution and gaming.

I don't have cash on hand to buy a new card now, but I wanted to know if I need a 5870/gtx480 to run most games on the highest or if a dual card solution is the only way. 5970 is just too much for a single card, at least for now.

[slaveondope]

Ive heard people having a hard time at that res. with a 5970 but only on Metro 2033 and BC2 at max setting.

I believe larger memory on the gpu and higher memory bandwidth are needed with increased resolutions.

[lowfat]

HD5970. So far so good when gaming @ 2560x1440.

[RaZz!]

mh, just a question: with 2560x1600 you could theoretically play in 1280x800 with an interpolation ratio of exactly 2:1 (2 pixels of native res = 1 pixel of interpolated res). did anyone ever tried this? is the interpolated image quality any good?

[Xcel]

mh, just a question: with 2560x1600 you could theoretically play in 1280x800 with an interpolation ratio of exactly 2:1 (2 pixels of native res = 1 pixel of interpolated res). did anyone ever tried this? is the interpolated image quality any good?

Yes but it's 4 pixels= 1 @ 1280*800. 2560*1600 is 4 times the amount of pixels

[RaZz!]

yep, i meant 2 pixels height = 1 pixel height + 2 pixels width = 1 pixel width, which makes the 4 pixel = 1 pixel you talk about. didn't make my point that clear though ;)

the picture should definately be better than with other crap interpolation ratios :)

[Chickenfeed]

Honestly, for movie viewing, desktop work and productivity 30" lcds are awesome however for gaming they are not the way to go unless you are able to afford to continually support the experiance at 2560x1600. If you intend to play games as they come out at max settings with a minimum of 4x AA, expect to be upgrading the video cards at a yearly basis at least. Of course it depends on your idea of playable and smooth gameplay. For some, they'd sooner have a huge display resolution and are okay with low/lower framerates. For others, they'd sooner take better performance and a lower resolution display.

In fairness, a 30" lcd can always run at 1920x1200 / 1680x1050 pending usage and assuming you are okay with the image being scaled and quality being reduced. When a game didn't float my boat at 1920x1200 with my 4870x2, I'd sometimes run it at 1680x1050. It took some getting used to however I still had the advantage of being able to run at full resolution in most things. For me the extra space is best appreciated using windows in general not gaming. 16:10, is still 16:10 regardless of resolution so games only benifit by having a higher dot pitch thus a cleaner image, nothing more.

Personally I wouldn't touch a 30" display with a non dual gpu setup however. Again it depends on performance preferences and image quality demands but for me, I would never be happy long term with such a display. Gaming wise, a 120hz lcd has left a far greater impression on me than a 30" ever has. As a secondary monitor however, I'd love one.

[owned666]

im pretty much like u i got a dell wfp3007
i run two 9800gtx sli

and ive played every game released at 2560x1600 except farcry and crysis
games ive played justcause bc2 C&C4 css hl2 countless really
gona upgrade to a gtx 480 so i can have dx11 and that the only reason + little bit of a speed bump
ive played bc2 at medium but at high i would get 50 fps but wanst worth it because i didnt notice any differences (70 fps)

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

For me, running everything at max settings is ideal,but not worth the cost of dropping 500+ every year. I'd probably upgrade every other year and go higher end and pay for more onboard memory.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

Question for you guys.... what is dual dvi? I have heard that thrown around, but can't seem to get a clear definition. You use two DVI cables to run the monitor for the card I'm assuming?

[Chickenfeed]

You are thinking of dual link dvi. It uses the full pin count of the specification and is higher bandwidth than single link. Higher end displays ( most 30" displays ) require dual link dvi connections as well as current 120hz displays. Some older video cards do not have dual link outputs but the majority of mid to high end cards in the last 5 or so years do. Basically if your display doesn't include a dvi cable when you go cable buying be sure it is dual link otherwise it won't work :up:

[CokeCanNinja]

I want to use dual crossfire or better, but for now I'm stuck to single card.

[owned666]

Synthetickiller;4364854']For me, running everything at max settings is ideal,but not worth the cost of dropping 500+ every year. I'd probably upgrade every other year and go higher end and pay for more onboard memory.

if u owned a gtx 285 i would have said that u could have handled a 30 inch but a gtx 260.... hmm not all full
9800gtx sli > gtx 285 5%
for me my system can handle it perfectly but its been 2 years + i need an upgrade

hell im still running a QX6700 :ROTF:

[In-Fluence]

I have an 8600 gt for Physx and a 5770 for the Gfx, and it works really well. I guess I'll be aiming for a hybrid x-fire/physx setup in the end.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I also have an 8800gts g92 in the same rig for physics, so that won't be an issue at least. :D

I'm actually typing on the 30" now. Just incredible how it dwarfs my 25.5". I'll see how the gtx260 does.

[STEvil]

Depends on the game. 1280x800 looks like crap btw.

I ran my 8800GTS at 2560x1600 for a while, it did reasonably well as long as I didnt use AA