I recently put together a budget eyefinity setup using a fairly strong computer I built 2 years ago.
Sapphire 6850x2 (CCC 11.10, latest drivers) - $275
AMD PhenomII x4 @ 3.8 (Was a 3.1x2 BE) - $100
Corsair H50 cooler - $50 on sale
Gigabyte 16/8 (8/8) 790gpt mobo - $125
8GB Corsair memory - $50
Spinpoint F1 1T - $60
Old case and dvd drive
Dell 22" refurb monitors x2 ($230) + Dell 22" monitor I already had.
Ebay displayport -> VGA adapter - $10
Monitors are DP->VGA, DVI->VGA, HDMI->VGA. All montors are running in VGA. Display is smooth without any oddities.
The system is working amazingly! I am not having a single glitch or problem, although the only eyefinity game i have is Dirt3. I am getting 60+ fps on HIGH detail, but when I go to ULTRA, the fps goes to 30ish.
I can already see the writing on the wall, the system can't run ultra now on a mid level title, in a year, I will lucky to get by with low or medium on a demanding title. I want to get BF3 and skyrim.
I am thinking about returning the video cards, spending $150 more for a pair of 6950s. Anything more is out of my price range.
If I upgrade to 6950x2 1GB , will this take me to the next level (high->ultra) with same framerates, or is something else the bottleneck?
I am concerned that maybe the cpu or the limited video memory (1gb each card) is going to limit my eyefinity performance. If so, I will stay with what I have.
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