Running 3 displays on 560Ti?

[avesta]

Hey guys,

I'm in the market for a 560Ti on a system I'm building. It's gonna be running 3 displays - 2 normal monitors and a 42" HDTV. The monitors connect through DVI and the HDTV through HDMI.

So can you have an extended desktop with all 3 displays?

Also, is the 560Ti fast enough to handle a scenario where you would do the following 3 things?
1) play an HD movie on the TV.
2) play a game on the primary monitor
3) have a browser open on the secondary monitor. or play your music program on the secondary monitor.

I know it's asking a lot, but I just wanna get some input and see if anyone's tried something similar.
Here are the system specs:

i5 2500k
8GB RAM
560 Ti (Twin Frozr II version)
WD Caviar Black 1TB

edit: I just learned that some of the Z68 motherboards will have HDMI and DVI outputs. So does this mean you can run the HDTV off the motherbaord and the 2 monitors off the single 560?

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by avesta

Hey guys,

I'm in the market for a 560Ti on a system I'm building. It's gonna be running 3 displays - 2 normal monitors and a 42" HDTV. The monitors connect through DVI and the HDTV through HDMI.

So can you have an extended desktop with all 3 displays?

Also, is the 560Ti fast enough to handle a scenario where you would do the following 3 things?
1) play an HD movie on the TV.
2) play a game on the primary monitor
3) have a browser open on the secondary monitor. or play your music program on the secondary monitor.

I know it's asking a lot, but I just wanna get some input and see if anyone's tried something similar.
Here are the system specs:

i5 2500k
8GB RAM
560 Ti (Twin Frozr II version)
WD Caviar Black 1TB

edit: I just learned that some of the Z68 motherboards will have HDMI and DVI outputs. So does this mean you can run the HDTV off the motherbaord and the 2 monitors off the single 560?

With a Z68 board you will be able to run 3 monitors, but you can't on just a single chip Nvidia card atm. You would need to go the ATI route to do that, either that or shell out big bucks for an Nvidia dual chip card like the GTX590. An ATI 6950 is a very good fast and cheap option.

Yes, if you buy the Z68 board, you are able to run the TV off of that and 2 monitors off the 560TI.

[EciDemon]

I think due to hardware limitations you can not for example play a game on one display and then run browsers or what not in windows environment on the second one, given they are both connected to the 560ti card unless you run the game in "window mode".

I only have one display and usually play my games via steam as it has the steam overlay with browser when I need it.

[avesta]

Originally Posted by Muppet

With a Z68 board you will be able to run 3 monitors, but you can't on just a single chip Nvidia card atm. You would need to go the ATI route to do that, either that or shell out big bucks for an Nvidia dual chip card like the GTX590. An ATI 6950 is a very good fast and cheap option.

Yes, if you buy the Z68 board, you are able to run the TV off of that and 2 monitors off the 560TI.

muppet thanks for the reply.
A couple more questions:

If I run the TV through the motherboard, does it use horsepower from the graphics card? The thing is, what if I want to run games on the HDTV once in a while? I was thinking it would make more sense if the motherboard was hooked up to the secondary monitor which won't be doing anything too graphically intensive. So here's what I was thinking:

560Ti DVI 1 - Primary monitor
560Ti HDMI - HDTV
z68 - secondary monitor

Now, if I do this, I should be able to run an extended desktop with all 3 displays. Also, this gives me the ability to sometimes use the HDTV for gaming.
Does this make any sense?

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by avesta

muppet thanks for the reply.
A couple more questions:

If I run the TV through the motherboard, does it use horsepower from the graphics card? The thing is, what if I want to run games on the HDTV once in a while? I was thinking it would make more sense if the motherboard was hooked up to the secondary monitor which won't be doing anything too graphically intensive. So here's what I was thinking:

560Ti DVI 1 - Primary monitor
560Ti HDMI - HDTV
z68 - secondary monitor

Now, if I do this, I should be able to run an extended desktop with all 3 displays. Also, this gives me the ability to sometimes use the HDTV for gaming.
Does this make any sense?

The best way is to hook up your main gaming display (whichever it is) to the 560TI. I'm not sure how good the onboard is for gaming, but i'm sure it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the 560.

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by Muppet

With a Z68 board you will be able to run 3 monitors, but you can't on just a single chip Nvidia card atm. You would need to go the ATI route to do that, either that or shell out big bucks for an Nvidia dual chip card like the GTX590. An ATI 6950 is a very good fast and cheap option.

Yes, if you buy the Z68 board, you are able to run the TV off of that and 2 monitors off the 560TI.

Not quite true.

http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/0...eo_card_review

Currently, this Galaxy 560Ti, some GTX295s, GTX590, and the EVGA GTX4602Win are the single slot NVIDIA based solutions I'm aware of that run surround from a single slot.

[avesta]

I am still getting mixed input on whether I can achieve my triple display setup with the z68 board and a stock 560Ti. I've been told that when you're running off the PCIe, it disables the onboard graphics.

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by avesta

I am still getting mixed input on whether I can achieve my triple display setup with the z68 board and a stock 560Ti. I've been told that when you're running off the PCIe, it disables the onboard graphics.

You don't need the onboard with that Galaxy 560Ti I linked to- you run all three monitors off the 560Ti.

[avesta]

Originally Posted by Rollo

You don't need the onboard with that Galaxy 560Ti I linked to- you run all three monitors off the 560Ti.

Yeah I understand that. But it's a bit pricier than the stock 560Ti.
What I'm confused about is whether I can achieve my setup with a stock 560Ti and the z68.

Btw there's also a 6950 radeon flex edition from sapphire which lets you run 3 monitors without any displayport adapters.

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by Rollo

Not quite true.

http://hardocp.com/article/2011/09/0...eo_card_review

Currently, this Galaxy 560Ti, some GTX295s, GTX590, and the EVGA GTX4602Win are the single slot NVIDIA based solutions I'm aware of that run surround from a single slot.

He's not trying to run surround from my understanding, just have 3 monitors working at once. 2 off the card and one off the onboard.