Need Config advice 3 monitors. What video cards?

I guess you could break it down by a game by game basis, just try to look up how a single 470 or 580 performs on that game at 1920x1200, and go from there. If a single 470 performs about where you'd want at 1920x1200 then I'd say go with two 580s, if a single 470 performs better than you need at 1920x1200 then maybe you could get away with just two 470s.

Remember gaming on three monitors is really demanding, three times as many pixels to push, 1920x1200x3.

Though overall, without going by any specific game by game basis, I would go with two 580s myself.

Thank you for the feedback. I was afraid that would be the case. I may just end up getting one 580 and get the other when they go down in price.

i agree with ender about the tri monitor setup. not to mention the prison bars... i would assume that the border of your monitor is about 1 inch maybe a tad more... so double that between the screens.

honestly this is more of a bragging right thing then something of actual use atm. when they can make monitor set ups that are border less i would look into it my self but at this point in time i would wait on that.

besides as ender said and i fully agree with the bigger the monitor the more you have to look around tog et the full picture, in fast paced situations you will not have the time to look around. i also game on a 23 inch monitor and i can't see the whole thing and my view distance is about 2.5 feet maybe three.

but hey if this is what you want go for it. i would have to say the tri monitor set up is great for in the cockpit view. in terms of gpu i would go with the dual 580's if you can do it. slightly cheaper dual 480 or tri 470. if budget is a concern you may want to get the tri monitor set up on your enxt one when the technology has had time to perfect its self. as of now the tech is still pretty new and there is plenty of room for improvement

To go against why everyone seems to say 3 monitor gaming isn't that good i have to disagree. i haven't tried it yet but my rig is going to have it.
You wouldn't be turning your head because it just uses your perefrial vision (i can't spell that but i think you guys know what i'm getting at). So if i was playing cod and i wanted to check to my left and right instead of having to move the character quickly i could just look forward and glance over the right and left screen quickly so i could check all directions at once. i think it would be a big advantage. It wouldn't be annoying since the focus would still be on the main screen.

For the cards you definately need a gtx 480x2 sli or higher. the 470sli wouldn't be good enough. i saw toms hardware did a review of it and got around 20fps and some games were unplayable.
tri sli would be best but dual sli should do it with the gtx 480 or above.

not everyone needs 16x aa and af
i have been gaming in 600x800 for a while im kinda used to it

i see it as saving $500 and if i don't like it play on one monitor.