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A few questions

Over
By Over
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Hello.

 

I have a few doubts and I don't know if I should make different topics for each one or if I can just put them in a single topic like this. But here it goes, by subject.

 

First, I'm sorry for the quantity of questions, some might be silly to you. But I would be grateful if you could help me.

 

1. Monitors

 

a) I have an i7 4770K (not OC'd) with a (factory OC'd) GTX 780 and 16GB RAM. I like to play games with graphics on ultra or at least very high. Can I manage that in a 1440p monitor? Or will I need another GTX 780 in SLI?

 

b) It's true that for 120Hz and 144Hz monitors, if you get a FPS bellow those numbers, the game will stutter/lag/whatever?

 

c) It's true that the higher the refresh rate, the worse the image quality will be? If yes, how significant is that?

 

d) Besides Battlefield 4, I don't play competitively any other FPS games. Just in single-player. Having that in consideration, a VA panel or even IPS monitor is good for gaming, or the slower response times and refresh rates will be too noticeable? (Consider I'm used to play in a 60Hz monitor, 2ms response time, the Samsung Syncmaster 226BW, for many years)

 

e) A second monitor, if it's only displaying the desktop, the web browser and such... Will it impact significantly game performance (assuming I'm playing the game only in the primary monitor)?

 

f) What are the best 24" and <300€ monitors you could recommend me, considering I'm a gamer, but I don't need any extra edge to play competitively (but hate te feel of mouse acceleration, lag and such). I'm used to play in a TN  60Hz monitor with 2ms response time (see d)).

 

g) Same question as f), but for 27" 1440p monitors (which I know are more expensive), for <500€.

 

h) For questions f) and g), feel free to add a suggestion of a monitor above the budget, if you know it's a clearly much superior monitor, really really worth the extra €€.

 

 

2. SLI

 

a) Is it true that I'll have to find profiles, tweaks and such for most games to be fully compatible with SLI?

 

b) In case I decide to use SLI, will I have to change my Corsair Pro 650W PSU? (I have an EVGA GTX 780 SC ACX)

 

c) If I decide to use SLI, I'll have to use the same brand and model of the GPU? That is, I can't add an ASUS GPU to my EVGA's? What if they have different clock speeds (the EVGA is OC'd from factory)?

 

d) If a game is incompatible with SLI, can I deactivate SLI through software, or would I need to remove the GPU?

 

e) Besides a Noctua CPU cooler, I don't have any extra cooling fans, besides the one that came with my Fractal Design case. If I use SLI, should I look into more cooling options? If yes, what would you recommend?

 

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Over
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1a. Most games it probably can but it will have troubles in the more demanding games where you will have to drop down to med/high or drop specific settings.

1b. I don't know, wait for others to give you that answer.

1c. That's not true at all. The thing that that 120/144Hz monitor have TN panels which have less accurate color-reproduction and worse viewing angles but that's it. It's not tied to the refresh rate but to the type of panel.

1d. I also gamed on 2ms monitors but now on 6ms and honestly I only really noticed it in games like CS:S that have no camera acceleration whatsoever.

1e. It will cost about 1 fps on desktop and about 1-5 on youtube videos and such, the impact is minimal.

1f. Will recommend in a moment.

1g. Same as 1f

1h. I'm not an expert so I do not know which are the best. The ones I know are good are down below.

 

2a. Most newer games are compatible already, it's usually the older games that see a decrease in performance with SLI but those games 99.9% of the time don't need SLI to run on the highest settings at 60 fps.

2b. Yes, a 650W PSU does not give enough space for other devices/overclocks. I recommend getting a 750W PSU for NVidia SLI and 850W for AMD CF (EVGA G2 750/850W, Corsair RM750/850)

2c. Not same brand, they just have to be the same GPU so you can SLI with 1 ASUS 780 and 1 EVGA 780. The speed of the cards will be dictated by the primary card if I recall correctly.

2d. You can deactivate SLI via software. You can also remove the SLI bridge (which is done in seconds, it's that easy)

2e. The reference cooler is more suitable than the ACX Cooler for SLI (due to how it dissipates heat) that could be worth looking into. Also I do recommend utilizing all case fan options to keep everything cooled.

 

A few monitor suggestions (Note, I filtered for 24-27" monitor. If you don't mind 23" just say so but I was under the impression you wanted a 27" monitor):

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-ve278q - 27" 1080p native, 2ms, TN panel, 60Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vx279q - 27" 1080p native, 5ms, IPS panel, 60Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-pb278q - 27" 1440p native, 5ms, IPS panel, 60HZ

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vg278he - 27" 1080p native, 2ms, TN panel, 144Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-90lm00u0b01370 - 27" 1440p native, 1ms, TN panel, 144Hz - This is the only low response time 1440p monitor there is but it's damn expensive at $807,58

RIG: I7-4790k @ 4.5GHz | MSI Z97S SLI Plus | 12GB Geil Dragon RAM 1333MHz | Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970 (1550MHz core/7800MHz memory) @ +18mV(Maxed out at 1650/7800 so far) | Corsair RM750 | Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, 1TB Seagate Barracuda | Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (Closed) | Sound Blaster Z                                                                                                                        Getting: Noctua NH-D15 | Possible 250GB Samsung 850 Evo                                                                                        Need a console killer that actually shits on every console? Here you go (No MIR/Promo)

This is why you should not get an FX CPU for ANY scenario other than rendering on a budget http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/286142-fx-8350-r9-290-psu-requirements/?p=3892901 | http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/266481-an-issue-with-people-bashing-the-fx-cpus/?p=3620861

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a single 780 can play a lot of games at high at 1440p but two can for sure max out any game

 

if you drop below the monitors refresh rate you will experience input lag only if you have Vsync enabled

 

the higher refresh rate does not make image quality bad with the exception of say IPS panels which cant respond fast enough

 

 

2.a no its not true you need to download separate  profiles for SLI they are included in Nvidia driver updates

 

2.b for 2 780s 650w is cutting it close

 

2.c you can SLI different branded 780s ( i have an evga and a zotac for example) all that will happen is the faster card will downclock to match the slower card in my case the zotac is faster

 

2.d you can disable or enable SLI through nvidia control panel you can even disable it only for certain applications

 

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1.

a) The 3gb should be ok at 1440p, with a bit of a performance loss but you could put a little overclock on the card to help.

b )I believe only at very low FPS or if the fps isn't very constant and drops a lot.

c) Only because there TN panels not IPS, IPS have slower refresh rates but better colour accuracy.

d) As long as it's above 5ms than you should be ok.

e) Almost none

f) Not really sure but Asus and BenQ make good gaming monitors.

g) Same as f

h) Same as f

 

2.

a) Most newer games have full SLI support such as bf4, only with older games you will have issues.

b )Yes, at least 800w 

c) Not always, if they use the reference pcb then they should work together, just do some research on 780s that will work with each other.

d) You can just disable the second card.

CPU: 6600K @ 4.6Ghz | COOLER: H100i GTX | MOBO: Asus Z170 AR | GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti Hybrid | RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB | 

CASE: Corsair 760T | PSU: Corsair RM750x | STORAGE: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB & Seagate 2TB | KEYBOARD: K70 RGB | MOUSE: Deathadder Elite

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b )Yes, at least 800w 

750W is more than enough. The at least 800W is really only for AMD CF on the higher end cards.

RIG: I7-4790k @ 4.5GHz | MSI Z97S SLI Plus | 12GB Geil Dragon RAM 1333MHz | Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970 (1550MHz core/7800MHz memory) @ +18mV(Maxed out at 1650/7800 so far) | Corsair RM750 | Samsung 840 EVO 120GB, 1TB Seagate Barracuda | Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (Closed) | Sound Blaster Z                                                                                                                        Getting: Noctua NH-D15 | Possible 250GB Samsung 850 Evo                                                                                        Need a console killer that actually shits on every console? Here you go (No MIR/Promo)

This is why you should not get an FX CPU for ANY scenario other than rendering on a budget http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/286142-fx-8350-r9-290-psu-requirements/?p=3892901 | http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/266481-an-issue-with-people-bashing-the-fx-cpus/?p=3620861

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750W is more than enough. The at least 800W is really only for AMD CF on the higher end cards.

my system at absolute max draw is just over 800 watts but i do have a couple of add ons and other things plugged into my power supply. getting a bigger PSU can be more efficient since 80 + ratings are for around 50% load

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Thanks for the replies, guys. Just a few more questions (in blue):

 

(...)

1c. That's not true at all. The thing that that 120/144Hz monitor have TN panels which have less accurate color-reproduction and worse viewing angles but that's it. It's not tied to the refresh rate but to the type of panel.

 

I've asked this due to a review of a monitor (BenQ), where the reviewer mentioned a little bit color depth loss and brighter blacks when the 120Hz and 144Hz were selected. I just don't know if that's particular to that monitor or if that's how most TN panels operate.

 

2e. The reference cooler is more suitable than the ACX Cooler for SLI (due to how it dissipates heat) that could be worth looking into. Also I do recommend utilizing all case fan options to keep everything cooled.

 

Thanks for the tip, I wasn't aware of that. I'll check it out, if I decide to SLI.

 

A few monitor suggestions (Note, I filtered for 24-27" monitor. If you don't mind 23" just say so but I was under the impression you wanted a 27" monitor):

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-ve278q - 27" 1080p native, 2ms, TN panel, 60Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vx279q - 27" 1080p native, 5ms, IPS panel, 60Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-pb278q - 27" 1440p native, 5ms, IPS panel, 60HZ

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vg278he - 27" 1080p native, 2ms, TN panel, 144Hz

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-90lm00u0b01370 - 27" 1440p native, 1ms, TN panel, 144Hz - This is the only low response time 1440p monitor there is but it's damn expensive at $807,58

 

I've edited my post. I was thinking buying a 24" 1080p monitor or a 27" 1440p (due to pixel density).

That last one looks really tempting. But too expensive. BTW, you mentioned you have a 6ms monitor, which one is it?

 

 

if you drop below the monitors refresh rate you will experience input lag only if you have Vsync enabled

 

Thanks for the tip. BTW, if I get a monitor with G-Sync, that won't be a problem?

 

(...)

 

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