GTX 980 Tri-SLI w/ 1440p Surround (3) monitor setup

[Sephonia]

So I'm planning to waste loads of cash in the very near future (Within the next 3 weeks) on a 1440p surround gaming setup w/ 3 GTX 980's, hopefully achieving half-decent frames in modern games. Stay tuned as this will be my pseudo-Build Log.

 

Parts Purchased (as of 09/23/14):  

1 x  Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E 8-Core 3.0GHz LGA 2011-v3

1 x  G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 2066MHz 

1 x EVGA X99 Classified (151-HE-E999-KR) LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard

1 x EVGA 220-P2-1200-X1 1200W ATX12V / EPS12V PSU

1 x Swiftech Apogee XLC LGA 1150/2011 CPU Water Block
A lot x fittings etc.

Parts still on backorder (as of 09/23/14):
3 x EVGA GTX 980 (note: if they release non-reference PCB's w/ higher VRAM I will be picking up that.)

3 x Asus ROG SWIFT 27" 2560x1440 Monitor (emailed Newegg, they said anywhere from 8-10 weeks out UUUUUGGGGHHHHHH)

3 x EK Waterblock for GTX 980

 

 

 

[WereCat]

Good luck with it!

[AlwaysFSX]

Oooooooh, I wanna see this.

[JoaoPRSousa]

Damn! Tri 980 SLI! Jebus!

 

I want some pics!

[Oshino Shinobu]

Sounds nice. Are you going to watercool them or just use the reference cooler? 

 

Not sure how well they'll run it, but it will be cool nonetheless. I'm interested to see how they perform in SLI. Also, any other specs?

[-TesseracT-]

What, if you're doing this in three weeks then you shouldn't post now...

[Oshino Shinobu]

It's not a waste of money. That's a smart setup, you're ready for just about any situation, and you could go 4k gaming if you wanted to later, lots of flexibility with the extra horsepower. Sounds pretty cool.

Well, in terms of resolution, 4K would be a downgrade  

[Oshino Shinobu]

What, if you're doing this in three weeks then you shouldn't post now...

Why not? My build log has been going on for over 2 months. Nothing says you have to do it all in one go. 

[Deletive]

3xROG swifts... please!

[-TesseracT-]

Why not? My build log has been going on for over 2 months. Nothing says you have to do it all in one go. 

ok, well good luck OP!

[dizmo]

What, if you're doing this in three weeks then you shouldn't post now...

Two words. Hype train.

[Prokart2000]

Two words. Hype train.

i want to see how this performs!

[Sephonia]

Proposed build is here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sephonia/saved/f7nG3C

 

Still haven't quite decided on a case. I'm split between Corsair 760T White, Corsair 900D, and Cooler Master Storm Stryker. The storm stryker seems more or less out given that the EVGA Z97 Classified board is the only one I can find that supports 3-way SLI and doesn't have a tremendous failure rate.

If anyone knows of a good z97 board supporting 3way SLI in ATX/E-ATX/XL-ATX form factor please let me know.
As for the Case - What do you guys think? I personally feel the 900D is way more space than I need, and I really enjoy the aesthetic of the storm stryker.

@ Yes, watercooled. Mostly EK, but a Swiftech Apogee XLC for the CPU (it's too sexy to pass up). The idea is white/black/red scheme.
@-TesseracT- My apologies for not being able to order many of the same parts at the same time due to household limits

 

-Space saving edit-

I Also just realized my rinky-rink desk ain't gonna cut it for this build. Would anyone happen to know of any nice basic desks? Basic as in, just the desktop, no slidey garbage keyboard trays. Preferably a corner desk as I'm strapped for space.

[Wantcownow]

Proposed build is here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sephonia/saved/f7nG3C

 

 

Its private lol

[Sephonia]

DERP I didn't even realize. Swapped it over to public (link seems to be the same) http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sephonia/saved/f7nG3C 
I've been trying to learn C++/C#, you think I'd know better than to assume things are public by default ahha!

[Optimus Prime]

Mate. Go x99 if u want to play at res...

Much smarter nd more powerful

[Sephonia]

@Optimus Prime Please do elaborate? I don't believe I'll see any significant improvement in games/work w/ the x99 chipset/enthusiast processors. If I'm wrong please point me to a source and I'll educate myself :3.

[Optimus Prime]

@Optimus Prime Please do elaborate? I don't believe I'll see any significant improvement in games/work w/ the x99 chipset/enthusiast processors. If I'm wrong please point me to a source and I'll educate myself :3.

 

Apologies for the syntax used in my original post. I was eating whilst typing on my phone and it got auto corrected to hell and back

 

As for what I said, it quite literally comes down to one word....BANDWIDTH

 

 

Z97 would quickly becoming a bottleneck for high res, multi gpu configurations.

 

The advantage that X99 has is as follows

 

More native PCIE lans                      Z97 uses a PLX chip to achieve the extra lanes but at the cost of latency which is bad, also can cause bottlenecks for high bandwidth cars like 780/780ti/R9 290/x

Faster and physically more ram       At high resolutions/High FPS you need as much bandwidth as possible

8 Core CPU with Hyperthreading     Z97 only has a 4 core with hyper threading.  CPU clock speed and core count can become a bottle neck at high resolutions or in very cpu intensive games

 

Source: way to much time spent on OCN/LTT and tech youtube channels

[Sephonia]

Okey-dokey just did my research, i7 4790k supports a max of 16 PCIe lanes while the 5930k and 5960x support 40 each and seeing how the board i'm looking at (EVGA x99 classified) supports 3way SLI in 16x/8x/8x, I'm going to need at least 32 PCIe lanes.

Shoutout to @Optimus Prime for helping me avoid a terrible bottleneck and seeing the light of X99, very helpful!! Will be editing this post later w/ new build idea.

 

- new knowledge edit - 
It seems like I may have to wait for aftermarket 980's with higher VRAM for running a three screen configuration at 2560x1440 in conjunction w/ a 5960x to support the PCIe lanes required. if they release a 980 6gb/8gb series I should be A-O-K! (pref the 8 over 6 obviously).

my dumb logic: various GTX 980 (stock clocked) benchmarks show the card dealing well in a wide variety of situations on ultra settings at 2560x1440 res, however, it begins to struggle with those same standards at 4k on a single monitor. Given that 7680x1440p is quite a bit larger than 4k, I may run into some serious issues just holding the amount of memory required to run such a res regardless of my GPU config since the only available 980's are capped at 4gb VRAM.

 

Thoughts/comments on the idea?

 = more knowledge!= 

So I kept digging around and found this benchmark and play test combo http://www.digitalstormonline.com/unlocked/3-way-sli-nvidia-gtx-980-review-benchmarks-at-4k-idnum326/  that link is testing 3way 980 SLI w/ a 5960x @ 4k. Important quote:

 

 

"We also had the system bench running a 5960X at 4.6 GHz."

So with a heavily OC'd 5960x and no OC on the 980's themselves, the rig does somewhat decent in BF4 (showing either peak or avg) fps of 60.3, slightly better in Bioshock Infinite at 78.6 and then down a bit to 68.9 in Crysis 3 at 4k.
Conclusion? While incredibly power efficient, flagship SLI driver support is poor, as is to be expected. What I would have loved to see in these benchmarks however, is VRAM usage, as it is a HUGE factor in multi-monitor setups.

It seems I will be slowly picking up parts for this build over the next month or two... possibly as late as December, to try and catch what few deals I can. Letting prices slide a bit on DDR4 and possibly other components will be nice too while I patiently await a 980 (>4gb) series of cards.

[Keyboard Warrior]

Okey-dokey just did my research, i7 4790k supports a max of 16 PCIe lanes while the 5930k and 5960x support 40 each and seeing how the board i'm looking at (EVGA x99 classified) supports 3way SLI in 16x/8x/8x, I'm going to need at least 32 PCIe lanes.

Not true. You can get a 5820k and the cards will run art 8,8,8 . 

[Freaky_spider]

X99 isnt necesairy for 3-way SLI

 

i can link you a story but its in dutch tho,

 

in the end its a 2% (out the top of my head) increase with more PCIe lanes

[Jumper118]

So I'm planning to waste loads of cash in the very near future (Within the next 3 weeks) on a 1440p surround gaming setup w/ 3 GTX 980's, hopefully achieving half-decent frames in modern games. Stay tuned as this will be my pseudo-Build Log.

excellent. make sure you run valley and post it in the valley thread. triple gpu's are rare.

[Sephonia]

@Freaky_spider I would enjoy that link :3
@Jumper118 I tried to find this "valley thread" your talking about, link me to it please. Also... valley is a benchmark software, I'm guessing? Where do I get it/ how much is it.

[Optimus Prime]

X99 isnt necesairy for 3-way SLI

i can link you a story but its in dutch tho,

in the end its a 2% (out the top of my head) increase with more PCIe lanes

If you need a main stream lga ll** board to run 3 way sli you should be looking at enthusiast x series mono's.

Also that's lane speed. X99 allows more cards to be used at the same time without latency which is the big problem with plc chips

[Freaky_spider]

@Freaky_spider I would enjoy that link :3

@Jumper118 I tried to find this "valley thread" your talking about, link me to it please. Also... valley is a benchmark software, I'm guessing? Where do I get it/ how much is it.

http://be.hardware.info/reviews/5247/4/test-hoeveel-pci-express-lanes-is-optimaal-voor-sli-resultaten