GTX 980 SLI, can it run 3 4k screens?

[JaydenThatcher]

I am making a build for 4k, two GTX 980's which will be powering 3 4k screens. (Asus pb487q)

But before I buy I want to make sue it will run right

 

My first issue is normal use (desktop) How much will having these screens affect my performance?

 

My second is "ingame" Looking at the benchmarks you get pretty low fps) around 50-59 for a single 4k display (at max settings which is not biggie for me but still), I don't want to spend all this money on 4k and then have to down size to 2.7 or 1080P because of lag

 

And third, surround gaming. I would really like to try surround gaming in games like arma and a few racing sims but is 1.5 billion pixels to much to push? If the 980s only get 50-59 with a single 4k and 50-59 with 1080p 3 screen what will that translate to with 4k 3 screens I wouldn't mind down scaling the few times I would do this, just to test what It would be like I downscaled some games today and it wasn't that bad, but still, its a lot of money for "wasn't that bad" if you know what I mean...

 

One reason I really want 4k is I can video edit in 4k, I do a lot of weddings and commercial videos and would love to get a 4k camera etc... (+ to future proof my self)

 

After watching Linus's video about surround using crossfire 290x 8gb I think that may be the only way to get 4k the way I want, but no one else seems to recommend them at all so I don't really know what to do, hence why I am talking to you fine people!

 

Thanks

Jayden

 

 

[H4X3R]

You better wait for the R9 390X, that'll do a much better job at it than a 980.

 

You will NOT be playing games @ medium or higher with 2 x 980.

[gollum99]

why dont u just get 2 1080p or 1440p and one 4k in the middle? you would still ahve 4k but not so much to power.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

GTX 980 SLI can just barely get 60 fps on 1 4K monitor. Obviously 4K surround isn't going to work out very well.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

I wouldn't even bother thinking about getting 3 4k monitors for surround, its just not possible at the moment, unless you want 30fps medium settings, even 4 980s cant run it, even a SINGLE 4k screen is very demanding

 

even 1440p surround is quite tough but this is probably your best option

 

personally if you are going for surround, stick to triple 1080p (or 1440p MAX) and go 1440p 120z or 4k 60hz if you want a single big screen with good FPS

[SuperPug]

4k surround at decent framerates is just not feasible with current hardware.. But do you really need 4k monitors in your peripheral vision? Do you even need surround to begin with? In most games its not that great anyway.

[Suffokation]

You can "run it".

Can you game on it? Ha.

[eelnico09]

I mean, you won't see a "your hardware is not enough for 4k x3" message, but yeah...

[Overl0rd]

A Titan Z was able to run Battlefield 4 at triple 4K with LOW settings at 25 fps.

 

So no, I don't think you can.

[Pro_LiZzy]

You can probably run 3 4k monitor but you can't game on all 3 of them with decent FPS.

[JaydenThatcher]

I wouldn't even bother thinking about getting 3 4k monitors for surround, its just not possible at the moment, unless you want 30fps medium settings, even 4 980s cant run it, even a SINGLE 4k screen is very demanding

 

even 1440p surround is quite tough but this is probably your best option

 

personally if you are going for surround, stick to triple 1080p (or 1440p MAX) and go 1440p 120z or 4k 60hz if you want a single big screen with good FPS

Ok, so what would happen if I had 1 4k in the middle and 2 1080 (or if possible 1440) with surround? I'm not to fussed about desktop use between the two resolutions as I currently have two monitors with different resolutions.

[TheKDub]

You better wait for the R9 390X, that'll do a much better job at it than a 980.

 

You will NOT be playing games @ medium or higher with 2 x 980.

 

It might do a much better job*

[Recon97]

For that you need to have 4 980s

[salecar3]

i woad agree wight 1 4k monitor and rest 1080p but i woad much rather opt fore triple 1440p or 1440p wight dual 1080p monitors  since 4k is taking 4x pixels than 1080p  and emagine 3 of them imposblie 1440p is 2x pixels so i thing that a single 970 can run 1440p games and ultra and hight settings i think dual 980 shoad run 3 1440p monitors or get 2 1440p and single 1080p if u want but i woad reccomend triple 1440p or single 1440p and dual 1080p wight low to medium setting you shoad have 30fps afrage fore most game(higher in some cases)but choise is yours so do whatever you want

[Najuno]

I can tell you from personal experience with 4K that a 4K surround isn´t going to be a good experience at all at this time. I´ve got a GTX980 3way SLI and this setup is awesome for 1 4K monitor, but not for a 4K surround when you want to game on it.

 

With a 2way GTX980 I had in very high settings massive FPS drops in current AAA games. The 3rd card improved my min FPS and I don´t get that much FPS drops anymore and course my max FPS went up. But for me it isn´t really worth the money. So if you are really interested in a 4K surround setup to play actual games on it, I´d recommend to wait on AMD´s and nVidia´s new highend cards.

 

With my 3way SLI in games like Dragon Age: Inquisition my FPS never drop below 42 now, which is awesome, but the investment behind it is too big reagarding, that I´m talking here about 4K on one monitor. Micro stuttering isn´t a topic at all, it´s fine even with 3 cards.

[Ahimoth]

No 3 4k monitors is not doable at this time. Maybe in a year or two.

[JaydenThatcher]

I can tell you from personal experience with 4K that a 4K surround isn´t going to be a good experience at all at this time. I´ve got a GTX980 3way SLI and this setup is awesome for 1 4K monitor, but not for a 4K surround when you want to game on it.

 

With a 2way GTX980 I had in very high settings massive FPS drops in current AAA games. The 3rd card improved my min FPS and I don´t get that much FPS drops anymore and course my max FPS went up. But for me it isn´t really worth the money. So if you are really interested in a 4K surround setup to play actual games on it, I´d recommend to wait on AMD´s and nVidia´s new highend cards.

 

With my 3way SLI in games like Dragon Age: Inquisition my FPS never drop below 42 now, which is awesome, but the investment behind it is too big reagarding, that I´m talking here about 4K on one monitor. Micro stuttering isn´t a topic at all, it´s fine even with 3 cards.

Ok so say I get 1 1440p screen (center) and then two 1080p screens, how does that work with surround? Will the center screen downgrade to match the rest or will it stay 1440p?

Do you think this rig could run 3 1440p screens (surround)

I would like to run at lest high settings anything less is pointless to me (for the money)

Thanks

[small2cats]

Even at 2 4k screens, the GPUs will run out of VRAM fast on high settings in the latest games. For now you just can't get surround with 4k displays on any card with any config. 3 1440p screens will work good, but you won't be able to max out latest games with AA and ultra textures and stuff. Keep in mind that the more GPUs you add, the worse the scaling gets in games. Your suggestion of adding 1 1440p screen and 2 1080p screens will work good, but it will cause issues in games, you'll have to manually set the resolution to 1080p on the 1440p monitor for games to work properly. Best bet is to get three 1080p screens or wait till GPUs become powerful enough to handle 4k.

[Najuno]

Ok so say I get 1 1440p screen (center) and then two 1080p screens, how does that work with surround? Will the center screen downgrade to match the rest or will it stay 1440p?

Do you think this rig could run 3 1440p screens (surround)

I would like to run at lest high settings anything less is pointless to me (for the money)

Thanks

I would never mix different resolutions when it comes to SLI, because it's impossible to run native resolution on the one hand and on the other this is a scenario that creates issues for nVidia's surround sometimes.

 

A 2.5K surround, 3 1440p monitors with a GTX980 3way SLI is indeed possible. As long as you don't expect 3 Asus RoG Swift monitors running each one at 100+ FPS .

 

I've tested 1440p with 1 GPU and the GTX980 is awesome for this! I could go to very high settings in every game I tested and the card pulled it out perfectly fine. Of course not with max AA settings but in all reality we are talking about 1440p and GM204 with MFAA (if supported), that means max AA isn't necessary because it looks super crisp and sharp already.

 

The games I tested were Dragon Age:Inquisition, TheCrew, DeadSpace3, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, The Forest. All was fine.

[GloriousPain]

I suggest either looking forward or backward... Forward being waiting on next gen and get maybe an R9 390x or looking at last gen and get something along the lines of Titan Z... Or your idea of 290x 8GB Crossfire

none of these will really work for triple 2160p gaming though you'd probably want  a 3 or 4 way setup for that (and even that wouldn't guarantee-ably work)

[m_tieu]

I was thinking about doing something like this at one point and determined that it's not possible or worth it with current generation products. 4k panels will get better as there are lots of issues with the ones currently out and graphics cards will become more efficient in running them.

[JaydenThatcher]

I would never mix different resolutions when it comes to SLI, because it's impossible to run native resolution on the one hand and on the other this is a scenario that creates issues for nVidia's surround sometimes.

 

A 2.5K surround, 3 1440p monitors with a GTX980 3way SLI is indeed possible. As long as you don't expect 3 Asus RoG Swift monitors running each one at 100+ FPS .

 

I've tested 1440p with 1 GPU and the GTX980 is awesome for this! I could go to very high settings in every game I tested and the card pulled it out perfectly fine. Of course not with max AA settings but in all reality we are talking about 1440p and GM204 with MFAA (if supported), that means max AA isn't necessary because it looks super crisp and sharp already.

 

The games I tested were Dragon Age:Inquisition, TheCrew, DeadSpace3, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, The Forest. All was fine.

So you don't think I could do 3 1440p screens with just 2 cards?