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

[Jacknif]

HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE

 

PICS

[Sephonia]

So my CPU waterblock came today aaaaand... wrong part was shipped. QQ

[Maverick5500]

So my CPU waterblock came today aaaaand... wrong part was shipped. QQ

 

 wow thats unlucky been looking forward to this

[Muramasa]

@Sephonia

 

Seen a couple people saying that Z97 wouldn't be a problem for Tri-SLI @7860x1440.

 

Imma post some graphs:

 

As you can see, when running at a really big resolution, more bandwidth (In this case pcie 2.0 vs 3.0) will lead to a very noticeable frame rate improvement. Sometimes even up to 30%!

 

So when stepping up to 7860x1400, you will need all of the pci lanes you can get. And also try to source a board that can run at PCIe 3.0 16x16x16 because when your spending 1000s on this setup, you don't want silly bottlenecks.

 

Good luck with the build!

 

Edit: Looks like the EVGA board you want runs 16x16x8 which should be good enough as long as your cards aren't hitting a memory bottleneck. This was the reason I personally put off doing a 7860x1440 build myself, as at the time the only cards that didn't have a memory bottleneck that weren't Titans were the 780 6GB cards. But unfortunately they JUST lacked the GPU horsepower to get a stable 60fps (Unless I was wiling to overclock them more than I was comfortable doing). So going for 6 or 8gb 980s should be a great setup

[Sephonia]

@Muramasa I haven't found any boards that even support x16/x16/x16 that just seems ludicrous to me atm lol. The EVGA board looks promising and it was shipped with the VRM heatsink still attached, huzzah! (Many reviewers had an issue with it coming loose because it is really big and bulky. Strange)  This build may still be a ways out however, as we have no idea how long untill 6/8g (im praying for 8g) non-reference PCB's and their accompanying waterblocks will be released *cries*. I also can't find any Asus ROG Swift monitors in stock aaaaanywhere so if anyone see's them, please let me know!

 

-Edit-

I'm hoping AMD releases some craziness soon and forces Nvidia to release like an 8Gb 980 variant (but if i'm understanding correctly, 980ti isn't even possible lol)

[Curlz]

@Muramasa I haven't found any boards that even support x16/x16/x16 that just seems ludicrous to me atm lol. The EVGA board looks promising and it was shipped with the VRM heatsink still attached, huzzah! (Many reviewers had an issue with it coming loose because it is really big and bulky. Strange)  This build may still be a ways out however, as we have no idea how long untill 6/8g (im praying for 8g) non-reference PCB's and their accompanying waterblocks will be released *cries*. I also can't find any Asus ROG Swift monitors in stock aaaaanywhere so if anyone see's them, please let me know!

 

-Edit-

I'm hoping AMD releases some craziness soon and forces Nvidia to release like an 8Gb 980 variant (but if i'm understanding correctly, 980ti isn't even possible lol)

@Sephonia

 

Most of the X99 chip set boards will support x16/x16x16x/16x as long as they have a 40 lane CPU installed.  Since you are creating a gaming machine I suggest the Asus Rampage V Extreme as this can give you a couple-ish more frames a second and has good overclocking capabilities.  Details here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/RAMPAGE_V_EXTREME/specifications/

 

In saying that, most of the x99 chip set boards will be very similar in performance and is a matter of preference.

 

I think Muramasa has showed the importance of using a motherboard that can support Pcie 3.0 and the benefit of using a motherboard that can support 16x/16x/16x

 

-Curlz

[Exotath]

The X99 Rampage does 16/8/8/8 as shown in their specifications. To my knowledge there is only one X99 board that does true 4x-16X and that would be the X99 WS. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WS/

[Curlz]

The X99 Rampage does 16/8/8/8 as shown in their specifications. To my knowledge there is only one X99 board that does true 4x-16X and that would be the X99 WS. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WS/

My bad, you are absolutely right.  Thanks for correcting me.

 

-Curlz

[Sephonia]

Yea, I was looking at the various boards available with x16/x16/x16 and it came down to, "Do I really want to spend an extra $100.00 (USD) per frame? No, no I do not..." I mean, I get it, I'm spending a lot here, but I'm not being wasteful... kind of...

[Muramasa]

@Sephonia

A recommendation I would of made before you already bought half your parts would have been it just get a 4930k as it also has 40 pcie lanes. Looking at DDR4 prices you might of been able to get a stick by selling a family member... Lol

[Sephonia]

meh, 6 core vs 8 core, the 8 core will help out more w/ school / work (rendering, compiling, etc.) assuming of course things are programmed for it. *shrug* Don't care, threw money at meh problemz :3

[Optimus Prime]

The X99 Rampage does 16/8/8/8 as shown in their specifications. To my knowledge there is only one X99 board that does true 4x-16X and that would be the X99 WS. http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/X99E_WS/

The ws board uses a plx chip....

[Exotath]

The ws board uses a plx chip....

No one said it didn't? How else would it do 4 way x16? Magic?

[Ate]

That's me playing bf4 with 3 swifts, damn, best gaming experience! There's occasional frame drops on 2 980s though... Tri sli will definitely work!

[Optimus Prime]

No one said it didn't? How else would it do 4 way x16? Magic?

You said "TRUE" 4-16x....

[Sephonia]

@Ate Man, I can't wait @_@ but... occasional framedrops in bf4... really hoping a 3rd card and possible 6/8Gb variants soon will prevent that, but even then, future games on UE4 are probably going to murder my system at that res T_T

[Lays]

Imo you should get ips monitors instead, they're cheaper than rog swift and will have better image quality, you won't really be able to hit 144 fps or even much above 60 at 7680 1440 at ultra settings.http://www.overclock.net/t/1415441/7680x1440-benchmarks-plus-2-3-4-way-sli-gk110-scaling

[MarQue98]

How can one afford this kind of pc as a student..

Subbed though

[Ralphington]

That's me playing bf4 with 3 swifts, damn, best gaming experience! There's occasional frame drops on 2 980s though... Tri sli will definitely work!

That must have been sooo cool, but what i'm interested in is what is that headset!?!?!?

[Maverick5500]

Imo you should get ips monitors instead, they're cheaper than rog swift and will have better image quality, you won't really be able to hit 144 fps or even much above 60 at 7680 1440 at ultra settings.http://www.overclock.net/t/1415441/7680x1440-benchmarks-plus-2-3-4-way-sli-gk110-scaling

The fps doesn't matter with gsync the swift has amazing colours for a tn watch linus' review of it

[Sephonia]

@MarQue98 Long story short, parents/family are all completely fucking nuts and have plenty of money. They'll pay for this rig, but they won't even begin to help w/ my college. Currently at 50k (30k unsub, 20k sub) in student loans... I'm probably going to sell this rig at some point, desk included. Hopefully get the money back, put that towards school. (Hope that didn't raise more questions than answers)

[MarQue98]

@MarQue98 Long story short, parents/family are all completely fucking nuts and have plenty of money. They'll pay for this rig, but they won't even begin to help w/ my college. Currently at 50k (30k unsub, 20k sub) in student loans... I'm probably going to sell this rig at some point, desk included. Hopefully get the money back, put that towards school. (Hope that didn't raise more questions than answers)

damn.. this is the first time i hear from parents that help someone invest in the greatest distraction from school ever, and then being like "meh, college is your problem"

kinda not cool though.. i probably wouldn't even be able to buy such an awesome rig if i new i'd have to sell it anyways.. good luck

[Ate]

That must have been sooo cool, but what i'm interested in is what is that headset!?!?!?

All peripherals belongs to the strix line, other than those monitors, all unreleased as of now

[Ralphington]

All peripherals belongs to the strix line, other than those monitors, all unreleased as of now

Thanks! I'll have to look into it. 

[Muramasa]

@Ate Man, I can't wait @_@ but... occasional framedrops in bf4... really hoping a 3rd card and possible 6/8Gb variants soon will prevent that, but even then, future games on UE4 are probably going to murder my system at that res T_T

Most games will hit the 4gb VRAM limit in 7860x1400 (Gathered from looking at 290x benchmarks at that res) and asus probably had the game running on high or ultra

Also, I want to warm you before you buy the cards that 980s might not even have enough horsepower for this setup.. I mean.. maybe for a year or two but if you're planning on keeping this system for a while, it could hit gpu bottlenecks pretty quick. Even a 780 is not a great option for this setup because along with its 3gb VRAM, the speed of the card just can JUST get 60fps when it isn't maxing out it's memory and killing the framerate (And thats in Tri-Sli) and of course, you will have G-Sync so you might not even mind running lower than 60.

 

Now, I know you probably aren't building this system so it's 100% safe when it comes to the cards keeping up with games, but I would personally wait for 980 Ti cards. And of course you have already bought your motherboard (Just throwing suggestions around in case anyone else wants to run 7860x1440) would maybe going with the Asus X99 WS or something that can do 4 way x16. Now that isn't for the GPUs, but rather for the confidence that if down the line you throw in a PCIe card that uses like x4 or x8 it won't have an effect on the GPUs as you will have a whole x16 slot worth of bandwidth left over.