4 Monitor gaming performance

[MYSTICmayonaise]

hello, I am about to purchase a few monitors (saving up for a few $100-200 monitors, perhaps from dell, as it matches my laptop and a few of their monitors have very thin bezels) and I am curious how much of a performance hit my system will take. I know driving that many pixels is harder, but how much harder? 

 

Current specs of PC

-5820k at 4.2 ghz

-dual EVGA 780 SC (with a minor overclock) they are both 3 GB cards

-16 gb of ddr4

-250 Gb ssd

-1tb hard drive

 

and my current display is an old (7+ year old) 52 inch samsung LCD TV (which will be the 4th monitor, as my PC is a home theater PC, I have a desk right next to it which will have the monitors on it)

 

I generally intend to play games on one of the monitors at a time, with only a few games that i would run on all 3.

 

I am just wondering if anyone has a similar set up, and if you might have a guess as to what i should expect.

 

Thank you for reading, and thanks for your replies as well

 

 

P.S. I am aware that one GTX 980 would generally run better, but im on a budget currently, and I got both my cards for around $400 (total for both of them)

But in games that support SLI two 780's is better anyway...so...trade-offs.

[don_svetlio]

4x lower fps if gaming on all of them. Also - 3GB of VRAM is not enough even for 2 monitor gaming. - for 4 you want 8GB

[Shimejii]

I dont think it will be viable nor all that amazing to run on cheap  monitors lol

[Oshino Shinobu]

Expect to run into issues with vRAM usage in some games. In ones that use over 3GB, your performance will be completely crippled to unplayable FPS. 

 

A single 780 isn't going to give a very good experience outside of non-demanding games. I would personally advise going for one good monitor, and maybe a second axillary monitor, rather than gong for surround. 

[MYSTICmayonaise]

another thing i considered is getting one decent ultra wide monitor, prolly just a 1080p monitor, no real desire for 1440 or higher lel

 

have you run into issues with games not running properly on a ultrawide? 

any issues with scaling or anything like that?

 

fallout 4 is a nightmare to get working properly on an ultra wide from what i hear

[MYSTICmayonaise]

I dont think it will be viable nor all that amazing to run on cheap  monitors lol

a cheap monitor is still far better than a big and ancient TV lol, i know what to expect with a cheap monitor, none of the bells and whistles haha

[MYSTICmayonaise]

Expect to run into issues with vRAM usage in some games. In ones that use over 3GB, your performance will be completely crippled to unplayable FPS. 

 

A single 780 isn't going to give a very good experience outside of non-demanding games. I would personally advise going for one good monitor, and maybe a second axillary monitor, rather than gong for surround. 

i do have 2 780's in sli, i know the amount a vram is piss-poor, but horse power wise its not too bad

[manikyath]

3GB of VRAM is not enough even for 2 monitor gaming.

you were saying?

 

its all dependant on the games you end up playing, and from my experience, actual resolution doesnt change vram usage quite as much as people seem to think.

 

EDIT: i totally didnt forget to paste my image in

[MYSTICmayonaise]

4x lower fps if gaming on all of them. Also - 3GB of VRAM is not enough even for 2 monitor gaming. - for 4 you want 8GB

in general i wont be using all 4 monitors to game on, just one with the game running on it, and use the others as needed to look things up or have extra windows in the background, and if i am at the desk, i will not be using the TV at all, it will only be used while im on the couch watching movies or whatever else on youtube

[Oshino Shinobu]

in general i wont be using all 4 monitors to game on, just one with the game running on it, and use the others as needed to look things up or have extra windows in the background, and if i am at the desk, i will not be using the TV at all, it will only be used while im on the couch watching movies or whatever else on youtube

If you're using it like that, then the performance hit is negligible until you start watching HD Youtube videos (and Local HD videos, but that's to a lesser extent). 

 

EDIT: Having just Chrome, desktop, word and other similar programs open on other monitors has no discernible performance impact. 

[MYSTICmayonaise]

If you're using it like that, then the performance hit is negligible until you start watching HD Youtube videos (and Local HD videos, but that's to a lesser extent). 

 

EDIT: Having just Chrome, desktop, word and other similar programs open on other monitors has no discernible performance impact. 

ill be using the 3 monitors mostly because i am using my pc to learn some coding, networking and security so the extra screen realestate is great. but i am also a gamer, so yeahhh. i wouldnt mind a good ultra wide, but again i have concerns with scalling and how some games will handle that wide of a screen lol

[Oshino Shinobu]

ill be using the 3 monitors mostly because i am using my pc to learn some coding, networking and security so the extra screen realestate is great. but i am also a gamer, so yeahhh. i wouldnt mind a good ultra wide, but again i have concerns with scalling and how some games will handle that wide of a screen lol

Well, the productivity benefits of multiple monitors is fantastic. I plan on updating my PC at some point to run 5 monitors, as 3 just isn't enough

 

I'd get the monitors anyway, then give gaming in surround a go. It will work better for some games than others. Even if it doesn't work in all games, you still get the multitasking and productivity benefits of multiple monitors. 

[MYSTICmayonaise]

Well, the productivity benefits of multiple monitors is fantastic. I plan on updating my PC at some point to run 5 monitors, as 3 just isn't enough

 

I'd get the monitors anyway, then give gaming in surround a go. It will work better for some games than others. Even if it doesn't work in all games, you still get the multitasking and productivity benefits of multiple monitors. 

my thoughts exactly lol.

 

eventually i would like to sell my cards and buy a 980, but im not quite ready yet for that haha, gotta get more money first

 

that and sli cards look so cool with the side panel window haha

[don_svetlio]

in general i wont be using all 4 monitors to game on, just one with the game running on it, and use the others as needed to look things up or have extra windows in the background, and if i am at the desk, i will not be using the TV at all, it will only be used while im on the couch watching movies or whatever else on youtube

1 Screen displaying a desktop or browser uses between 200 and 400MB of VRAM - 3 extra screens = 1GB of constant usage. Your 780 turns into a 2GB card, a 970 into a 2.5GB card and a 980 into a 3GB card. I'd look at a 390X with it's glorious 8GB and it's 100$ less than a 980 for virtually identical performance