780 ti sli vs 780 tri sli vs 770 quad sli

[steamgamer]

hi all im looking at building a new PC towards the end of January iv already decided on the case thanks to a thread i started and now im stuck on gpus. which of the 3 is a better configuration. im buying/preordering my new dell monitors around the start of january and the cards will need to push 11520x2160 at 60hz 30fps thanks if anybody knows what would be best. before people say this is fake or what ever im genuinely looking at this setup for my home gaming setup i know its crazy but it should only be around 12k to setup. Thanks for all the answers.  

[Deadrogue]

780 Ti Sli, always get the better cards. Do you have a list on Pcpartpicker dude? This sounds crazy.

[felixbearpig]

3 way and quad are useless. so i would have to go with 780ti sli

[EChondo]

Two 780 ti's.

Three cards or more generally have worse performance than just two cards.

For example, look at this TechPowerUp review of tri-sli Titans: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_SLI/

Some games do support three or more GPU's, but many do not and thus you're wasting the initial cost, power consumption, and time for going with three or more GPU's.

[Jizburg]

With that many pixels. go with twin titans instead. the other configurations may be VRAM limited.

[steamgamer]

780 Ti Sli, always get the better cards. Do you have a list on Pcpartpicker dude? This sounds crazy.

no im from australia i do have a pccg cart

[steamgamer]

With that many pixels. go with twin titans instead. the other configurations may be VRAM limited.

but i need 3 display ports and 2 titans only have 2

[steamgamer]

Two 780 ti's.

Three cards or more generally have worse performance than just two cards.

For example, look at this TechPowerUp review of tri-sli Titans: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_SLI/

Some games do support three or more GPU's, but many do not and thus you're wasting the initial cost, power consumption, and time for going with three or more GPU's.

i understand that but i need 3 display port connections un less a single display port connect can carry 4k x2 at 60hz on both connections

[Jizburg]

but i need 3 display ports and 2 titans only have 2

you could always get a HDMI/Dual link DVI to Displayport adapter...

[felixbearpig]

i understand that but i need 3 display port connections un less a single display port connect can carry 4k x2 at 60hz on both connections

 

these gpus arnt made for 4K surround man, chnaces are you are going to wait for next gen , to see if it has more dp

[steamgamer]

you could always get a HDMI/Dual link DVI to Displayport adapter...

dvi cant carry 4k and hdmi can only do 4k at 30hz

[steamgamer]

these gpus arnt made for 4K surround man, chnaces are you are going to wait for next gen , to see if it has more dp

will next gen have display port 1.3 cause thats suppose to carry 8k and that would be enough

[Sandzsteedt]

I am looking at going 4K Surround or Eyefinity in the future also, but currently my analysis of the situation is that there is no good enough cards to run 4K single display easily thus making 4K surround a questionable endeavour at this point in time.

 

You will need loads of Vram for surround and also easy display connections. Display Port being the easiest one, but only few GPU's have enough native Display Port options in regular or mini variants.

SLI or Crossfire scaling is another problem you face. Typically you can expect good gains from two cards. Third card usually gains you modestly over two. Fourth card in many games can actually drop your FPS below the two/three card option. Check out the many tests there are online about 4-way SLI or Crossfire. The results are not that great most of the time.

 

Here is a quick example:

Max Payne 3 game at 2560x1440 with all settings Ultra and all AA settings turned up estimates a need of roughly 6gb of Vram. The game has a nifty settings menu which tells you the projected Vram usage.

I know that AA is not much of an issue with 4K, but that example is good to keep in mind when your are doing the math of 2560x1440 vs 4K surround.

 

2560x1440 is 3,686,400 pixels.

4K surround aka 11520x2160 is 24,883,200 pixels.

 

Divide the 4K surround with 2560x1440 and you end up with 6,75. So the 4K surround is almost 7 times higher resolution than 2560x1440 single monitor.

If a 2560x1440 Ultra can max out Vram today then 4K surround is seriously going to be held back by the Vram amounts of todays GPU's.

 

Just to add a reference point:

I am gaming at 5760x1080 which is 6,220,800 pixels.

Currently I am powering that resolution with Tri-Fire 7970's with 3gb Vram.

 

 

I would advise against jumping the gun here. Wait for the new generation of GPU's to be launched in 2014 and see what kind of performance you get with a single GPU at single 4K monitor.

If the new GPU's can run one 4K monitor fairly easily, then you can expect to run 4K surround with a 3-way SLI or Crossfire at some settings.

My guess is that in order for 4K surround to be any good, you will probably need Vram around the 10gb-20gb range plus purely Display Port connections to hook up the monitors. And you need to keep in mind that Vram does not scale with SLI or Crossfire. Each card is going to use its own Vram, so you are going to need cards that have great amounts of Vram each.

[steamgamer]

I am looking at going 4K Surround or Eyefinity in the future also, but currently my analysis of the situation is that there is no good enough cards to run 4K single display easily thus making 4K surround a questionable endeavour at this point in time.

 

You will need loads of Vram for surround and also easy display connections. Display Port being the easiest one, but only few GPU's have enough native Display Port options in regular or mini variants.

SLI or Crossfire scaling is another problem you face. Typically you can expect good gains from two cards. Third card usually gains you modestly over two. Fourth card in many games can actually drop your FPS below the two/three card option. Check out the many tests there are online about 4-way SLI or Crossfire. The results are not that great most of the time.

 

Here is a quick example:

Max Payne 3 game at 2560x1440 with all settings Ultra and all AA settings turned up estimates a need of roughly 6gb of Vram. The game has a nifty settings menu which tells you the projected Vram usage.

I know that AA is not much of an issue with 4K, but that example is good to keep in mind when your are doing the math of 2560x1440 vs 4K surround.

 

2560x1440 is 3,686,400 pixels.

4K surround aka 11520x2160 is 24,883,200 pixels.

 

Divide the 4K surround with 2560x1440 and you end up with 6,75. So the 4K surround is almost 7 times higher resolution than 2560x1440 single monitor.

If a 2560x1440 Ultra can max out Vram today then 4K surround is seriously going to be held back by the Vram amounts of todays GPU's.

 

Just to add a reference point:

I am gaming at 5760x1080 which is 6,220,800 pixels.

Currently I am powering that resolution with Tri-Fire 7970's with 3gb Vram.

 

 

I would advise against jumping the gun here. Wait for the new generation of GPU's to be launched in 2014 and see what kind of performance you get with a single GPU at single 4K monitor.

If the new GPU's can run one 4K monitor fairly easily, then you can expect to run 4K surround with a 3-way SLI or Crossfire at some settings.

My guess is that in order for 4K surround to be any good, you will probably need Vram around the 10gb-20gb range plus purely Display Port connections to hook up the monitors. And you need to keep in mind that Vram does not scale with SLI or Crossfire. Each card is going to use its own Vram, so you are going to need cards that have great amounts of Vram each.

thanks for your post but im still going ahead witht he 4k surround in stead of 780 ti's or any consumer card iv been reading about the 12gb quadro k6000 but dont know it it has the horses to push the games [mainly skyrim and jc2 multiplayer also a bit of bf4] iv been looking at benchmarks and bf4 only used 2.2gb at 1440p so if u time it by 7 it uses 15.4gb vram so at high in stead of ultra i think the quadros can do it. what are your thoughts on this.

[Sandzsteedt]

thanks for your post but im still going ahead witht he 4k surround in stead of 780 ti's or any consumer card iv been reading about the 12gb quadro k6000 but dont know it it has the horses to push the games [mainly skyrim and jc2 multiplayer also a bit of bf4] iv been looking at benchmarks and bf4 only used 2.2gb at 1440p so if u time it by 7 it uses 15.4gb vram so at high in stead of ultra i think the quadros can do it. what are your thoughts on this.

 

Well all I can say is that I applaud your enthusiasm and bravery to go forwards with the 4K surround plan this early.

If I was you I would study all benchmarks and reviews of GPUs that have been done on 4K monitors and try to form a plan from that information.

 

The reviews I have seen have showed that 4K is really demanding for GPUs and not many of them can run one 4K monitor with one GPU.

Here's one example:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7120/some-quick-gaming-numbers-at-4k-max-settings

 

Here's a more recent one:

http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti-vs-amd-radeon-r9-290x-at-4k-ultra-hd_130055/10

 

According to Legitreviews the 780 Ti ran out of Vram on 4K ultra in Far Cry 3, but that is just on one 4K monitor. I doubt that the 4gb Vram of the AMD R9 290X or non X is going to provide any significant improvement when you consider that 4K surround is triple the resolution that they tested at.

My guess is that 4K surround is going to run somewhat playably at low to medium settings depending on the title with todays selection of GPUs.

It just seems to me that there is not enough raw performance from the GPU chip to run 4K well enough to allow going triple 4K and the Vram thing is a completely different problem.

[R4STABAN]

Your only option for 3x4k is tri-sli titans. Still won't be very good.

[JigglyPufflez]

3 way SLI doesn't scale as well as two sli, I think, Correct me if I am wrong<<<

[IAcKI]

I'd go for 2-way Titan! Get adapter for the monitors, the 6GB VRAM will help ALOT!

[R4STABAN]

3 way SLI doesn't scale as well as two sli, I think, Correct me if I am wrong<<<

 

You are correct.

 

But 2 Titans are not good enough.

 

They might scrape it for the 30 fps he wants I suppose..

 

Edit: 780tis don't have enough memory, 4gb 770s are pushing it and quad sli 770s is far too weak for 4k surround anyway