Widescreen Gaming Forum

The more and more I see examples online, the more I am drawn into widescreen gaming. Here is my current build

Asus Sabertooth x79 Mobo
GTX690 2GB VRAM
32GB RAM (I do 2d graphic and 3d renderings)
Samsung 840Pro 256GB SSD (Boot)
Samsung 840Pro 256GB SSD for games
WD 1TB HDD Caviar Black
Corsair 1200W PSU (Was planning on SLI sometime)

My question is this....

For me to play at a resolution of 3240x1920 (ASUS VG248QE Black 24" 144Hz 1ms x3 in Portrait) and have my current monitor (Dell U2711) as an auxillary on top, what type of GPU option should I go? As you can tell I am not adverse to dropping the debit card at newegg, but also am not 100% sure about going tri or quad SLI Titans either. Any advice would help, I am not a complete noob but am pretty sure the 2GB VRam on my GPU will hinder me. I want to be able to have some eye candy on and have my nerd friends go home with jealousy on their faces ( I am sure this will entail many non-nerd friends to mock me for wasting cash, but screw them)

I really am looking forward to some sound advice. Thanks in advance

well, if you want to make use of 144hz on 3x 1920x1080 you will surely need SLI Titan or even Tri-SLI titan.
But then you will propably need a new PSU.... well maybe 3x titan will run at 100% load if you don't overclock to much.


The 2gb VRAM won't be that big of a problem, if you try to reach 144FPS you will lower AA settings automatically so going 2x 690 might be a cheaper way, but not as future proof.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!

Quad SLI and xfire setups are not very effective in terms of scaling, i think it goes like this:
1xGPU = 1.0
2xGPU = 2.0
3xGPU = 2.75
4xGPU = 3.25

So 2 will double performance, the 3rd will give another 75% and a fourth only 50%.

Honestly, only some games will fully utilize 3 GPUs (Most will only use 2, ie- skyrim), only benchmarks will utilize 4 GPUs.

So tri-fire titans.... (got a spare $3k??) Also make sure your CPU can handle them and then overclock it!
I think the new 2011 CPUs have PCI-e 3 support now...

My motherboard supports 2 pcie @ 16 or 8x8x8. Would the best bet be to wait for the next GPU architecture or would the 2 sli titans be decent for a couple of years? The 6gb VRAM seems intriguing.

I play a lot of Arma 3 and have always experienced that VRAM is really important to that games eye candy success.

Also would those monitors look better in landscape? Would it be better to get 2 Titans and then a third cheaper gpu to run the auxiliary monitor?

What CPU are you running? 1366? 1150 or 2011? The important thing is the slots, are they PCI-e 3 or 2. For example PCI-e 2 @x16 is the same as PCI-e 3 @x8, so keep that in mind. Not trying to sound like a pc salesman but you need to consider your existing system, will you cpu & mobo bottleneck the titans. To be honest (Im no hardware guru) you should get a 2011 pin CPU (the NEW ones which support PCI-e 3) with a killer mobo, but if only we had unlimited money hey....

Ya I have the i7 3930k running @ 4.2.
My motherboard is the asus sabertooth x79 2011 socket with PCIE 3.0. I am pretty sure my processor and mobo won't bottleneck me with the titans. My biggest concerns are about power really. I have a 1200 corsair. Not the I if I remember correctly. I am not big into overclocking my cards after burning out a 570 a few years back. Would 2 titans for the 2d surround monitors and a third card for HD content on the auxiliary monitor be properly powered? I will get the exact info of the psu when I get home.

Sorry I need to learn to read better....LOL

I have an i7 3930k also but if you check the specs, they only support pci-e 2.0
http://ark.intel.com/products/63697
I didn't mean to overclock the GPUs, but oc the CPU to get the most out of the video cards.
I run mine at a mild oc, 4.5ghz (they can do 4.8 without too much trouble) and keep the voltage below 1.35 V for the cpu. If you do oc its best to watercool.

The new gen i7 2011 supports pci-e 3.0
http://ark.intel.com/products/77780/
Im not sure what difference in performance, will have to check some bench tests and see (3dmark, unigine)

Power-wise you should be all good (Even for 3x titans if you dont oc them)



Just add the 130W for the CPU (But allow up to 180W if you OC), plus to be generous another 50W or so for SSDs, HDDs, ROM drives, fans, watercooling, etc..

Ideally I try to give 100-200W grace for the PSU (It will last longer if you dont run it at 100%), I got a silverstone Zeus 1350 for my i7 3930k with 3x7970s (But with mild OCs)

Not sure how a different card for the aux monitor will work with nvidia, im assuming you will just create a 3x1 surround with the titans and the aux screen will be setup with windows. Worth a go and if it doesnt work, you can still get another titan.....

the 3930K officially supports PCI-E 2.0, but it has the speed of PCI-E 3.0 !
The speccs weren't made then they released the CPU or something like that.

_________________
We gonna send it to outa space!