Benefits of SLI for 2560x1440

d3p3k3n3

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Hello all,
So I think I'm going to buy a 4K tv for Christmas, and was wondering how my current setup would fair.
I5 3570k
Evga sc ACX 770

I was wondering what the benefit would be of adding a second card, as the native resolution on the tv is 4K, how high my card or cards will scale and if I should upgrade to a single 4 GB card instead of SLIing two 2 GB cards.

My budget is around 1,500, and the tv itself will eat up around 1,100. I am not opposed to using the money on monitors, I just think that a 50" 4K tv would be quite nice to game on ;).

(TCL 4K is the second cheapest 4K TV on the market, and I think they make a good quality product)

Thanks,
Johnny K.
 
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You could run your screen at lower than 4k with a single 3/4gb card. Tom's found the 3gb 780ti to be enough for BF4 at ultra. However, if you ever want to play at ultra settings on 4k, you will need at least two cards.

Again, I'm afraid you might have to try turning down settings to medium-high (hopefully mostly high) if you want to maintain 4k resolution. The 780ti would suffice for this, although I still recommend the r9 290x.

EDIT: A single 780ti would be amazing for 2560x1440 resolution.

ZionZA

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Well 2 2GB cards don't give you 4GB as the VRAM doesn't add ontop of each other. What single card are you planning on getting though?
I would recommend you look for something with at least 3GB of VRAM. Maybe try sell the current 770 and add that money onto your budget to try and get something like the 780 or 780ti or so
 

fudoka711

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Well, I'l just say that you will need at least 4gb. Even using two 4gb gtx 770's in sli, you would not get playable framerates unless you turned settings down to like, medium-high. Tom's did a review of the gtx 780ti and included data for other cards and 4k resolution: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-ti-review-benchmarks,3663.html

In BF4, the gtx 780ti only got 24fps on ultra. I'm guessing even two 4gb 770's in sli would only get like 30 fps on ultra. If you're intent on gaming at 4k, you're going to need to save up more money. Getting two r9 290x's when retailers come out with better coolers would be what I would recommend.
 

d3p3k3n3

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Do you think it would be wise to run my screen resolution lower than 4K, and go with a single 4 GB card? I'm not opposed to monitors, I just don't like that they are small. My bad eyes need a big screen.
 

ZionZA

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Well you are looking at a resolution of about 3840 x 2160. I would suggest you try and go for the 780ti. From what I have seen though those cards are only 3GB. There are rumors of a 780 ti Special edition that will have 6GB but would be kinda overkill and I'm guessing quite a bit more expensive. You could also look at AMD Radeon cards or is Nvidia your preference (based on looking at your profile pic I would assume as much lol )
 

d3p3k3n3

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Yea I just have always had better luck with nvidia cards, and prefer their drivers over amd lol. If I ran the tv at 2560, do you think a single 780ti would be more than enough to push it? I play a lot of skyrim with mods, so I eat up VRAM pretty quickly. Aside from that though, none of my games are really VRAM hungry. I guess my goal is to get the highest resolution possible with VRAM to spare. That being said, I don't think 4K is really a possibility, as I consider 60 fps to be the standard. I seriously doubt that many games will go much higher than 2560 on a single monitor, but I could be wrong.

Oh, and as a side note, I fing love my 770 thus far. EVGA's new ACX is really great. Since I'm still within 90 days, couldn't I use the eVGA step-up program?
 

fudoka711

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You could run your screen at lower than 4k with a single 3/4gb card. Tom's found the 3gb 780ti to be enough for BF4 at ultra. However, if you ever want to play at ultra settings on 4k, you will need at least two cards.

Again, I'm afraid you might have to try turning down settings to medium-high (hopefully mostly high) if you want to maintain 4k resolution. The 780ti would suffice for this, although I still recommend the r9 290x.

EDIT: A single 780ti would be amazing for 2560x1440 resolution.
 
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d3p3k3n3

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Ok cool. I think I'll go with a single 780ti. However, there is one thing I'd like cleared up. I originally had a 660ti 2GB, then I stepped up to the 770. My question is that, despite getting much better performance, what is making it happen? I get a wee-bit confused when it comes to CUDA cores and the like. Thank you both for your responses.
 

fudoka711

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You're right to think it has to do with CUDA cores. It's quite a bit more technical than this, but essentially you can think of more cores = more powerful gpu. There are other factors such as core clock speed, memory clock speed, and memory bandwidth. Cores can also be configured to be suitable more for gaming or for for things like video editing.
 

d3p3k3n3

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Yea I was thinking it had to be something to do with them, and ROPs, but, I'm still a bit confused, as the majority of cards all utilize the same basic VRAM configurations.

Do you know if there are any monitors that are 2560x1440, or TVs, that are pretty big? I feel like 1080p is kind of half-assing what a really powerful gpu can do. Do you have much experience with higher resolutions? I've only ever gamed in 1080, and I can see pixelation. The only reason I'm really thinking about picking up a 4K is so that I can downscale it to 2560, and still have the big screen. Also, I think TCL is a fantastic company, and that 1,100 for a 50" 4K is hard to beat.

P.S I'm trying to pick your answer as best solution, but I can't from my phone :/
 

fudoka711

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Haha thanks =)

There is a big difference between playing at 1080/1200p and 1440/1600p. Personally, I would recommend going with a 1600p resolution and not 1440. I guess the 16:10 ratio just looks better for me when I'm not playing games.

I don't have experience with a 4k tv, so I don't know how it will look when you down scale to 2560x1440 (or 2560x1600 if that's possible). I'm sure it'll still look amazing. I don't know of any 1440p tv's, but I'm sure there are some. I've only seen up to 27" monitors.
 

d3p3k3n3

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Yea man. I've never gamed on anything more than 1080, so I'm looking forward to it. Can you recommend a good monitor in that case? I imagine that, since there aren't many native 4K sources, the tv would downscale, but I'm not sure. I see that dell ultra sharp monitors are really highly rated, but I like the price tag on the Asus 2560 monitor lol. I mean the ultra sharp is almost as much as a 4K tv!!! Haha

 

d3p3k3n3

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Ok cool man. Well I think that narrows it down to, oh, about a million choices haha. Since you have experience with the 3570k, do you think I should OC mine, as I plan to play at a high resolution? I don't know if a 780ti and a stock 3570k is a bottleneck, but I've never OC'ed, so I'm unsure of the benefits.
 

determinologyz

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Honestly i think atm its to early to think about 4k which needs to be worked on a bit more and the gpus even in sli tri isnt to strong enough. My opinion i would wait untill maybe the gtx 900 series or even higher to even possible think about running sli at 60 fps at med-high settings. 2 780ti wouldnt even do the trick at 4k but at 1440p/1600p they would wreck shop
 

fudoka711

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I would definitely try OC'ing your 3570k, its what the k is for! Just make sure you have a decent aftermarket cooler on it like the CoolerMaster Hyper212 EVO. There are plenty of guides out there, but if you happen to have an AsRock mobo, here's a guide that would help (if you don't, it should still help!): http://www.overclock.net/t/1198504/complete-overclocking-guide-sandy-bridge-ivy-bridge-asrock-edition

And I think, in general, even a 780ti will bottleneck a stock 3570k.

And as for monitors, I think what you should do is go to your nearest Best Buy or Fry's and just stand in front of them for a while. My preferences in a monitor/tv are probably different from yours. I totally think there's a difference between a 1440/1600p 27" monitor and a 50" 1080p tv. Also, it depends on how close you will be to the screen. For a monitor, my top two brands are Asus and Dell, but BenQ makes good monitors as well (specifically for gaming).
 

d3p3k3n3

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I have an ASRock extreme 4, and I love it. As far as monitors go, I think I'll stick with Asus. How far would I have to overclock it to stop any potential bottlenecks? 4.2? At this point, I think I'll just add a second 770 in SLI, grab a UHD monitor and see how it goes. I wish I had a Fry's here in Colorado. Best Buy's stock is so shitty. They push insignia TVs and crap monitors. Luckily, we do have a micro center. I know that they have a great stock... It's like paradise. Haha.

I'm running a heavy amount of mods with a clean skyrim install, and my fps never dips below 60, so I really like the card. What kind of performance increase do you think I'll get from SLI? I'd guess around 40%, but, having never done it, I'm probably wrong.

I will be sitting very close to the monitor, so I should be able to see the difference.

Thanks a ton for the help man.

 

fudoka711

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Definitely check out the link I gave. I think the overclocking was specifically done using the asrock extreme4 (I have the extreme6, and it worked just fine). Usually, the 770 will actually bottleneck the 3570k. If you are using just the stock cooler, I think you could manage 4.2ghz. If you have an aftermarket, I don't see why you couldn't try to go for 4.4 or maybe 4.5.

As for adding a second 770, just be aware that a modded skyrim can use more than 2gb of vram at 1440/1600p. Same goes for games like BF4 and Crysis 3. If you just turn AA down, you should be fine with everything else maxed. You don't really need AA as much at that high of a resolution anyways (unless your eyes are that sensitive). Also, adding a second 770 will net you between 60-80% more performance, depending on the game and how optimized the drivers are for it.
 

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