Single GTX 780 not good enough for 2560x1440 for demanding games

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loki1944

loki1944

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Oct 31, 2013
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So I built a new computer and put my MSI GTX 780 T/F in and I must say, just like it was with my i7 960@4.1Ghz, performance is less than impressive at 2560x1440 with my i7 4770K@4.2Ghz on a fresh windows install.

In Arma 3 at 88% load and 2.8GB of VRAM max I average about 30fps, sometimes dropping as low as 19fps. In modded Skyrim, which often hits about 3GB of VRAM, I get about 39fps average, sometimes dropping to 11fps. In DayZ standalone, framerate averages about 29fps with drops to 19fps. Vsync on/off, doesn't matter.

The biggest issue is not the average fps, it's the minimum, it creates a stuttering nightmare. I have tried lowering settings, doesn't seem to affect much. Max temp on the 780 is 71C, usually only in Skyrim and Arma 3. I've also tried a bunch of Nvidia 700 drivers.

My question is would I be better served by getting an R9 290x or a GTX 780 6GB or SLI 2 780 6GB, because as far as I can tell a single 3GB 780 is not good enough for 2560x1440?

i7 4770K@4.2Ghz, MSI z87 G45, H80i, 180GB Intel SSD (OS), 240GB Intel SSD (Arma 3, Skyrim, DayZ), 1 TB HDD 7200 RPM (Steam), 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM@1800Mhz
 
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If you have issues with VRAM, DO NOT go for SLI with the card you have now. VRAM does NOT scale. Source:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1664529/vram-sli-double.html
If you can return the card, that would be good. I would go for the 780 6GB. The difference (at least in my opinion) is that, if you want to go SLI/Crossfire in the future, you won't have quite as much microstuttering with the 780 as with the 290X. Furthermore, as far as I'm aware, the 290X's price has been driven up quite a lot with all of the miners out there producing hella demand. This isn't quite so with the 780 (I believe...).
Also, you did not mention CPU usage. It seems like the GPU is mostly the bottleneck but, in your situation, I might also try...
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FloppyNacho

FloppyNacho

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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-performance-review,3516-12.html

This is not right... You should probably go over your nVidia Control Panel and make sure you don't have any global settings enabled, they generally hurt before they help unless you're very specific with settings. I've had similar problems where the GPU had global MSAA enabled and it was doing twice the work (from the game's AA) for virtually no visual benefit.
 
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loki1944

loki1944

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yeah, problem with those benchmarks is they never take modded skyrim with an ENB into consideration, pretty much no one is going to get 60fps even with a Titan Black with those and pretty much everyone is going to get 60+with a a GTX 780 up without mods/ENB. Global settings are application controlled.
 
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Asp184

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If you have issues with VRAM, DO NOT go for SLI with the card you have now. VRAM does NOT scale. Source:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1664529/vram-sli-double.html
If you can return the card, that would be good. I would go for the 780 6GB. The difference (at least in my opinion) is that, if you want to go SLI/Crossfire in the future, you won't have quite as much microstuttering with the 780 as with the 290X. Furthermore, as far as I'm aware, the 290X's price has been driven up quite a lot with all of the miners out there producing hella demand. This isn't quite so with the 780 (I believe...).
Also, you did not mention CPU usage. It seems like the GPU is mostly the bottleneck but, in your situation, I might also try underclocking my RAM to 1600mhz, if it meant that I could up my CPU speed. Obviously, if your CPU is already at or above where you'd like it to be thermally and in terms of voltage, do not do this. If it is well below thermal limits, I certainly would try it however. I have found that running my RAM at 2400mhz limits the OC stability of my 4670k from 4.6 (where it would be at 1600-1866mhz) to ~4.2.

Finally, you might try fiddling around with the install of ENB. I haven't played Skyrim in a while but I do remember that a lot of mods offer graphical versions that are less intensive than the 'full' version. I know this might hurt your pride a bit, considering the beast of a card you have, but I think, in the end, you will enjoy the extra frames more than the slightly increased graphics. Furthermore, it will still look better than Vanilla Skyrim.
 
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loki1944

loki1944

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Roger Sensation, tracking on the 3GBx2 does not =6. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the card I have other than just not being up to par for ultra settings at 2560x1440 on demanding graphical games. My CPU is already overclocked from 3.5 to 4.2Ghz, 4.4Ghz is just too hot. My ram is only overclocked by 200Mhz.

Honestly on my i7 960@4.1 Ghz (from 3.2Ghz) and my i7 4770K@4.2Ghz I haven't noticed a tangible, visible performance increase from stock settings, CPUs just haven't improved that much. ENB settings will only net you so much in the way of minimum frames, I'm fine with a STEADY 30fps, but a single 780 can't do it with these kind of games, the framerate spikes down too much vsync or not.

Overclocking the card didn't yield much other than a couple of FPS higher max framerate, which is useless with an ENB anyway since MSI/Overlays crash the game with an ENB. I do appreciate your thoughts on the 6GB 780 vs the 4GB R9 290X. I will probably drive ahead with 2xGTX 780 6GB and give my brother the 3GB 780. Thank you much.
 
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Asp184

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You do indeed have quite a lucky brother. I'm sorry that you can't return it! Clearly, you know your situation best but, depending on what I was seeing in terms of GPU usage specifically, I might buy a single 780 6GB, and, if I really believed another was necessary, I would order the second afterwards. Again, you know your situation best. I am certainly biased because of my budget; I can't imagine buying three 780s.

Best of luck!


P.S. A note about Standalone: you will not see good framerates in Standalone for another six months, maybe not ever. At the moment, the reason your frame rate struggles is because of terrible optimization. Compounding the optimization is the fact that the engine still only uses two cores! I.e. only half of your 4770k is being used! You will see 60% CPU usage but the rest comes from background stuff. Don't worry about DayZ in terms of framerate. The CPU is the bottleneck here and you have one of the best CPUs for sale.
 
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