x79 tri SLI Scale on Multiple Monitors? Will it matter?

Nemesisv7

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Aug 8, 2014
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Any insight or suggestions are welcome. I am trying to get my gaming settings back, High to Max/Ultra after adding 2 monitors for NV Surround.

Current Rig:
Gigabyte X79-UD5 Socket 2011
Intel i7 3820
RAM Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2133
SDD 120GB for OS
2x 500 GB HDD RAID 0 for Games
Monitors: 3 24" 1080p, Total Res: 5780x1080
GPU's: Card 1: Gigabyte GTX 670 OC 2GB
Card 2: Gigabyte GTX 670 OC 2GB

Prospective Card 3: ASUS GTX 670 DOC 2GB, ordered, not yet delivered.
The Clocks are the same so no downclocking or oc required.
Let's assume they play ball in Tri SLI. ;)

I mainly game, with BF4 up at the top of the list.
Up to now been using single monitor, so could run game on max/ultra settings.
With added monitors ie. added resolution had to drop graphic settings to medium with only a handful on high, to keep +60Hz frames.

Will the added G-card make a difference, or should i cancel the order and look at something else.
Please take into account, 2 gtx670 are already paid and 3rd one won't be too expensive.
To start with fresh gcard setup will be expensive and last resort.

Quick note, when i try to set BF4 settings way up again, i see my RAM(not vram) usage spiking and climbing like hell to 85%, which has never happened before, gaming in ultra get's my mem to 40-50% max on single monitor. Any ideas?
 

dovah-chan

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It's fairly well known that after 2 cards xfire and SLI don't scale well. I'm not sure if adding a third 670 will be a huge improvement but you can try if you wish provided you have the cash. As for the ram usage I cannot say. The processes on each users computer varies with many different factors that I'm unaware of.
 

Nemesisv7

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Aug 8, 2014
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I'm new to these threads and forums so please bear with me.
As I understand you are definitely right in that it will not be a huge improvement and not directly proportional to adding the performance of a single 670 ie. scaling, but for the price it be the best option. The card will arrive hopefully in a few days, will post when i have the results.
 

Nemesisv7

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Aug 8, 2014
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Now I'm lost.... Help!!

Got new graphics card today. Added it to the other 2 gtx 670's already in.
System won't boot.
Bios error bad Vcard or vram.
Little troubleshooting revealed new asus gtx 670 refuses to boot when bios pcie is set to EFI, but on Legacy it boots.
Back in windows, all the cards show up. I can initiate SLI with NV surround.
Ran Heaven 4.0, total score up by a couple of points, but through the entire benchmark i can see major stuttering, lowest fps is actually LOWER than what it was before added card, but Max fps is a but higher.

Asus says latest flash for series 600 gcards enables uefi boot.
Will this increase my performance?
Is Legacy holding my cards back?
If i'm not mistaken it has very little to do with gcards, but i don't know the diffrence between the two.
Anybody to shed some light?

Update: Used MSI Afterburner with kombuster. Cards run a little hot but that's not the problem here. Noticed something strange, my two original gcards both run at boosted clock (note:factory boost), no OC from my side, at 1150MHz when doing a benchmark. 3rd Asus gcard has exactly same factory value, that's why i bought it, same factory clocks and boost values, but when in benchmark it's sitting at the non-boosted core speed of 980MHz.

I can still see on the Afterburner graph that it is under load, GPU1,GPU2,GPU3 al between 95-100% usage during benchmark.

Any ideas?