Please help me run Battlefield 4 on 3 1080p monitors (Nvidia Surround)

thedxer · Sep 18, 2014

I am looking into buying 3 1080p monitors to run games like Battlefield 4, Titanfall, and Watch Dogs on Nvidia Surround. My concern is that my PC won't be strong enough to handle the games at completely max settings and Anti-Aliasing using 3 monitors. It has no problems at all with Titanfall or Battlefield 4 at 60 FPS using only 1 monitor. However, when I turn up the Anti-Aliasing in Watch Dogs I can get a bit of lag.

My current set up is as follows:

2x MSI Nvidia 760 running in SLI (4gb Twin Frozr versions)
16gb DDR3 RAM
Intel i7 3770k
850W Power Supply
z77-mpower Mother Board
The rest is just hard disk drives and a Solid State Drive running my Windows 7.

Like I said, I get 60 FPS on Titanfall and Battlefield 4 no problem. Those two are my main concern. With my current setup, could I run those two games with three 1080p monitors at 60 FPS? Keep in mind that I'll be using Nvidia Surround running the games on Max Settings and full Anti-Aliasing. If not, Would adding a third Nvidia 760 make the games run at 60 FPS?

Added bonus question:
I just found out that even though some Mother Boards have 3 PCI Express 3.0 slots it doesn't necessarily mean they will run 3 way SLI. Will the z77-mpower work effectively with a third card? I have heard terms like x16 x8 and x4. I am not sure what those mean. Would I need to upgrade my Mother Board as well as graphics card to accomplish what is asked above? If so, do you know any cheap solutions that will effectively allow for 3 or 4 way SLI?

Thank you so much!

hang-the-9 · Sep 19, 2014

First, for 3 nVidia 760 cards you will need to upgrade the power supply. You may not need to but it may be safe. 3 of the cards will use over 450 watts of power at full load, add in your CPU and drives, subtract about 20-25% from the 850 rating to adjust for temperature and efficiency loss and you are pretty close to needing maybe 50-100 more watts to be stable and reliable over time.

That motherboard can't do 3 way SLI. Before running out and spending money on a bunch of upgrades, just borrow a few monitors from friends and try it on your system now.

azzazel_99 · Sep 19, 2014

2 760's perform about the same as a single 780ti and a single 780ti cannot run 3 monitors at 60fps with all settings maxed in bf4 so I'm gonna say no. Go with maybe 2 of the new 970's or just to be sure the 980's.

thedxer · Sep 19, 2014

hang-the-9 :

Thanks! Yea I was aware of the power supply. Can you explain why my board can't do 3 way sli?

hang-the-9 · Sep 22, 2014

thedxer :

Not enough PCIe channels available. From what I have seen, you can't do SLI on a 4x slot, or at least not 3-way SLI, your board with a third card will be running the third PCIe slot at 4x electronically (even if it's physically a 16x). With two cards I think your motherboard has them at 16x and 8x so that works, but there are not enough channels for it to run a third slot at 8x.

ilom · Sep 26, 2014

Just to add my $.02. I am running 3 monitors at 5760x1200 using dual SLI GTX780's. For smooth gaming with high/ultra settings on 3 monitors I would say this is a minimum hardware spec. I am tempted to purchase 2 GTX980's as I can get all my money back for one of the 780's and sell the other for $350 or so. But there is one more trick/limitation for 3 monitor gaming. As graphics get better everything and I mean everything gets saturated with data. Some testing I have seen showed dual SLI 6GB cards using close to 5GB of vram with ultra settings. That is why the latest card (GTX980) will soon be offered with 8GB of vram. Because these cards are so crazy expensive I suggest you start saving, wait a bit and get 2 of the 8GB 980's when they are released. That way you can game with 3 monitors hopefully for a year or two without having your wallet emptied again by nvidia or amd.

azzazel_99 · Sep 26, 2014

Where is your proof of the 8gb of vram? Also what game used almost 5gb ram? Skyrim with mods? I really hope you arent talking about skyrim with mods.

Mahisse · Sep 26, 2014

hang-the-9 :

thedxer :

Not enough PCIe channels available. From what I have seen, you can't do SLI on a 4x slot, or at least not 3-way SLI, your board with a third card will be running the third PCIe slot at 4x electronically (even if it's physically a 16x). With two cards I think your motherboard has them at 16x and 8x so that works, but there are not enough channels for it to run a third slot at 8x.

x4 3.0 has enough bandwidth to run a high end GPU without any problems. You will maybe see around 2% performance loss over a x16 port.

x4 3.0 is more or less equalant to a x8 2.0 port. Well not exactly but that is a different story.

wh3resmycar · Sep 26, 2014

even 3 980's won't run contemporary games at max settings on 3 monitors. 32xAA will make that trio cry.

RobCrezz · Sep 26, 2014

2 980 will be enough if you dont bother with high levels of AA.

Mahisse · Sep 26, 2014

Who bothers with 32xAA anyway. 4xAA is more than enough if the resolution is high enough.

wh3resmycar · Sep 26, 2014

Mahisse :

uhm that's what the OP said. unless you have a different meaning for "Max Settings and full Anti-Aliasing".

Mahisse · Sep 26, 2014

In my opinion (note: my opinion) "max settings" does not necessarily include max anti-aliasing since it has such high performance impact and negletible impact on the visuals. Depends on the game of course.

azzazel_99 · Sep 26, 2014

Unless you are at 1440 or 1600 AA matters ALOT especially if you don't like jagged jacked up looking edges. I hate playing bf4 with no AA it makes the game look like I'm playing on an Xbox. Especially if I'm trying to snipe. IMO AA is one of the most important filters until you get above 1080p.

wh3resmycar · Sep 26, 2014

Mahisse :

"full anti-aliasing" was they keyword. but then who knows what the OP was thinking. full is not a superlative anyways. i might be wrong.

Mahisse · Sep 26, 2014

I never said "no AA"

hang-the-9 · Sep 26, 2014

Mahisse :

hang-the-9 :

x4 3.0 has enough bandwidth to run a high end GPU without any problems. You will maybe see around 2% performance loss over a x16 port.

x4 3.0 is more or less equalant to a x8 2.0 port. Well not exactly but that is a different story.

This is not a matter of bandwidth, it's a matter of how the chipset works with 3 way SLI.

Please help me run Battlefield 4 on 3 1080p monitors (Nvidia Surround)

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