How much ooompf does my triple monitor setup need?

plsi · Feb 21, 2015

Dear community

I would like to play World of Warcraft on my (new) triple monitor setup. I used to play on a single 1920 x 1200 monitor. What I am asking for is: what do I need to play WoW at 3 x 2560 x 1440 at ultra settings with 60 FPS (in raids of course)?

It would be nice to not need to upgrade the graphics solution in the next at least 2 years but still be able to play most new games (not essentially on ultra settings and/or triple monitor setup).

Money is not too much of an issue as long as I stay (more or less

) with the 80/20 principle.

My current (almost two year old) system is :

Board: Asus P8Z77-V LE, Z77
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 BOX, 3.5GHz
Ram: 4x8GB, DDR3-1600
Graphics: 1 x MSI GTX-670 OC 2GB GDDR5
PSU: Seasonic X-560 Gold (560 Watt)
Monitor: 3 x Dell Ultrasharp 27" (U2715H)
Tower: Fractal Design Define XL - Black Pearl (Big, lots of fans, noise suppressed)

I think it would be a good idea to just upgrad the graphics card (and PSU) and keep the rest. Do you think that works?

Could I run the system on one GTX 970?

Or would you go for 2 x GTX 970 SLI + a new PSU
This option would incidentally yield a PSU that will withstand the next few upgrades (I should have bought a more powerful one two years ago :S)

Or is that still to weak?

So what do you think? How much ooompf does my triple monitor setup need?

cub_fanatic · Feb 21, 2015

I think your would be fine with a GPU swap. [strike]You could do a 2nd 670 in SLI but if money isn't an issue then two 970s and a PSU like you suggested will do the trick and probably last you beyond two years. [/strike]

If you don't care about brand, two 290x's in crossfire would probably be just as good if not better since it does have a true 4GB and a better 512-bit bus which would help in 3-way 1440p.

EDIT: looking at the specs of your motherboard, I don't think you can do SLI because the 2nd PCIe x16 slot is 2.0 @ x4 and I'm pretty sure SLI needs at least 2.0 @ x16 or 3.0 @ x8. You should be able to do Crossfire though, according to the product page (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z77V_LE/)

If you keep this motherboard and want to stay Nvidia, you would be better off with a single good GPU unless you want to get a new SLI compatible motherboard? The GTX 980 or a 780ti on discount might be good. That is really the best you can do without going into Titan-Z territory or switching to AMD.

plsi · Feb 21, 2015

@cub_fanatic: Hm... thank you very much for pointing out that the motherboard does not supply SLI.

What about buying only one 970 and upgrade mother board, PSU and 2nd 970 when I really need it? Or do you think that WoW would not run like desired on just one 970? (Assuming that 2 x 970 would "probably last me beyond two years")

cub_fanatic · Feb 21, 2015

plsi :

That would be the way to go if you want to stick with SLI 970s (eventually). A single 970 is a pretty big upgrade from a 670. 7680x1440 is pretty demanding even for WoW which is probably more CPU than GPU dependent. I doubt even SLI 670s could it in 7680x1440. 670 SLI could probably do triple monitor 1080p with acceptable frame rate but 1440p is going to need more VRAM at the very least. If it was a 4GB 670, maybe. Anyway, I think that is your best option as I'd take a high end Maxwell over what was essentially a mid-range Kepler any day. Now, you just need to pick a motherboard. Since you had an Asus before, might I suggest the WS model which is one of the few Z77 boards that comes with a PLX chip (it adds 16 more PCIe lanes so you can run both cards at PCIe 3.0 x16). For multi-GPU setups, I'd take this board over any of the Maximus series boards and most of the other brand's higher end models.

Asus P8Z77-WS (out of stock here, for reference) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131822&cm_re=p8z77-ws-_-13-131-822-_-Product

plsi · Feb 21, 2015

@cub_fanatic: Thank you for your answer.

So that would mean to buy a more than two year old mother board to prevent me from also upgrading the CPU (as the socket does not fit between my CPU and newer boards)? Hm...

I am afraid that this is not the solution, I was hoping for

You said: "Anyway, I think that is your best option". Did you refer to my idea of "buying only one 970 and upgrade mother board, PSU and 2nd 970 when I really need it"?

What do you think would the result of only one 970 be? Would the game be playable say on not ultra settings? Or is it just non-sense to buy only one card at the moment?

I think I will need some weeks to consider the suggested (old) MB against new MB and CPU...

cub_fanatic · Feb 21, 2015

plsi :

Yes, I did mean upgrade to an SLI board and get a 970.

Based on the 3Dmark benchmark Firestrike, a single 970 is slightly better than two 670s in SLI. The 970 scored a 9,962 (http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2841313) compared to a 9,942 for a 670 SLI rig (http://www.3dmark.com/fs/96330). I think you will have excellent performance in 1440p with one or two monitors but I'd probably wait until you get the 2nd one for triple monitor 1440p. You could also run the game in 1080p on all three monitors and see if that improves performance. Based on several accounts of WoW players who have triple monitor 1080p, a single GTX 770/680 2GB or HD 7970/R9 280x is enough. One 970 should be more than enough for 5760x1080 and might give you 'acceptable' frame rate in 7680x1440 depending on your definition of acceptable. Since WoW is supposedly more CPU bound than GPU, you might be able to get away with a single 970. In other games, though, at least a 2nd 970 is required for 7680x1440 maybe even a 3rd for crazy games like Unity. The only problem is connections since you are trying to hook up 3 displays to a single GPU. You might need adapters or something.

If it were me, I'd hold off on the new motherboard unless you are dead set on SLI right now. I would keep everything you have as it is and simply buy a 970 and see how it performs. If you think it is acceptable, great. If not, then buy the motherboard and a 2nd 970.

If it turns out a single 970 isn't enough in your opinion after playing on it in person, you will definitely be needing a new board. This now forces you to make another costly decision of whether or not to buy a new CPU or keep the 3770 and get another Z77. If you have an ebay account or a way to sell these parts for fair market value, It'd probably be a good idea to go up to Haswell or Broadwell when it comes out. If you don't have the resources to sell your CPU and motherboard, the absolute cheapest way to get you to SLI would be a new Z77 since motherboards are obviously cheaper than CPUs.

Again, this is why I suggested the R9 290x which will work on your current setup in crossfire since AMD crossfire does not require you to have PCIe 2.0 x8. It will run at about 75-80% but the overall GPU performance will still be much better than a single 970 (around 15,000 to 16,000 in Firestrike) as well as a pretty decent amount better than even 2x 970's in SLI (13,355 - http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-970-sli-review,20.html). If you were to keep your current CPU and motherboard, this would be you the most 'bang for your buck' upgrade and the only other component you would need is a beefier power supply. The 290x is in most cases cheaper than the 970 and if you go with XFX, you get a lifetime warranty (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150696&cm_re=290x_xfx-_-14-150-696-_-Product). Just throwing that out there. If you are still going Nvidia, that's perfectly understandable, but AMD might be the more prudent option.

plsi · Feb 21, 2015

Thank you very much for your answer.

I will think about your suggestion

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