Graphics card upgrade and display upgrade query

[Russell Copeland]

Right now that I have a really top notch system:

i7 3770k
Corsair Hydro H100i
Asus P8Z77-V Premium (which can do 1 x16, 2 x16, x16-x8-x8 or x8-x8-x8-x8)
16Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 (8-8-8-24)
MSI GTX 670 Power Edition OC
Corsair HX750 PSU
Mushkin Chronos 120Gb sata 3 SSD and 1Tb WD Caviar Black HDD

I can now consider a good upgrade for my old 1440 x 900 monitor (TW999).

My father is going to contribute something towards a new graphics card. Here are the two points I would like opinions on:

I'm not sure yet whether to go for a 120HZ 1080p monitor, a 1440p monitor or go for a faster 200hz or even 400hz HD TV.

How much difference would there be between a 4Gb GTX 770 and a GTX 780. For now the only option is a single card. Depending upon the future will depend upon whether or not at some time thereof I would be able to buy a bigger PSU to run a 2nd card.

Not going to buy a Titan. Not interested in getting another 600 series card either. I don't mind running 230w or 250w base cards as we both had a KFA2 GTX 480 Anarchy which sucked up juice.

Would like your opinions on which display and GPU to go for:

Games I play include

Battlefield 3 (single player campaign only - internet = too slow and I'm too slow too)

Tomb Raider (old and new)

Dawn of War 1 and 2

FarCry 3

Skyrim (fairly heavy mod use for textures, RCRN 3.6 T&L etc)

Borderlands 2 - would like to shift up the PhysX too

Even Kuju's Railworks which pushes the 670 to 99% (especially for steam locos)

All advice from people with more experience is welcome. This is the 1st truly good gaming PC I've ever owned as I've done most of my gaming on my 360 and PS3. I'm now moving onto PC gaming fully as I can't be bothered with consoles anymore and so want to spend my money on the maximum amount of bang for my ££££

 

[manofchalk]

In regards to the monitors, have a read through the monitor guide linked in my sig. Might help you make the decision.
I personally would go for a triple monitor setup, or an IPS 1440p over a 1080p 120hz.

In terms of performance, the 780 wins because it outright has a better GPU. The extra GB of VRAM wont make any difference, only the top end games at near max settings use more than 2GB of VRAM anyway.

 

[JobCreator]

I'll tell you what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't bother getting anything MORE than a 120Hz TV if you're using it solely for gaming. Even a 120Hz is kind of pointless in my eyes. To each his own.

 

[Russell Copeland]

secondary use will be watching films - I own around 1000 DVDs and about 100 or so bluerays (used to work for Blockbusters lol)

Then there is a little photo editing - mainly GIMP - I like to make amusing avatars for an online game I play.

I've been reading up a lot of the reviews for many monitors.. 1080p ones, the 120hz ones I'm going to start looking into later.. The 1440p ones are rather odd as for every good review there seems to be another talking about dead/stuck pixels or burn &/or colour bleed.

The main query is whether to buy a decent 4Gb GTX 770 or go for a 3Gb 780. As much as I would like a Titan I can't afford one.

As for triple monitor set ups, I'm interested in that also but unsure how you go about setting it up and have seen a few comments about having to really work at it to get a lot of games to accept it.

Looking for the easiest experience to get into high end gaming.. I'd prefer something where I can pump up the AA settings etc.

 

[manofchalk]

1440p monitors have double the pixels of a 1080p, so more likely to get dead pixels through sheer volume of them.

As your resolution increases, the need for AA decreases. Anti-Aliasing is a technology designed to compensate for the low resolution screens of the time, with a 1440p monitor I wouldn't see any reason to go above 2x, 1080p at 4x.

Go for the 780, having 4GB of VRAM against the 780's 3GB wont make any difference. The GK110 GPU and 384bit memory bus in the 780 against the GK104 and 256bit bus in the 770 will be what makes the difference.
Also, you say you want a Titan, the 780 is the exact same card just clocked a bit lower and with half the VRAM.

To make a triple monitor setup, connect three monitors to the card/s and use the Nvidia Surround utility to create the display setup and do all the stuff relating to virtual desktops. From there if games support the ultra-wide resolution you should be just fine to play them.

 

[Russell Copeland]

Yeah "as much as I would like a titan" - who wouldn't (even secretly) want one?

when you say connect them to the card/s.. I take it if you have 1 card you have to use the DVI, 2nd DVI and then HDMI to achieve this? Or do you buy one of those splitter cables?

And if you don't need to pump up the AA with the higher resolutions that's cool.. I take it you don't notice any difference between say 2x and 4x (or even 6/8x AA) on the 1440p

 

[manofchalk]

With Displayport I believe you can use splitters and still get independent images, but I'm not too sure on how that works so whether it will work for Nvidia Surround I'm not sure of.

I dont notice much of a visual difference between 2x/4x at 1080p, but I do notice the framerate drop.

 

[Russell Copeland]

Made a monitor purchase today:

Bought a BenQ XL4211T 120/144htz 1ms 24" gaming monitor.

Will be getting it sometime on Thursday hopefully!

3D Vision kit will have to wait for now as it's £119 + p&p