HELP for new GPU for triple monitor 1080p gaming setup?

[thesmokingman]

I would not go with a 970, instead opting for the 390 8gb. There's plenty of vram there for whatever you will encounter. I run triple 1080 144hz btw.

 

[GammaLazer]

Sorry for not replying for so long. Was down with cold and fever.
I too think 970 with 3.5 GB Vram is too low for triple Monitor.
I am getting 2 X R9 290 Saphire cards used for 560$.
Single 970 for 300$.
Single R9 390x for $450.

Which should I go for?

 

[thesmokingman]

Sorry for not replying for so long. Was down with cold and fever.
I too think 970 with 3.5 GB Vram is too low for triple Monitor.
I am getting 2 X R9 290 Saphire cards used for 560$.
Single 970 for 300$.
Single R9 390x for $450.

Which should I go for?

Two 290s is better for eyefinity but that price doesn't seem to be very good, considering you can buy a new 290x TriX for 330.

For your purposes, you dont need to look at the 390x, instead focus on the 390. The 390 is roughly 315. I would rather get two of those than two used 290 for 560, albeit even though it is more.

 

[GammaLazer]

Won't the two 390 be a power hog.
Plus 390 is currently unavailable here in my country. If I somehow find it somewhere it won't be at 315 most definately.

Only option is that a friend of mine is coming from canada next week who can get it for me. But it would be out of warranty from day 1.

 

[thesmokingman]

Won't the two 390 be a power hog.
Plus 390 is currently unavailable here in my country. If I somehow find it somewhere it won't be at 315 most definately.

Why do you consider it a power hog? It consumes the same or less than a 290x, generally less from memory. And it is 100 less than a 390x. Where are you located?

 

[GammaLazer]

India

 

[GammaLazer]

Only option is that a friend of mine is coming from canada next week who can get it for me. But it would be out of warranty from day 1.

 

[thesmokingman]

Only option is that a friend of mine is coming from canada next week who can get it for me. But it would be out of warranty from day 1.

Is it that big of a deal when the used 290x are w/o warranty also? And in that case, you'd have better chances with a new product. I'd recommend your friend test the cards properly before traveling with them.

 

[GammaLazer]

can you give the best deal for canada on 290x? Will I be able to run it on CX600?
With medium to high settings, can I get playable FPS on GTA V, and other AAA titles?

 

[DownTheSky]

I'd recommend your friend test the cards properly before traveling with them.

That would be my advice also. Ask your friend to test the cards before coming with them.

Will I be able to run it on CX600?
With medium to high settings, can I get playable FPS on GTA V, and other AAA titles?

You can run a pair if you lower the voltages and clocks. This way you'll lose 10-15% perf but should be easy to get them under 200W limit per card. FPS on those titles should be more than enough. :up

 

[vissarix]

Sorry for not replying for so long. Was down with cold and fever.
I too think 970 with 3.5 GB Vram is too low for triple Monitor.
I am getting 2 X R9 290 Saphire cards used for 560$.
Single 970 for 300$.
Single R9 390x for $450.

Which should I go for?

None of these gpu's are enough for triple monitors at max settings..unless you play dota, cs:go and these kinda games your not going to get anywhere near steady 60fps...so you have to lower the settings and at that point any gpu will be good enough...so forget max settings on far cry 4, shadow of mordor, gta v, witcher 3 and the list goes on basically for the majority of games.

 

[thesmokingman]

None of these gpu's are enough for triple monitors at max settings..unless you play dota, cs:go and these kinda games your not going to get anywhere near steady 60fps...so you have to lower the settings and at that point any gpu will be good enough...so forget max settings on far cry 4, shadow of mordor, gta v, witcher 3 and the list goes on basically for the majority of games.

That's not really here nor there because most of those games run like ass anyways and not many card/s can run them at max regardless at 6MP and up.

 

[MrTeal]

None of these gpu's are enough for triple monitors at max settings..unless you play dota, cs:go and these kinda games your not going to get anywhere near steady 60fps...so you have to lower the settings and at that point any gpu will be good enough...so forget max settings on far cry 4, shadow of mordor, gta v, witcher 3 and the list goes on basically for the majority of games.

Why would you say that? Triple monitor 1080p is pretty much exactly halfway between 1440p and 4k, and 290CF has enough grunt to push that many pixels in most games with acceptable settings.

 

[thesmokingman]

Why would you say that? Triple monitor 1080p is pretty much exactly halfway between 1440p and 4k, and 290CF has enough grunt to push that many pixels in most games with acceptable settings.

The 4gb 290x will get brought to its knees though if you don't watch your vram consumption in SOM, same with GTA V. And it's quite easy to do with those two games. However that's the same for most cards except maybe the X. That said, watching vram consumption is generally a good thing to do. I don't think ppl can run ultra anymore above 6MP w/o spending Gs on hardware to support that fetish.

 

[MrTeal]

The 4gb 290x will get brought to its knees though if you don't watch your vram consumption in SOM, same with GTA V. And it's quite easy to do with those two games. However that's the same for most cards except maybe the X. That said, watching vram consumption is generally a good thing to do. I don't think ppl can run ultra anymore above 6MP w/o spending Gs on hardware to support that fetish.

SOM seems to run fine on 4GB 290 CF in my system, though minimums aren't much better than single 290. At 4k Ultra I seem to run around 60ave and 25min using the built-in benchmark. I can't see why a couple 290s wouldn't be fine for triple 1080.

 

[GammaLazer]

Thanks everyone for this discussion. Actually the thing is that I am really getting confused about what I should do. So I will make a long post and try to tell as much I as possible of my current situation and my mind trouble.

My current situation is that I own three dell monitors 1080p 21.5", but have never gamed on them in surround and eyefinity setup. But the thing is that if I will have to suffer extreme quality loss on this setup I would better prefer to not do it.

Current options for GPU's suggest me that I should get a 980 ti to get 50-60 fps on AAA titles on triple monitor setup.
But 980 ti costs about 1000 $ here and I think with upcoming 16nm cards and DDR5x ones, it would be a waste of an investment.

Then it boils down to R9 290s in cf, but with current market prices here, a new one costs about 400 $ for tri-x and that means 800$ for this setup.

So as suggested by some I tried to find a pair of used cards and both together are currently costing me $560. Still a very costly deal. If I sell them off next year for a newer card I will have to suffer a loss of about 130 -150 $or more and headache to sell two instead of one card.

Now comes to importing cards, my friend wont be able to test them as he doesn't have a working rig there. Also that will cost about 500$ for 2 X r9 290 and they won't find enough sellers willing to pay enough without warranty next year.

So whole of this has become too much confusing for me to handle. I don't want to suffer on quality a lot. It would be better for me to play on 1080p with ultra than 3 x 1080p with low quality textures.


Now what I have been thinking is that if I will sell all these three monitors, I will be able to fetch 240 $ easily.
And the new LG 25" 21:9 monitor with 2560 x 1080 res at about 230$ here.
Also I was considering a 2K monitor but that would cost me about 500$ here for the cheapest.

How much better would be a ultrawide lg 25" than my current single 1080p 21.5" dell monitor.

Which card will suffice the ultra high gaming requirements at 2560 x 1080 if I make the change.

Thanks and sorry for moving the discussion to whole new point.
also sorry for no Tl;Dr

 

[GammaLazer]

bump!

 

[FFL]

> Which card will suffice the ultra high gaming requirements at 2560 x 1080 if I make the change.
For most games, an overclocked 970 should be able to hack it. The 3.5 GB limit should not be a problem at that resolution. You may have to turn down AA or special effects a little bit, but still have a very good experience (and value for money). I for one hardly notice the difference between the GFE recommended settings and the absolute maximum, admittedly at 1920 x 1080. Would you let us know the games you would like to play?

 

[GammaLazer]

> Which card will suffice the ultra high gaming requirements at 2560 x 1080 if I make the change.
For most games, an overclocked 970 should be able to hack it. The 3.5 GB limit should not be a problem at that resolution. You may have to turn down AA or special effects a little bit, but still have a very good experience (and value for money). I for one hardly notice the difference between the GFE recommended settings and the absolute maximum, admittedly at 1920 x 1080. Would you let us know the games you would like to play?

Thanks for the reply!
I wish to play AAA titles like Witcher 3, GTA V, Phantom Pain, Skyrim, ESO, etc.
Also I would be playing at 2560 x 1080 resolution.
Would 3.5 gig be absolutely sufficient for the needs?
I want to get min of 60 fps with ultra quality at the said resolution with an exception to some games like Witcher 3 or GTA V where I can adjust the settings.

 

[FFL]

> Would 3.5 gig be absolutely sufficient for the needs?
I'd say yes. Even Shadow of Mordor on ultra, arguably one of the most memory hungry games, seems to run fine on a 970 at 2560x1440. (56,8 FPS)
I've got the number from here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU15/1247
Considering that your target resolution is lower than that, and some oc headroom should be available, I guess I'll be fine.

 

[GammaLazer]

> Would 3.5 gig be absolutely sufficient for the needs?
I'd say yes. Even Shadow of Mordor on ultra, arguably one of the most memory hungry games, seems to run fine on a 970 at 2560x1440. (56,8 FPS)
I've got the number from here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU15/1247
Considering that your target resolution is lower than that, and some oc headroom should be available, I guess I'll be fine.

There have been recent price cuts, so I have following choices if I have to go for performance / price in a stop gap card.
R9 390 MSI 320$
Sapphire R9 390 Tri X 330$
Gigabyte G1,XFX, Asus DC3 330$
Zotac 970 310$
MSI, EVGA, Asus Strix 970 330$

What's should I choose, 8Gb or 3.5Gb.
Want best performance though!

 

[FFL]

> There have been recent price cuts, so I have following choices if I have to go for performance / price in a stop gap card.
Performance is very similar as well. But for the same price, the 390 is probably the better choice. And you won't have to worry about VRAM issues. Peace of mind is worth something ;-)
I think Sapphire is the best R 390, their Tri-X coolers do very well (only second hand info, btw). Just confirm that you PS can handle it.

 

[GammaLazer]

I have upped my PSU to EVGA Supernova 750 80+ Gold fully modular.
My case is large enough too.
But Sapphire provides only two years warranty on such a premium product.
Also 390x is available at a difference of 100-120$ from all makers.

 

[FFL]

I see your point.
Any other non-reference card from a reputable brand should be fine as well. Perhaps someone else is able to recommend another one from your list.
Personally, I wouldn't bother too much. If it doesn't fail early, it's likely to last a long time. (resale value may be a concern, though.)

 

[Headfoot]

Don't get the 390x, its not worth the extra money. The Sapphire Tri-X is one of the best coolers. It's easily worth an extra $10. I'd go for the Tri-X 390.