SlI GTX 970's for 1440p

[tennisballenator]

I've been offered a deal for some Asus ROG Swift monitors and I was wondering if two GTX 970's in SLI be able to handle two Asus PG278Q 1440p monitors at 144hz's?

 

[celtic_warrior99]

Yes, definitely. 970s are awesome cards, and even better in SLI. Enjoy!

 

[rhysiam]

Out of curiosity, why would you want two ROG Swifts? You can only really game on one, (or three I suppose). Seems a little overkill to have a super expensive gaming monitor just to use as a second-screen desktop display.

But yes, the second 970 will help a lot if your goal is 1440P @ 144hz. That's a lot to ask of a single GTX 970.

 

[1LiquidPC]

[strike][/strike]Depends on resolution and dual monitor config for gaming. I'm using 970 2-way SLI at 3440 X 1440 resolution. I can't max settings and have good FPS on more demanding games(DA:I and Witcher 3). In Dragons Age for example, a few settings lowered, at my native resolution I'll maybe between 45-75FPS depending on screen action. If your only gaming on one Swift, you should be fine.

 

[tennisballenator]

Out of curiosity, why would you want two ROG Swifts? You can only really game on one, (or three I suppose). Seems a little overkill to have a super expensive gaming monitor just to use as a second-screen desktop display.

But yes, the second 970 will help a lot if your goal is 1440P @ 144hz. That's a lot to ask of a single GTX 970.

I'm sorry, but I'm new to multi-monitor set-ups and the sale was offered up in a pair. Will I not be able to game on a dual monitor set-up?

 

[celtic_warrior99]

Yes, they will easily handle those monitors. SLI 970s are very strong and will handle 99% of monitor setups easily.

 

[rhysiam]

I'm sorry, but I'm new to multi-monitor set-ups and the sale was offered up in a pair. Will I not be able to game on a dual monitor set-up?

As of last year Nvidia started supporting 2 display setups in their "Surround" mode. Like AMD Eyefinity, this treats the multiple displays like one large display, so that games will span across them all. You usually also do "bezel correction", where you tell the driver how large the gap is between the monitors, and displays then compensates for that gap.

General issues are pretty widespread though: Not all games support the unusual resolutions you end up with, some don't work at all, and lots of games have UI issues, because things don't get scaled properly so menu items are offscreen and inaccessible, HUDs can be positioned strangely or even offscreen. Plenty of games do work though, and work really well. So there is a decent fan base (of which I'm a part) for multi-monitor gaming. It's brilliant when it works!

Issues with two screen surround: You lose the middle of your screen. In most games that's your cursor/crosshairs/centre focus point. Menu items are almost always centred, so you lose a chunk of your menu too. That makes most games (even those that technically support surround gaming) no good for 2 screen surround. I'm sure there are games out there that work. Maybe top down strategy games that allow you to re-position menus. But most are just not gonna work properly.
That's why most people run 3 screen surround, or 5 screen (often 5 screen portrait), because you have the centre of vision on the middle display rather than invisible behind a bezel.

That's why I question two ROG Swifts. Two screens are great for productivity/desktop purposes, but in those cases a much cheaper monitor will do just as good a job. The only time you benefit from having a second Swift will be the very unusual games that give a good experience on two screen surround... you're effectively paying a lot of money for something that most people would use very, very rarely, if at all.

 

[tennisballenator]

I'm sorry, but I'm new to multi-monitor set-ups and the sale was offered up in a pair. Will I not be able to game on a dual monitor set-up?

As of last year Nvidia started supporting 2 display setups in their "Surround" mode. Like AMD Eyefinity, this treats the multiple displays like one large display, so that games will span across them all. You usually also do "bezel correction", where you tell the driver how large the gap is between the monitors, and displays then compensates for that gap.

General issues are pretty widespread though: Not all games support the unusual resolutions you end up with, some don't work at all, and lots of games have UI issues, because things don't get scaled properly so menu items are offscreen and inaccessible, HUDs can be positioned strangely or even offscreen. Plenty of games do work though, and work really well. So there is a decent fan base (of which I'm a part) for multi-monitor gaming. It's brilliant when it works!

Issues with two screen surround: You lose the middle of your screen. In most games that's your cursor/crosshairs/centre focus point. Menu items are almost always centred, so you lose a chunk of your menu too. That makes most games (even those that technically support surround gaming) no good for 2 screen surround. I'm sure there are games out there that work. Maybe top down strategy games that allow you to re-position menus. But most are just not gonna work properly.
That's why most people run 3 screen surround, or 5 screen (often 5 screen portrait), because you have the centre of vision on the middle display rather than invisible behind a bezel.

That's why I question two ROG Swifts. Two screens are great for productivity/desktop purposes, but in those cases a much cheaper monitor will do just as good a job. The only time you benefit from having a second Swift will be the very unusual games that give a good experience on two screen surround... you're effectively paying a lot of money for something that most people would use very, very rarely, if at all.

Thanks for the answer! Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough, but I couldn't find a post where someone explained exactly why two monitor setup is not optimal for gaming. Would my set-up be able to handle 3 1440p monitors in surround?

 

[rhysiam]

Thanks for the answer! Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough, but I couldn't find a post where someone explained exactly why two monitor setup is not optimal for gaming. Would my set-up be able to handle 3 1440p monitors in surround?

3x1440p is over 11MP, that's about 40% more pixels per frame that 4K (/UHD). Plus you're paying extra for 144hz monitors which, if you want to make use of them, you really want to be getting over 100fps.

Just to put that in perspective, a 1080P@ 60 gamer is wanting their system to pump out 125 million pixels per second. That setup you're talking about, you're asking the system to pump out almost 1.6 billion, about 13 times more than your standard 1080p setup. You'd really be wanting 2x980TIs or somethings equally beastly to get that sort of rig going.

My other question is, VR is launching really soon. Is it going to live up to the hype? I have no idea!! But I sure hell would not be investing 2.5K+ in monitors right now. There is a crowd who are prepared to spend big dollars on high end or multi-monitor setups to get the most immersive gaming experience possible, but I think a lot of them will be jumping in to VR. And those game designers who've put the extra effort in to support multi-monitor niche rigs, I suspect, will turn their attention to supporting VR too. I wouldn't be surprised to see multi-monitor gaming go the way of the dodo in favour of VR.

It's your money, your call. I've posted similar comments before and responses have shown that some people are really skeptical that VR will take off. They would suggest that a high end gaming monitor (or perhaps even three) is still a solid 4-5 year investment. Maybe they're right, I don't know. But my personal view is that even if the first gen has a slow start, within 18-24 months from today we'll have second gen VR kits and much broader industry support which will provide a vastly superior gaming experience than one, or even three premium gaming monitors.

 

[1LiquidPC]

I wouldn't want 3 1440P monitors that your asking about. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I have 2 970s in SLI. My effective resolution on my single monitor is 3440 X 1440P. In newer titles at maxed settings or very high, I can't get 100FPS in some games let alone 144. Even 2 Swift monitors would be more pixels than my setup, so you'd never achieve what the monitors are capable of w/ 2 970s. You could technically run 2 or 3 monitors w/ SLI setup, just be aware that unless your playing older or low spec requirement titles, you'll have to turn down settings considerably for good framerates.

 

[tennisballenator]

I wouldn't want 3 1440P monitors that your asking about. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I have 2 970s in SLI. My effective resolution on my single monitor is 3440 X 1440P. In newer titles at maxed settings or very high, I can't get 100FPS in some games let alone 144. Even 2 Swift monitors would be more pixels than my setup, so you'd never achieve what the monitors are capable of w/ 2 970s. You could technically run 2 or 3 monitors w/ SLI setup, just be aware that unless your playing older or low spec requirement titles, you'll have to turn down settings considerably for good framerates.

Thanks, the reason I asked was because they were offered to me as a package and it would have been more expensive per monitor seperately.