What is a correct graphic card for my mobo?

[dhale]

I will buy a graphic card sometime in 2014 and it may be too early to ask. But I need some understanding of the path I need to take. I have: i7 4770k Haswell, ASUS Maximus VI Formula mobo, Dell 27 in 2560 X 1440 monitor. I will want to play Star Citizen and BF4 at highest resolutions. So will I need 1 or 2 graphics cards as I don't understand the PCIE GPU slots and how they may be configured. How do the PCIE slots come into play? If I use 2 slots then I may be wasting money to get not much better graphics. If I get 1 then I may not have enough horsepower to utilize fully my 1440 monitor.How much VRAM will I need for my (1) Dell monitor to run smoothly?

 

[babernet_1]

Your motherboard is fine. It has three PCI-E 3.0 slots. What this means if if you put one card in it will run at full speed, X16. This is great and as far as we know, no graphics card can use all this bandwidth. If you plug in two graphics cards, they will each be in X8 speed. With the fastest card out, the GTX Titan, it will be, at most, about 5% slower. That's not too significant, like who can see the difference going from 60FPS to 57FPS? I would think with the next generation of graphics cards coming out late 2014 it could be of more significance. Of course slower boards like, say, a GTX 670, you will see very little difference.

As for memory, you really need to go with 3GB minimum, 4GB would give you some extra breathing room. Now things will be different next year, but going with what we know, I'd recommend two R9 290's or two R9 290X's. But be sure to get them with the custom cooling solutions seeing how AMD sort of blew it again with the noisy fans problem. They have 4GB RAM.

Should Nvidia drop its prices, you could re-asses them too. Rumors indicate they have a GTX 780TI and Super Titan in the works too.

 

[thismafiaguy]

For a single 1440p monitor setup, you can go with one high-end card and not have to worry about lacking performance. And your motherboard will support dual GPUs without any issues. Some motherboards only have enough bandwidth for a single graphics card, despite having 2 physical slots, so when you install two graphics cards, they will have to split that bandwidth, leading to a potential bottleneck. Not having enough bandwidth is like breathing through a straw, you'll be wasting the money you've spent on your GPUs because they will be bottlenecked by the lack of bandwidth.

But, your ASUS Maximus VI Formula motherboard is designed with enough bandwidth for two graphics cards to run at full speed without any bottlenecking. The two cards will still be splitting the bandwidth from x16 in a single slot to x8/x8 in two slots, but because they're PCI-Express 3.0 slots, they will be fast enough to run a GPU at full speed even at x8 operation. So you don't need to worry about wasting money if you use 2 slots, you will be getting much better performance, depending on the application and the GPUs. Your motherboard will not be a limiting factor.

As for getting a graphics card in 2014, I would recommend waiting for the Nvidia GTX 800 series to release in the first quarter of 2014. There will be an architecture change in the 800 series, which could potentially mean big performance boosts compared to the 700 series. Also, there will be R9 290X cards with aftermarket coolers by that time, but unless you have a well ventilated case, I wouldn't recommend running two of those in the same system.

 

[babernet_1]

For a single 1440p monitor setup, you can go with one high-end card and not have to worry about lacking performance. And your motherboard will support dual GPUs without any issues. Some motherboards only have enough bandwidth for a single graphics card, despite having 2 physical slots, so when you install two graphics cards, they will have to split that bandwidth, leading to a potential bottleneck. Not having enough bandwidth is like breathing through a straw, you'll be wasting the money you've spent on your GPUs because they will be bottlenecked by the lack of bandwidth.

But, your ASUS Maximus VI Formula motherboard is designed with enough bandwidth for two graphics cards to run at full speed without any bottlenecking. The two cards will still be splitting the bandwidth from x16 in a single slot to x8/x8 in two slots, but because they're PCI-Express 3.0 slots, they will be fast enough to run a GPU at full speed even at x8 operation. So you don't need to worry about wasting money if you use 2 slots, you will be getting much better performance, depending on the application and the GPUs. Your motherboard will not be a limiting factor.

As for getting a graphics card in 2014, I would recommend waiting for the Nvidia GTX 800 series to release in the first quarter of 2014. There will be an architecture change in the 800 series, which could potentially mean big performance boosts compared to the 700 series. Also, there will be R9 290X cards with aftermarket coolers by that time, but unless you have a well ventilated case, I wouldn't recommend running two of those in the same system.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_review_benchmarks,21.html

Crysis 3 is the most demanding game out now. It is a good indicator of what's to come in the next few years. Note that even the R9 290X and Titan struggle with this. Even with no AA and the settings at very high rather than ultimate at 2560X1440. I'd recommend two cards for you.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,17.html

We can see here, that two R9 290X's take care of the job.

 

[thismafiaguy]

He can add another card later on if he runs into Crysis 4. Wouldn't you agree that single GPU configurations are generally more practical than multi-GPU?

Oh and I played Arma 3 the other day, and I think I'll need 4 way crossfire 290X to max that one out at 1440p.

 

[dhale]

OK then. From what I can gleam - and I appreciate any and all your answers, and reading your links that:
A. (2) GPU's are needed to run at the highest quality but if (1) GPU can do it- it would be better. At this time this year (1) GPU may not be enough.
B. Guru3d link seems to simplify the answer to the question this year as 2 are better
C. After further reading it seems BF4 needs 4 GB VRAM and adding 1 more card does not add to VRAM. 4 GB VRAM seems to be the minimum for next year.
D. If I understand you guys correctly, you are recommending 1 card if possible and buy at the absolute last second to get what is needed as it takes 2 cards this year to maintain 60 FPS. Am I wrong that 60 FPS is what I should be aspiring to or is there some other GPU measurement I should take into account?

 

[thismafiaguy]

A. Yes, that is absolutely correct in many cases, but not all games of the present and future are going to be super demanding.
B. You will always get some level of performance benefit with 2 cards depending on how well the cards scale in multi-GPU configuration.
C. I wouldn't say 4GB will be the minimum for 2014, but it will be the recommended spec due to games like BF4. I really don't think you'll run into any problems with 3GB of VRAM on a 780 or 280x, but let's wait for BF4 to release and reference the post-release benchmarks.
D. You have understood correctly. AMD's new 290X is bound to force a price drop on the GTX 780, and Nvidia is soon going to release the GTX 780 Ti, so the market will change soon enough. And I think the 780 Ti will have a good chance of fitting your particular needs. If you get two cards, you can leave one of them turned off when you don't need the power, so it's not like you're stuck with a toaster oven 24/7.