First post - questions about a build

Greetings! I've been ramping up to a new build lately and finally decided I have built enough of my own PCs and would like to explore custom pro built options. I'd been working with the ---------------- configurator, but had read nothing but good things about Digital Storm as well, so here I am to check things out. And hey, there's a community forum, nice! :)

So down to a few questions. As much as I'd love to use a 1440p and two 1080p in surround, it seems that's just not an option with nVidia Surround, which brings me to the question of how feasible is it to get great quality and performance in games at 3x1440p? I realize this is more demanding even than a single 4k, so I'm not sure how well it will work with today's graphics technology. Is the limiting factor RAM for SLI? Is it GPU speed? Is it memory throughput?

Will it require 3xTitan Z with 12GB VRAM at high throughput?
Will it do fine with 3xTitan X?
How about 2xTitan X?
And how about 2 or 3 980Ti?

I don't mind at all using only one display for the most demanding games in general. I am eager to use G-Sync and hope to have consistent >60fps to appreciate that. But what I'm really after with the triple screens is flight/space/other sims. And as much as I love to have most games running at 60fps (and better - my current display is 1440p at 60Hz with GTX980), I'm okay with the simulations running a bit slower, though less than 30 is not acceptable.

Is this realistic? What is the best emphasis for video card hardware...
GPU speeds?
3xSLI vs 2xSLI anything 980Ti/6GB VRAM?
Literally need Titan 12GB?
Literally need Titan Z?

I mean is it just video ram handling all those textures and pixels? Or is it GPU processing? And I know 3-way SLI doesn't scale as well as 2-way, not to mention that cost is a very tough pill to swallow in combination with everything else in the system.

What I'm expecting out of the 2 side displays is peripheral vision, though I'm not sure how much of that you really get (for example for a sense of fore/aft movement while hovering in a helicopter sim) or if it's more of just a wider field of view.

And what about the new 1400p ultra wide curved panels that are starting to show up? Is that a better bet than 3x1440p since you get that curve, and some slight (?) peripheral vision without all the extra pixels of 3 displays to drive? Anyone have experience with one of these?

Thanks for any help here!

EDIT: Competitor name removed - Alex

Edited by Alex - 25 Sep 2015 at 10:01am

Originally posted by  You may have to ease off of things like anti-aliasing to lower the VRAM usage on the 980 Ti's, but their performance should be fairly similar to the Titan X.

Perfectly willing to lower or eliminate anti-aliasing at this resolution, so that's encouraging if that is the largest factor or breaking point.

Originally posted by  For the WQHD monitors, they are smaller than the UHD/4K displays, but they can be overclocked to a 100Hz refresh rate, which puts their pixel fill rate at similar levels to the UHD displays. One or two 980 Ti or Titan X cards will do there, but I'd give the edge to overclocked 980 Ti cards in that scenario.

So in this case the VRAM is slightly less of a factor and GPU speed is more so?

watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6g5bK_0fE and draw your own conclusions. 

i'm seeing very good performance on ultra wide 1440p with a single 980ti.

processing power/speed is more pressing than memory capacity as long as you get enough (right now there's no game requiring anywhere close to 12GB even at 4/5K).  

as far as 3-4 way sli, i'll bet you see the cpu bottleneck your video cards before any real gains are realized. perhaps it's relevant in a surround 4k system?  stick to x2 sli for best bang for buck. 


Edited by db188 - 22 Sep 2015 at 10:07pm

i'm moving from triple 1080p monitors in surround (5760x1080p) to the 21:9 ultra wide screen 1440p curved IPS G-Sync Asus when it becomes available later this year.  in some reviews the "curve" is a marketing gimmick, while in others people like it over the flat monitors.  i guess YMMV.  almost all of the reviews enjoy the bezel-less FOV over surround/eyefinity.  my personal experience/opinion is that it definitely gives users an advantage in shooter games, and just as in movies you get to see more of what the developers made w/o a cropped effect.  i prefer it over 16:9/16:10 aspect ratios.  i'm pretty sure the average human peripheral vision extends beyond the real estate of these monitors, so if i understand the context of your question you won't be getting a true peripheral feeling playing games on these monitors.  you'd probably need to be playing on something bigger.  i don't get a true peripheral feeling from 3x24" screens and these 34" screens are smaller.  i will trade that size for more pixels and no bezels and be glad for it.

i've no personal experience with that TrackIR5 gear, but it seems pretty cool.  i suspect you'll have to wait for the VR stuff to mature for a true flight sim experience.   


Edited by db188 - 22 Sep 2015 at 10:38pm

the curve is very gentle, which is why some reviewers feel it's a gimmick.  any stretching would have to do with lack of support from the software (game) for the aspect ratio. 

if you're desiring more of a peripheral vision experience you should probably stay with a flat panel display, because the curve in these new monitors is "supposed" to bring the outer edges of the display into the normal FOV of a person, so that it prevents having to turn the head back and forth from left to right to catch everything.  as i said, based on reviews ymmv as to how well these curved monitors achieve that goal.


Edited by db188 - 23 Sep 2015 at 1:38pm

the standard config is to have os+bare bones apps on your fast "C" drive and then mirrored data drives for long term storage.  i'm wary of raid 0 because when one drive fails all data is lost.  imo, there are plenty of fast ssd options that don't require raid 0.         

as far as what you buy it really depends on your budget.  if you had the money to go with all fast, high capacity, ssd (either SATA III or PCIE) i'd advise that over mechanical HDD.  at least try to budget for a 250GB main drive ssd and one or two high capacity WD Black hard drives.