Hardware & Technical Need advice on monitor and graphics card upgrade.

Maro-Val

Maro-Val
Hi guys. In a couple of weeks i will hopefully get some money and i plan to upgrade my pc a bit for better graphics, so i have a few questions. I have seen numerous reviews and forum threads, compared prices, pros/cons and guess what.. its a mess and i need your help.

My current rig has a GTX 780 and an old 22 monitor on 1680x1050. I have another GTX 780 card sitting which is identical.
Cpu is an i7 960 @ 3.2 with 16 GB RAM.

Frames that i get on ED and i am happy with it.
100 - 120 on super cruise
60 - 70 in stations
35 - 45 on planets

The monitor that i want to buy should be ultra wide and i would really really like a curved one. Should be IPS and i would also like it to have G-sync if possible.

So here it is:
Which one of the combinations should i go?

Keep the single GTX 780 and buy a 2580x1080 monitor

Go with GTX 780 SLI and buy a 2580x1080 monitor
Go with GTX 780 SLI and buy a 3440x1440 monitor

Buy a GTX 980 and a 2580x1080 monitor
Buy a GTX 980 and a 3440x1440 monitor

Wait and buy a 1080 and a 3440x1440 monitor

- If i choose a 2580x1080 monitor is 29' or 34' better?
- Should i wait and buy an Nvidia 1080 card or go with the 980 instead when prices gets low?
- What monitor do you have or suggest?
- If i go with the 780's in SLI will everything work ok? (I saw all threads with SLI with many different opinions)

Please note that i am happy with the frames i get with the current setup and i would like to keep it that way or go higher. Bugdet should be kept as low as it can get, so i am looking for a pretty decent combination that will last a few years with ED, rather than buying top of the line products.
I know VR is a good choice that probably would be cheaper, but that is an option for the future.
Thanks guys.
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TL.DR

If you like copy paste the below lines and tell me what do you have and if you are happy with it.

GRAPHICS CARD:
MONITOR MODEL:
MONITOR RES:
FPS ON SC:
FPS IN STATIONS:
FPS ON HORIZONS:
 
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Arithon

Arithon
With the 1070 and 1080 just weeks away, do what I've done and wait.

I may have to "make do" with my 970 using my Oculus when it arrives, but if I can get something 3 times faster than a 980 for the same price, waiting seems the sensible thing to do.
 

Boomer Kay

B
Maro-Val said:
- If i choose a 2580x1080 monitor is 29' or 34' better?
Click to expand...

You'll actually have to test that for yourself. A friend of mine moved his 32" 4k screen to the bedroom and plays xbox from his bed after realizing the screen size is more annoying than immersive when used as computer screen at a very short sitting distance.
Resolution wise the same. Higher resolutions are always a strain on the memory bandwidth (kinda exponentially with the post processing you enable) and you'll have to check if at your sitting distance, you'll even notice a difference (even at 55", there's only a noticable difference betwenn fullHD and 4k if you're closer than about 1.5-2 meters) or just sacrifice performance for no visual improvement.
Ultra Wide Screen ED also seems to be a controversial topic. Some like it, some not so much.
 
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Maro-Val

Maro-Val
Thanks for your replies guys. Indeed waiting seems like the reasonable thing to do. I am really interested in your suggestions about monitor models also, for those who have ultrawide monitors.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Boomer Kay said:
You'll actually have to test that for yourself. A friend of mine moved his 32" 4k screen to the bedroom and plays xbox from his bed after realizing the screen size is more annoying than immersive when used as computer screen at a very short sitting distance.
Resolution wise the same. Higher resolutions are always a strain on the memory bandwidth (kinda exponentially with the post processing you enable) and you'll have to check if at your sitting distance, you'll even notice a difference (even at 55", there's only a noticable difference betwenn fullHD and 4k if you're closer than about 1.5-2 meters) or just sacrifice performance for no visual improvement.
Ultra Wide Screen ED also seems to be a controversial topic. Some like it, some not so much.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately i never had a monitor that big and i know that the same resolution in a bigger monitor can change the parameters. The only info i can provide is that the monitor will sit in about 50 to max 70 cm from my face.
 

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE
- If i choose a 2580x1080 monitor is 29' or 34' better?
Click to expand...

That's easy - IMO a 34" ultrawide is too big for 2560x1080, it will be too pixelated.

If you want 34", 3440x1440, curved, IPS, ultrawide and G-sync then the choice is between these two:
Acer X34 http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-x34-series
Asus PG348Q http://www.asus.com/uk/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG348Q/

They both use the same panel (made by LG) and there is not much to choose between them so it comes down to which design you prefer and the price (the Acer has been out for longer so should be cheaper). I have the Freesync version of the X34 and it's superb, though you should be aware there have been some issues on the quality control side, but Acer seemed to have these under more control now and I haven't heard of any issues recently.

IMO a 980 won't quite be enough to drive this resolution at smooth framerates (particularly if you want to get close to the 100hz refresh rate) without turning down some graphics settings (and then...what's the point of having a monitor like this...).
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
If I may, can I suggest you ask yourself how much better you expect things to be?

Oculus will be a different matter of course, but for monitor graphics, with your 780 card, you will be unlikely to get a lot better.

If you have the cash to spare, you get a bigger monitor.
 

Maro-Val

Maro-Val
MAIN SEQUENCE said:
That's easy - IMO a 34" ultrawide is too big for 2560x1080, it will be too pixelated.

If you want 34", 3440x1440, curved, IPS, ultrawide and G-sync then the choice is between these two:
Acer X34 http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-x34-series
Asus PG348Q http://www.asus.com/uk/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG348Q/

They both use the same panel (made by LG) and there is not much to choose between them so it comes down to which design you prefer and the price (the Acer has been out for longer so should be cheaper). I have the Freesync version of the X34 and it's superb, though you should be aware there have been some issues on the quality control side, but Acer seemed to have these under more control now and I haven't heard of any issues recently.

IMO a 980 won't quite be enough to drive this resolution at smooth framerates (particularly if you want to get close to the 100hz refresh rate) without turning down some graphics settings (and then...what's the point of having a monitor like this...).
Click to expand...

More or less i have the same conclusions with you. There is also the LG 34uc97c-b which doesnt have the G-sync.
So again the best thing is to wait for a 1080 if i want 3440x1440.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Surfinjo said:
If I may, can I suggest you ask yourself how much better you expect things to be?

Oculus will be a different matter of course, but for monitor graphics, with your 780 card, you will be unlikely to get a lot better.

If you have the cash to spare, you get a bigger monitor.
Click to expand...

For the two 780 cards i only had hope for SLI and use the money to buy a better monitor. But again seems a single card will be the best solution.


- Another solution would be to buy a 3440x1440 monitor and set up the SLI 780's until prices are good for a 1080 card. Anyone using this configuration??
 
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