Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

so I decide to build a new rig,

Im currently running a amd FX8350 (watercooled) at 4.4 with 8gb ram at 1600 and a GTX 560 fermi 1gb for all the major components.

Im going to keep my amd FX8350 (watercooled ) just bump it up to 4.6 with 16gb ram at 1800(max the cpu will support) and im stuck on which way to go for the Vid.

Im trying to deiced which would be better Eyefinity or Nvidia for mainly GW2 but other games like the new BF4.

Im stuck between the
GTX 770 2gb 256bit, 1536 cuda cores, core clock of 1110mhz , mem clock 7010mhz($400)

or the

Radeon HD 7970 3gb 384 bit, 2048 stream processors, core clock 925mhz, mem clock 1375mhz.($300)

running 3 monitors (probably 24" ones will pick them after I can nail down a vidcard) landscape and a 4th 23"(my current monitor) for temp and oc apps above.

I plan on running the Sabertooth 990fx 2.0 Mobo and have a 1k psu with a case that has more then enough airflow and room.

Anyone have any experience with either cards in a 3 monitor set up and how GW runs it? Any idea which way I should lean?

Thanks for any help or advise.

I run Eyefinity on a pair of HD7790’s (CrossfireX on a TA890FXE board). Upgraded from a pair of HD5770’s and it was well worth the upgrade. I cant even imagine with a 7970 would bring to the table. I know the 7870’s are very nice, so I would expect 18-24% better out of the 7900 series.

the issue is with GW2. Even with the best specs, you just cant get the best performance. and running tricks like 3D or Eyefinity/surround reduce what performance we do get out of the game. so be prepared for that.

I since that board supports SLI and Crossfire (that is so very awesome, BTW) i would say review what people are saying about the 7970 vs the 770 and then either make a decision or flip a coin.

Depends on the game settings u want to run. if ur like me and u would want max settings then nothing less than a Single 780/Titan or SLI 770’s/680’s would do.

Xfire is ..well…suposedly since the Xfire driver fix its much better but its still not on par with SLI in terms of ACTUAL visual FPS. You will have to read up on Xfire framedrops/runt frames and how the indicated FPS is not the same as the percieved FPS.

I stil lsay if ur thinking of a double GPU system then go NVidia.
Since ur thinking of going multi monitor, then ur ether gunan need SLI or a 780/Titan or maybe one of AMD’s upcoming top end single GPU cards.

Honestly at this point in time, i would not advise multi monitor setups if ur currently runnign a single monitor. Simply becouse 4kHD is right around the corner.
3840×2160 vs 5760×1200/1080, i would go with a 4kHD monitor.
Infact i am, im getting the Asus 39" 4kHD monitor as soon as it arrive which should be early next year, and ‘should’ cost under $1000/£1000 if the panel cost is anything to go by. The picture quality u will get, the desktop space, and the screen size will be hands down better than any triple monitor setup imo, the best bit ..no bezels

Anyway dont underestimate the GPU requirments for multimonitor / high resolution + high setitngs gaming.

SolarNova.1052:

Anyway dont underestimate the GPU requirments for multimonitor / high resolution + high setitngs gaming.

I have a single Radeon HD 7850, and do Eyefinity just fine with GW2 with 3 1600×900 screens (5040×900 with bezel compensation). My GPU usage rarely gets capped, and I average around 30-40 FPS most of the time. I also run with Supersampling + most other settings at the highest (Shadows at Medium, Reflections Off).

You don’t have to have top-end hardware to pull off multi-monitor gaming, just have to know your limits mostly. GW2 on my computer is fine since it’s sort of on the lighter-side of GPU usage (or maybe more optimized on that part, idk). The processor matters most.

Crysis 2 on the other hand is terrible with Eyefinity on my setup and runs around 10 FPS or so. Just to give a general idea of how certain games play on my hardware, games that use either Unreal Engine 3 or Source Engine run really well performance-wise (highest settings averaging around 50 FPS I’d say).

I was commenting in a more general sense to encompas all games.
You dont build a rig around one game.

I kinda like to think that unless it was a hugely graphically intense game, GPU performance won’t really be effected in Eyefinity. As far as I have read, it will mainly double the VRAM useage. GPU intensity will more than likely go up a bit though. However I’ve been seeing that with the new beta drivers from AMD that Eyefinity is actually now working with GW2. Also yeah to accommodate for the extra resolution I think the FX-8350 jumped to 4.6 GHz will be a fair boost for the game at that point.

I wouldn’t take my advice to heart though or anything, I have like no Eyefinity or Surround experience. :P Both of them look very cool though.

I would advise (based on running both Nvidia and AMD on two identical computers) going with a single Nvidia card. My wife has had a lot less issues wither her Nvidia than I have had with my AMD 6950.
We are both running 8350s at default speeds with 8GB of RAM.

SolarNova.1052:

Depends on the game settings u want to run. if ur like me and u would want max settings then nothing less than a Single 780/Titan or SLI 770’s/680’s would do.

Xfire is ..well…suposedly since the Xfire driver fix its much better but its still not on par with SLI in terms of ACTUAL visual FPS. You will have to read up on Xfire framedrops/runt frames and how the indicated FPS is not the same as the percieved FPS.

I stil lsay if ur thinking of a double GPU system then go NVidia.
Since ur thinking of going multi monitor, then ur ether gunan need SLI or a 780/Titan or maybe one of AMD’s upcoming top end single GPU cards.

Honestly at this point in time, i would not advise multi monitor setups if ur currently runnign a single monitor. Simply becouse 4kHD is right around the corner.
3840×2160 vs 5760×1200/1080, i would go with a 4kHD monitor.
Infact i am, im getting the Asus 39" 4kHD monitor as soon as it arrive which should be early next year, and ‘should’ cost under $1000/£1000 if the panel cost is anything to go by. The picture quality u will get, the desktop space, and the screen size will be hands down better than any triple monitor setup imo, the best bit ..no bezels

Anyway dont underestimate the GPU requirments for multimonitor / high resolution + high setitngs gaming.

I say people overestimate what you really need to play surround/eyefinity (on 1080p screens). After having multi monitor for over a year on a myriad of gpu solutions the OP will be fine with a 770 or 7970. Only games along the lines of crisis and what not need the added horsepower. Plus he can sli or xfire whenever

OP you’ll end up with roughly the same performance between those cards for this game. You’ll get 50+ fps maxxed out stock and if you can oc far enough 60fps in uncrowded areas. I prefer nvidia for things like custom resolution (don’t like radeon pro), adaptive vsync, gpu boost 2.0, etc. And depending on what monitors you get custom resolution can come really in handy. This game is also supported by 3d vision. Amd released a frame pacing patch for crossfire but that did not include eyefinity. So right now xfire is good for single screen but still crap for eyefinity

Oh and amazon has the 31.5 inch version of that same 39" 4k monitor slated for next year at $3500

Yea that 31.5 inch screen is nice and all, but it being a IGZO display really ramped up the price. Thankfully the 39" will be a more normal VA type panel that doesnt cost nearly as much to manufacture. IIRC bulk orders of the VA panel used in the 39" 4k Monitor costs around $250 each(and this cost is widely known and confirmed)
Seiki has the exact same VA 39" 4khd panel in their 30hzTV and that cost around $700. Add in the extra cost of Asus’s extra features like a 60 hz controller and variose options, most people expect it to cost around $1000.

I was running 5760×1080 for a while, on a single GTX 680 2GB. My FPS still never really dropped below 40 unless I had full reflections and doing SB, or the usual drop when FE spawns. I had to turn some of the settings down from High/Ultra, but it’s definitely doable. Your processor is going to play a huge part in it too.

Raijinn.9065:

I say people overestimate what you really need to play surround/eyefinity (on 1080p screens). After having multi monitor for over a year on a myriad of gpu solutions the OP will be fine with a 770 or 7970. Only games along the lines of crisis and what not need the added horsepower. Plus he can sli or xfire whenever

OP you’ll end up with roughly the same performance between those cards for this game. You’ll get 50+ fps maxxed out stock and if you can oc far enough 60fps in uncrowded areas. I prefer nvidia for things like custom resolution (don’t like radeon pro), adaptive vsync, gpu boost 2.0, etc. And depending on what monitors you get custom resolution can come really in handy. This game is also supported by 3d vision. Amd released a frame pacing patch for crossfire but that did not include eyefinity. So right now xfire is good for single screen but still crap for eyefinity

Oh and amazon has the 31.5 inch version of that same 39" 4k monitor slated for next year at $3500

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I’ve been a nvidia fan since I first learned how to build comps. I knew radeon was just in the 3 screen game longer and didn’t know if it was worth going for. Ill get a 770 and ill pick up another one in a month when BF comes out, if needed. Now just to find some monitors…