Hi guys, 

 

Looking for some advice from people running Nvidia surround setups with modern cards (3x1200x1920 portrait). There were a few topics on this in the search from late last year, but maybe by now a few more people have tried it and the answers are clearer. 

 

Going by all the general gaming benchmarks, the 780 Ti is the obvious choice, but with only 3GB, I wonder if it is sufficient for near-4k resolution simming. Alternatively, although a single 770 4GB is 20-40% weaker than the 780 Ti in most benchmarks, a pair of them edges it out, and would have 1GB more memory available. If we hold hope that one day p3d will support SLI, getting a single 770, with the option of adding a second when p3d supports it, could be the better option.  

 

Thoughts?

Well, I "was" in the same dilemma that you are.

My decision was to go with the 770 4gb "overclocked" -  "me" just thinks that the speed is quite good enough over my existing 570 Classified, which IS doing a decent job with P3d -

I just want as much "memory" as I can get and will sacrifice "just a little" over the 780 - PLUS save a few dollars.  IMHO

I can see now with P3Dv2.2 it's time to upgrade my 2GB Geforce 670.  No problem running here on one 27" but I can see it strain with all the new goodies on my wrap-around display.  So I heard something about a new 6GB 780 coming out in a few weeks?  If so, I'm gonna wait for that one.  If I had to choose between the current 3GB or 4GB as above I would go for the 4GB.

I have a 770/4GB and so far I have run v2.2 on a 1600x900 res monitor.  I have very high settings and I have a very smooth experience.  Tomorrow I will see if I can hook up 2 projectors at 1280x800 and see how it performs.

Just my two cents...I run FSX with GTX780 (non-ti) 3GB on 3x 24" monitors (5760x1080) - REX textures, Active Sky Next, FTX Global + Vector + Mesh, PMDG 737 NGX and mega airports and if the weather is not too heavy, I get out 25-30fps in Virtual cockpit, which is smooth. With heavy weather 18-23fps with some stutter on the outter screens, but really minor...but under DX10. Also I fly online so I dont have any AI active except those at the airports (cars, busses etc).

 

The 780 is a very good card and I am contemplating the shift to P3D, just pending details about the PMDG 737 release details before I do the jump because I invested a small fortune into CP Flight Pro modules.

 

So based on the fact that P3D off-loads alot of the workload to the GPU in comparison to FSX where the CPU is the main "character" you probably well of with a GTX780 and later buy another to SLI once supported...or just as Clutch Cargo said, wait a few weeks/months for the 6GB 780 to come out.

 

Seeing some of the videos online about "as real as it gets" with all the fancy extras and sliders maxed out is nice for making videos and getting those likes/subs, but if you think about it, when you fly yourself, you dont really watch all the external views as much as you do when you watch the promo videos they make (yes you look outside a bit, but no in the style of the videos)...so set the sliders back a bit and enjoy P3D for now and wait for the 6GB 780 to be released.

 

Cheers,

Rene

My experience with my 780 (non Ti)

I have 2 x 1920x1080 monitors and I'm cruising at 57FPS on overcasts and just slightly (not too much) higher on broken clouds / clear days. No stutter, smooth, sliders almost maxed. On the ground - if I'm at an FSDT airport, around 30FPS. 40 to 50 if I'm at a default scenery airport.

 

The Haswell chip I'm powering really compliments along with the video card; both giving me smooth performance. To the OP - if you're just worried about the 3GB of video memory for FSX - don't worry about it. On FSX, it will not run out. However - if you're planning to power other games that are graphic intensive (eg. Battlefield 4 with triple screen setup @ 2560x1440 each) then I'd suggest either wait for the 6GB 780, get the 770 with 4GB, or wait for the new 8-- series that will carry even more VRAM.

Thanks all for the very thoughtful replies. 

 

I think I've decided to go the route of 770 4GB to start. If performance is acceptable, as I suspect it will be, I have options of either adding a second when p3d supports SLI, or ebaying at not-too-great of a loss and upgrading to whatever NV comes out with next year. This way I at least don't overspend upfront if it's not necessary. 

 

I'll report back with my findings.

Just a bit of a warning, not sure how it is where you're from but I went with a 670 gtx 4GB about a year ago thinking the same thing, that down the track I'd SLI it when there's more games supporting SLI and I would be needing more performance than a single 670. 

 

Problem now is that I can't find any of the Gigabyte GTX 670 4GB in stock in Australia for a good price!  By the time P3D supports SLI, might not find any in stock. But probably not a problem for US residents.

I had the same dilemma as you and eventually settled on 2 x EVGA 770GTX Classified 4GB in SLI, for the same reasons you did. Mine are running 3 x 24" monitors at 5760x1080 resolution. My frame rates are locked at 30 fps and it seems to hold up well.

Following up as promised. 

 

With a single EVGA 770 4GB, 4770 CPU, 3600x1920, FTX NCA, REX 4, I'm getting 30-50 FPS almost everywhere. Some slowdown into the high teens with weather. Totally playable, but still looking forward to getting a second one. 

 

I've never seen VRAM usage over 3GB, so the 3GB 780/780ti probably would have been fine/better. Most of my flights however are over 2GB, so the 2GB 770 would be a poor choice. 

 

Terrain:

4096 Textures, Max LOD, Ultra Tessellation, 5m Mesh, 15cm Textures

 

Scenery:

Extremely dense complexity, very dense vegetation, extremely dense buildings. 

 

No cloud shadows. 

EVGA has two GTX780 6GB cards coming according to their site. One is $569.99 and the other $549.99.

 

http://www.evga.com/Products/ProductList.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+700+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+780

 

There well may be other manufactures coming out with the same configuration but I do not know who at this time.

 

Anyway, food for thought!

 

Lyn