What to upgrade for Ultra Wide curved 1440 res from 1080?

[Master Guns]

I'm really interested in getting an UW curved 1440 monitor. I've seen some videos and reviews and it seems really great, a great alternative for those seeking ultra wide viewing yet not interested in a 3 monitor setup. My specs are as follows (also in my sig):

i5 4690k quad core ocd @4.6 ghz
GTX 970 4GB
16 GB RAM

If anything, what do I need to upgrade. Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

For recent AAA games then maybe another 970 to sustain 60 fps at max settings, however for mmos, not really an issue and this set up is fine.

Though would help to know what games you intend to play.

[Master Guns]

Currently at 1080 I'm playing current AAA titles at around 75-130 fps. Would 1440 really drag it down that low? That's surprising to me. But thank you for your input.

[Xs]

Probably just the 970, go up to SLI or swap it for a 980. Not due to see the new AMD stuff till June, so we shouldn't expect anything new from Team Green till then either.
If you can flip the 970, or put it to good use elsewhere then the 980 may well be the better option, for the extra VRAM, and to give you an idea of what you need, you're looking at ~60% of 4K or 250% of 1080p in terms of raw horsepower. If you can jump up to an R9 295X2 that would put you over passable 60fps and into ramping the graphics settings up, then ofcourse theres the Titan, but I'm not going to suggest you buy that before 4k

Edit: theres your answer for how much more it takes than 1080.

[Master Guns]

Well that's very enlightening, thank you. Would SLI 970s or a 980 be preferred? Not every game supports SLI sadly.

[Xs]

Well that's very enlightening, thank you. Would SLI 970s or a 980 be preferred? Not every game supports SLI sadly.

The 970's are slightly more powerful, but you lose the VRAM (or effectively lose it) compared to the 980's not SLI but slightly weaker performance, with the extra ~0.5 of usable VRAM.

Its really a choice, you've obviously recently bought the 970 so its a bit of a bitch to get rid of it so soon, but as I say, if you can put it to good use then the 980 is probably the better choice. Otherwise two 970s will do the job, you just might get some issues with day 1 AAA's.

[Deleted]

With 21:9 gaming, its not just resolution, theres a large thing you are missing, the extra FOV thats visible, you will see more of the world, which means more stuff to render at 3440x1440.

More stuff you can see, the more stress it will have on your system, my advice is, just try it with one gpu and see how it fairs, only need to upgrade if you need the extra performance at the settings you want.

However it is well worth it, gaming at 21:9 will actually give you a enhanced experience of your current games, its not just extra pixels.

A lot of games just do not come with extra FOV and the added real estate for UI is really nice, you can always force the scaling on the gpu and can force 16:9 gaming with black bars on the side.

Also please if you use chrome, get
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...er-info-dialog

Its mostly useless for youtube, but for netflix it is amazing, you can get the full screen 21:9 experience that most movies are produced in.

No more black bars and also get
http://www.flawlesswidescreen.org/

This will help with some games that have some issues in 21:9.

But most games work at 21:9 out of the box.

[Xs]

If you want more links to have a sniff around on:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N...970_SLI/1.html

Bit out dated now, but a good review which benchmarks right around your sweet spot with the 2560x1600 being about as close as you're going to get to an UW res. Chip a few FPS off the results and you'll have yours (its 95% of UW res, to give you an idea).

[Master Guns]

Honestly it makes more sense to me to just get a 980. I know guys who run for 4K off of a 980, so I'm sure I can run this. Plus I don't want to deal with the issues associated with SLI.

[Remilia]

I wouldn't go with a 970 if you plan to use a 3440x1440. The extra VRAM would potentially be needed at that resolution, game dependent of course, which would cause some stuttering.

I personally would wait and see how the R9 3xx line up would be, and the potential price reductions.

[angelsdeath]

Sounds like you have plenty of time and money on your hands. Google is an awesome resource.

[Deleted]

I would first buy the monitor if you are dead set on one. And then just see how the performance is with the 970. If you are not happy with it, get something better.

If you can wait, wait till the 3xx series or till the 980ti, which should come out in a couple of weeks.

[Xs]

If you can wait, wait till the 3xx series or till the 980ti, which should come out in a couple of weeks.

The 300's are due to be officially announced at the very start of June, the Ti will probably also be close to that, either ASAP or ~September, then we'll have an exact time when the prices should change.

[Master Guns]

I'm really kind of an Nvidia fanboy. I've had nothing but bad experiences with AMD, so I pretty much stick to Nvidia/Intel personally. I know, I'm a fanboy. I'm fine with that. I'll probably check out the 980ti but truth be told wouldn't a MSI 980 be good enough for 1440? It's not like it's 4K.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ps_curved.html

That's the monitor I'm looking at. I am open to suggestions for a curved 34 inch 1440p 21:9 monitor.

[Deleted]

I do agree just get the monitor.

Theres another test you can do, since you are using a Nvidia GPU, create custom resolutions, if you don't know how then read up on
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509076

or use DSR though custom resolution is better because you can actually ask the game to run at 3440x1440.

The games will look odd on a 16:9 screen but it lets you test the resolution, the game is outputting that resolution and as a result is being subjected to the same stress as having that monitor natively.

[Master Guns]

Are you sure about that? How would it stress my GPU if my screen isn't capable of projecting 21:9?

[Deleted]

custom resolutions still output the game via force at the resolution you set it at.

The screen would downsample the resolution but in this case you are should be only interested that the game is running at that resolution and how it will be stressed.

- - - Updated - - -

Should add, you will most likely just get black bars top and bottom.

Down sampling doesnt render a fake resolution, it does actually generate the very resolution you set at such as 3440x1440.