Will games stress a single 680 GTX at 1080p anytime soon?

N

Neo Zuko

Limp Gawd
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Jul 20, 2012
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Been thinking about this. While some want to game at high resolutions on 1-3 dinky little 23"-30" screens and whatnot, which can use 2-4 video cards well, I'd rather get a big 65" ST50 Panasonic Plasma with low lag and game on the big screen from my PC. Seems far more immersive to me and only requires relatively easy to power 1080p. So I may only ever need one video card.

Originally I bought two Aqua Computer MSI 680 Lightning full cover water cooling blocks and one card thinking I would get a second card when they drop in price and the card gets underpowered via age. Was debating a 27" monitor (my 23" Dell U2312HM is becoming underwhelming in size to me) but decided a big HDTV would be better for games and Blu-Rays. And I'll have my current 23" for normal PC use. But now I think that by the time games will stress that one card at 1080p, I'll just want a better newer card altogether.

So should I sell my extra 680 water block and how well and long will a single 680 power 1080p games?? Any thoughts on a 27" monitor vs just gaming on a big HDTV plasma?? I read plasma HDTV burn in is no longer an issue and plasmas are low lag compared to the higher lagging LCD HDTVs.
 
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depends on what you mean stress cause i know metro 2033 will bring a 680 down to its knees if you crank the settings all the way up with DoF and 4x msaa
 
Funny thing is when I crank the settings up on Metro2033 it doesn't look all that much better though. Definatly not worthy of spending thousands of dollars for triple sli/cfx new cpu, mobo etc. Same damn thing with the Witcher 2 and ubersampling. It just doesn't make it look that much better..... LOL
 
idk about you but i like 4x msaa allot better than no msaa or 2x msaa and even then my 670 still drops down below the 30s with everything on max settings
 
You certainly can turn up settings enough in some games to kill performance on a GTX 680, but as hdgamer said, the actual visual difference often isn't all that significant.

I don't think having a single GTX 680 is going to diminish your experience at 1080p for the foreseeable future.
 
Go try to play The Witcher 2 with everything on max and Ubersampling enabled... i brought my 580 SLI setup with I7 2600K @ 4.4GHz into the single digits.
 
Neo Zuko said:
*snip*
So should I sell my extra 680 water block and how well and long will a single 680 power 1080p games?? Any thoughts on a 27" monitor vs just gaming on a big HDTV plasma?? I read plasma HDTV burn in is no longer an issue and plasmas are low lag compared to the higher lagging LCD HDTVs.
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I game on a 60" sharp led. It has very low lag (google their vyper drive for details) and I enjoy it very much. I'm using a 670 and am confident that I won't experience any loss of visual quality with this setup. I'm not nearly as critical on picture quality as many around here, so I don't mind ticking down the anti aliasing setting a notch as I likely won't really notice the difference anyway.

I encourage you to go the big screen route, you won't be disappointed.

As to the other question, I don't think anything but ray tracing will really cripple gpus with the mostly console port watered down stuff we see nowadays.
 
imo there are extreme mods out there for older games that will bring even a tri-sli/tri-crossfire setup down to its knees.
 
Games aren't being made with SLI in mind.

Very few are. In fact, they never are are they.

I swapped out my 570 SLI for a single 680 to avoid the multi GPU ballache and don't regret it.

Only time multi GPU is worth entertaining is if your going multi screen, and I use a 120 hz screen.

Nearly every game is console now. Just not much incentive to branch out is there.
 
It's not about size anymore, more about resolution. Really though, 65" TVs aren't exactly cutting edge for size. Now, if you're looking at 4K it's a different story.
 
Metro can punish my two overclocked GTX 670 SLi at 1440.
Game is sick
 
Thanks everyone, I think I'm canning my SLI plans for now. My single MSI 680 Lightning should be enough, at least enough to get me to the 780 or 880. I'm going to sell off my extra Aqua Computer 680 Lightning water block I think. While the high res monitor stuff is cool, I'm sticking to 1080p for now, and getting a nice big low lag HDTV.
 
I would game on my 30" 2560X1600 more if I had a more comfortable seat. The pq is so much more superior than my 60" LED at 1080P. Trust me I have friends that watch me game on it and I always get compliments. Without even telling them they automatically comment on how sharp everything looks. If you have money to burn on new graphics cards to "future proof" the money would be better spent on a newer monitor. Had this 30" Dell since 2006 and it's still going strong!!! :)
 
Mmm perhaps a 27" over a HDTV for gaming I go back and forth. But for Blu rays no question big HDTV
 
I like gaming on my 30" monitor than my 50" TV, especially when it comes to FPS games. If I had to choose between the two, I'd stick with the monitor.
 
680 SLI shines at "extreme" resolution (2560*1600, multi monitors setup).
680 SLI would be bottlenecked by the CPU at 1080p.
 
Well I think I settled on a 27" monitor, perhaps the dell U2713hm, and a Panasonic 50-65" ST50 plasma tv... As soon as I can afford it!! Just rocking the U2312HM till I finish my water cooled PC build and all.

That will give me an excuse to SLI I think??
 
I found the 680 lightning at newegg for $500 plus $20 rebate plus $9 shipping so I bit. Now it's sold out. Must of been a good price. Hell my first was $600 plus $9 shipping.
 
Crysis 2 Brings my 680 to its knees during intense firefights at Ultra DX 11 and High res textures. I get dips to the 40`s so yeah there you go a current gen game that batters the 680. Although I would suspect optimization issues in the game itself.
 
I run a single GTX 680 on a U3011 (2560x1600). I don't have a single game that runs poorly at high quality settings (not always maxing everything out, but it's usually diminishing returns past a certain point). You should have no problem at 1080p unless you're doing ridiculous graphical settings.
 
RadXge said:
680 SLI would be bottlenecked by the CPU at 1080p.
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Depends really. With GTX680 SLI and my 120hz monitor (1080P) using adaptive VSync, there are a lot of games that are able to stay pegged at 120 now that used to float mostly between 60-90 with only a single card.
 
I run a single GTX 680 on a U3011 (2560x1600). I don't have a single game that runs poorly at high quality settings (not always maxing everything out, but it's usually diminishing returns past a certain point). You should have no problem at 1080p unless you're doing ridiculous graphical settings.
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What according to you is poor?... I prefer to think that a consistent 50 fps throughout all levels of a game is good but yeah preferences differ. As you are running nearly the same setup as mine I am curious as to how your card performs in Crysis 2 at 1080 and 1600. I usually get dips to the 40`s at certain levels where there is lots of water.
 
Zinn said:
I run a single GTX 680 on a U3011 (2560x1600). I don't have a single game that runs poorly at high quality settings (not always maxing everything out, but it's usually diminishing returns past a certain point). You should have no problem at 1080p unless you're doing ridiculous graphical settings.
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A single 680 is not enough for me at 2560X1600. SLI is a must at that resolution in my opinion playing the newest games.
 
GreenGoose said:
A single 680 is not enough for me at 2560X1600. SLI is a must at that resolution in my opinion playing the newest games.
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You shouldn't have much of a problem with a single 680, unless you want 120fps or high multisampling.

But then again, a lot of games are badly optimized these days.
 
This question is impossible for anyone to answer for you. It depends on the games you play, your frame rate tolerances, whether or not you are okay with perhaps having to turn down a setting or two or use less anti-aliasing, etc.

For gaming on a 60" plasma from 6-8' away, aliasing probably isn't a huge concern, so at 1080p I would assume a single 680 will meet your needs. If you can afford a setup like this you can surely afford to upgrade or add cards later. Just try it and see how you feel.
 
theres a couple that might be a little slow, just turn of MSAA and some settings. you could still have 60 fps with ultra settings on the majority of games no problem.
 
Thought about returning the second MSI card, but just felt like keeping it instead!!
 
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Games that look great with downsampling such as crysis 2 would be good with sli

Also, Arma 2 can't be maxed with a 680.
That said I am gonna jump on the "it will have diminishing returns" band wagon and say that a single card is the way to go. PPAA is getting better and better.

I'm comfy with a 670 with a 27" @ 1080p
 
Fuck big screens that take up half the room, get a projector and you'll think you're in the game.....not to mention the movies :D
 
I looked into projectors but the gaming lag is horrendous on most models, Especially the nicer ones. If you want guaranteed good gaming lag with a state of the art picture quality, with a big ass screen, you better get a Panasonic plasma. ST50 or flagship VT series. The GT series is overpriced for what you get.
 
That's a load of bollox. Don't listen to the 60" Plasma crew...they just want you to keep droppin' $1500 on shoeboxes, lmao

No input lag here :D

Input lag test - http://tft.vanity.dk/

 
660 Ti / 670 / 680 + 1080p is perfect. Unless, of course, you're going 120hz monitor (of which I highly recommend).
 
Get a DLP Proejctor if you are looking at projectors. No lag here and 0.2ms response time. Absolutely no ghosting or anything. Far superior and clearer in fast motion to ANY LCD. That's the nature of DLP tech.
 
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I was just from my research I have no clue really. Only the models I looked into like. I would love to find a great projector with low lag, please post the links :)
 
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