ABT Builds a GTX 780 SLI Battlebox for 4K

Performance for 4K

Nvidia promises good performance at 4K with a GTX 780 SLI Battlebox and we shall try to see if we can get close to their chart with the three games we also bench with.

Lets look a the 8 games we are benching with individually.

The Witcher 2

Although the Witcher 2 is a DX9 game, it is very demanding.Since the Witcher 2 offers both UberSampling and Surround resolutions, we test both.Despite these demanding settings, our simulated 4K resolution can be played at nearly 55fps average while UberSampled 5760×1080 can still nearly manage 40fps with incredible visuals.  And if we turn off UberSampling at 5760×1080, we get nearly 80fps with every other setting maxed out!

Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs is another demanding DX11 game that allows for extreme forms of AA including FXAA plus SuperSampling for an extra-ordinarily clean image.  Unfortunately, Fraps is not taking screenshots at this time, however, we managed 62.5 fps at our simulated 4K setting and nearly 57 fps in Surround but also with SSAA enabled!  Using our Surround resolution of 5760×1080 but without SuperSampling gave us a very fluid frame rate near 80fps.

Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2 allows for setting 2.25xAA in game and we chose ultra maxed out settings as pictured below.Our SuperSampled 2560×1600 resolution simulating 4K without SS gives us 79fps with amazing image quality.  Even 5760×1080 with 2.25xSS still gave us over 50fps average while we saw over 100fps without.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 doesn’t have in-game settings for SuperSampling but its maximum settings at 5760×1080 are quite demanding.We could manage 42fps which was plenty for our “3K” setup, but you might consider adding another GTX 780 for Tri-SLI to max everything out fluidly at 4K.

Tomb Raider: 2013

Tomb Raider is another game that is quite demanding at our 2.25x SuperSampled 2560×1600 but the image quality is amazing.We chose the most demanding maxed-out settings including 2.25x SuperSampling.We saw over 55fps at SuperSampled 2560×1600 and 40fps at 5760×1080.  There would be no problem playing at 4K.

Metro: Last Light

Metro: Last Light is probably the most “next generation” game along with Crysis 3 that we benchmark.Metro Last Light includes SSAA in the game’s options which are going to make playing at 2560×1600 more demanding on the PC than playing at 4K resolution without.  However, the image quality now at a SuperSampled 2560×1600 has to be seen in motion to be believed.Fortunately, around 35fps is enough to play this game in our simulated 4K+ resolution with SSAA or at 5760×1080 in Surround without.

GRID 2

GRID 2 is another demanding game that looks spectacular with everything maxed out in 5760×1080 Surround.We use Ultra and max-out every setting.With our Surround 5760×1080 averaging very close to 60fps average, once can see that the 4K resolution will not be an issue for a GTX 780 SLI Battlebox.

Serious Sam 3

Serious Sam 3 has multitudes of enemies on screen at once, huge bosses, and is a very demanding DX9 game that has settings beyond ultra that can cripple any multi-GPU system. We choose default Ultra settings and added 2xSSAA (Low) for 2560×1600 giving us nearly 70fps at our simulated 4K setting and upping the SuperSampling to 4x still gave us a somewhat playable 40fps with incredible image quality.Let’s look at all eight games’ performance details on one chart.

The Main Performance Chart

Here is the main performance chart.

GRID 2 and Far Cry 3 are only benched at 5760×1080 Surround while Serious Sam 3 is only benchmarked at 4K+ using 2xSS.  The rest of the games are benchmarked in both Surround and the SuperSampled 2560×1600 setting approximating 4K.  Metro: Last Light is benched in Surround without SS, whereas Tomb Raider is benched with both FXAA and SS in Surround’s 5760×1080 resolution.  Sniper Elite V2 and the Witcher are both benched in Surround with SuperSampling on and off.

Playing with this PC gives one great immersion due to the incredible image quality playing at 2560×1600 with SuperSampling while still retaining fluid visuals.  The results are impressive and they indicate that playing at 4K is quite feasible now with a GTX 780 Battlebox.

In every case, we can see that a Battlebox powered by GTX 780 SLI can handle demanding games at 4K, Surround or SuperSampled 2560×1600 resolution.  Of course, one can also add a third GTX 780 for GTX 780 Tri-SLI for even higher fps without compromise, or perhaps for 3D Vision 2 Surround. Playing in 3D Vision Surround approximately doubles the hardware requirements over regular 5760×1080 and is far more demanding than 4K.

In the games that we benchmarked that overlapped with Nvidia’s, we saw that our results indicated that our testing using SuperSampled 2560×1600 is more demanding than playing at 4K resolution without SS. Let’s head for our conclusion.