From single monitor to triples while being CPU bound?

[Big Linda]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with moving to triples while being CPU bound.

Im running a i5 8400 with a 1080ti at 1440p single screen.

During a race, fps fluctuates from 90 - 120 on average. The GPU never goes higher than 50% but individual CPU threads get to around 85% so I guess I'm CPU bound.

Practicing alone on track, I get around 200fps and GPU is around 95%.

My question is, if I move to triples, will my FPS drop to around half during a race as suggested by many websites and forums? Or, because I'm CPU bound, will my FPS remain quite high and I'll notice more of my GPU being utilized?

If anyone else has tried this, I'd appreciate any observations.

Thank you

 

[Noahbet]

What games/sims are you talking about? And what are you looking to upgrade to? 3x1440p?

 

[Big Linda]

Sorry. It is for Iracing and triple 1440p.

Thanks.

 

[Emery]

My question is, if I move to triples, will my FPS drop to around half during a race as suggested by many websites and forums? Or, because I'm CPU bound, will my FPS remain quite high and I'll notice more of my GPU being utilized?

Yes, your fps will drop to about half when going to triples. 1080ti is not really enough for triple 1440p, but it will work well with triple 1080p. GPU is significantly more important with triples than the CPU.

 

[Big Linda]

Yes, your fps will drop to about half when going to triples. 1080ti is not really enough for triple 1440p, but it will work well with triple 1080p. GPU is significantly more important with triples than the CPU.

So do you think my GPU usage will stay around 50% with triples? Won't the triple screens make the GPU work harder and I'll be able to use more than the 50% that is being used now? Just wanting to clarify.

 

[Noahbet]

So do you think my GPU usage will stay around 50% with triples? Won't the triple screens make the GPU work harder and I'll be able to use more than the 50% that is being used now? Just wanting to clarify.

No it won't stay at around 50%. Yes the triple screens make the GPU work harder - It will probably go up at around 100%.
Anyway the 1080ti won't be enough for triple 1440p.

 

[Big Linda]

Thank you all very much.

I've just tried lowering my resolution to 1080p out of curiosity and I got exactly the same framerate in a race (90-120ish).

 

[Big Linda]

Just an update in case it helps someone in the future.

I tried it with triple 1440p and my GPU went up to 99% as expected.

My framerate dropped by around 20% on average. This is track dependent but overall I'm very happy with the result.

 

[saucemarocain]

Just an update in case it helps someone in the future.

I tried it with triple 1440p and my GPU went up to 99% as expected.

My framerate dropped by around 20% on average. This is track dependent but overall I'm very happy with the result.

Not trying to necro an older post, but I'm currently in the exact situation but coming from a single 1080p.

I can get a great deal on triple 32" 1440p monitors and the only thing that was holding me back was whether my fps was gonna get tanked to sub 60 fps.

Thanks for updating your topic. Did you end up lowering a lot of settings? Was it visually still appealing?

 

[Big Linda]

I just kept settings where they were (second from max IIRC).
I'm still very happy with the framerate and have never noticed any problems. The only time it dips to near 60 is at the start on a big AI grid (CPU bottleneck).

I do have g-sync on my monitors which may help though.

 

[rana_kirti]

so when we go from single to triple then fps drops to 1/2? not 1/3...?!?

also can we run center at 1440p and sides at 1080p to gain frames?

Thanks

 

[Big Linda]

Double post

 

[Big Linda]

so when we go from single to triple then fps drops to 1/2? not 1/3...?!?

also can we run center at 1440p and sides at 1080p to gain frames?

Thanks

All I can say is that I didn't notice a big drop in framerate when I went from single 1440p to triple 1440p. That's because on a single monitor I was CPU bound and my GPU wasn't going much higher than 50/60% usage.

When I went to triples, my GPU could become fully utilized at 99% and that became the bottleneck.

To add to this, I recently upgraded to a 12700 and the CPU bottleneck has gone. The 1080ti is more than enough for most sims (except it struggles a bit with ACC)

This is my experience. PCs are complex systems and other people's milage can, and probably will, vary.

As for using 1080p on side monitors, I have never tried.