Just upgraded from 460 SLI to a single 980 FTW. Looking to purchase the 28" ROG SWIFT and I was wondering if a single 980 would be able to game 60fps+ at 1440p with everything maxed out? Or would I be looking into SLI to making things enjoyable. I have no need to upgrade to 4K later on, so I'm trying to see if my set up will last me 3-4 years. Any input would help, thanks! 

I have the EVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0 and I play Call of Duty Advanced Modern Warfare with resolution of 3840 x 2160 on a Samsung UHD 4 K monitor i don't have any issues or problems at all . everything is running smooth and I have to say the GTX 980 is a beast . I love that Card ! So hands up :)

Depends on the game. Most games are ok with lower MSAA or FXAA. For 4x/8x AA go SLI.

bsmegreg
That's a silly question seeing as the 970 can play CS:GO at 200fps rendering @1440 and max everything. You should never drop below 70FPS even on other games and stress testing. So the 980 is fine for 1440 and probably even 4k.

it's not a silly question when you cite CS:GO which will run just fine at 1080p on a GT650m in a laptop. Try something a bit more demanding like Far Cry 4 or Crysis 3.

I get 60+ fps playing metro last light redux, which is a very demanding game, with no aa. AA brings the 980 to its knees, Last Light still looks very good with no aa, I hardly notice it. Only a handful of games you have to turn down aa and everything to ultra at 1440p with a 980.

bsmegreg

HeavyHemi

bsmegreg
That's a silly question seeing as the 970 can play CS:GO at 200fps rendering @1440 and max everything. You should never drop below 70FPS even on other games and stress testing. So the 980 is fine for 1440 and probably even 4k.

it's not a silly question when you cite CS:GO which will run just fine at 1080p on a GT650m in a laptop. Try something a bit more demanding like Far Cry 4 or Crysis 3.

Even in a unigene, the card gets 90fps, so I can't imagine it going below 60-70fps for 1440 still in stress. Besides, he could always buy SLI later on like he mentioned. But I still don't think he needs it because he would get his 60+FPS 24/7.

His standard was "everything maxed out". Now if you are willing to reduce settings  then yes, you can maintain a 60 FPS average at 1440p. But that wasn't his question.

Personally, if I didn't have a G-sync monitor, I'd have purchased two 980s to push frame rates higher in order to minimize perceivable tearing with no Vsync on a 1440p monitor.  Since I have a G-sync monitor, a single 980 is more than sufficient at 1440p.
 
I have the ROG SWIFT monitor.  You don't need everything to exceed 60Hz to get smooth video.  As long as the video card is pumping out frames faster than the human eye can discern them (high 20s fps and above) in any given game, you get smooth performance with the G-sync turned on.  With the 980, in many games your frame rates will be well above the 60 mark, but for those games where you're not, the G-sync keeps things looking as smooth as butter.
 
When I first got the ROG SWIFT monitor, I had two 780s in SLI.  The real eye-opener was when I disabled SLI to see how my games would run and still continued to have smooth video while the frame rate bounced all over the spectrum.  G-sync tech is great.
 
A G-sync monitor has and will be a good investment for me since I won't have to run an SLI setup in order to get a great gaming experience any longer.  This way, I only need to buy one flagship/high-end (x80+) card as necessary.  
 
I run with details cranked.  When I run BF4, my frame rates are anywhere from the 60s to the 120s with 2xMSAA.  Tomb Raider with TressFX is more challenging and can bring the frame rates into the 20s, but frame rates stay between 40 and 70 for the most part.  Everything is smooth and you can't tell the difference in framerates unless you get a drop into the low 20s where you'll experience stutter, but no tearing.
 
A 980 and an ROG SWIFT 2560x1440 monitor is really a great combo.  I would consider upgrading to 4K when the day comes that a single GPU can truly effectively run around 60fps for a majority of titles.  That day is yet to come.

Don't be surprised.
 
The human eye takes in everything.  I'm not talking about biological functions.
 
The fluctuations in frame rate that happens during the normal course of playing a game not set with v-sync on are pretty great.  With G-sync, these changes flow seamlessly from one frame rate to the next.  The only time the video gets choppy on this type of monitor is when the frame rate somewhere in the mid to low 20s or less at a given point in time.  It would get choppy on any monitor at that low of a frame rate. 
 
If you have problems watching TV shows or movies produced at 24 or 30 frames per second as most are and these seems choppy to you, then you'd have a heck of a time getting smooth performance out of any video setup that dips that low.  I imagine you're among a group of people who can't watch the telly or a movie without getting a headache?
 
If your argument is you need a high frame rate (60+) to get great, smooth, responsive, non-tearing, lag-free performance with a G-sync monitor, then you probably haven't tried the technology yet. 
 
I've used both an SLI setup with a high-refresh non-G-sync monitor and the single GPU with G-sync setup and I'd definitely prefer the single card with G-sync to the SLI without.  Now if you have an SLI setup (780s or 980s) with a G-sync monitor, you'll get that ultra-smooth high-refresh look in your games more often than not - like when The Hobbit released in HFR (high frame rate).  You'll also usually increase your minimum frame rate while playing a given title with the SLI setup, but this isn't always the case.  The difference in using flagship GPUs in SLI and not with a G-sync monitor is so minute I no longer see the SLI setup as an advantage.
 
Whether or not you're using SLI, with the G-sync monitor, if you keep your frame rates in the high 20s and above, the changes between frame rates are seamless as the monitor's refresh rate is always changing to match that of the video card.