ROG Tytan CG8580 Gaming Performance At 1920×1080 And 5760×1080

If you’re considering the latest ROG CG8580 ‘Tytan’ gaming desktop PC, obviously one key purchasing factor is knowing how well it performs in the latest games. It’s OK to admit you don’t know what a ’4.6GHz Core i7-3770K and GeForce GTX 680′ equates to, or even if you read a Geforce GTX 680 performance review you’ll get a rough idea but the likelihood is that the underlying PC used is different from the Tytan.

By pressing the Speed button on the top corner, the CPU frequency can be changed between 4.2GHz, through 4.4GHz, to 4.6GHz.

So I sat down and played the most recently popular and intensive games on the CG8580 (I know, it’s a hard life!) to detail exactly how it performs on a single, Full HD monitor (1920 x 1080) and also with ultra-widescreen surround, using three Full HD monitors at 5760 x 1080!  Using three monitors might be considered an extravagance, but it delivers an incredibly immersive gaming experience and they can all be connected directly to just the one GeForce GTX 680 inside.

Press in front and the cover gently rolls itself down, revealing the Blu-ray drive, card reader and drive caddy behind

One key factor of PC gaming is that there’s a range of graphical options to play with, and so we’ve recorded the best playable settings between the PC games below. Generally speaking a minimum FPS over 30FPS generates a smooth enough experience to play games, so we tweaked the image quality and available performance settings to see how high they can go before it became unplayable. With this information you can either copy it directly onto your new CG8580 when you play, or use it as a guide to future games.

Finally, remember there’s also the option of adding another GeForce GTX 680 at a later date to improve performance, as the motherboard has an additional PCI-Express 3.0 16x slot.

Setting up Three Monitor Surround

Setting up a three monitor setup in the Nvidia control panel is a very simple process. After enabling the displays, simply click the Configure Surround, PhysX on the left and tick the Span displays with Surround box, then click Configure.

From here you select which display is positioned where and also the bezel correction, if you want to use it.

How Skyrim looks across three VG278 27 inch monitors. Click to enlarge.

Battlefield 3

1920 x 1080: Ultra Setting

5760 x 1080: High Setting

After enabling Surround in the Nvidia control panel, Battlefield 3 supports the tri-monitor resolution natively.

Mass Effect 3

1920 x 1080: All Max Settings

5760 x 1080: All Max Settings

The Tytan CG8580 eats through Mass Effect 3, frequently hitting a solid 60FPS. The three monitors did tax it more but only when we happened to notice the FPS counter – actual game play with entirely unaffected.

Enabling 3-monitor support in Mass Effect 3 requires some tweaking of the GamerSettings.ini file first for the configuration utility to offer it.

Skyrim

1920 x 1080: Ultra, 8xAA 16xAF

5760 x 1080: Ultra, 0xAA 16xAF

Naturally the Tytan CG 8580 munches through Skyrim at Full HD resolutions, with the standard Ultra setting offering little match for its mammoth processing power. Three monitors might appear to prove a little more challenge as we’ve had to drop anti-aliasing, but in reality this is a result of a bug that prevents the game from being rendered properly outside of ‘normal’ resolutions. On the plus side, another way to think about it is there is plenty of mod room to upgrade the textures and styles!

Like Mass Effect 3, Skyrim requires adjustments to the SkyrimPrefs.ini file to enable the ultra-widescreen resolution. The Skyrim.ini file in the same folder also allows adding the line fdefaultfov to increase the field of view as well.