If you're only worried about your GPU struggling to push 3 displays, don't. Far weaker GPUs than a GTX 970 wouldn't even remotely struggle. Outside of games/rendering/mining the graphics power required to do pretty much anything is incredibly tiny.

Understood!

I initially wasn't worried about it, but when I tried a small 1080p screen tablet in March, I had notable lag that got in the way of drawing, even on smaller/simpler files. That was much smaller resolution-wise than the full 4k Cintiq I would ultimately like to get, and on top of that, I work at very high resolutions (6k+ pixels at 300DPI) with a lot of layers, and I game and stream as well.

That said, when I look around online, I see people with the Cintiq having no issues with lag, even a 970 and specs similar to mine... so I may end up getting the Cintiq first and seeing for myself how it handles, and then I can get a new GPU afterward, if I really need it. I'm able to finance the tablet, so if nothing else, that's probably the cheaper option, haha.

I'll keep this open for a bit and see if I can work out something that won't stress my wallet too much. But thank you for making me think about it more!

There's always going to be lag. The display itself will have its own lag, there's pixel response time which if slow (and on nicer looking screens it tends to be slower) can be perceived as lag. Then there's the input lag of the tablet part itself. Plus the Windows desktop compositor itself adds even more input lag, not sure about how it'd be in Mac or Linux.

So having a better display/tablet is pretty much your only option for reducing lag, but there's always gonna be enough that you can see it. My Surface Pro has it, and my 1080p Cintiq hooked up to my desktop has it. Certainly not for lack of a good GPU either since I have an RTX 2070.

Also I can work on my Surface Pro which has an absolutely terrible igpu on files with large canvases like 9000x9000 and only get extra lag if I start using blending brushes over 200 px in size in Clip Studio Paint. My desktop with much better specs can handle better, but surprisingly not by as much as I thought...

Hmm okay, that makes sense. The lag I experienced did lessen when I disconnected one or two of my monitors, but thinking about it now that could have been the tablet itself, or its drivers, since it was an XP-Pen tablet, not a Wacom. But I suppose the only way to test that will be just getting the Cintiq and going from there.

I appreciate the extra input, thank you! I will probably still upgrade my GPU ultimately, but perhaps not for this reason anymore, and not right away. My 970 definitely has some life in it yet.

To add to to that, brush performance is usually cpu dependent. I know for photoshop single core performance is most important for that. I've also had various tablet driver issues causing strokes to lag. Anything from issues with windows ink that were fixed switching PS and wacom to use wintab, some windows pen settings that needed disabled, windows just breaking stuff, tablet drivers can be fun....

I’m kind of tech geek. I think getting a GTX 1070 Ti would be better value in general with the performance difference between it and a GTX 1080 is like 5% to 10%. If you look in the used market they 1070 Ti goes for like $280 to $300 and GTX 1080’s I’ve seen go around $375.

Oh wow, I hadn't considered the 1070 Ti. You're right, they're a lot cheaper.

I will definitely keep that in mind! Thank you Drake :)

Yeah, I know a couple of places where you can get better deals that what you’ve seen thus far for GTX 1080’s. You got a Twitter or like telegram or something so we can flak more efficiently on?

I am still not quite looking to pay cash for a card, but I am curious, so sure! You can DM me on Twitter :) https://twitter.com/SpottyJaguar

Just DM’ed you there under the name Blake!

I am using a MSI GTX 1060 6GB model and I am currently outputting to 3 1080P displays, easily. The only time you'll need a GTX 1080 is if you're planning on trying to render games at 4K resolution on a single monitor at a decent (30 - 60 FPS) framerate

Makes sense! I had someone recommend the 1080 to me since, with the used listings I was looking at, it had a bit more performance for its price. It's looking like I might not be upgrading as soon as I thought, though, but I'll keep lower cards in mind for sure when I do :) Thank you Kwipper.

Really cool sona btw! Don't see many werebears.

If you want to drive 3 displays, and not specifically watch very very high resolution videos, or play demanding games, even an integrated graphics card would have enough power. Your current graphics card will do, as long as it has enough output ports. And a card with 1/4 the power would still be overkill for that :p

a 40 bucks GTX 780 also would handle that ;3
But if you like to play Minecraft you totally need a Gtx 1080

Check reddit.com/r/hardwareswap for deals. I managed to snag some good bargains for myself and for friends, and there's also some random God-tier people that will just... Help.
I got my hands on a 6600k, z170 board, and ram for a stupid good price, just about the cost of the 6600k alone a few years back, might be worth your time to have a peek.
Folks are otherwise right though, 1080 is pretty well high-end gaming / low-ish tier render (titans and quadros are developer-geared cards, but still in the Nvidia line up and to be considered in this regard), and can handle multi-monitor... Buuuut not really needed for a content creation pc beyond rendering and stupid-large file sizes.. which puts ram to use as well, so adding ram if you've not got much might be a good idea.. and then if you're still having issues with slow response, well, CPU might be too dated, and might need to swap that, which means new ram if you're still on DDR3, but then new games that you can play on higher settings, so new HD and high refresh monitor... Can you tell someone's been down this wallet-draining path before? ;D ;-;

Yup, someone linked the HWS reddit to me! It looks really cool, so I will definitely keep my eye on it if I'm upgrading anything else. That is an awesome story about getting your hardware, too. Sometimes people are just rad.

I know the 1080 is probably overkill, but since I do game, stream, work with ridiculous file sizes, multitask high res video, and I'm thinking about getting into video ending and some 3D stuff, I would rather have a card that's too strong than one that's too weak. If I was just getting one for cash, I would probably wait as long as possible to upgrade, but bartering is much easier on me, while also letting me draw cool stuff for other people! It also means I will have my current 970 as a spare, in case the 1080 or my wife's 970 fails in the future. In this very specific case, there is not really a downside to me upgrading.

My CPU is an i5 7500K, with 32GB o DDR4 RAM on an ASUS TUF Z270 MK II board. A friend of mine got me all three of those only a year ago, so I'm trying to hold out and get some more use out of them haha. Or well, I guess I could build a little media PC or something for our living room... Ah, pet projects.

I think the next upgrade in my desktop will be my CPU for sure, though, once I'm ready. Without getting a whole new motherboard, I believe the highest I can go is an i7 7700K. It looks like some people are selling/buying on HWS fairly frequently, too, so I will definitely look for it there :D

Thank you so much for your comment, Jericho! It helps a lot.

You might actually be able to flash the bios on your board to take up to an 8700k :) I know I've seen videos of Z170 boards being flashed to accept the 8xxx series.
You'd definitely benefit from a 7700k if you're going to grab a 1080, moreso for your list of tasks!
I have an 8700k and 1080ti build that rocks every game cranked up high, and on 1440p as well, to give you some idea as to the power behind even a 1080 and 7700k build :)
that 7500k would probably still do someone well for a budget build or htpc nowadays, so it certainly has resell value!