We prove the uniform in space and time convergence of the scaled heights of large classes of deterministic growth models that are monotone and equivariant under translations by constants. The limits are unique viscosity solutions of first- or second-order partial differential equations depending on whether the growth models are scaled hyperbolically or parabolically. The results simplify and extend a recent work by the first author to more general surface growth models. The proofs are based on the methodology developed by Barles and the second author to prove convergence of approximation schemes.