Considering 3 monitor setup - current hardware....question

Nosher · 8 Jul 2012 at 10:26

Hi all,

I am seriously considering going for a 3 monitors setup....

I am interested to know how much of my current rig is useable and / or which way I could go....?

Advice / suggestions / thoughts would be most welcome...

My current rig (that I got last year from Overclockers) is:-

Intel I7 (870 3.93ghz - LGA1156)
Gigabyte P55 mobo
8 gb genesis grey DDR3 Ram
GeForce GTX 580 1536 mb
Windows 7
Iiyama Prolite E2710HDS 27" LCD widescreen

Thanks in advance
Nosh.

Surveyor · 8 Jul 2012 at 10:57

What do you want a 3 monitor setup for, gaming or general use?

Which 3 monitors are you planning on using?

What is the exact model of the motherboard?

Nosher · 8 Jul 2012 at 11:15

Thanks for the response...

It's gonna be for gaming - currently playing Arma2 (Dayz), Project Cars and RFactor 2.

3 Monitors should really be the same size / make right?

So I either get 2 more 27" monitors, or go smaller size to 23 or 24" - buy 3 of those, but thin bezels...

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-P55 USB3

Thanks

Surveyor · 8 Jul 2012 at 11:34

Ideally you're going to want 3 monitors the same so it "looks right".

I believe for AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround all the monitors have to run at the same resolution as well.

You current setup isn't ideally suited.

You need SLI'd GTX 580s to run 3 monitors and your motherboard isn't SLI compatible.

There are SLI hacks available but you take your chances on them working.

You could swap to a S1156 motherboard which is SLI compatible and get another GTX 580.

You could swap to AMD graphics card(s) to run 3 monitors.

The sort of AMD card(s) you'd be looking at will run 3 monitors but usually require active DisplayPort adapter(s) to do so if the monitors don't have a DisplayPort connection.

You're going to have to consider how much GPU grunt and VRAM you need to run the games you play at triple monitor resolution so may well need an SLI/CrossFire setup.

There are a fair few things to consider (I won't have covered them all) and it depends on how much you want to spend on updating your system to be able to play your games across 3 screens.

Muel · 8 Jul 2012 at 11:40

My advice having done it and still having it, is not to bother. It's a massive outlay for a very small advantage. I'd put the money towards a higher res monitor. That's if you're gaming anyway.

If you want it for work purposes, I strongly recommend it. It's so helpful having the classic code on one screen, output on another setup, but with another monitor for reference stuff etc.

If you're going to do it, I'd recommend switching to a GTX670/680, as some of them support up to 4 displays and I believe handle Nvidia Surround better than the 5** series. (You don't have to switch between extended desktop and a single display spanning the monitors when you switch from gaming to normal use, I think).