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Multi-screen gaming

MoNkeE

MoNkeE

MoNkeE

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2004
Posts
9,904
Location
NE England
Hi all,

I'm looking at setting up a 3x 24" screen setup, all based off articulating wall-mounted screens, which will allow me to rotate and position them - needless but cool :p

However, I'm a bit out of touch with the latest tech. I currently have a GTX 560ti which I know won't be able to cope so well. I'm going to look at getting a GTX 580 3GB edition to deal with the extra screens, and perhaps SLi'ing with another at some point in the future.

I'm aware that AMD have EyeFinity which allows you to span a game across three screens; what's the nVidia equivilent? Will I be able to do it off one GTX 580, or will the best temporary measure be to SLi another 560ti?

I'm going to be running 2x Dell 2409W's, I'll be picking up a 3rd 24" Dell monitor at some point in June.

Thanks!
 
When you say you'd recommend SLi, is this from a "two 580's are better than one" perspective, or are you saying that two 560ti's will work better than one 580?
 
You need two 5xx cards to run 3 screens

The 670 and 680 support 4 screens per card

Most high end 6xxx AMD cards will run 3 screens
 
MoNkeE said:
When you say you'd recommend SLi, is this from a "two 580's are better than one" perspective, or are you saying that two 560ti's will work better than one 580?
Click to expand...

It's more of a two is better than one perspective, takes the load off. But I'd listen to Matt. If you go for another 560ti you'll be set.
 
For 500 series you *need* SLI for nvidia surround.

Unless you get one of those galaxy/kfa2 MDT models. Even so, you're going to need more grunt to drive the res anyway.
 
is your 560ti a 1GB or 2?
to do surround you will need either 2x 5** cards, or 1 670/680... however in terms of actually playing games at that resolution, the 5** will really struggle (even 2 580's as there are several games that you will start to hit vram limits if you want to run everything on high settings)

looking at the types of prices that 580 3GB's are still going for, I would say get a 670 2GB instead, it will be faster than a single 580 and will at least give you an entry point in to 3 screen gaming

560ti 1GB SLI will be rubbish at that res, 2GB SLI will be about equal with a single 670 but the single 670 then gives you the option of going 670-SLI later... not forgetting that you can at least get some money back on your 560ti now by selling it
 
MoNkeE said:
My current 560 is a 1GB, so it looks like an upgrade is on the cards (baduum, tsssch)!

So if I choose a 670 such as this one here:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

I'll be able to run two monitors off the DVI output, and one off the HDMI output, oui? And the 2GB of VRAM will help with running 3x 1920 res screens?
Click to expand...

Yes to run surround off the 670 (or 680) you will run 2 via DVI and then a third via HDMI - either native or via an HDMI to DVI adaptor.

This is exactly how I run Surround it off my GTX670 SLI setup (and previous to that a single 680).

Setting up Surround is a relative doddle as it should just be a case of plugging everything in, installing the latest drivers (301.42 IIRC) and enabling surround. There are extra options to go through like setting up Bezel management and also desktop management (selecting what screens go where and how you want the task bar to show) but these are pretty straight forward.

If you have ever used Eyefinity before you will note there are no profiles to manage to make the switch from extended mode - where programs snaps to individual monitors, and spanned mode which makes the game/programs appear across all three screens. Everything is handled intelligently by the driver.

Default behaviour is for programs such as Google Chrome or Excel to snap to a single screen although this can be changed withing in the Nvidia control panel.

Surround in game is handled by the resolution picked in the game. If you select 1920x1080 in game you will have it either display on the centre monitor only (assuming Landscape mode), or span all three displays in a horrible stretched format.

My experience tells me that it should display on the centre monitor only but it can be game dependant - My setup defaults to 1080x1920 on the centre monitor on most of the games I have played (as I run Portrait Surround). Mafia II is an exception as it attempted to display as 1080x1920 streched across all three monitors, I don't think it works correctly in Surround though as no matter what resolution I selected it still displayed in this horrible stretched way.

Ultimately though this will be very much game dependant. Once the correct Surround resolution is selected it should always default to that resolution again once the game is loaded (as long as Surround remains enabled).
 
Sounds like I'm going to click Buy on a 670 this afternoon unless anyone can think of a reason why I shouldn't?!

So with Surround, will it work with BF3 spanned across all 3 screens, with the FOV changing to make it look right? I'm guessing this can be done by tweaking the CFG file.
 
Also you mention you play in portrait mode, is it simple enough to have my 3 screens arranged side by side in portrait and span games across that?
 
MoNkeE said:
Also you mention you play in portrait mode, is it simple enough to have my 3 screens arranged side by side in portrait and span games across that?
Click to expand...

Yup it works in just the same way as Landscape mode, albeit you have an aspect ratio closer to a 16:9 monitor (but still slightly wider) & vastly more vertical space. In a way it feels like a very big monitor with a resolution of 3620x1920 (Bezel corrected).

My monitors can be rotated but I find Portrait mode better for my uses.

As you have the same ability (monitor rotation) I would recommend trying out both and seeing which is better for you. I simply found Landscape mode felt too cramped height wise.

BF3 will work straight out of the box with Surround, although you may find the FOV will need tweaking in Landscape mode to remove, or reduce, the Fisheye effect which happens using this sort of setup.

As I say though, give it a try for yourself and run with the setup that best suits you.

On the graphics card front I recommend getting a single GTX670 now and then adding another one if you feel your framrates arn't high enough.

In terms of framerate front you can expect anything from 50-60FPS in BF3 with most settings set to "high" (no HBAO). Ultra settings with MSAA will cripple your framerate and 4xAA will basically be unplayable due to the lack of VRAM.

I am in the process of doing a big GTX670SLi vs GTX680 (670 OC proxy) vs HD7970 Surround (Eyefinity) review/write up which I should be putting up in the next couple of days. :)
 
Basically, you put the cards into surround mode and the game spans across all three displays. You then need to completely reconfigure it to go back to desktop otherwise your desktop will be stretched across 3 screens
 
That's all absolutely sound advice, thanks everyone :) let's see if I can order a 670 now and get OcUK to deliver it tomorrow! :p
 
Cleeecooo said:
Basically, you put the cards into surround mode and the game spans across all three displays. You then need to completely reconfigure it to go back to desktop otherwise your desktop will be stretched across 3 screens
Click to expand...

No reconfiguration is required as long as you don't mind a wallpaper stretched across three screens (My wallpaper is set so that it appears on the centre monitor only*). Surround by dafault enables the snapping of applications to a single monitor so the default behaviour is very much like having extended monitors enabled in Windows (or under Eyefinity).

EDIT: This is also true of the task bar which by default appears on the centre screen only.

*Surround / Eyefinity specific wallpapers can be downloaded so this isn't really an issue.
 
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