Nvidia Surround, is it worth it?

Glanza · 3 Oct 2013 at 13:22

I've been thinking about getting a 144hz monitor as I primary game on my rig but I've always had the itch to try 3 monitors.

The monitors I'm currently looking at are the BenQ XL2420T is anyone using these or running 3 monitors on 780gtx sli? if yes what sort of fps do you get and do you regret going for 3 or not?

stephenb · 5 Oct 2013 at 21:59

Yes, I run three Asus VE278Q on SLI'd 780's. I don't have a very broad library, focused on racing sims, but I've tried the Battlefield 4 beta and average over 60FPS on the high preset. You can see my results in the BF4 benchmark thread in the graphics forum (p55). My opinion, works great for games that support rendering to each screen separately - which is all of the serious racing sims.

Not so enamoured on other games which don't, like FC3, BF4 beta, as you get the fish eye effect on the side screens. That and being able to look left and right isn't as critical as it is when you have cars racing alongside you. Think I'd go for a 30" 1600p screen if I was just playing shooters, third person adventure games etc.

old gamer · 6 Oct 2013 at 00:12

For me the novelty of 3 screens wore off, you concentrate so much on the centre screen the two outer ones hardly get looked at

OptimaLnrg · 6 Oct 2013 at 00:14

I found gaming over 3 screens to be the most labourious and annoying thing I have ever attempted to do with my PC.

multi-tasking with 3 screens however is awesome.

drex69 · 11 Oct 2013 at 20:15

I echo the above 2 posts....

I was also a triple screen owner ( Nvidia & Eyefinity ) and I too,have gone back to a single screen.

To much faffing about for me.

GoogalyMoogaly · 11 Oct 2013 at 20:35

OptimaLnrg said:
I found gaming over 3 screens to be the most labourious and annoying thing I have ever attempted to do with my PC.

multi-tasking with 3 screens however is awesome.

+1

bee · 12 Oct 2013 at 11:59

yes it is, they recently added some really handy shortcuts too, ctrl + alt + r changes from 3 screens to 1 screen and back again in a matter of seconds, which is really useful for games which don't work in triple screen

Confused Stu · 12 Oct 2013 at 23:19

I've been running 3 screens (now 4, one to view monitoring software, email, etc) for 2 years and I absolutely love it. Playing a single screen game feels like playing with blinkers on now. I totally understand those that don't get on with it, or find the fish eye effect distracting, but I always focus on the middle screen and use the side screens purely for peripheral vision - works great and nobody sneaks up on me. I've had two family members set up 3 screen systems after trying mine, and only 1 say they didn't like it (he only spent less than 5 minutes on it, but each to their own and everyone's different). As another said above, it's very easy to setup profiles or keyboard switches to swap to 3 separate screens for those games that don't play well on 3 and don't have a fix on Widescreen Gaming Forum.

I've never used Nvidia, only AMD, but the effect is the same even if the mechanics of setting up are different.

I really would say if you fancy giving it a try and you have enough space and GPU horsepower to run 3 screens, do it. Worst that happens is you don't get on with it and end up selling 2 screens. Best is that you love it.