nVidia Surround with different size monitors

[mdickens98]

Hi Guys,
I've been running a triple head surround setup for ages now using a 560Ti and a tool called SoftTH which allowed me to run one display off the Intel HD graphics but still have the 3d rendering running on the main GPU. I've got one 20" monitor (1680x1050) and two 17" monitors (1280x1024) and with SoftTH I was able to run 4240x1050 which meant all three monitors ran at their native resolutions and a bit was cut off the top and bottom on the side monitors.
I've just had a very cheap upgrade to a 660 which supports nVidia surround so I hooked all my monitors up to the card and tried to set it up but cant get the same resolution (4240x1050). The best I can get is 3840x1024 which makes my centre (widescreen) monitor look horrible! Is there any solution for this or do all three monitors have to run at the same resolution with nVidia surround? If so that seems terrible and i'll have to go back to using SoftTH until I can afford some new monitors

 

[Gregster]

SoftH is your answer. Different resolutions are a pain to set up but give this thread a read.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1660586&mpage=1&print=true

 

[mdickens98]

Oh that sucks!!
Do you know if Eyefinity is any better or is this just how it is? It seems so simple in my head and SoftTH has been fine but as its limited to DX9 I was hoping to get Surround working. Looks like i'll have to start saving my pennies for some extra displays

 

[Gregster]

Oh that sucks!!
Do you know if Eyefinity is any better or is this just how it is? It seems so simple in my head and SoftTH has been fine but as its limited to DX9 I was hoping to get Surround working. Looks like i'll have to start saving my pennies for some extra displays

I have no idea about AMD eyefinity sorry but maybe someone here does.

 

[Confused]

Nope, Eyefinity also has the same stupid restriction that all monitors must run at the same resolution.

 

[mdickens98]

Well well well... Not one to give up easily I have continued to tinker with this and have sort of managed it! Very intrigued by the results as it seems to suggest that the drivers do support mismatched resolutions with surround, its just not fully implemented yet and thus there are no options to actually configure it this way. See my results here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJC8uRqoGRU&feature=youtu.be


What I did:
Not content with the answer that it just wasnt possible I decided to see if I could get my 17 Inch monitors running in the 1680x1050 widescreen res of my 20" monitor. The nVidia control panel seemed a little flaky as the option for custom resolutions seemed to come and go depending on what I did!

• Use Windows Screen Resolution to enable just the left hand 17inch as my main display, other displays disabled
• Open nVidia control panel and set custom resolution on this display of 1680x1050, test (success although not a great picture) and save new res.
• Use Windows Screen Resolution to enable just the right hand 17inch as my main display, other displays disabled
• Open nVidia Control panel and set custom res on this display of 1680x1050, test and save again
• Now use Windows Screen Resolution to enable just my centre 20inch as main display, other displays disabled (and res correctly set to native of 1680x1050)
• Open nVidia control panel and enable surround
• Ta Da! nVidia picks up the desired resolution of 5040x1050! But wait, it looks different... checked the monitors own OSD's and all three monitors are receiving an input of 1280x1024 WTF!?!?
• But hold on... we're not finished yet...
• Go back into surround 'Configure...' screen and set bezel correction so that a new custom resolution is created (in this case it was 120 pixel correction on each side but I dont think thats relevant, 5280x1050), click finish and the weirdest thing happened, nVidia Control Panel and Windows now show the resolution as 5040x1050 (not the new bezel corrected resolution) but the centre monitor is receiving a signal of 1680x1050 and the side monitors are receiving 1280x1024, Result!!
• Tested it in Dirt3 and Bulletstorm and it works perfect, the only problem is theres no bezel correction. If I choose the bezel corrected resolution of 5280x1050 the centre screen switches back to 1280x1024, I don't fully understand what/how this is working but it seems like the graphics driver is doing some weird scaling so hopefully the option for mismatched resolutions will become available in a future driver release!