what would be best to run 3 screens?

[Andrewsimracing]

Hi everybody, I am thinking of building a gaming pc for sim racing, what graphics card would be best to run 3 screens at 1080p or 1440.
I have never built a pc before so I'm doing lots of research, any help would be appreciated.

 

[smogsy]

what game? some are very GPU intensive some are very cpu

but 3x 1080p would be easier ofc

id be looking at 2080Ti (second hand) or RTX3080 at

3x1080p your basically 3/4 of 4K. so it should be somewhere in between 3440x1400 & 4K in fps

I would suggest looking at Graphs for cards at 4K And add on around 10% more fps.

And you wont go wrong and 3/4 of 4k i would imagine you would get 20% more fps

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Hi everybody, I am thinking of building a gaming pc for sim racing, what graphics card would be best to run 3 screens at 1080p or 1440.
I have never built a pc before so I'm doing lots of research, any help would be appreciated.

As smogsy said, it's all about resolution, most video performance scales fairly linearly with screen resolution or rather number of pixels.

1080p is 2.07 Mpix
1440p is 3.68 Mpix
2160p is 8.29 Mpix

3x 1080p is 6.21 Mpix
3x 1440p is 11.04 Mpix

So you can see that 3x 1080p should be doable for any card that gives good 4k benchmarks because it's a slightly smaller total resolution. But 3x 1440p is higher by quite a bit, and so will have worse performance than 4k by a good margin, a good rule of thumb if you're looking at 4k benchmarks is probably half that frame rate again. That's going to be a hard resolution to push if you also want max/ultra presets.

If you do choose to go with a 3x 1080p setup then I'd wait for RTX 3070 launch which is very soon, and wait for benchmarks, my bet is that will be a really good card for the target resolution. If you go with 3x 1440p then my honest bet is that you wont be looking at Ultra presets I think you'll be looking at medium to high visual settings in modern games even if you aim for a top tier card like a RTX 3080 or RTX 3090. 11 Million pixels is very hard to push.

 

[Andrewsimracing]

ill be playing a few asseto corsa, rfactor2, f1 and maybe iracing

thanks ill look into those

 

[Andrewsimracing]

what ram and motherboard would pair nicely with the new RTX 3070. sorry for all the basic questions, this is all new to me.

 

[smogsy]

would again look at the game to see if amd/intel is better. with AMD it would be best to have 3200Mhz-3600Mhz ram

 

[PrincessFrosty]

ill be playing a few asseto corsa, rfactor2, f1 and maybe iracing

thanks ill look into those

If it's a dedicated rig for racing only, and the games aren't too demanding (racing games tend not to be, they're rarely used in stress tests) then you might get away with 3x 1440p and a very good video card.

A very quick look, mostly from youtube video benchmarks:
Asseto Corsa 4k even on a RTX 2080 Ti is getting about 90-100fps in 4k. So that game in 3x1440p you'd probably be OK for ~60fps with a 3080.
Rfactor 2 it's hard to find data on, it looks like even with a 2080 Ti you can expect about 60fps in 4k which in 3x 1440p is going to be pretty slow, probably 30-40fps
F1 2020 looks to be about 100-110 fps 4k with a 2080 Ti so easy 60fps with a 3080
iracing hard to get data on, one person on youtube had no cars on track in 4k and was getting 240fps even if that tanks it's probably still fine

Because of the specific nature of racing games and the fact that they don't tend to push graphics envelope too hard might mean that with an RTX 3080 you can expect 60fps in those games. But I also don't know what target frame rates you're after, I'm not a big part of the racing scene so have no idea what would be expected, but my gut says competitive people probably want more?

 

[Andrewsimracing]

If it's a dedicated rig for racing only, and the games aren't too demanding (racing games tend not to be, they're rarely used in stress tests) then you might get away with 3x 1440p and a very good video card.

A very quick look, mostly from youtube video benchmarks:
Asseto Corsa 4k even on a RTX 2080 Ti is getting about 90-100fps in 4k. So that game in 3x1440p you'd probably be OK for ~60fps with a 3080.
Rfactor 2 it's hard to find data on, it looks like even with a 2080 Ti you can expect about 60fps in 4k which in 3x 1440p is going to be pretty slow, probably 30-40fps
F1 2020 looks to be about 100-110 fps 4k with a 2080 Ti so easy 60fps with a 3080
iracing hard to get data on, one person on youtube had no cars on track in 4k and was getting 240fps even if that tanks it's probably still fine

Because of the specific nature of racing games and the fact that they don't tend to push graphics envelope too hard might mean that with an RTX 3080 you can expect 60fps in those games. But I also don't know what target frame rates you're after, I'm not a big part of the racing scene so have no idea what would be expected, but my gut says competitive people probably want more?

Thank you for looking into that for me.
if I was to go 1080p in the games with 3 screens the fps should be higher is that right?

I'm sure some people run 60fps, its more demanding when there's lots of cars on track and lots in the background like trees buildings and crowds.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

what ram and motherboard would pair nicely with the new RTX 3070. sorry for all the basic questions, this is all new to me.

From my basic look at some of these games on youtube and the commentary on the videos, some of them seem to be quite CPU hungry, some like like Iracing almost notoriously so. In which case the standard practice for a fast CPU for gaming is go with a CPU that has a very high core frequency as most games prefer faster cores rather than more cores, and for that you really want Intel. I'd personally shoot for an Intel i7 10700 or if you're happy to overclock an Intel i7 10700k (same model but unlocked)

16Gb of RAM is kinda standard for PC gaming these days, if you're not overclocking then you'll want to look at 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, do it in pairs, so 16Gb would be 2x8Gb sticks. If you do plan to overclock then same deal but higher frequency RAM like 4000Mhz something like that.

Motherboards is way harder to decide unless you really know if you're happy to overclock your kit or not, if you go 10700(k) CPU then you want socket LGA 1200 motherboard with a Z490 chipset, that'll narrow down your choices. But further than that you really need to know if you plan to overclock or not. Motherboard choices tend to be more feature based choices and what features you need really depends on your own needs. Number of ports for hard drives or SSDs, overclocking, number of expansion slots etc.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Thank you for looking into that for me.
if I was to go 1080p in the games with 3 screens the fps should be higher is that right?

I'm sure some people run 60fps, its more demanding when there's lots of cars on track and lots in the background like trees buildings and crowds.

Smaller screen resolution = less pixels = more frame rate (for any given specific video card)

The caveat is this would be comparing 1080p to 1440p on the same video card. Video cards differ a lot in their performance, expensive ones are fast, cheap ones are slow. If you want better frame rate you can either drop the screen resolution and other settings. Or you can buy a faster video card which costs more.

Frankly when it comes to builds for a specific purpose like this it's often easier to give advice on components if you know your needs and constraints up front. If you know your financial budget, and you know your desired target frame rate, it helps narrow down the 1000's of choices to just a few.

 

[FxUK]

I run triple 1440p 144hz screens, with a 2080ti, mainly multiplayer, so no extra cpu useage for running AI cars. Edit, would help if I added more PC info lol. i9 9900k, 32gb ram, running from nvme drive. I'm in the queue for a 3090 though

R3E - 90 - 120 fps easily, max settings
AMS2 - 90-120 fps max settings
RF2 - 70-90 fps, pretty much max, can depend on tracks
ACC - this ones a balancing act, 45-70, but have to really drop some things like shadows and distances, its far from optimal, but.. do-able.

1080p would be a walk in the park with a 2080ti, I think.

If you play single player, then you may struggle a bit more in some of the above, especially ACC.

 

[Eurofighter]

I would recommend an ultra wide monitor instead of 3 screens. No boarders.

 

[FxUK]

I would recommend an ultra wide monitor instead of 3 screens. No boarders.

An ultra wide is a good choice too, I also have one but use it for my "desk" games, the triples are on a fixed race sim setup.
Prob with ultrawide 21:9 and more so, the even larger ones ( 32:9 forget the aspect ratio) is they stretch at the edges quite a lot.

Proper triple support (as seen in almost all race sims) do multi-projection (or whatever its called) so no stretching at all and gives you more peripheral too.
One bezel is usually covered by the A pillar of the car, the other isn't really that distracting.

This is a really bad picture, I used my phones panoramic mode to try and grab it, because its so wide, so its not 100% but gives you an idea, these are at 50 degree angles to each other, not flat.:

When sat in front of it, everything appears correct and pretty accurate. It's also much more comfortable (and clearer) than VR for long sessions.

This is ultrawide, you can't really tell just from the image here but the left door mirror is stretched and you see considerable less with relative fov settings (at correct world scale)

When you pass a car, you see its size change.. not drastically mind you, 21:9 is actually pretty good for sim racing, imo. 32:9 is horrid, in my opinion.

But, triples are not always supported.. i.e Dirt Rally 2 doesn't, so you just get stretched peripheral anyway.

3 x ultrawides anyone ?

and sorry for the few edits, took a while to find the pics

 

[Andrewsimracing]

An ultra wide is a good choice too, I also have one but use it for my "desk" games, the triples are on a fixed race sim setup.
Prob with ultrawide 21:9 and more so, the even larger ones ( 32:9 forget the aspect ratio) is they stretch at the edges quite a lot.

Proper triple support (as seen in almost all race sims) do multi-projection (or whatever its called) so no stretching at all and gives you more peripheral too.
One bezel is usually covered by the A pillar of the car, the other isn't really that distracting.

This is a really bad picture, I used my phones panoramic mode to try and grab it, because its so wide, so its not 100% but gives you an idea, these are at 50 degree angles to each other, not flat.:

When sat in front of it, everything appears correct and pretty accurate. It's also much more comfortable (and clearer) than VR for long sessions.

This is ultrawide, you can't really tell just from the image here but the left door mirror is stretched and you see considerable less with relative fov settings (at correct world scale)

When you pass a car, you see its size change.. not drastically mind you, 21:9 is actually pretty good for sim racing, imo. 32:9 is horrid, in my opinion.

But, triples are not always supported.. i.e Dirt Rally 2 doesn't, so you just get stretched peripheral anyway.

3 x ultrawides anyone ?

and sorry for the few edits, took a while to find the pics

The triples look amazing, for me, it just looks so much better, I can imagine it feels a bit closer to the real thing.Now the next question is, what size and what hz?
Ive seen bezel covers that hide the black line and fill it in with picture. not the best explanation.

 

[Quartz]

Hi everybody, I am thinking of building a gaming pc for sim racing, what graphics card would be best to run 3 screens at 1080p or 1440.

I too would recommend an ultrawide or mega-wide monitor. You should be able to eliminate the stretching by changing the field of view.

 

[FxUK]

Sombody in our sim racing group has a 32:9 and I stand corrected, it doesn't actually appear to be that bad, but when I bought one I just couldn't get on with it.. I preferred my triples, so returned it.
excuse the blackout bit, not my picture so just doing the right thing:

I don't have a photo of my triples with the same car handy, but I do have a screenshot, which gives you an idea of the extra visibility I get, giving much more situational awareness (obviously it looks a bit distorted due to angle correction and bezel correction)

An ultrawide or super ultrawide is easier to run, no doubt. Also doesn't require proper triple support to look its best, but still can't give up my triples, still 1 more screen's worth of viewing pleasure

And I realise, this is all besides the point of the ops question.

 

[FxUK]

The triples look amazing, for me, it just looks so much better, I can imagine it feels a bit closer to the real thing.Now the next question is, what size and what hz?
Ive seen bezel covers that hide the black line and fill it in with picture. not the best explanation.

Those asus "bezel free" kits where vaporwhere, wheren't they?
I would say for single / triples, 27" is a good size, 34" ultrawide or 49" super ultrawide.
The hz really depends on what you want, pointless going 144hz 1440p triples if you try and run them on a 980 for example, because you won't get close to benefiting from it.
I use 144hz (165hz oc) IPS gsync panels: XB271HU. A 3080 would be a great match.
Acer Predator X34P 100hz IPS Gsync, is a v. nice ultrawide too, neither of which seem to be avail on OCUK.

 

[Andrewsimracing]

Those asus "bezel free" kits where vaporwhere, wheren't they?
I would say for single / triples, 27" is a good size, 34" ultrawide or 49" super ultrawide.
The hz really depends on what you want, pointless going 144hz 1440p triples if you try and run them on a 980 for example, because you won't get close to benefiting from it.
I use 144hz (165hz oc) IPS gsync panels: XB271HU. A 3080 would be a great match.
Acer Predator X34P 100hz IPS Gsync, is a v. nice ultrawide too, neither of which seem to be avail on OCUK.

what size are you triples?
would the RTX 3070 still be ok to run them?

 

[FxUK]

what size are you triples?
would the RTX 3070 still be ok to run them?

27" 1440p. And yes, since its comparible (or better?) in performance to a 2080ti, which I currently use. (See Post #11)

 

[FxUK]

Not fully watched this myself, but may be of interest to you, most people do single screen benchmarks, but this is varied with sim racing in mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enS1Hy7sC8k