Gaming: multi-monitor or no?

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XANADV

New member
Hello guys. I'm in a bit of a bind as to where to go from here for my gaming setup. I have both a ASUS VG278HE that I use for fast-paced competitive gaming and a PB278Q that I use for everything else. I effectively have the best of both worlds right now as far as single-monitor gaming is concerned and now I am highly considering going multi-mon. At this point I can either go with 2 more VGs (for 5760x1080) or with 2 more PBs (for 7680x1440). I am really leaning towards the latter because PLS panels are an order of magnitude better than the TN panels, but that resolution would be very taxing for my current configuration and I'm not looking forward to changing my system around yet again.

I ultimately must decide between those two options or remain single screen. So please weigh in on which you think is better and also mulit-mon gaming in general. What is your overall experience with it? What is it like versus single-monitor gaming? Also, for those that game in multi-mon, what is your system configuration?

My core specs:
Maximus V Formula/i7-3770k @ 4.4 GHz
Trident X 4GBx2 2400 Mhz
2x EVGA GTX 680 Classified 4GB SLI


Best regards to all and Merry Christmas!
XANADV, King of n00bs
 
hopefully you caught Tom's latest ASUS monitor video. some big light has been
shined to his views on this very subject.

unless you don't have a perifieral issue, the wrap-around multi-monitor setups
are extremely taxing on GPU. and depending on what game titles and appz can
lead to some glitches.
i have one monitor for the appz and one smaller to "browse" with.
you've got some hardware, but running deep resolutions and textures may
show decreasing display performance.

i watched it three times to catch all the details..

airdeano
 
In my opinion, a tri-monitor setup is epic. Being able to have a ton of things on the screen at the same time is amazing, and I'm finding it hard to use just one monitor now. However, even dual 680's are going to have a tough time running games at the highest settings at 7680x1440, so if you're serious about gaming I'd go with the three 1080's. Framerates should be good and the surround gaming experience is AWESOME!
 
I have seen Tom's review and read the written review as well, but they only used single cards at reference clocks. I am well aware of the performance cost of going mulit-mon and I am also aware of the workarounds to that. I am really trying to gather specific details; resolutions versus fps versus system configurations versus game settings. I am trying to see what kind of experience other people are having with multi-mon setups; what types of configurations work and which ones don't.
 
Last edited:
OK I'll give you my setup then. I'm running three 1280x1024 monitors and a single GTX 670. I get 60-70 FPS in BF3 at mostly ultra settings and everything just works. Of course of 4105x1024 resolution is nowhere close to three 1440p monitors, so YMMV.
 
It's a bit of a gimmick on most games tbh.
I wrote a pretty lengthy post of my thoughts on the monitor review:

jamesriley94 said:
In FPS games the side screens are pretty useless. Certain games however, like Assassins Creed I do find the side screens used a little more.
I get what you mean in things like Dirt3 when there's just too much going on at the sides but I do kind of feel that adds to the immersiveness of the game. Obviously if it puts you off, it's not a good thing, but I do think it just makes everything more realistic.

Aside from that though, I do find three screens a lot better to work on in windows, whether it's just word or general use like internet/music etc... and obviously video editing spread out across 3 screens has its benefits.

I probably agree that if you're just gaming, you'd be better off getting one of these over 3x 1080 screens - but there's such a price difference between it, I find it hard to justify the cost. I mean, you can get 3x 23inch Dell IPS screens for around £70 cheaper than one of these. It's obviously going to depend on the user at the end of the day - but at the present moment in time, until these come down in price, I think I'd still choose far cheaper 1080 screens.
Click to expand...
 
Whether 3 screens or 1, that's a personal choice.

Would like to stay away from this x1080, x1440 business tho. x1200 and x1600 is where computer gaming should be.
 
I've got one of thoose Korean 2560x1440 monitors an I personally prefer gaming on that before my 3 1080x screens but as mentioned above it's a personal choice! why go with x1600 or x1200? don't really know, ive tried and for me it's not worth the extra money.
 
I dont like multi-monitors, if i wanted a nice big resolution, I'd go for the single biggest screen resolution i could afford, the reason for me personally is the bars down the middle of the screen would royally annoy me whilst gaming. but for practicality just using multiple programs. I'd go 2 screens.
 
Personally I'd rather have a 30" 2560x1600 Dell or HP instead of 3 lesser screens. Yeah you may not have the coolness of surround viewing but you'll still have more than enough screen real estate for a great, immersive gaming experience and you wont have to add a 3rd $450 video card and deal with the compatibility and driver headache that comes with multi-monitor gaming. Just my 2¢.
 
For games I'd stick with running the games over one screen, easier to focus on the games themselves and the 2nd screen can be left with things like TS/skype open to the side. Dual/triple screens are great for day to day but found them awkward for games.
 
Stevo said:
I dont like multi-monitors, if i wanted a nice big resolution, I'd go for the single biggest screen resolution i could afford, the reason for me personally is the bars down the middle of the screen would royally annoy me whilst gaming. but for practicality just using multiple programs. I'd go 2 screens.
Click to expand...


+1 ;)
 
Hi all, I run three 20" monitors at 1600x900(each) or 3200x900(eyefinity) on an HD6850 overclocked to 975Mhz. Not super high resolutions but still high def and I got around 40fps in the games I did play in surround so it works for me...

I only use eyefinity when I really want to have that feeling of being there (which is never) and for what it is worth I usually just multitask (Forum, YouTube, E-Mail) with them. I dove into the triple monitor thing and found it to be a lackluster experience for me in gaming, while Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Crysis (games I played at the time) did post over 30 frames and was quite playable I could not get past the warping of the left and right edges and as such stick to single monitor gaming. BTW the software compensates for the frames of the panels so it really is just an aesthetics thing as I did not notice them in game. I don't have any driving games and the flight games were about the same so I don't bother putting it in eyefinity much anymore. I have not tried any newer games in eyefinity as I am sure it would crush my little card and the plans on getting a 7000 series is next year.

I got my three monitors for cheap (one was free) over a year or more and did not chuck a ton of cash at it and I am glad as I don't care to play on three screens but that is just my personal taste.

If you want to try it out on the IPS panels than do it, but you may run into performance issues at that high resolution. Frame rates on any single card will drop with those high resolutions and stress the GPU out.

I would recommend 1080 panels as a single enthusiast card can most likley push the kind of resolution from those monitors but with maybe a slight drop in performance. Multi cards can reach a 1440 res but there is scaling issues and driver issues to worry about (hence the reason I don't have two cards). The next gen cards may be able to easily push that res and provide full performance on a single card and you would be ready for that upgrade.

That's just my two cents! Sorry for being so long winded:(
 
I love running surround, but Tom's video did explain a lot about it, so it is up to you. The problem is the amount of games that actually support it without stretching. It is very annoying when a game isn't fully surround/eyefinity ready and you get the horrible stretching or bad UI layout. Also if you are running Windows 8 and using Nvidia cards, it is awful to try and do everyday tasks on Surround. It isn't fully functional and quite annoying when a fullscreen application goes across all screens. The only way to bypass it is to use a third party program which can also cause hassle on its own.

But at the end of the day, I enjoy it three monitors for the multi-tasking and gaming experience.
 
Glassjaw003 said:
I love running surround, but Tom's video did explain a lot about it, so it is up to you. The problem is the amount of games that actually support it without stretching. It is very annoying when a game isn't fully surround/eyefinity ready and you get the horrible stretching or bad UI layout. Also if you are running Windows 8 and using Nvidia cards, it is awful to try and do everyday tasks on Surround. It isn't fully functional and quite annoying when a fullscreen application goes across all screens. The only way to bypass it is to use a third party program which can also cause hassle on its own.

But at the end of the day, I enjoy it three monitors for the multi-tasking and gaming experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, Windows 8 is not ready for prime time yet so I'm sticking with 7. I could imagine surround compatibility being a problem if a 3D application were a console port, but the majority of real PC games nowadays play well with surround I'm sure. In the case of a game not supporting surround I would just play it single-screen. What does your system look like?
 
XANADV said:
Yeah I agree, Windows 8 is not ready for prime time yet so I'm sticking with 7. I could imagine surround compatibility being a problem if a 3D application were a console port, but the majority of real PC games nowadays play well with surround I'm sure. In the case of a game not supporting surround I would just play it single-screen. What does your system look like?
Click to expand...

I have an older picture from earlier in the year right here.

Of course now the cables are all hidden.
 
Sweet setup man! Here's mine. I even have the same keyboard lol. I'm getting two more displays at the end of the week so my setup will look somewhat like yours. What components are in your system?
 
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