Triple-monitor (mismatched) setup for high settings gaming - help!

[Billy Pilgrim]

I'm planning on buying a powerful PC for triple monitor gaming. I want to play at high framerates on max settings (driving sims mostly, Project CARS, Assetto Corsa). I've been planning on using two GTX 780s in SLI.

However, for a variety of reasons, I want to keep the 46" plasma TV I have and add two screens on either side (those screens would be best at 27" in portrait - an almost perfect fit, in fact). With the peripheral monitors in portrait, I guess that's a 4080 x 1080 resolution across the three monitors (1080 + 1920 + 1080 = 4080).

So I'm hoping to use mismatched monitors. I've understood that you can use mismatched monitors with GPUs in SLI, but they have to have the same resolution, refresh rate, and sync polarity. I'm thinking this won't be possible for me as it's pretty much impossible to get info on what sync polarity a monitor has. And the plasma is reportedly 600hz - that'll be hard to match too.

How can I get around the same-resolution, refresh-rate, sync-polarity problem when using GPUs in SLI? Has anyone got an idea?

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[keynes]

Trying to game in 3 monitors with 3 different sizes is going to look horrible. A plasma TV is not as good as a monitor for gaming as well.

There's a dirty little secret about "600Hz" and plasma TVs. The secret is that 600Hz is really just the display's way of displaying standard 60Hz material. The plasma display by default is running the screen in multiple groups (generally either in groups of 8, yielding "480Hz" or groups of 10 yielding "600Hz"). This is why the 600Hz is advertised as "sub-field drive". The "600Hz" has absolutely nothing to do with the refresh rate of the screen and is not a direct comparison to the 120Hz or 240Hz that is advertised on LCD TVs.
http://www.duglin.net/2013/01/120hz-240hz-600hz-tv-refresh-rates.html

 

[Wozza63]

I believe multi monitor gaming requires the screens to be equal resolution on both nvidia and AMD.

You should get 3 monitors of equal size, they would be better than a TV as well.

 

[steaky360]

I'd definitely agree with the above comments of using 3x same sized screens. I think Wozza's correct in that you need to have the 3 monitors running the same resolution too, but it would mean the higher res monitors running at lower resolutions (assuming they support it) which I think works.

However, running NVidia surround on different screen sizes is going to look weird.

EDIT: Sorry, just read the op fully, I see you want to use two monitors in portrait mode. I guess that would work. I would have thought however that the additional costs involved in getting monitors that support a portrait mode would make it more economical to ditch the TV and get a third dedicated monitor? The only thing you'll lose is the size of the screen and the tv tuner really.

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Trying to game in 3 monitors with 3 different sizes is going to look horrible. A plasma TV is not as good as a monitor for gaming as well.

Thanks for the info about plasma frequencies. I'd figured the 600Hz was a bit fishy but wasn't sure what it was.

To fit into the available space I have at home (and to keep my other half happy), I would really like to keep the plasma.

"Trying to game in 3 monitors with 3 different sizes is going to look horrible" : if I can set these three monitors up with two 27" in portrait on the sides, I don't see how that'll look horrible (it's a pretty good fit, I've measured). You don't think this could work? Technically, do you think it could work using a GTX Titan Black?

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

Thanks for your reply. I really want to keep the plasma. It suits the space I've got.

 

[Wozza63]

I guess you could use them in portrait but unless they have almost identical pixel densities, they are going to look very weird. Also Nvidia control panel only accepts 3 screen gaming if they are the same resolution. Without the same resolution the scaling and different resolutions would require too much of even the highest end GPUs and 3 of the same resolution would be more efficient.

Message from nvidia control panel when attempting 3 screen for gaming

 

[Billy Pilgrim]

I guess you could use them in portrait but unless they have almost identical pixel densities, they are going to look very weird. Also Nvidia control panel only accepts 3 screen gaming if they are the same resolution. Without the same resolution the scaling and different resolutions would require too much of even the highest end GPUs and 3 of the same resolution would be more efficient.

Message from nvidia control panel when attempting 3 screen for gaming
View attachment 4710

Thanks for the screenshot.
The plasma TV I have is 1080p, and I would buy monitors at 1080p too.

"Nvidia control panel only accepts 3 screen gaming if they are the same resolution" I'd have three monitors at the same resolution but not all same orientations (1080 x 1920 , 1920 x 1080 , 1080 x 1920) - Would Nvidia control panel accept that?

I don't really understand the pixel density issue. (I haven't done any triple-monitor gaming yet, but I think I won't really be looking at the side monitors at all - they're just for immersion. When you're gaming you need to concentrate closely on what's in the middle. I'm into driving sims especially.)

 

[keynes]

I don't really understand the pixel density issue. (I haven't done any triple-monitor gaming yet, but I think I won't really be looking at the side monitors at all - they're just for immersion. When you're gaming you need to concentrate closely on what's in the middle. I'm into driving sims especially.)

I game in 3 screens and I need to look at the sides, I haven't tried driving sims but I am assuming is also the same case.

 

[Wozza63]

The pixel density is the amount of pixels in an area, if one screen has a lower pixel density, it will look considerably more stretched compared to the higher pixel density.

And no you can't have 3 screens for that reason and the way Nvidia and AMD render 3 screens. Because the resolutions are different it will have to render a larger square.

To try and help you understand what I mean, here is a screenshot when I have all 4 of my screens activated. The white is where I have access to on my monitors and the black areas I can't access. This causes a slight increase for me but nothing drastic because those areas don't need to refresh (if you look up video compression this will make sense). However I don't game on more than 1. For games on the other hand it is entirely different. For your setup the game would need to render at 4080x1920 which is insane and would need to refresh the hidden areas. Plus on the centre screen the tops will be missing and the scale difference between it and the side panels would make it look awful. Hence why Nvidia and AMD don't offer it on different resolution screens.


Different orientation monitors would make it a different resolution. Your TV would be 1920 Horizontal, 1080 Vertical. Your monitors would be 1080 Horizontal and 1920 Vertical

 

[Atuleon]

Wouldn't the TV refresh rate be out of sync with the monitors too? TVs do quite a bit of processing to an image before it is displayed, but you might be able to to get around this if it has a "gaming mode" like most recent TVs do?

 

[Atuleon]

The pixel density is the amount of pixels in an area, if one screen has a lower pixel density, it will look considerably more stretched compared to the higher pixel density.

And no you can't have 3 screens for that reason and the way Nvidia and AMD render 3 screens. Because the resolutions are different it will have to render a larger square.

To try and help you understand what I mean, here is a screenshot when I have all 4 of my screens activated. The white is where I have access to on my monitors and the black areas I can't access. This causes a slight increase for me but nothing drastic because those areas don't need to refresh (if you look up video compression this will make sense). However I don't game on more than 1. For games on the other hand it is entirely different. For your setup the game would need to render at 4080x1920 which is insane and would need to refresh the hidden areas. Plus on the centre screen the tops will be missing and the scale difference between it and the side panels would make it look awful. Hence why Nvidia and AMD don't offer it on different resolution screens.
View attachment 4712

Different orientation monitors would make it a different resolution. Your TV would be 1920 Horizontal, 1080 Vertical. Your monitors would be 1080 Horizontal and 1920 Vertical

Wozza is right here.