Monitor / TV / 3-Monitor / Projector

Alex Ball · Dec 13, 2011

I am undecided as to which I prefer - so, passing this over to the greater good.

I can't decide if I prefer my old 42" tv, the three monitors I have, or the theroetical projector setup.

Framerates seem to be an issue for me on 3 monitors, hence the thoughts.

Roadster-2 · Dec 13, 2011

Hi Alex. What you really mean is that you want the triple monitor setup but with the frame rate of the single monitor. It's going to be hard going back to a single monitor, unless it's one of the large curved ones

. A projector setup is preferably going to require two or three projectors so you may still suffer. The main question to ask might be what are you driving the triple monitor setup with as you may want to consider upgrading this side.

Alex Ball · Dec 14, 2011

Hey Iain,

You're bang on. My PC spec is fairly high though so I'm totally puzzled as to why I'm getting crappy framerates. in the pitlane in rFactor in most tracks I drop to 20-30fps

My spec is:

i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz
16gb ram
2x HD 6970 2gb in CrossfireX (disabled for rfactor as that seems to improve framerates..)
3 23" monitors @ ~6000x1080

Will Currington · Dec 14, 2011

I'm lucky enough to have tried all of the options available. Used to work in high end Hi Fi and AV so got to play with a $25,000 projecter on a 20' screen, also a 32" pioneer with 1.1 pixel ratio and 5ms delay a 19" widescreen with a fresnel lens and now 3 x 24" Dells. I could not go back to one monitor, it's not screen size it's how many pixels you can push, so I compromised on graphics for resolution as long as I can see where the track goes and where the car behind is, it's all good. I'm usually to busy to worry about how pretty it looks. The projector was fun but for immersion you can't beat a triple screen set up.
Running a E8600 C2Duo O/C to 4.25 Ghz, 4Gb RAM and an ATI 5970 @ 5960x1080. My only regret is not getting 16:10 monitors as a bit more headroom would be nice. I'm capped on iracing to 120FPS and in rFactor I get from 80 - 240 dependant on track and mod.

Alex Ball · Dec 14, 2011

I don't understand how you're getting higher framerates than me. Ensonic and Vito both get more too, and my components *should* offer more.

I must have something badly setup, I suppose.

Jim Cole · Dec 14, 2011

Alex, there has to be something going on with your setup somewhere as I too get better frame rates than you do. My setup is a Phenom II X6 running at 3.2Ghz with a single 6950 2Gb card so you have me beat both in CPU power per core as well as GPU power. I would start looking at what is going on in the background to see if you can puzzle it out.

Start by ending task on all processes that don't need to be run when you are gaming. Then you can enable them one at a time till you see your frame rates drop. You can also try and run defrag on your drives to see if you get any improvement there.

Alex Ball · Dec 14, 2011

It's a brand new install of windows, brand new drivers, etc etc. A real puzzle

Roadster-2 · Dec 14, 2011

Hi Alex. Excellent specs. so you should be flying ! Just out of iinterest, are the HD6970's ATI cards or generic versions e.g. MSI etc. I have known some of the generic cards to run faster on their own drivers rather than the standard ATI drivers (not that the manufacturers would do this on purpose of course ....)

Alex Ball · Dec 14, 2011

They're both Powercolor ones.
http://www.ebuyer.com/280423-powerc...-mini-displayport-hdmi-pci-e-ax6970-2gbd5-2dh

Roadster-2 · Dec 14, 2011

You may have already looked here but just in case -
http://www.powercolor.com/us/support_driver.asp?byclass=1&PSeries=7&PModel=71

Jim Cole · Dec 15, 2011

With it being a brand new system, there may still be portions of windows apps that are running in the background. Microsoft has been notorious about having things run that don't really need to be there for gamers. Things like task scheduler, auto update, and indexing are things that for most gamers aren't important enough to keep running.

I for one update my system software on a regular basis, but I don't want to deal with a 600Mb download from windows because they decide to release a service pack one day. I would rather have my system get it when I am sleeping or when I decide I won't be using my system for a bit of time.

Jim Cole · Dec 15, 2011

Alex, from what I saw on a video there is a definite plus to the 3 projector idea. With 3 projectors you don't have to worry about bezel overlap issues, everything looks really nice together

Unfortunately you have to have the room to setup 3 projectors and the screens that need to be setup on the sim cockpit.

Brian Clancy · Dec 16, 2011

I run 3 monitors, imo it cant be beat, but then thats just mo

Alex Ball · Dec 16, 2011

Just as a quick update - I ditched the 2nd graphics card, and installed the Wombat d3d mod, and now I get between 80 and 300fps in rFactor.

Selling the other card =)

Jim Cole · Dec 16, 2011

rFactor is one of the games that chokes on SLI and Crossfire setups for some reason. Sorry you couldn't get it to work, but look at the extra cash you get back

Erik Hafner · Dec 19, 2011

i had a projector wich makes a view of 130" with 1920x1080.. but IMO it was too big and no so sharp so i decided to switch to a 47" TV with the same resolution and atm im realy happy with it

but to be honest im going to sell it cause im starting to dream about a 3monitor solution to improve the ingame sensation

EIF · Dec 19, 2011

I'm currently on a lowly single 22" at 1050p and thining of getting triple screens but the cost does sound prohibitive.

As for crossfire/sli , I hear people get nothing but grief with them, best stick to single fastest card you can afford imo. The 7900 series is out in January which would have no trouble running triple screen, my current 6870 would stuggle for sure.

Danny Asbury · Dec 19, 2011

Alex Ball said:
Just as a quick update - I ditched the 2nd graphics card, and installed the Wombat d3d mod, and now I get between 80 and 300fps in rFactor.

Selling the other card =)

What is the Wombat d3d mod and what does it do? I ask because I'm kinda in the same situation...

Alex Ball · Dec 19, 2011

No idea, I found it on rFc, it's supposed to fix FPS for nvidia cards, but it makes my ATI setup go from 40fps average to 150average.

There's a lot more flickering of textures, but it's still totally fine really. Does seem to make everything a bit more glitchy, but it's better than jerky!

Jim Cole · Dec 20, 2011

Eifion, I don't think that you would have any issues with your card for triple monitors. The issue you would likely run into would be a bottle neck with either your CPU or RAM. Or in the case of Alex, software issues. Keith Barrick runs triple monitors with a 5870 card which is pretty much identical to yours.