Seeking Triple Monitor Advice

[Flamehead]

Hello all, I’m wondering if I might be able to get some confirmation or perhaps advice. I’m ready to make the jump to triple monitors and have been doing a lot of research. I have a 1080ti and would prefer not to turn down any eye candy, but am willing to turn down some settings if need be. I won’t be going SLI.

From what I understand, a single 1080ti will struggle with triple 1440p monitors, so I’m guessing this will bring me down to 1080p. If going 1080p, then I’m guessing 24” monitors are preferable over, say, 27” because of a possible “screen-door effect” when placing the monitors up close.

Is the above correct?

If going 1080p, I was thinking about maybe getting them at 144hz, but I understand even that scenario may make the 1080ti struggle.

I don’t mind going with 1080p with 24” at 60hz. I just don’t want to “settle” on that either if my card can handle more. Thoughts?

Also, I’m not interested in VR.

 

[sjb266]

I would recommend 1080p 144hz at a size of 27" minimum - your 1080ti will be fine.. and there will be no noticeable screen door unless you're really looking for it..

I have 3 x AOC AGON 32" curved 1080p 144hz and they are amazing.. angled at 60° they take up all my peripheral vision.. I would highly recommend them.. and they are cheap.. the PPI at this size is lower so not great if you are doing other stuff on your computer but for driving games... perfect!

Look here

 

[Flamehead]

Excellent, thanks so much. So at 1080p and 144hz, I would be able to get 144 fps without much of an issue?

 

[sjb266]

Depends on what you're playing and how many cars on track.. but yeah...

Once you get around 100fps it's diminishing returns anyway..

 

[Beef36]

.

 

[BenKay]

As another point of reference :

I run triple 32" screens 7680x1440 with 2080ti - Max settings in RFactor (with triple-projection multi view).

FPS on an empty track approx 100FPS
FPS in race with 40+ cars, approx 60-80 FPS

I don't think you'll be hitting 144HZ, or close to it, with an 1080ti in any circumstances without knocking down quality settings quite substantially.
I'd highly recommend GSYNC capable monitors too, makes a world of difference to visual smoothness

 

[pattikins]

From the 15th of this month Nvidia are supporting Freesync!

I could be wrong, but if you approach the problem in terms of pixels you should be able to test various triple monitor setups using Nvidia's Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) on a single monitor. Without taking bezels in to account a typical three 1080p monitor setup equals 6220800 pixels (6.2mp);3 x ultra wide monitors (beef36 - 2560x1080) = 8294400 pixels (same as 4k); 3 x 1440p = 11058396 pixels. Pop the results in a graph...

This is my benchmark results using DSR in Assetto Corsa (1080ti + i7 3770 + 12gb DDR3):
FPS Pixels Resolution
129 3686400 1440p
86 7372800 1440px2
64 11058396 1440px3

AC VERSION: 1.16.3 (x64)
FULLSCREEN: ON
AA:4X AF:16X SHDW:4096 BLUR:12
WORLD DETAIL: 5 SMOKE:4
PP: QLT:4 HDR:1 FXAA:1 GLR:4 DOF:4 RAYS:1 HEAT:1

 

[Flamehead]

Hey guys, thanks much for the insight. Triple g-sync monitors are out of my budget, but I did notice as well that Nvidia is supporting free-sync on the 15th (as Pattikins referenced). I've decided to go with a 27" 1080p 144hz monitor free-sync monitor.

Can't wait!

 

[Beef36]

.

 

[bluepeter]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/adepdu/list_of_freesync_monitors_to_be_made_compatible/

There is also an Nvidia VRR Freesync approved list appeared, currently it has a dozen or so monitors on it...

 

[Flamehead]

Yep, I ordered 3 of the Asus VG278Q which is on the list . The timing of Nvidia rolling this out is fortuitous for me as I'm sensitive to screen tearing and preferred not to go with vsync.

 

[pattikins]

Yep, I ordered 3 of the Asus VG278Q which is on the list . The timing of Nvidia rolling this out is fortuitous for me as I'm sensitive to screen tearing and preferred not to go with vsync.

Have you read this thread: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/ultrawide-dilemma.162138/ ...If you check the PPI on the monitors that you've just bought against the Alienware HW3418HW monitor that REDRANGERPWNZ ends up returning you will notice that both share the same PPI. In the same way that a 4k movie on a HD TV will display a 1080p image, no matter how much you max out the settings of a particular game you will be limited by the monitor's PPI/DPI. It's also possible to pick up a 1440p 144hz monitor for roughly the same price.

 

[Beef36]

.

 

[anton_Chez]

It's a headache trying to account for performance of monitors you don't already own yet. However, it's not too hard to work out expected performance with raw pixel count and comparing to the output of your current monitor. If you are at 50% GPU usage at x pixels, then using 2x pixel will generally double your graphics output requirement. It's not completely linear in the way that graphics cards output the image but it's a pretty good place to start if you're worried about performance.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you get a 1440p monitor there is nothing stopping you still running a 1080p output. I had a 4K ASUS monitor that output 1440p at what looked like a native 1440p monitor output. Meaning, no blurring or image quality loss (except for of course less pixels but that's a given when reducing resolution) when running the non native resolution. It must have had a really good internal scaler. Other 1440p monitors I've had in the past were still OK to run a 1080p output but it didn't look as good as what the 1440p looked on my 4K monitor.

I used 27" 1080p triples. I loved them. Just 60hz ones. They were like $750 AUD combined. Don't go smaller than 27" is my opinion also. Nvidia DSR does NOT work when using Nvidia surround however using as much anti aliasing as you can will improve the image significantly if you decide to buy or at least output at 1080p. The great thing is all of the sims we use now are old, or run on old engines, meaning they still have the awesome MSAA option for anti aliasing. AC, AMS, rf2, iRacing, R3E, Dirt Rally, they ALL have MSAA options.

Variable refresh is probably your friend here but again, if you're wanting to run high refresh monitors then the chances of you using both variable refresh AND 100+ FPS is minimal. You use variable refresh when your frames are down around the 45 - 55 FPS range. Not sure if you get the same benefit when running 100 FPS. From what I hear running 100+ FPS with Vsync off basically gives you the best of what you're looking for. I think (but cannot be certain, I HATE tearing as well) that when you're up around that range that tearing becomes a non issue even with Vsync off.

 

[RasmusP]

I tested this "at 100 fps with high Hz you don't need vsync" thing with the Asus 165 Hz gsync monitor.
It's okayish at best. Not only do you see some slight tearing, it also stutters inconsistently.
Sure I'm very sensitive for both but I really saw the "not synced" issues!
Once I activated gsync it was all buttersmooth.
The gsync input lag you can read a loooot about is bullsh*t imo. When really looking into detailed analysis you'll see that it's about 1-5ms. That's basically nothing since even at 100 fps with vsync off its still 10ms from frame to frame.

This testing made it clear for me that gsync is the way to go. With my 60 Hz monitor I always played with vsync but I had some tiny spikes in every single game where the fps would drop for a few frames only. But that stutter was visible and annoying for me.

So I bought the Alienware 34" 1440p ultra wide and mostly play at 60 fps locked. No input lag, no micro stutter, nothing. Clarity is awesome with the semi-glossy ips coating (the TN coating of the Asus was a nightmare on white backgrounds) and the higher Pixel density helps with aliasing.

But it's a lot of pixels... So test with dsr if your 1080ti can push 3x 1440p! I don't think so.
27" is the size to go although at 1080p reading texts isn't great. But I've done it for 5 years and only lately it became too visible for me with iPads, laptops, phones pushing out way higher ppi.

Anyway, you'll want vrr. Gsync or one of the gsync approved freesync ones. 3 I mean
Beware though: some freesync monitors have a lot higher input lag!

 

[Jens Roos]

For reference, I'm running asus 27" nsync (144Hz) 7680x1440 with 1080ti "extreme" SLI on a i7-7700k (overclocked 14%). I can run AC, rF2 and AMS on high to max settings with stable 100fps.

I mostly run online, but offline up to 20 ai works fine, on AC sometimes a few less as it seem to be more demanding on the cpu.

Here's an benchmark report from AC:
AC VERSION: 1.16.3 (x64)
POINTS: 25557
FPS: AVG=174 MIN=38 MAX=262 VARIANCE=21 CPU=80%

LOADING TIME: 13s
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (7680x1440)
OS-Version: 6.2.9200 () 0x100-0x1
CPU CORES: 8
FULLSCREEN: ON
AA:4X AF:16X SHDW:4096 BLUR:0
WORLD DETAIL: 4 SMOKE:3
PP: QLT:4 HDR:1 FXAA:1 GLR:4 DOF:4 RAYS:1 HEAT:1

One thing to be aware of is at 7680x1440 the nvidia surround max Hz is 120.
During my testing, there is an noticeable difference from 75-100, not so much 100-120Hz.

Edit -> the part below is actually not correct when it comes to screen tearing, using no v-sync in-game, global nsync on and fixed fps lower than the monitor Hz works well. But I leave this part as it was anyway

nsync/freesyns or whatever is your fetish, unstable fps did not work good in my setup. I have now set my Hz to 120Hz (max) and then in-game adjusted the Hz to my expected performance (100Hz). Then I use no fps limit or Hz+1 fps limit depending on game (and a few other nvidia profile tweaks as well). This will lock the fps to 100 in my case.

I have not tested ACC, and will not until triples are supported so have no idea how it perform there.

 

[RasmusP]

For reference, I'm running asus 27" nsync (144Hz) 7680x1440 with 1080ti "extreme" SLI on a i7-7700k (overclocked 14%). I can run AC, rF2 and AMS on high to max settings with stable 100fps.

I mostly run online, but offline up to 20 ai works fine, on AC sometimes a few less as it seem to be more demanding on the cpu.

Here's an benchmark report from AC:
AC VERSION: 1.16.3 (x64)
POINTS: 25557
FPS: AVG=174 MIN=38 MAX=262 VARIANCE=21 CPU=80%

LOADING TIME: 13s
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (7680x1440)
OS-Version: 6.2.9200 () 0x100-0x1
CPU CORES: 8
FULLSCREEN: ON
AA:4X AF:16X SHDW:4096 BLUR:0
WORLD DETAIL: 4 SMOKE:3
PP: QLT:4 HDR:1 FXAA:1 GLR:4 DOF:4 RAYS:1 HEAT:1

One thing to be aware of is at 7680x1440 the nvidia surround max Hz is 120.
During my testing, there is an noticeable difference from 75-100, not so much 100-120Hz.

nsync/freesyns or whatever is your fetish, unstable fps did not work good in my setup. I have now set my Hz to 120Hz (max) and then in-game adjusted the Hz to my expected performance (100Hz). Then I use no fps limit or Hz+1 fps limit depending on game (and a few other nvidia profile tweaks as well). This will lock the fps to 100 in my case.

I have not tested ACC, and will not until triples are supported so have no idea how it perform there.

Not exactly sure what you are doing with hz and fps but gsync won't limit anything so if you run into the fps of your Hz settings it will either just go beyond and induce tearing etc.
You say it'll get locked at your hz setting which means vsync is kicking in and inducing input lag.
Not that the input lag of vsync is big at 100 fps/Hz but it's there.

But maybe I misunderstood something

 

[Jens Roos]

in my setup, letting the hz limit the fps instead of letting the fps limit setting the hz works best.

the other way around cause high fps micro stutter in some cases, even not always. could be an sli issue./behavior.

sync always cause input lag, at hz it rather low and according to nvidia, gsync reduces it a bit further, but i have not measure it.

 

[Jens Roos]

forcing gsync in nvidia inspector or activate sync in game and active gsync in nvidia control panel should be the same?

not setting the sync in game or forcing it on, you run without sync, so it seem to be working for me at least

 

[RasmusP]

Could you post your full settings, in images (nvidia and ingame syncing/hz/resolution settings)?
Either we're just misunderstanding each other or you've got something fundamentally wrong/mixed up regarding gsync, vsync and how it works.
Which is not a critique towards you, this stuff is complicated but I spent a lot of time to finally get it all right and understand everything so I'm just trying to help and get things right for the people reading this thread