Triple Monitor Setups - Nvidia or ATI?

[EagleDNY]

I'm thinking it is time for me to go with the 3 flat panel setup - I've seen both the NVIDIA SLI and the ATI setups at the hardware shows, but would like to hear from people ACTUALLY USING THEM in AH.  If you are using a 3 monitor setup, how about dropping a post in here with what graphics card(s) you are using and what resolution and frame rate you get across the 3 monitors.  Also - if you have run into driver or stability issues, please post that as well.

BTW SCUZZY - if you wanted to post a recommendation based on what you guys are using over there, I wouldn't mind reading that as well.  I don't know what graphics libraries you guys are using, but if you folks have a preference for ATI or NVidia, I'd like to hear it.

EagleCH

[Sid]

Hi EagleCH

I'm running a three screen setup using NVIDIA's new 3D Vision Surround Technology.



I'm just running the "Surround" part i.e. triple screen, not the "3D" part (I don't have the glasses or the monitor refresh rate for that!)



Three Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP Monitors driven by three ASUS ENGTX480/2DI/1536MD5 Graphics Cards.

Combined visible area 52" by 25 1/4", Corner to Corner 58". The two bezels between each screen comes to about 5.7cm or at a pixel pitch of 0.2505 about 230 pixels; giving 1600+230+1600+230+1600 = 5260

So I'm running Aces High at a resolution of 5260 x 2560

I'm currently using these settings



Which gives about 100fps with Vsync off, so plenty of over overhead to keep a rock solid 60fps with Vsync on.


I used to use the SoftTH "triplehead" software to run the three screens before NVIDIA bought out their drivers, but I'm seeing a 300% increase in fps over SoftTH using NVIDIA's solution.

Setup was fairly straight forward, although you have to change a few settings in the NVIDIA profile for AH. You don't want "Alternate Frame Rendering" selected (or the frame rate is abysmal), and you have to "Force Vsync ON" (or you get tearing on the outer monitors).

Stability wise it's all rock solid, I play for hours on end without problems.

I have been suffering the very occasional "Crash to Desktop", but haven't been able to isolate whether this is related to the three screen setup or something else.  See this post for details. 

Not the cheapest setup in the world, but I’m delighted with the performance I’m getting with the NVIDIA setup. 

There's a few more details and pics about my setup in this post.

Hope this helps, Regards Sid (aka Conan)

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Hi EagleCH

I'm running a three screen setup using NVIDIA's new 3D Vision Surround Technology.

(Image removed from quote.)

I'm just running the "Surround" part i.e. triple screen, not the "3D" part (I don't have the glasses or the monitor refresh rate for that!)

(Image removed from quote.)

Three Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP Monitors driven by three ASUS ENGTX480/2DI/1536MD5 Graphics Cards.

Combined visible area 52" by 25 1/4", Corner to Corner 58". The two bezels between each screen comes to about 5.7cm or at a pixel pitch of 0.2505 about 230 pixels; giving 1600+230+1600+230+1600 = 5260

So I'm running Aces High at a resolution of 5260 x 2560

I'm currently using these settings

(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)

Which gives about 100fps with Vsync off, so plenty of over overhead to keep a rock solid 60fps with Vsync on.
(Image removed from quote.)

I used to use the SoftTH "triplehead" software to run the three screens before NVIDIA bought out their drivers, but I'm seeing a 300% increase in fps over SoftTH using NVIDIA's solution.

Setup was fairly straight forward, although you have to change a few settings in the NVIDIA profile for AH. You don't want "Alternate Frame Rendering" selected (or the frame rate is abysmal), and you have to "Force Vsync ON" (or you get tearing on the outer monitors).

Stability wise it's all rock solid, I play for hours on end without problems.

I have been suffering the very occasional "Crash to Desktop", but haven't been able to isolate whether this is related to the three screen setup or something else.  See this post for details. 

Not the cheapest setup in the world, but I’m delighted with the performance I’m getting with the NVIDIA setup. 

There's a few more details and pics about my setup in this post.

Hope this helps, Regards Sid (aka Conan)

Lol!

With a single Radeon HD5870 or 6870 you can achieve the same triple screen setup for literally a fraction of the price and get 60fps on AH2.

Why on earth have you sunk money to THREE 480's?

[Sid]

Because I didn't know any better, which is the point of EagleCH post.

I've shared my first hand experience of triple screen setups using both "NVIDIA's new 3D Vision Surround Technology" and "SoftTH triplehead software" to run AH.

I have no experience of Eyefinity, if you have perhaps you like to share the details?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Because I didn't know any better, which is the point of EagleCH post.

I've shared my first hand experience of triple screen setups using both "NVIDIA's new 3D Vision Surround Technology" and "SoftTH triplehead software" to run AH.

I have no experience of Eyefinity, if you have perhaps you like to share the details?

If I recall correctly eyefinity was already handled by an another thread, I was only wondering about your three premium level cards. Does Nvidia really require you to get a card per monitor or are they just a performance overkill on your part? IIRC Chalenge has mentioned that FSX players can actually need a TRI-SLI setup but AH2 should run maxed with a single 480 / 5870 card even at triple screen resolutions.

[skribetm]

excellent triple monitor setup sid! dont you like em in landscape?
dont be afraid to click that smooth shadow on!
 

[Sid]

3D Vision Surround Technology System Requirements

You need at least two cards, three maybe over kill on my part, although the EVGA Precision tuning tool shows all three to be working hard when I run AH with my current settings.

Part of the reason I went with NVIDIA was at the time Eyefinity didn't appear to support "portrait" mode or the resolution I wanted; 5260 x 2560, that may have changed, but as I say I have no experience of Eyefinity.

[Sid]

excellent triple monitor setup sid! dont you like em in landscape?
dont be afraid to click that smooth shadow on!
 

"dont you like em in landscape?"

Simple answer; NO

The three 30" monitors side by side (landscape) take up about 85 inch of desk space i.e. most of the room. I found this just emphasizes the feeling of looking through a post box (albeit a very large one) and made me feel sick.  Portrait mounting helps keep the aspect ratio similar to one large screen but with a larger field of view.

To give you an idea of the different feel you get with portrait vs. landscape here's three screen shots:


Standard 30" Widescreen


3 X 30" Widescreen portrait


3 X 30" Widescreen landscape


"dont be afraid to click that smooth shadow on!"

Even with the three 480's, "shadow smoothing" will drop the frame rate to only 60fps leaving no overhead for when the action really gets thick, I prefer to leave it off .

[FLS]

Nice setup Sid. I don't believe you'd get a solid 60 fps with a 5870 at 5260 x 2560.  I have a 5970 at 6038 x 1080 and sometimes it dips into the mid 50s. Portrait mode gives you a better aspect ratio for SA because you see up more in each view but you need an IPS panel like yours for the view angles. I use landscape and TrackIR. I just have to move my head a little more to look all around. If you have any issues with your TrackIR mounted so high you could try putting it behind you at head height and just reverse the axis.

Btw have you tried a wider view angle like 110 -120?

[Sid]

Thanks FLS, around 120-124 Deg "Custom Field Of View" works best for me.

Funny you should mention the TrackIR, I was just playing around with it's position the other day (after the photo was taken), and currently have it stuck to the left hand bezels about two thirds of the way up the monitor (about level with the front of the Camels upper wing in the photo). With the indicator lights turned off, it's unnoticeable and seems to function well, but I hadn't thought of positioning it behind me.

[FLS]

Good idea mounting it on the bezels. I didn't think of that but it's a similar width.

[Pollock]

I use an eyefinity setup 3 19 lcds with a resolution of 3840 X 1024.  I use ati hd 5850 one card with a display port adapter.

[vafiii]

I'm running an ATI 5970 card with 3 24" dell monitors in the "eyefinity" setup. All settings are maxed out. Screen resolution at 5760 x 1080 (1920 x 1080 per monitor), actually 6136 x 1080 with bezel compensation. Frame rate was a steady 60 until I contacted ATI tech support and they had me download a newer driver. I also upgraded cable modem to a faster speed and frame rate runs 100 to 120. Not sure if it was the driver update or the modem upgrade. Anyway, I love the setup. Only thing I'm not crazy about is the image is somewhat stretched across the 2 side monitors making objects appear larger and closer than they actually are. Not sure if this is correctable.

[FLS]

The side stretching is supposed to be like that. You can get rid of it by running in portrait mode. I don't know how you're getting higher than 60 fps if you have V-synch on, assuming your monitors refresh rate is 60. If you do have V-synch on and the refresh for your monitor is 60 you probably need to install DX9 to avoid image tearing.

[EagleDNY]

Thanks guys - this gives me some great ideas.  The 3-Screen Nvidia setup I can do with 2 decent cards running in SLI mode (now that I know the Nvidia system works that is...).  I hadn't thought about the portrait / landscape mode being variable in these setups - that looks like something I'll want to experiment with a bit.  I like the wide view, but I have to admit that most of the time I find myself looking up during fights and having more of an overhead would be an advantage.