The multi monitor thread... coz wider is better!

[popuptoaster]

The last time I set up 3 monitors I needed 2 cards this left one output free as there were 2 per card. If it can be done with one I'd like to know how.

660Gtx as previously said (or an ATI equivalent) is probably a good floor.

The newer cards have 4 outputs the Nvidias can run 4 at once (but only span the game across three, the other will just be your desktop unless you give it something else to do)

The ATIs apparently have 4 outputs but can only do 3 at once although that may have changed now with the newer cards.

i have three screens active, 1 is running from HDMI and the other 2 are running DVI (you need the cables without the 4 analogue pins, look for DVI-D on the packet)

There is also a Displayport socket, but none of my monitors have the right input for that. i know little about display port other than you can run multiple monitors off one socket if the monitors have daisy chain sockets, the video card still has a limit to how many it can drive though so you can't add extra screens over that limit.

Nvidias included software will sort out spanning your desktop and games across all three monitors however if you have odd sized monitors it will set them all to the smallest ones resolution, better to have them all the same size or you have to do what i do and run games windowed and stretched.

 

[CaptGrumpyPants]

That's Groovy Baby!
But I think I need to get three big monitors just to appreciate your three big monitors...
But that would be silly, lol.
Maybe when I am rich.

Warthunder works quite well and Planetside 2 has a special wide view mode but I don't like that. Kind of accelerates the movement of your peripheral vision.

Facetracking/ headtracking becomes more sensible with 3 monitors and Iv'e been playing around with that too using FaceTrackNoIr, see the Blue Peter Headtracking thread. Got it working nicely with a pair of polarised sunglass lenses at 90 degrees and a Delan clip. TrackIr works in ED not sure about the cheapo alternative tho.

Now, has anyone tried NINE monitors in a three by three array? lol.

I never could get FacetrackNoIR working while using a joystick...I searched for the Blue Peter Headtracking but didn't find anything. Any tips for getting FaceTrackNoIR working ingame for me?

 

[djbully]

Very wide FOV does get very stretched at the edges. This because most games are rendered as planar projection. This assumes all you monitors are in the same plane like this --- , most people angle the ones at the side in a bit like this /-\ , though not as much

The solution is spherical projection, the downside to spherical is that straight lines become curved. Partly because the screens are still flat but also because it is more like a fish eye lens effect however our brains get used to it quite quickly.

The Oculus Rift display is somewhat like this.

This can be solved for multi monitors by rendering each screen seperately. It cost's some horsepower, but if you have it spare, it's worth it. You lose all of the fish eye effect. A few racing simulators use this method, would be nice to have in ED too!

 

[djbully]

What do all you guys recon will be the minimum graphic card needed to run 3x 1920x1080? Looking to get an extra monitor and new GPU but want to hold off to make I can run this configuration on an nvidia card, ideally non sli.

I dont know about nvidia. I am using an AMD r290x 4GB and that runs like a dream, nice if you have the money.

Before I was using an AMD 6970 3GB, which you can just about get away with, but new games hit it hard and you have to turn settings down a fair bit.

 

[Oculus]

120hz monitor

I know we are only at alpha stage but does the game support 120hz refresh rate and can people confirm that those hitting 120fps are finding the game super smooth.
Looking forward to this game as along with many of you, this was the game I sunk countless hours into as a kid.

I play FPS games mainly and the difference between 60fps and 120fps is huge in my opinion in this genre and I presume in a flight/space sim it will be the same

 

[KickahasTier]

I know we are only at alpha stage but does the game support 120hz refresh rate and can people confirm that those hitting 120fps are finding the game super smooth.
Looking forward to this game as along with many of you, this was the game I sunk countless hours into as a kid.

I play FPS games mainly and the difference between 60fps and 120fps is huge in my opinion in this genre and I presume in a flight/space sim it will be the same

em ... You are confusing fps and refresh rate, they are not the same thing. Frames per second, fps, is the number of rendered frames created by the game engine and drawn to your monitor (frame buffer). Your refresh rate is how often your monitor redraws the screen from the buffer.

This explains it much better than I could - page 7

http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html

You should be able to answer you own question after browsing

 

[Patrick_68000]

Concerning the FPS, it is often said that between 30 fps and 60 fps, there is not much difference to the eye. And above of 60 FPS, we do not see more

 

[GMcA]

Playing at 144hz, no problems here.

 

[Mobius]

KickahasTier is right, if a game runs at a maximum 60 frames per second its not going to run any faster or smoother on a 60hz or a 120hz. to be honest you wouldn't notice much difference above 60hz anyway. a standard tv runs at 60hz in the uk. though my TV can run up to 400hz I cant say that I notice any real difference between 60hz and 400hz.

if your talking about having elite run at 120 frames per second thats nothing to do with frontier supporting it, that would be your graphics card. to have the game run constantly like that I would guess you have 3 Nvidia Titans running in SLI.

 

[GMcA]

if your talking about having elite run at 120 frames per second thats nothing to do with frontier supporting it, that would be your graphics card. to have the game run constantly like that I would guess you have 3 Nvidia Titans running in SLI.

Erm, guess again...

 

[Oculus]

If you play fps games running at high fps with 120hz screen the game is really smooth. If the fps drops to 60-80 the game does not "feel"as good even though you still having 120hz refresh rate. Playing on a 60hz screen compared to 120hz even though you have 120 or higher fps is not smooth at all relatively.
Anyway previous poster is running 144hz screen (asus?) and says this is fine.

Battlefield 4 runs with max settings pretty close to 100fps @ 1080p with one 780gtx.

 

[SAB380]

I'm running it on all the highest graphics settings averaging 115 fps on a 144hz BenQ gaming monitor.

I can confirm that ....it looks very very pretty and is super smooth

Its hard to comment on the difference. I haven't used my new machine on a normal 60hz monitor to see if the difference is visible.

There is an option in the graphics settings on monitor refresh rate and yes the option is there to specifically select 120 and 144 if your monitor can support it.


And none of this is that relevant because we only need monitors until the Rift HD headset is ready !

 

[SuperG]

KickahasTier is right, if a game runs at a maximum 60 frames per second its not going to run any faster or smoother on a 60hz or a 120hz. to be honest you wouldn't notice much difference above 60hz anyway. a standard tv runs at 60hz in the uk. though my TV can run up to 400hz I cant say that I notice any real difference between 60hz and 400hz.

if your talking about having elite run at 120 frames per second thats nothing to do with frontier supporting it, that would be your graphics card. to have the game run constantly like that I would guess you have 3 Nvidia Titans running in SLI.

With TV its much trickier. There are some 3D TV wich can support two viewers with shutterglasses. Where the Refresh is split to 4 eyes and even posible to mix two channels. These TV are rare. But the input isn't 200hz or 240hz. Its internal generated.

But more often the 100 200 400 800 1600 are internal image interprolation procesing to create smooth moving objects from basic 50HZ input. This means also a input lag depending how fast it computes those interpolated frames out of those 50 or 60 input depending on regio We got PAL. Wich is 50Hz
For computers this extra lag inducing computing is not the case but there is also still input lag.

With UHD it much different most conection doesnt support the full spec. Depending on wich connection you are limited to 30 or 60 instead the full 120
Displayport 1.2 or HDMI 2.0 is needed.

With a TV with 100hz 200hz its not input spec but imternal computing. Also TV uses decomb filtering for converting 1080i to 1080P and more after affect procesing. On top of that.
Depending on TV the got often a demo mode but also optional a game mode. Wich put these extra lag inducing features off. If posible as it is optional. There are TV where these post procesing cant be turn of.

As for 120hz or 144 hz game monitors yes you need 2 times or bit more the gfx computing power unless the game has wide varity to turn heavy features of.

Also a 120 or 144 hz runs much smoother then 60 hz even with less gfx power.
Because the wait for vsync is 1/144 or 1/120 instead 1/60
Less need for G- sync or free-sync.

I play online mostly on PS3 my 120hz was bought for the 3D feature. Use it not online but for singleplayer PC games.

Does ED support 3D gaming?

 

[Moriarte]

Concerning the FPS, it is often said that between 30 fps and 60 fps, there is not much difference to the eye. And above of 60 FPS, we do not see more

Sure, if one drinks/smokes a lot, his nervous system is not that responsive anymore and he can't tell the difference. Competitive FPS players can clearly feel the difference and settle for no less than 100 fps though.

 

[Dejay]

A bit off topic, but I just got my QNIX QX27 monitor. It's a 1440p monitor with PLS (=IPS) panel that is overclockable to at least 96hz (120hz works great for me). Brilliant colors. And it's only 252€ on ebay! (some consumer tax might go on top of that). Shipped from south korea in a few days. I got one stuck pixel that I can hardly see. Just ordered a second one.

Unfortunately now I need a better graphics card

 

[KING5TON]

A bit off topic, but I just got my QNIX QX27 monitor. It's a 1440p monitor with PLS (=IPS) panel that is overclockable to at least 96hz (120hz works great for me). Brilliant colors. And it's only 252€ on ebay! (some consumer tax might go on top of that). Shipped from south korea in a few days. I got one stuck pixel that I can hardly see. Just ordered a second one.

Unfortunately now I need a better graphics card

I was thinking of getting one of those but was concerned with having to return it if it went pop. Bought a DGM IPS-2701WPH from Overclockers instead. Was also considering getting a 120hz+ monitor but in the end decided that prettier in all my games was more important than smoothness + competitive edge in some games.

Pushing 1440p at 60fps doesn't seem to be as demanding compared to 120fps+ at 1080p. I can run BF4 for example at 1440p at 60fps on Ultra settings with just AA and SSAO turned off on my 7970. If I wanted a rock solid 120fps I'd have to drop a few more settings.

 

[Dejay]

Strange that one looks almost exactly like my qnix but a different panel and a input board for vga and hdmi. The qnix is also sold as x-star.

 

[Greg Ryder]

I run a 120hz Samsung and a 144hz BenQ, both work fine.

 

[MadMike]

I think there is confusion about input frequency and output frequency,

there are 400Hz Tvs but the input frequency is still 60Hz, it just draws the same frame over and over.

The Benq monitor I have can take 120Hz in, so if you can get the game to run at 120FPS synced to the input frequency the result is stunning.

No motion blur and crystal clear graphics.

See THIS site for more info.

You do need a pretty good graphics setup to achieve this.

 

[Memnoch]

I have a 120Hz BenQ and it works very well.