Triple Monitor Setup: some questions

[Martin Shepard]

Hey there,

I have a couple questions concerning Triple Monitor Setups.

First, do all three monitors have to be the same model? Are Triple Monitor Setups natively usable in the game or do I have to use external programs? As I call myself a stellar photographer I'm a bit worried about my daily business: is it possible to only take screenshots of the main monitor? Or do all screenshots get the full resolution? What are the minimum requirements? I have a RTX 2060 and a 21:9 monitor with 2560x1080.

 

[DawnTreader777]

3 Monitors should be the same size and resolution at the very least, 1 27 and 2 24s beside the 27 all at the same resolution will cause straight lines to "shear". I recently upgraded my 2 24s to 27s to match my main center monitor. It looks great and I don't have the "shearing" of lines anymore but not being all the same make and model meant that my middle monitor was lower down than the outer 2. I had to rise it up with some wood under it. Even then it is still a little off. Still a great setup though.

The other thing is the video card should have a way to "meld" all three monitors into 1. This fools most any game into thinking that you have a monitor with a really wide resolution. I have a Nvidia 1050TI that I use "surround" view with. It gives me a 5760 x 1080 resolution choice in most games. A borderless window setting in your elite will work well for spanning all 3 and also allow you to windows key hop out of the game to check a browser or other things.

 

[Martin Shepard]

3 Monitors should be the same size and resolution at the very least, 1 27 and 2 24s beside the 27 all at the same resolution will cause straight lines to "shear". I recently upgraded my 2 24s to 27s to match my main center monitor. It looks great and I don't have the "shearing" of lines anymore but not being all the same make and model meant that my middle monitor was lower down than the outer 2. I had to rise it up with some wood under it. Even then it is still a little off. Still a great setup though.

The other thing is the video card should have a way to "meld" all three monitors into 1. This fools most any game into thinking that you have a monitor with a really wide resolution. I have a Nvidia 1050TI that I use "surround" view with. It gives me a 5760 x 1080 resolution choice in most games. A borderless window setting in your elite will work well for spanning all 3 and also allow you to windows key hop out of the game to check a browser or other things.

Thanks for your detailed reply. I'm astonished that a 1050ti can handle a resolution of 5760 x 1080
What about the screenshots? Are they always in full resolution or can I only take screens of the main monitor?

 

[Riverside]

The game just considers the full frame to be a single monitor, so screenshots will be at that resolution (or double with alt-f10 in Solo). I don't remember what effect super sampling has on screenshots.

The merging of monitors is done by windows, not the game & the game will just allow you to use whatever resolutions windows reports are supported.

 

[Martin Shepard]

What do you guys think: is a 32:9 monitor better or three 16:9 monitors? I know it's personal taste, but I just wanted to hear some opinions.

 

[Riverside]

I had 3x 24" 1080p monitors (for sim racing), it wasn't useful for ED because I wanted to be able to look all around not just to the sides so I ended up only using the centre monitor anyway.

So I bought a 43" 4k monitor & have a 24" either side, portrait. The game runs on the centre screen at 4k, the side ones are used for a web browser & any other windows stuff. There are things you can do with multiple monitors (running apps full screen for example) that one monitor won't really do as nicely, but imo playing the game on a single monitor of whatever size you like gives a better experience if money isn't a significant factor.

 

[Abysinth]

With nVidia not only do they have to be the same model but nVidia told me that they have to be from the same batch and even then it might not work.

My two 2560x1080s [different manufacturers] both when back to 1920x1080. After a week of back and forth they said that their drivers would not work.

So ... I'm looking for a bigger wider single scrn to go between my twin 2560x1080s

 

[Martin Shepard]

I had 3x 24" 1080p monitors (for sim racing), it wasn't useful for ED because I wanted to be able to look all around not just to the sides so I ended up only using the centre monitor anyway.

So I bought a 43" 4k monitor & have a 24" either side, portrait. The game runs on the centre screen at 4k, the side ones are used for a web browser & any other windows stuff. There are things you can do with multiple monitors (running apps full screen for example) that one monitor won't really do as nicely, but imo playing the game on a single monitor of whatever size you like gives a better experience if money isn't a significant factor.

Thanks for you opinion. That sounds nice. But I'm a bit afraid a large 32:9 monitor could be impractical when browsing etc as many sites are still not adapting to bigger resolutions so the site will stay in the right corner of the screen. Is this an issue?
Can I imagine a curved monitor being that large to really be all around me or is it still like "in front of you" and a bit to the left and the right.

 

[Riverside]

If I were concerned about compatibility & had a bad experience with ultra-wide monitors before I'd be inclined to get something I was confident would be compatible (a 16:9 monitor).

It seems to me the important factor is the pixel count (width in your case) and physical pixel size. I chose a 43" 4k monitor because the pixel size is about the same as my previous 1080p 24" monitors, so I effectively have 4x 1080p (in a 2x2 grid) monitors worth of desktop space, all in one monitor. My viewing distance hasn't changed of course.

A 4k 16:9 monitor has the high number of pixels you are looking for horizontally, and has the additional bonus of more vertical pixels too

 

[mearmortal]

I'm using the Nvida Suround option in the Graphics card settings to turn the PC into one 5760 x 1080 monitor, then choosing that resolution in game. Then I use EDD to convert the screenshot to Png, and create another one 1920 x 1080 from the centre monitor, using left 1921 and top 1080 to start at. I can post my images on websites and keep a full desktop wallpaper too.

 

[DawnTreader777]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I'm astonished that a 1050ti can handle a resolution of 5760 x 1080
What about the screenshots? Are they always in full resolution or can I only take screens of the main monitor?

Depends on what you take screenshots with. If you use steam with elite then F12 will do all three as one big screenshot. If you wanted you could use snip to screenshot just what you want. I setup OBS to just watch my main monitor when I stream, this is where most everything happens anyways.

 

[TheMindBuddah]

There are tricks you can employ for running mixed monitors. For example my main is an Asus ROG 1440p and two side Blackhawks which are 1080p which I run at a total off 7680x1440.
The two sides are run on a custom resolution of 1440p, its slightly blurry for text but they are simply side windows, and cost £300 instead of £1200 for two extra Asus Rogs.
I then run a custom resolution of 7680x1440 in a window. As you can see below runs quite well even on my previous card which was a 1070 (Present 3070).
Only issue I encountered was Nvidia custom resolutions stopped working for the center monitor on upgrading my card. So I simply add it via EDID hack using ToastyX's CRU.

Source: https://youtu.be/zbinImBkjNA

EDID hacking with ToastyX's CRU

Source: https://youtu.be/CctV6XDoePg