Multi-monitor setup

[Pahn]

Except you forgot the black bars and the yellow tinge in the middle.

[Baron3ss]

Originally Posted by Pahn

Except you forgot the black bars and the yellow tinge in the middle.

Fixed?

[Vid Gamer]

LOL! I fixed the color problem for the most part, as I mentioned a couple posts up. I was tuning them using wallpaper and white levels, as soon as I went into BF3 and KoA and tuned them they are pretty much identical now.

Also, the bezels are really not a big issue or distracting. You should be too busy playing/concentrating on the center screen to notice them. Do you notice the edges of the screen when you are playing on one screen? No, because you are busy concentrating on the game. So just as when you are using one screen you don't notice the edges of the screens or the bars because you are too busy concentrating/playing the game on the center screen. The sidescreens just add to the immersion giving you some peripheral vision, you're not meant to turn your head on a swivel with this.

It's pretty stunning and gives a view that is far closer to the way your eyes work in reality.

[Exodus]

You ever fix your monitor ordering issue? Basically, whichever card has 1 monitor plugged in will be monitor 1. The card with 2 monitors plugged in will be monitors 2 and 3.

I just upgraded from my Samsung T220 today. Got the Samsung S27B550. Realistically, it's not the best TN panel in its price range. A BenQ XL2420T (TN) or Dell U2412M (e-IPS) are considered to be among the best monitors in that price range. However, they lacked some features that I wanted and were 3" smaller diagonally.

Finding an inexpensive panel with HDMI today that doesn't suffer from noticeable input lag (not to be confused with response time) can be daunting at times. Samsung and ASUS (and a few others) are usually good at keeping it <1 frame @ 60hz without noticeable ghosting (input lag and response time are inversely related usually).

EDIT: Oh, and that framerate problem you had was due to lack of VRAM. If you take two 1GB cards in SLI/Crossfire, you still only have 1GB of VRAM. MSAA and higher resolutions severely tax this. The workaround at that res is to use shader-based AA. Download the 301.24 beta Geforce drivers and enable FXAA in the control panel. However, do NOT enable this globally. Do it on a per-game basis. Otherwise, you're going to get blurred text in any application that uses hardware acceleration (Aero desktop, many web browsers, even some email clients).

[Vid Gamer]

Originally Posted by Exodus

You ever fix your monitor ordering issue? Basically, whichever card has 1 monitor plugged in will be monitor 1. The card with 2 monitors plugged in will be monitors 2 and 3.

Yeah, you end up rearranging the screen placement in the next step anyway so it didn't really matter how they were connected.

I just upgraded from my Samsung T220 today. Got the Samsung S27B550. Realistically, it's not the best TN panel in its price range. A BenQ XL2420T (TN) or Dell U2412M (e-IPS) are considered to be among the best monitors in that price range. However, they lacked some features that I wanted and were 3" smaller diagonally.

Dell's are good but I heard the colors on those BenQ's are bad, even with tons of color calibration tweaks.

Finding an inexpensive panel with HDMI today that doesn't suffer from noticeable input lag (not to be confused with response time) can be daunting at times. Samsung and ASUS (and a few others) are usually good at keeping it <1 frame @ 60hz without noticeable ghosting (input lag and response time are inversely related usually).

I don't use HDMI for PC gaming (DVI), but my Samsung's have 2ms and without Vsync I find I have no input lag whatsoever, it's great.

EDIT: Oh, and that framerate problem you had was due to lack of VRAM. If you take two 1GB cards in SLI/Crossfire, you still only have 1GB of VRAM. MSAA and higher resolutions severely tax this. The workaround at that res is to use shader-based AA. Download the 301.24 beta Geforce drivers and enable FXAA in the control panel. However, do NOT enable this globally. Do it on a per-game basis. Otherwise, you're going to get blurred text in any application that uses hardware acceleration (Aero desktop, many web browsers, even some email clients).

Yeah, I originally thought that VRAM would double in SLI, in my case 1.5 + 1.5 = 3. lol

Oh well, 1.5 is still doable but it is indeed pushing it for triple monitors, especialy if I want to max current and future games. I'm sure the 780's will have like 6GB of VRAM in the future.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

Dell's are good but I heard the colors on those BenQ's are bad, even with tons of color calibration tweaks.

Not all models from one manufacturer are created equal. At and below it's price range, you won't find a better 120hz TN panel than the XL2420T. The only one comparable or better is that new Asus, but it's over $250 more.

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

ut my Samsung's have 2ms and without Vsync I find I have no input lag whatsoever

Yea, if you're using an actual PC monitor on DVI, you'll have <16ms input lag, or less than one frame. Just make sure you're not confusing input lag and response time, they're not the same. They're actually inversely related.

Also, your response time isn't really 2ms. Open your monitor's OSD settings. You should have some form of AMA/Overdrive. At the fastest setting you will get your 2ms response time, but it will cost you a little visual quality and input lag. Most monitors that are advertised at 2ms GtG don't have their highest AMA/OD setting enabled by default, so they don't actually hit this 2ms target. Most monitors have 2 to 3 settings and come on the lowest or middle by default. On my T220, I was ok with it on the middle setting. On my B550, I like it on the highest setting.

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

Yeah, I originally thought that VRAM would double in SLI, in my case 1.5 + 1.5 = 3. lol

Skyrim is one game, for example, that will nearly max out a single 2GB card with all high-texture mods, 2560x1600 res, and 4xAA. AFAIK, it's the only current game that does. As such, running that sucker in surround will murder your memory bandwidth, especially with "only" 1.5GB framebuffer. If you haven't yet, try the FXAA setting in the new beta drivers (or the latest official if you have a 680). It's shader based, has excellent results, and has a minor performance hit. It also doesn't consume memory bandwidth.

[Vid Gamer]

Originally Posted by Exodus

Not all models from one manufacturer are created equal. At and below it's price range, you won't find a better 120hz TN panel than the XL2420T. The only one comparable or better is that new Asus, but it's over $250 more.

I actually heard great things about the Alienware OptX AW2310, but it's extremely pricey at $450.

Yea, if you're using an actual PC monitor on DVI, you'll have <16ms input lag, or less than one frame. Just make sure you're not confusing input lag and response time, they're not the same. They're actually inversely related.

Also, your response time isn't really 2ms. Open your monitor's OSD settings. You should have some form of AMA/Overdrive. At the fastest setting you will get your 2ms response time, but it will cost you a little visual quality and input lag. Most monitors that are advertised at 2ms GtG don't have their highest AMA/OD setting enabled by default, so they don't actually hit this 2ms target. Most monitors have 2 to 3 settings and come on the lowest or middle by default. On my T220, I was ok with it on the middle setting. On my B550, I like it on the highest setting.

Yeah, I'm not concrete on the specifics, but I like how the monitor's perform at default when it comes to response time and input lag, so I'm not going to screw with them too much. lol

Skyrim is one game, for example, that will nearly max out a single 2GB card with all high-texture mods, 2560x1600 res, and 4xAA. AFAIK, it's the only current game that does. As such, running that sucker in surround will murder your memory bandwidth, especially with "only" 1.5GB framebuffer. If you haven't yet, try the FXAA setting in the new beta drivers (or the latest official if you have a 680). It's shader based, has excellent results, and has a minor performance hit. It also doesn't consume memory bandwidth.

Dear lord, I had gigs worth of mods replacing textures, ENB's, etc. and I was running at like 10 FPS when I first booted Skyrim in Surround. Without mods it's fine, but it's pretty ugly without mods so it's either Vanilla Skyrim with Surround or regular 1920x1080 with mods.

And yea, I'm loving the new FXAA. I actually think games look better with FXAA than the usual MSAA, especially when it comes to transparent textures with stuff like tree leaves and foliage since it blurs the screen a bit and makes everything less sharp and contrasting, but not TOO much to where the game looks washed out or blurry. The performance boost over MSAA is icing on the cake.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

I actually heard great things about the Alienware OptX AW2310, but it's extremely pricey at $450.

Believe it or not, that's cheap! You get what you pay for, and $400-$600 seems to be the sweet spot for the better gaming monitors. Mine retailed for $420 but I got it for $350 yesterday. It's not in that upper echelon, but it meets my needs and that is what's most important.

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

Yeah, I'm not concrete on the specifics, but I like how the monitor's perform at default when it comes to response time and input lag, so I'm not going to screw with them too much. lol

That's the most important thing right there. I keep hearing that IPS panels look SO much better than my TN panel (at the cost of response time and black levels), so I'll just say that ignorance is bliss. I'm happy with my panel.

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

Dear lord, I had gigs worth of mods replacing textures, ENB's, etc. and I was running at like 10 FPS when I first booted Skyrim in Surround. Without mods it's fine, but it's pretty ugly without mods so it's either Vanilla Skyrim with Surround or regular 1920x1080 with mods.

Yea, it can get nasty. You can still run those mods in surround, but man, you have to make some pretty tight compromises.

Originally Posted by Vid Gamer

And yea, I'm loving the new FXAA. I actually think games look better with FXAA than the usual MSAA, especially when it comes to transparent textures with stuff like tree leaves and foliage since it blurs the screen a bit and makes everything less sharp and contrasting, but not TOO much to where the game looks washed out or blurry. The performance boost over MSAA is icing on the cake.

I think that 16xCSAA + Transparency AA looks better, but we're talking bout a 50-60% performance hit with all of that, versus up to 10% performance hit with FXAA. Quality is about the same, it's just that FXAA isn't quite as sharp. It's probably one of the best tradeoffs I've ever seen.

You should also look at the Adaptive Vsync feature. Turn Vsync OFF in all games, and have adaptive turned ON in the Nvidia control panel. This will make your games significantly smoother. Give it a try and report back if you can. If you want a more in-depth explanation of what it's doing, I'll provide that for you.