Widescreen Gaming Forum

:?:

Hi all, first post here.

I've decided to go triple screen mostly for flight sim, already had a EVGA GTX 570 SC a second one will be here tomorrow, bought one Hanns G 27.5" 1920x1200 LCD last week and plan to buy two more before the end of the month. Comp is a I7 920 @ 4GHz, 6GB ram, Corsair HX1000 PSU, ETC with Win 7 SP1.

Any points to look out for? will this set up be OK? oh and will the Nvidea driver mange the bezel widths OK?

As I understand I wont be able to use SLI with three screens, or will I?

Thanks :rockout

PS: is there such a thing as 3 x 1920 x 1200 (5760x1200?) Wallpapers?

Hi... Albert ?

Nvidia Surround requires SLI. The driver takes care of bezel compensation, you just have to set your desired width during setup.
At 5760x1200 you should keep an eye on VRAM usage; you might hit the 570's 1280 MB limit quite easily in some games (remember VRAM doesn't add up in SLI).
More insight on VRAM usage in Surround: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/NVIDIA_GTX460_in_Surround:_1GB_vs._2GB_-_Featured_Review

Other than that... You got yourself an excellent config for multi-mon gaming 8)

Thanks :rockout

Actually, I just edited my original post because I thought my original 570 was MSI, its an EVGA and had to wait a day for the edit to be approved ... doh

Anyway the adventure has begun, second GTX 570 SC is now fitted, looking fwd to joining the triple screen club at end of month when I buy two more matching LCD's.

Cheers.

I've got three Hanns-G (I-Inc) 28" (27.5") displays and they're really not bad at all for the price. As stated, VRAM will be something to watch, as you'll definitely max it out depending on your settings. I can max every game I have, but I don't use AA because of the VRAM wall. Happy to help if you ever need anything with your setup! :rockout

Nvidia Surround requires SLI.

Thanks for replies Guys Hmmm, so Nvidea surround requires SLI? this is going to be a problem maybe?

You see, I'm doing this mostly for FSX flight sim and FSX does not like SLI, am up and running with 2 x GTX 570 SC's now and have tried FSX in SLI on just the one Hanns G 27" 1920 x 1200 for now, in SLI there are missing textures like helo blades and ground traffic, if I switch off SLI just for FSX it looks fine.

So I definitely cant use 3 x LCD's with my 2 x GTX 570's in non SLI mode? I need to be 1000% sure about this before I buy two more LCD's at end of month.

If this is so, do I have any other options for three screens in FSX?

Thanks.

When you enable surround it uses both GPUs to render frames, and you can't turn that off completely. However, you might try enabling SLI/surround then using a program like Nvidia Inspector to disabled SLI for only the FSX driver profile so that it only uses one GPU, and see if the SLI related issues still occur.

If the issues still persist even with SLI disabled for FSX, then you can try AMD Eyefinity (it only requires one card). The Matrox TH2Go is another option, but you wouldn't be able to run your monitors at 1920x1200, due to bandwidth limitations on the Matrox TH2Go.

When you enable surround it uses both GPUs to render frames, and you can't turn that off completely. However, you might try enabling SLI/surround then using a program like Nvidia Inspector to disabled SLI for only the FSX driver profile so that it only uses one GPU, and see if the SLI related issues still occur.

If the issues still persist even with SLI disabled for FSX, then you can try AMD Eyefinity (it only requires one card). The Matrox TH2Go is another option, but you wouldn't be able to run your monitors at 1920x1200, due to bandwidth limitations on the Matrox TH2Go.

Thanks, I'm already using Nvidea inspector with an FSX profile set up by one of the Flight sim guru's, I'll go check SLI settings in that.

but having said this, was on FSX last night and tried it once more in SLI and although there was no performance increase there was no performance decrease either, even better it worked properly with no missing textures this time in about 2 hours of testing different scenario's ... not really sure what happened last time? so good news there.

Another question? apart from the single 27" Hanns G 1920 x 1200 just now (that I plan to buy two more) I have a 24" Dell LCD 1920 x 1200 that I could maybe hook up for dual screen surround in SLI for FSX ... would this give me an indication to FSX working properly when I go on to buy the extra two Hanns G screens for triple screen? I might be able to borrow a 27" 1920 x 1080 screen too to test three screens, bit of a hassle getting it here though.

My gut feeling is its going to work, there must be lots of other folk with hardware like mine and I've certainly seen lots of triple screen FSX set ups, they cant all be ATI Eyefinity or Matrox TH2G's :) I really need to be sure though.

If I cant get FSX working in surround I'll not be going eyefinity I'm afraid, I'd lose too much selling on these new and fairly new GTX570's and as you point out the Matrox triple head is bandwidth limited for the resolution I'd need to use.

Thanks very much for all help so far :rockout

Unfortunately you can't to "Dual-screen" surround. You need 3 monitors with common resolutions, refresh-rates and sync polarities to enable surround, no more.. no less. There can only be three... If you were able to borrow 2 other screens that meet the aforementioned requirements, then it would surely be worth giving it a test. If it's working in normal SLI though, I have a feeling it will work in surround.

Unfortunately you can't to "Dual-screen" surround. You need 3 monitors with common resolutions, refresh-rates and sync polarities to enable surround, no more.. no less. There can only be three... If you were able to borrow 2 other screens that meet the aforementioned requirements, then it would surely be worth giving it a test. If it's working in normal SLI though, I have a feeling it will work in surround.

Yep, found that after posting ... I'm sure its going to work though and I'll buy the extra two LCD's at end of month :)

One last question, currently I use a second 19" LCD for FSX GPS and suchlike (pic below and of my set up for FSX) I'm guessing I wont be able to use the 4th connection on my 2 x 570's in SLI for this LCD?



I could free up a single PCIe 8 lane slot at bottom of motherboard to drive this LCD for GPS and ATC, would that work? if so was thinking on this card, it needs to be a low profile single slot card as my case wont allow a dual slot card at bottom PCIe slot ...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-121-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1833

Thanks again for all help, great stuff :rockout

You are correct about not being able to use the 4th connection to drive that monitor.

As far as I know, any GPU will do for driving an "accessory display" as NVIDIA calls it, the NVIDIA website doesn't detail any requirements past that last I checked.