Multi-Monitor, Multi-GPU Personal Experiences (AMD & nVidia)

[cocoreno]

I've seen a number of posts about multi-monitor/multi-GPU systems, but not many from the answer-side. Having gone through a few recent system builds with current AMD and nVidia cards I figured I'd share my experiences. I'll throw out a few thoughts and it folks have more questions, I'll try my best to answer.

Quick background: Been a system builder for ages. Always interested in displays. Have yet to meet one that is too big, too thin, or too high a resolution. The two multi-monitor systems I currently have up and (stable) are:

Primary PC - 5120x1600 (landscape)
======================
2 x Dell 3008WFP
1 x Asus Geforce GTX 580 1.5GB

"Gaming" PC - 3240x1920 (portrait)
======================
3 x Dell U2311H
1 x Asus Radeon 6970 2GB

Rather than wall-of-texting the rest of the post I'll go with a FAQ format and see if anyone bites.

--

Q: Have you had good experience with nVidia SLI?

A: Unfortunately, no. The "Gaming" PC previously ran 2 x Geforce 460 1GB cards in SLI. It crashed constantly. At best, I could get 10-20 minutes of BFBC2 or WoW, but Bioshock 2, Left For Dead (1/2), GRiD, even Minecraft would all crash within minutes. I dropped back to a single 460 powering two monitors, no problem. Two 460's without SLI (i.e., don't connect the bridge), no problem.

Q: How about those SLI/Crossfire-on-a-card-jobbies? (i.e., Geforce 9800GX2's, AMD 5990's)

A: Avoid. Having owned three of these types of cards (both above as well as a 8800GX2) I believed the promise of a 60-70% performance for a "SLI-on-a-card". The trade-off's are *not* worth it with multi-monitor systems. One example: Mass Effect 2, you can use the card to power a single monitor in SLI (leaving the second dark) or settle without SLI in order to power the second monitor (to say, watch a movie). If you're serious about going multi-monitor, avoid these types of cards.

Q: Is a single GTX 580 enough to drive both two 30" monitors"

A: In general, yes. I can play most games (WoW, AC2, BFBC2) in 2560x1600 on the primary monitor while watching a 720p or 1080p movie on the other with minimal lag. It's not perfect and there are times when things do slow down, but it's doable.

Q: If I just have three 1920x1080 monitors do I need to go SLI or Crossfire?

A: It's possible to get by with a single (high-end) card. Competitive gaming would be out, but it's certainly playable (any definitely more fun/immersive).

Q: If I have three 2560x1600 monitors do I need to go SLI or Crossfire?

A: Yes. Even so, I suspect even with 2-4x SLI/Crossfire would be disappointing.

Q: Best card for a 3 monitor setup?

A: I'd get the 6970 2GB. AMD beats nVidia at port density. I *believe* nVidia has a max of 2 monitors per card for multi-display output. This is one area I see nVidia behind AMD as nVidia has no answer to Eyefinity.

Q: What multi-monitor configurations would you recommend?

A: Depends. If you need to entertain the lady while you hack away, go the dual-landscape setup with a single card powering two monitors. You can browse/game on one and run a movie/TV show on the other.

If you're a pure gamer the 3x23/24/27/30" in-portrait-mode setup seems most ideal. Given the choice, I'd go 3x30", but 3x24/27" is just as valid and perhaps more appropriate given your computing space.

Q: How can I go multi-monitor on the cheap?

A: Three Dell 2001FP's. They can be had for around $100 and work nicely in portrait mode. Because they are relatively low resolution, you can get a foot in the door with good performance on a single card.

Q: What type of stuff do I want in the next-gen of monitors?

A: Thinner versions of the 30" 2560x1600 monitor. If you've seen the recent Samsung LED TVs, that's basically it. Add WiDi, Bluetooth/WiFi, and shave the bezel down to 1/4" or less and I'll be first in line.

Q: You for real? Show me a pic of your "Gaming" PC

A:

 

[Arkadrel]

3 monitors in protrait does look awesum..

Now if one of the guys that make monitors would just focus on removeing that bezel!
A pc focused monitor that has say.... 0-2mm of bezel or something, someone must be able ot make something like that.

 

[palladium]

What video player do you use to play your movies OP? I seem to have trouble playing games while watching movie.

 

[NoQuarter]

What video player do you use to play your movies OP? I seem to have trouble playing games while watching movie.

I always had best results by making sure GPU accelerated video was turned off by not using a DXVA player (using ffmpeg through Media Player Classic). When playing a game the GPU just shouldn't be bothered with decoded video. CPU generally has plenty of spare power/cores to handle video decoding without having to offload it to the GPU while the GPU is busy with a game.

 

[Gloomy]

I always had best results by making sure GPU accelerated video was turned off by not using a DXVA player (using ffmpeg through Media Player Classic). When playing a game the GPU just shouldn't be bothered with decoded video. CPU generally has plenty of spare power/cores to handle video decoding without having to offload it to the GPU while the GPU is busy with a game.

Srs? Aren't you bothered by the FPS loss with CPU video?

 

[Annisman*]

Couple things that I want to tackle, but overall great job with this topic, it is something that I need lots of information on and it's hard to come by!

"A: Unfortunately, no. The "Gaming" PC previously ran 2 x Geforce 460 1GB cards in SLI. It crashed constantly. At best, I could get 10-20 minutes of BFBC2 or WoW, but Bioshock 2, Left For Dead (1/2), GRiD, even Minecraft would all crash within minutes. I dropped back to a single 460 powering two monitors, no problem. Two 460's without SLI (i.e., don't connect the bridge), no problem."

I just want to add, that I have (and I am sure many others) had a wonderful experience with SLI, including a dual GTX 460 setup. It *seems* that you were having some system-specific issues with your PC, and since you are a seasoned builder, I am sure you already know that.

Also, your point about multi-gpu cards is interesting, and I will add that if you are an Nvidia owner, I remember specifically how hard it was to force one gpu to do Phsyx, and one to do regular computing on my old 9800GX2, just something else to consider. *Edit* my point is, if you had two seperate cards, this is a non-issue.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Great review!

I'm still not sure if I could get past the edges of the monitors; in your picture for example, my eye went STRAIGHT to the broken letter "F" in Fallen...

I might also black out "Dell" somehow as well...

Some may be saying, "all this technology and all you see is the letter F?" Well, it IS about what you see ultimately right?

My question is this, how long before you think we see 40" COMPUTER MONITORS?

 

[Skurge]

Great review!

I'm still not sure if I could get past the edges of the monitors; in your picture for example, my eye went STRAIGHT to the broken letter "F" in Fallen...

I might also black out "Dell" somehow as well...

Some may be saying, "all this technology and all you see is the letter F?" Well, it IS about what you see ultimately right?

My question is this, how long before you think we see 40" COMPUTER MONITORS?

LOL, I didnt see the F, Looks like Bezel compensation is off. Looks like I was right expecting a single 6950/6970 to handle 3 monitors.

 

[Anomaly1964]

LOL, I didnt see the F, Looks like Bezel compensation is off. Looks like I was right expecting a single 6950/6970 to handle 3 monitors.

These "cards" have "bezel compensation?"

That could make it better i suppose but still seems like you'll always have a big black strip going down the middle of something...

 

[Zargon]

These "cards" have "bezel compensation?"

That could make it better i suppose but still seems like you'll always have a big black strip going down the middle of something...

I know eyefinity supports bezel comp

once you use them a little while, you wont notice the bezels much.

I hope to be able to make a post like soon.

I used a 4850X2 for about 2 years, and only ran into a few occasions where it really screwed me. the biggest disaster was saints row 2, but the game was an awful port job, and couldnt do anything with xfire, even the on card versions.

 

[Twsmit]

Any idea what the maximum numbers of monitors is for Crossfire? With the 69xx series I assume upto 6 monitors per card? 24 monitors in quad Crossfire?

 

[cocoreno]

What video player do you use to play your movies OP? I seem to have trouble playing games while watching movie.

VLC. Most of the time I game without sound, so watching a movie on the second monitor doesn't present audio conflicts. When I want both audio outputs, I assign the output device in VLC to the speakers and plug in USB headphones and set them as the default output in Windows.

In response to the bezel correction (or lack thereof)-- good points. Some thoughts:

Without bezel correction, the picture is definitely less natural looking and elongated *but* I get to see all the data. I have a hard time purposely blocking parts of the display. I feel I might miss some detail that is hidden "behind" the bezel. This probably matters less for games with a lot of movement such as FPSs (or full-screen video) but less so for say, Civ 5, where I tend to stare at a static section of the map for periods of time.

(BTW, playing Civ 5 at 3240x1600 is an entirely different experience than even at 2560x1600 and I can't recommend it enough, especially with large maps)

General windows usage is also fine without bezel correction and in some cases better. With a small app like WinSplit Revolution you can easily create and snap windows to keep things nice and organized across a part of combination of displays. Since I don't use many windows apps across more than a single monitor, the bezel are almost a nice way to visually partition windows.

In response to my bad experience with SLI (specifically the two 460's)-- I hear ya. I've seen systems where it works without a hitch. I spent a few afternoon's trying to locate the problem, tried in two different systems (i.e., different motherboards, ram, power supplies, cables), different SLI bridges and even a re-install of Windows7. At that point I just gave up and replaced them with the 6970.

 

[Concillian]

Great review!

I'm still not sure if I could get past the edges of the monitors; in your picture for example, my eye went STRAIGHT to the broken letter "F" in Fallen...

The mind is a wonderful thing. I run a 2 monitor setup, and the bezels just melt away.

You know how there are ads on webpages, but you don't even notice them most of the time... even thought they're big and blinky? Yeah, bezels are not even big and blinky. You adjust really, really quick and don't even notice.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Can I say, just a GREAT post. Answers every possible question I have on that topic. I had never thought of running gaming displays in portrait mode. I have two Dell 2001fps (my wife and daughter are using them) and now I'm thinking of grabbing a couple more for my Sandy Bridge machine. But I do like 1080P movies.

I might recommend (I myself will never do this, because I'm done spending money) trying a couple of beefier cards than the 460s in SLI before writing it off. On the boards it seems a lot of people are having success with SLI. GREAT info on multi-GPU cards, which I've always been skeptical of.

 

[NoQuarter]

Srs? Aren't you bothered by the FPS loss with CPU video?

Eh? Not at all.. plenty of CPU power to spare for decoding a video. Offloading to GPU is something you need to do for underpowered laptops and netbooks. Not many people are more CPU limited than GPU limited. Desktop CPU's can easily decode a high quality video without having to offload it to GPU.

Decoding my highest quality 1080p movie takes about 20-25% CPU, I don't think I have any games that use 80% of my CPU or even be well enough threaded to occupy all 4 cores enough to prevent a video from playing smoothly, and most the videos I watch are not near that quality. I'm playing RIFT right now and it's like 30% CPU usage.

I'm more likely to lose FPS by having the GPU do extra work decoding video on top of rendering since it's always being pushed to its limit by my games.

 

[Qbah]

Really nice post and great personal remarks. Two things though:

1. "8800GX2" or "AMD 5990's" do not exist... never did. And only GTX295 and HD4870x2 were direct competitors.
- nVidia : 7950GX2, 9800GX2, GTX295
- AMD : HD3870x2, HD4870x2, HD5970

2. For 3x 1920x1080, if you want nVidia, you can only use SLi. No single GPU card from nVidia can drive more than 2 monitors.

 

[Zargon]

Any idea what the maximum numbers of monitors is for Crossfire? With the 69xx series I assume upto 6 monitors per card? 24 monitors in quad Crossfire?

its dependent on the cards. the max displays a card can support is easy to figure out.

# of DP/mDP

+ 2


my 6950 has 2 mDP, 1 hdmi, 2 dvi

so it can do 4. supposedly you can get 6850's and 6950's that will do 6, but I havent SEEN any, but I havent really looked

they onyl cards I know for sure that do 6 are the eyefinity 6 2gb 5870's(man I wish I had waited to get my 5870's, they eye6's are down to 260 shipped)
and the 5970 black 4gb

I dont know for sure there arent others, but none I can find in stock at newegg that have enough mDP/DP

the eye6 5870's have 6 mDP's

Really nice post and great personal remarks. Two things though:

1. "8800GX2" or "AMD 5990's" do not exist... never did. And only GTX295 and HD4870x2 were direct competitors.
- nVidia : 7950GX2, 9800GX2, GTX295
- AMD : HD3870x2, HD4870x2, HD5970

2. For 3x 1920x1080, if you want nVidia, you can only use SLi. No single GPU card from nVidia can drive more than 2 monitors.

AMD also had a 4850X2

 

[3DVagabond]

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK you can only have 6 monitors max in eyefinity. You could use as many cards as you want to, and have as many monitors as you wanted to hooked up, but eyefinity is limited to 6 monitors.

 

[cocoreno]

1. "8800GX2" or "AMD 5990's" do not exist... never did. And only GTX295 and HD4870x2 were direct competitors.

Good catch, and you are correct. When I said "8800GX2", I meant "9800GX2". FWIW, I've owned a 7950GX2, a 8800GT, and a 9800GX2 (in that order). My experiences with both the 7950GX2 and 9800GX2 were virtually the same (i.e., limitations with dual monitors and occasional crashes/stability issues). In both cases I swapped them out for the 8800GT which is still my backup card to this day.

2. For 3x 1920x1080, if you want nVidia, you can only use SLi. No single GPU card from nVidia can drive more than 2 monitors.

Yup. It's also why I think Eyefinity is such a great thing. Sure, few people at this point will take advantage of it, but having that option is why I'd opt for the 6970 over the 580 if I had to choose.

Futher, Eyefinity is just another step towards a far more robust display infrastructure. I'd like to see more options (say, from Dell) for a 3- or 6-panel composite monitor. Each panel would by 1920x1080 with it's own output port but all sharing a single power input. Maybe even make it modular so you could start out with a single panel and add, something like you can now do with SLI and Crossfire.

That is, until really large (say, 60" LEDs at 10240x6400) or whatever next thing will replace flat-panels emerges.

Here's a pic running Civ 5. I put a Blackberry 9800 between the first and second monitors to give a better sense of scale.

 

[cocoreno]

And just to be ridiculous:

 

[Aristotelian]

How long did it take you to get used to the bars dividing up your image like that? Looking at it I think "Never, ever!" I haven't used a multi-monitor setup where the game was split over the monitors, but it doesn't look appealing.

 

[happy medium]

Nice little review.....................

Here is another good one. Take a good look at tri gtx580's vs 3 6970's. 6970's in x-fire and tri fire have too many N/A 's

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1573598

 

[cocoreno]

How long did it take you to get used to the bars dividing up your image like that? Looking at it I think "Never, ever!" I haven't used a multi-monitor setup where the game was split over the monitors, but it doesn't look appealing.

I primarily game on a single 30" 2560x1600 display. The 3240x1920 display (and all the shots from it above) are from a secondary computer I've been working on the past few months. Between a friend and I, we probably only logged 6 hours on the 3240x1920 display (mostly BFBC2 and Civ 5).

 

[digitaldurandal]

For some reason my post never posted? I have used both crossfire and sli and both eyefinity and surround and I have had zero issues with 2x570sli @ 5760x1200 including bc2, avp, mw2, cod bo, mafia ii, lol and more.

 

[tweakboy]

Multi GPU or Multi monitor ??? make up your mind.

ATI drivers will take you to hell and back if you wanna Xfire and multi mon and thick CCC in the background or ATI Tray Tools ,,,


nVidia drivers will take you to heaven and back. You can SLI and be shure they have a proper driver for your config.


Non of these statements are true or false, Just opinion!