Tri-Monitor Gaming

[Skott]

I been toying with the idea of buying two more 22" LCDs and run a three monitor gaming set up. So I did a little search in the gaming section and didn't find much about who, if anyone here, does such gaming or if its really any good. So I thought I'd make a thread to find out. How many here have a tri-monitor set up and what games are you playing on it? Good/bad experiences with the games you are playing with three screens? Extra info like what size monitors and what video cards you are using would also be nice. Costs aside would you recommend a tri-monitor gaming set up? This inquiring mind wants to know.

 

[Zargon]

amd has a list of games that support eyefinity.

its still dicey to get it to work alot though

 

[Lonyo]

Depends on what you are playing.
For racing games, it's damned sweet.
I never really tried much else, but the setup was 17 <> 20 <>17, using SoftTH, a hack method to get it working.
Not perfect, but then given that I was using it on a 7800GT + 7200GS, years before Eyefinity, you can't complain.
I never really tried much else since i was mostly doing racing games at the time, but if it's the right sort of game, and you have support (GTR/Race support the wide FOV), then it's a nice way to play. Much more immersive

And the benefits of being able to see two mirrors far far far outweighs the breaks between the monitors.

 

[Mike Gayner]

I have three monitors (22 - 27 - 22) so decided to set them up for gaming using a piece of software whose name escapes me now. I only tried FPS games - it was pretty lame TBH. I didn't find myself using the extra FOV as much as I expected. Would be a lot better in racing games and flight sims.

Playing SubCom with two monitors is fun.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I saw a video of Dragon Age with Eyefinity was a deeply disappointed. I'll do my best to describe the problem, but it's hard to explain. The monitors act as though they are a single screen onto which the game scene is projected, rather than the game having a separate "camera" for each screen. So the two flanking screens display a very distorted scene, as though the game just had its field of view setting cranked up (pretty sure this is what they do).

Ideally you want the game to have three cameras, one for each screen, to avoid distortion. However this could cause the edges of the screens to not match up properly, as the small amounts of distortion present in normal game cameras would make it look weird. Another solution would be to use cameras that are not so wide, but as positioned further "behind" the screen (on the same side as the player). However this would cause the game world to look further away.

Here's a diagram of what I mean:

Here's the video of Dragon Age I'm talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UeHJEeuLc8&feature=related

 

[Chapbass]

Honestly, I LOVED wow with my triple monitor setup back in the day. Not so much for spanning across all 3 monitors, but either having two accounts going at once and a 3rd screen for pidgin/firefox, or one for wow, one for a movie, one for firefox/pidgin

Lots of possibilities with that. As far as eyefinity goes, I haven't tried it, but I'm very intrigued.

 

[VooDooAddict]

3x 24" 1920x1200
1x5870 Active / 1x5870 in RMA

Games I play spanned with Eyefinity
- Borderlands - Multiplayer - 3600x1920
- Call of Duty: World at War - Single Player - 3600x1920
- Left 4 Dead - Multiplayer - 5760x1200
- Eve Online - 3600x1920 - Both single account across everything and six accounts each at 1024x768 (I had 1200x960 working only briefly custom+Eve+ATI isn't the best combo)

I tried Dragon Age briefly, but with all the cut scenes the monitor bezels were starting to get in the way and breaking and chance at immersion.

What do I like about it?
- 3600x1920 for non-gaming is very cool.
- 6+ Eve accounts running on the same rig = awesome
- It's cool that we've gotten to this point.

What do I not like about it?
- There's no compensation for the bezels. If bezels acted like the A-pillar on a car ... blocking your view instead of causing it to split... I'd use it much more, and in things like Dragon Age.
- Tri displays + LAN parties = Not good. It's easier to setup a 27"-32" 1080P HDTV as a monitor at a LAN than 3 displays.


Why did I do it? I already had the three matching 24" Samsungs, and wanted to upgrade my video card for a new i7 rig, so I figured I'd try out a 5870. Only extra cost for me was a single DisplayPort to DVI (@$100).


Would I do it again from scratch? or recommend someone else buy 3 new matching LCDs? No. Not a chance.

If you want more gaming immersion - Get a 32" 1080P HDTV and use it as a computer gaming monitor. At one time I used a 27" and I recently setup someone else on a 32". IMHO, MUCH, MUCH more immersion than 3 monitors with all the bezel breaks, along with no odd FOV issues.

If you want more resolution - Get a 30" LCD and use your existing display(s) as a second screen.

If you want to be highly competitive multilayer FPS, I'd stick with a single screen no bigger than 23". Too big and action starts happening outside your focused field of view.

Do I think it's worthless? Nope! - I've seen some amazing pictures of Eyefinity used with projectors. With everything aligned properly it's amazing. Like a personal IMAX. Obviously that's a nitch audience. But it's quite cool we've got the technology.

 

[JoshGuru7]

I used to use dual 24" screens and spent a long time trying to get them to work for gaming (mostly MMO's). Now I use a single 30" monitor (2560x1600) and it has plenty of space for my non-gaming purposes. I'd still be interested in hooking the other two monitors up for surround angles if technology ever supports it, but my initial opinion of eyefinity is very negative.

 

[soccerballtux]

I saw a video of Dragon Age with Eyefinity was a deeply disappointed. I'll do my best to describe the problem, but it's hard to explain. The monitors act as though they are a single screen onto which the game scene is projected, rather than the game having a separate "camera" for each screen. So the two flanking screens display a very distorted scene, as though the game just had its field of view setting cranked up (pretty sure this is what they do).

Ideally you want the game to have three cameras, one for each screen, to avoid distortion. However this could cause the edges of the screens to not match up properly, as the small amounts of distortion present in normal game cameras would make it look weird. Another solution would be to use cameras that are not so wide, but as positioned further "behind" the screen (on the same side as the player). However this would cause the game world to look further away.

Here's a diagram of what I mean:

Here's the video of Dragon Age I'm talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UeHJEeuLc8&feature=related

They could do what you show in that picture with graphics drivers-- just render even higher resolution and not display parts of it.

FOV issue is a good point. Bet Nvidia's TWIMTBP team will get it worked out (bait bait troll troll).

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

They could do what you show in that picture with graphics drivers-- just render even higher resolution and not display parts of it.

That would not solve the issue, that would offer a lower FOV which defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Performancewise, is 3 cameras with normal width more, less, or equally taxing to 1 camera with triple width?

Wouldn't you have to do occlusion multiple times?

 

[exar333]

That would not solve the issue, that would offer a lower FOV which defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

Maybe I misunderstand, but I think it would fix the issue. Instead of just rendering 3x1920 (for example) horizontally, you would render 3x1920 + bezel size in pixels. The bezels would act like an "obstruction" in front of the extra space rendered between the monitors. You wouldn't lose any FOV, but you would have two small blind spots where the bezels are located. Obviously, the smaller the bezel, the smaller the blind spot. If/when eyefinity supports this, I would buy two more monitors in a heartbeat.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Maybe I misunderstand, but I think it would fix the issue. Instead of just rendering 3x1920 (for example) horizontally, you would render 3x1920 + bezel size in pixels. The bezels would act like an "obstruction" in front of the extra space rendered between the monitors. You wouldn't lose any FOV, but you would have two small blind spots where the bezels are located. Obviously, the smaller the bezel, the smaller the blind spot. If/when eyefinity supports this, I would buy two more monitors in a heartbeat.

You are definitely misunderstanding. Read GA's post again and look at the diagrams. His issue has nothing to do with the bezel obstruction, and everything to do with unusual FOVs causing distortion.

 

[shortylickens]

The break in the display wouldnt be too bad for an RTS specifically set up for multimonitor gaming, or a TBS.
For shooters and racing games it would be OK with 3 monitors. The important shit (especially crosshairs) in the middle, and the sides would just be helpful for peripheral vision but not part of the main action.

But as pointed out, the field of view issue would require some correction. If you got out a protractor and made sure the monitors were exactly 45 degrees apart, and the video card understood how to deal with that, then you'd be OK.

 

[Skott]

Some good discussion here. I found the game list that AMD says works with Eyefinity.

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-software.aspx

If anyone discovers other games known to work with Eyefinity that is not on the list I'd be interested in knowing them. Thanks.

 

[Skott]

Here's a question for you guys. Which is better? Eyefinity or TripleHeadtoGo? I'm thinking long term Eyefinity will prove to be the better. Your thoughts?

 

[INGlewood78]

Here's a question for you guys. Which is better? Eyefinity or TripleHeadtoGo? I'm thinking long term Eyefinity will prove to be the better. Your thoughts?

From a gaming perspective, not question it's eyefinity. Matrox doesn't have any cards remotely close to the performance of ATI's.

 

[Lonyo]

From a gaming perspective, not question it's eyefinity. Matrox doesn't have any cards remotely close to the performance of ATI's.

TripleHead2Go has nothing to do with graphics cards. It works with any graphics card.
It does, however, have some rather significant limitations, like a maximum resolution of 1680x1050 per monitor if you are using three monitors, and a high cost ($300 or so), so while in some ways it's better (works with 3xDVI monitor, has bezel support), in others it's worse (maximum 1680x1050 res, and costs as much as a single HD5850 does).

 

[VooDooAddict]

TripleHead2Go has nothing to do with graphics cards. It works with any graphics card.
It does, however, have some rather significant limitations, like a maximum resolution of 1680x1050 per monitor if you are using three monitors, and a high cost ($300 or so), so while in some ways it's better (works with 3xDVI monitor, has bezel support), in others it's worse (maximum 1680x1050 res, and costs as much as a single HD5850 does).

Agreed. It simply wasn't an option for me as it didn't support 3x1920x1200 24" LCDs.

 

[Oakenfold]

I been toying with the idea of buying two more 22" LCDs and run a three monitor gaming set up. So I did a little search in the gaming section and didn't find much about who, if anyone here, does such gaming or if its really any good. So I thought I'd make a thread to find out. How many here have a tri-monitor set up and what games are you playing on it? Good/bad experiences with the games you are playing with three screens? Extra info like what size monitors and what video cards you are using would also be nice. Costs aside would you recommend a tri-monitor gaming set up? This inquiring mind wants to know.

Here's a link to my thoughts on Eyefinity.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2036478
The only way to know is to try it yourself, I was very skeptical about it as some of the users in this thread have posted. The only way to know for sure whether it's something for you is to give it a go. Having spent some time with my 5870 I can now say it will be hard for me to game on anything less than 5760x1200 again.

Here's a cut and paste from the thread about mid-way down the thread:

I got around to installing the card today. The specs for my rig are:
AMD 550 XII Black running @ 3100 mhz.
AMX RX780 Chipset motherboard (budget board here folks!) M4A78+
8GB DDRII 800 Corsair XMS
XFX Radeon 5870 running catalyst 9.12
2x 2408
1x 2410
2 DVI cables and 1 displayport cable from Monoprice

Configuring 3 monitors
I highly suggest anyone walking through this to read through the ATI briefing on eyefinity as it is basically a walkthrough on how to setup the displays using the Catalyst Control Center. Being a Nvidia user since the Radeon 9700 I am not familiar with the ATI Graphic Suite. The briefing document will help quite a bit if you take a minute to read it prior to fooling with the software.

http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/ATI_Eyefinity_Technology_Brief.pdf

For some reason my group does not stay in it's arranged position permanently, I've had to change the setting a few times already as for some reason it changes on it's own which is rather frustrating (user error somehow?). No clue but hey that's not why you are reading this post.

Running games @ 5760x1200, using FRAPS to record FPS:
Left4dead 2- everything on high, first level played through (the smoky escape map) Min FPS 33, Max FPS 64, Avg 57.21.

Crysis- settings on high, really took a hit here, avg is 21FPS and only played the first 5-10 minutes. I can only imagine the later part of the game is brutal at this resolution.

Stalker Call of Pripyat Benchmark, high settings. Fraps not used on this one. Avg FPS on Day, Night , Rain and Sun Shafts: 40, 35, 36, 4.2 (not sure about this last one, min is 23 and max is 31).

Note: I have had one lockup with the card so far.

Initial impression: not enough time spent yet with gaming, pleased with the framerates so far, main concerns are motion sickness (I'm normally not with videogames, but when you have an immersive environment like this it changes the whole meaning, took a dramamine to continue gaming....). I think what's amazing here is like Guru3d mentions is that you can game on a budget setup, my rig is the definition of that minus the videocard of course...

I will update the thread when I spend some more time trying out the card on some different levels in l4d2, MW2, and Crysis.

Impressions after 2 or more hours gaming:
I'm finding some games like l4d2 to make me more prone to motion sickness, haven't played it that much to be honest so maybe it will be better after I spend more time with it. I got hooked playing Mechwarrior Living Legends the mod for Crysis. I'm finding it easier to focus on the center screen, after a while I don't notice the monitor bezels.

I've gamed with HDTV's and I have to say this experience far surpasses using an HDTV due to the immersive feeling from using 3 24" monitors. If you are looking for a surreal gaming experience this is it. If it means I have to take a motion sickness pill to enjoy certain games then I'm all for it as I can't see going back to 1920x1200 after running this beauty.

I still have yet to play MW2, I'm holding out for a patch from IW as I really don't want to risk my steam account. Now I just need more time to play games!

To anyone that is considering running eyefinity I would say to go for it. I'd do it again. The only change I would make would be to swap my 2408's for 2410's to have a matching set of three but I'm really picky so take that for what it's worth (just my .02).

 

[aka1nas]

Here's a link to my thoughts on Eyefinity.

Impressions after 2 or more hours gaming:
I'm finding some games like l4d2 to make me more prone to motion sickness, haven't played it that much to be honest so maybe it will be better after I spend more time with it. I got hooked playing Mechwarrior Living Legends the mod for Crysis. I'm finding it easier to focus on the center screen, after a while I don't notice the monitor bezels.

The motion sickness has been a common issue with other Source Engine games. IIRC, they use an odd FOV angle (can't remember if it's 75, 90, or something else) that affects some people, which might be exacerbated by stretching it out even more with Eyefinity. This should be editable either through .ini changes or the ~ console.

 

[Skott]

Thanks for that great info, Oakenfold. I'm still researching everything. I'm in no huge hurry so I'm taking my time deciding if I want to do it and what components I'll need. Two 22" LCDs and a new vid card so far. I planned to swap out the 8800GT in my sig since its just a hold over until I decided what I wanted. I'm thinking the 5770 is not going to be enough and the 5970 is too pricey so that leaves me the 5850 or the 5870. Performance is more key here so I'll probably get a 5870 but I'm still digging into performance info.

I'm going to stick to 22" LCDs even though most tri-monitor setups seem to use 24". The 22" set up is more in my budget range anyway. Since I'll only be using one GPU this will also make a better choice for me at this time concerning resolution and GPU performance. Also if I try this and decide I don't care for tri-monitor gaming I won't have put too much money into it. I suspect though I'm going to enjoy tri-monitor gaming. I'm looking over the 22" LCDs xknight has listed in the LCD Thread in the video card section as best for gaming in my situation. I'm looking for the LG L227WTG-PF he lists because I was thinking the LGs would be a better match to my LG L226WTQ that I already have but I have yet to find anyone with them in stock. Not sure if they are discontinued or what. I may need to go with the Dell 22" 2209WA instead. A little more in price but they have 4 port hubs and adjustable height which can be useful.

So anyway I'm still researching this Eyefinity and what it offers and what I'll need and what it will cost me. 1 x 5870 = $400, 2 x 22" LCDs $250-$300 ea. So so far I'm looking at $900-$1000 investment. That'll take some time for me to save up. Maybe use the IRS return on it. Heh heh

 

[Oakenfold]

The motion sickness has been a common issue with other Source Engine games. IIRC, they use an odd FOV angle (can't remember if it's 75, 90, or something else) that affects some people, which might be exacerbated by stretching it out even more with Eyefinity. This should be editable either through .ini changes or the ~ console.

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that.

Thanks for that great info, Oakenfold. I'm still researching everything. I'm in no huge hurry so I'm taking my time deciding if I want to do it and what components I'll need. Two 22" LCDs and a new vid card so far. I planned to swap out the 8800GT in my sig since its just a hold over until I decided what I wanted. I'm thinking the 5770 is not going to be enough and the 5970 is too pricey so that leaves me the 5850 or the 5870. Performance is more key here so I'll probably get a 5870 but I'm still digging into performance info.

I'm going to stick to 22" LCDs even though most tri-monitor setups seem to use 24". The 22" set up is more in my budget range anyway. Since I'll only be using one GPU this will also make a better choice for me at this time concerning resolution and GPU performance. Also if I try this and decide I don't care for tri-monitor gaming I won't have put too much money into it. I suspect though I'm going to enjoy tri-monitor gaming. I'm looking over the 22" LCDs xknight has listed in the LCD Thread in the video card section as best for gaming in my situation. I'm looking for the LG L227WTG-PF he lists because I was thinking the LGs would be a better match to my LG L226WTQ that I already have but I have yet to find anyone with them in stock. Not sure if they are discontinued or what. I may need to go with the Dell 22" 2209WA instead. A little more in price but they have 4 port hubs and adjustable height which can be useful.

So anyway I'm still researching this Eyefinity and what it offers and what I'll need and what it will cost me. 1 x 5870 = $400, 2 x 22" LCDs $250-$300 ea. So so far I'm looking at $900-$1000 investment. That'll take some time for me to save up. Maybe use the IRS return on it. Heh heh

No problem. Time is on your side, the only reason I splurged is I wanted to have the time during my vacation to fool with eyefinity. Your choice on the 22" LCD's is a good one imo, as long as they are decent panels and it sounds like you won't be making a bad choice by relying on xtknight's wealth of information! Let us know how it turns out when you make the jump.