Multi-monitor conundrum

[Knytestorme]

So getting the urge to get back to boxing WoW (even though I don't trust them to get the squish right) and as such am considering going to a set-up I had in mind for a while.....6 monitors running a full-screen character on each with a spare for browser etc.

My current card is an Asus CU2 7970 with 6 outputs so is fine for what I'm thinking but I'm also looking in to the future and that casts doubt. Nvidia cards only support 4 monitors, and I can't see that changing, while ATI support 6 but no manufacturer seems to have any 6 output SKU's so I need to try to find a DP hub along with the concern that ATI may decide there is no need to support 6 screens in the future and limit to a max of 4 to match NV if they need to cut silicone costs.

Has anyone run a 6 monitor set up in this fashion (seem to recall someone posting in screenshots once) and if so did you find it any more effective than running one main screen and 4 1/4 screen clients? I have trouble picking up detail in using the standard 2 monitor configuration for things like sparkles on the ground, so thinking that going fullscreen on each will negate that and make it quicker than flicking each client to the main screen every time I need to do something.

[Ishar]

I used to run an eyefinity 3x2 setup. There's a cost associated with that much screen real estate but it isn't huge. Crossfire doesn't work in windowed mode though, unlike sli though that might change.

It was nice to be able to have everyone full screen but practically speaking I never looked at them much. Having six logical areas is nice for productivity too. But the center bezel sucks for all other gaming.

I eventually got tired of it and switched to three 27 inchers. I do not think I will ever go back.

Did it help? Not really. The top three were generally ignored. When I was ten boxing I kept my healer and tanks full size on the way bottom and only occasionally glanced at the top 7 to check that they weren't lost. It was nice for that. I don't know if that helps.

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[Knytestorme]

Hmmm, CF not working in windows shouldn't matter that much since I don't think WoW takes advantage still anyway but is something to consider.

This will be on my main computer, so the extra real-estate for productivity does interest me as having plenty of room for various things like Visual Studio, SQL management, virtual machines and audio stuff is a bonus and having more space for things like flight and racing sims or boxing D3 is the other thing I'm looking at.

Currently I have 3 x 24" and 1 x 27" sitting around but only have the 27" and one of the 24's hooked up. I guess if I could find the mounting system going with the 24's along the bottom and the 27 on top of them could be a good compromise. Not sure but the input has certainly helped by giving me a few new things to consider so thanks for that

[JohnGabriel]

I need mine all closer together, one quick glance to see them all. I ended up like Ishar, three 27" and its perfect.

Running just 5 toons you can put the monitors horizontally with the end 24" monitors in portrait mode and main 27" in landscape, and running 10 toons the end 24" monitors back in landscape mode.

[Knytestorme]

That's actually a pretty good suggestion John. I hadn't considered going portrait due to aspect ratio but guess that doesn't really matter if I'm just using it to keep an eye out for things on a bigger size client than 1/4 screen

[Ishar]

Performance might matter at huge resolutions with lots of clients; it's sort of up in the air. I'm probably going to go SLI whenever I upgrade again, not out of need, but because I'm only using 3 monitors, I do occasionally game, and why not.

Regarding productivity, I've adjusted. I almost don't miss the extra row from a productivity standpoint. Almost.

And a tightly clustered group of VideoFX is the best for at a glance stuff; e.g. follow/positioning/whatever. I'd probably do that even if I had the real estate to run everyone full-screen. With VideoFX you can do a lot of interesting things to get important information in front of you. With diablo 3 I confine myself to two of the three, but if I did another MMO i'd probably use the center monitor for the 'main' with the right hand side divided into video fx's for the followers. I'd maybe keep a slice of DXnothing to the 'near' edges of the two side monitors to stick VideoFX viewers from the slaves that are useful, such as slightly-scaled down mini-maps, health bars, whatever.

For me, the 3x2 was really a holdover from my day's of hardware boxing. If I had a setup dedicated to strictly productivity and boxing, I might stick with it [even if I normally focused on the bottom 2-3]. Part of the 'ignoring the top row' is due to my eye level being aimed at the bottom center; not the center of the 3x2; so it was a bit of effort to 'look up.' You could mitigate that aspect by raising your chair or lowering your monitors, to be fair.

[Sservis]

You can find a pretty good list of cards supporting Eyefinity 5 or 6 at http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=24334 I used to use the AMD 5870 Eyefinity 6 2GB (Reference), and am currently using a Asus Matrix HD7970-P-3GD5 3GB.

I mostly single box on a 5x1P (5400x1920) + 1P Portrait layout. I have done a bit of very casual 2-3 boxing, and the biggest issue (boxing versus not) I've found is sheer the # of pixels you end up rendering displaying. (5 @ 5x resolution is a lot of pixels). In all modes, the dividers are also somewhat annoying (especially for text), even though I don't bezel adjust and hide anything behind them. Also, even the smallest UI scale is too big for me. Thankfully, MoveAnything can help alleviate both of those.

I regularly debate switching to fewer and larger monitors. Now that AMD's drivers support mixed mode, my current consideration is a 2560x1600 monitor in the middle, flanked by portrait 1920x1080 monitors, to have a wider center region without dividers.

[Ishar]

I did not know that they added support for plp. Cool. That's kind of tempting since 3x landscape is almost too wide. Though it wouldn't really work with my 27s.

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[Knytestorme]

Y (5 @ 5x resolution is a lot of pixels).

My understanding with ISBoxer is that it renders all the pixels for the resolution you're going to play at and then scales down to the actual screen size displayed...eg if I'm playing at 1080p with 5 clients it will render 5 clients at 1080p and then scales the size down to 1/2 screen per clients outside the main that runs at full screen.

If this is correct (and am sure Lax, Mirai or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong) then whether I run 5 panels at 1080p or 2 panels with 5 x 1080p clients it makes no difference in terms of pixels being rendered.

[harvan]

im also upgrading towards six monitors
x3 evga geforce gtx 760 4gb $309.99
x1 asus rampage IV black edition intel x79 $499.99
x1 Intel® Core™ i7-4930K Processor 579.99
this will run six monitors without a problem
also monitors go on sale around black friday. and thats when ill buy my other three

[MiRai]

My understanding with ISBoxer is that it renders all the pixels for the resolution you're going to play at and then scales down to the actual screen size displayed...eg if I'm playing at 1080p with 5 clients it will render 5 clients at 1080p and then scales the size down to 1/2 screen per clients outside the main that runs at full screen.

If this is correct (and am sure Lax, Mirai or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong) then whether I run 5 panels at 1080p or 2 panels with 5 x 1080p clients it makes no difference in terms of pixels being rendered.
Assuming you have Instant Swapping enabled, then this is correct.

[Knytestorme]

im also upgrading towards six monitors
x3 evga geforce gtx 760 4gb $309.99
x1 asus rampage IV black edition intel x79 $499.99
x1 Intel® Core™ i7-4930K Processor 579.99
this will run six monitors without a problem
also monitors go on sale around black friday. and thats when ill buy my other three

Nvidia cards only support max 4 monitors from my understanding, you'll want to research to make sure that your planned upgrade will actually do what you want.

And thanks Mirai, thought that was the case.

[harvan]

Nvidia cards only support max 4 monitors from my understanding, you'll want to research to make sure that your planned upgrade will actually do what you want.

And thanks Mirai, thought that was the case.
im buying three of them 2 monitors for each card.

[MiRai]

im also upgrading towards six monitors
x3 evga geforce gtx 760 4gb $309.99
x1 asus rampage IV black edition intel x79 $499.99
x1 Intel® Core™ i7-4930K Processor 579.99
this will run six monitors without a problem
also monitors go on sale around black friday. and thats when ill buy my other three

Nvidia cards only support max 4 monitors from my understanding, you'll want to research to make sure that your planned upgrade will actually do what you want.
If they're not in SLI, then each GPU can do 4 monitors each, but the moment you turn on SLI that number drops.

[Knytestorme]

If they're not in SLI, then each GPU can do 4 monitors each, but the moment you turn on SLI that number drops.

My bad, I missed the x3 for the cards but I also never consider running monitors off each card since I thought once you turned on SLI it disabled output from all but the primary card and it just pulled in the rendered framebuffer from the appropriate card each frame

[Sservis]

My understanding with ISBoxer is that it renders all the pixels for the resolution you're going to play at and then scales down to the actual screen size displayed...eg if I'm playing at 1080p with 5 clients it will render 5 clients at 1080p and then scales the size down to 1/2 screen per clients outside the main that runs at full screen.

If this is correct (and am sure Lax, Mirai or someone else can correct me if I'm wrong) then whether I run 5 panels at 1080p or 2 panels with 5 x 1080p clients it makes no difference in terms of pixels being rendered.

When you run a main window on 5 screens (5400x1920 or 9600x1080) and 4 more scaled down to 1/5 on the 6th monitor you end up rendering 5 clients at 5x the resolution of a single display.