Too many monitors...

[Xon]

Hi all

I have a dual purpose PC which is about to be turned into a triple purpose PC and have an issue with monitors... any ideas would be appreciated...

My current setup consists of an EVGA nVidia RTX 2070 Super with 3 displayports, 1 hdmi and a usb-c output.

Connected to this setup I have:
1x HDMI Amp/TV for media viewing and the occasional "sofa" game with friends
2x Displayport to a dual desk setup consisting of 2x 27" monitors for work. One of the monitors is also used for games such as WoW etc and is the 27LG850 144hz LG. The other is a basic Dell 60hz.

The above works fine... however I'm about to add 3x 27" Asus/LG Displayport FHD 144hz monitors for a sim racing rig. Short of disconnecting the "desk" monitors and connecting these every time I want to use the sim racing rig, what can I do?

If I add a cheap second graphics card would I be able to leverage the 2070's power, g-sync and 144hz?

 

[Jimmy Weirdarms]

What's your processor/motherboard? If you have on-CPU graphics available then you could move the basic dell work monitor to the onboard graphics output (probably HDMI), then you have two displayport and one USB-C port available

If your new monitors support USB-C then you're good to go with 2xDP and 1xUSB-C. If not then you may need an adaptor on that USB-C port.

Of course if you *don't* have onboard GFX... you could buy the cheapest piece of crap gfx card, like a Geforce 710, and attach the old Dell to that.

 

[ED209]

Just so I can make sure I read this right, you getting another 3 monitors (3x 27" Asus/LG Displayport FHD 144hz monitors)?

If this is the case to use the 2070S you would need to connect the three monitors to this card for gaming and would need to move the Dell and 27LG850 to another card or an on board gpu.

Some processors have integrated gpus so you may have multiple ports on the motherboard like HDMI\VGA\DVI so you could move the 2 currently connected to the 2070S to the onboard gpu.

If no onboard gpu then you would need to buy a cheap gpu to add extra ports, as stated above a 710 will do or any other gpu you can get your hands on too.

 

[Xon]

Just so I can make sure I read this right, you getting another 3 monitors (3x 27" Asus/LG Displayport FHD 144hz monitors)?

That's correct as these will be fixed to the sim rig (similar to this - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/0e/fb/f30efb2b654763e9d43771417165dda5.jpg).

If I move the LG850 to another card, would it still be able to do 144hz gsync in games and would games be able to use the 2070S as the gfx processor?

I have a Ryzen 3600 with no onboard gfx.

 

[ED209]

That's correct as these will be fixed to the sim rig (similar to this - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/0e/fb/f30efb2b654763e9d43771417165dda5.jpg).

If I move the LG850 to another card, would it still be able to do 144hz gsync in games and would games be able to use the 2070S as the gfx processor?

I have a Ryzen 3600 with no onboard gfx.

The issue your going to have is your going to need a decent GPU to get the monitor and games to run at the required ress and hz. (if you go down the second gpu route)

The "Cheap" gpu would be purely for connecting the display to the PC as the 710 is not going to be able to do anything else than this or games at low ress\detail.

So your going to have 6 displays in total and want to game on 4 of them? (1x LG850 for WoW, and 3 x asus\LG for the racing Sim)

The problem your going to have is that the monitor and games are going to run off whatever gpu they are connected too so unless you get another 2070S (giving you 6 x DP ports to use) or change over the monitors every time you wish to play the racing sim the screen res and performance is going to be crap or even unplayable on a 710.

I'm not too sure on this but you could consider this.

1 x Display Port splitter for the 2 x LG850s (Connected to 1 x DP port on the 2070S) and then get another splitter for the other monitors. One can connect directly to the 2070S and the other 2 can use a splitter and connect to the last DP port. I am not sure if this will have a impact on the game\screen performance so maybe better for someone that uses this type of setup for racing sims as my work setup is purely for giving me more space store everything I need open and able to view at a glance.

obviously the cheapest option would be to change them when needed as I dont think the splitters are exactly cheap as you want good quality ones and not cheap and cheerful ones that cant do what you want.

Sorry if this isnt much help.

 

[Xon]

So the game can't use a different GPU to process and simply display the image via the cheap GPU?

I considered the splitter route but it still comes out to around 60 quid and its a quite an "ugly" solution I thought..

 

[Jimmy Weirdarms]

So the game can't use a different GPU to process and simply display the image via the cheap GPU?

Not really, no, AFAICT.

But if you use all the ports on your 2070S then you only need the Dell to be on a second card.

Your LG and tv can stay where they are, and the new monitors can use 2xDP + USB-C (which is also DP, over USB). Should be no need to unplug anything.

(The card may only support 4 screens at a time, but you can have the ones you're not using switched off)

 

[koooowweeee]

Would like walking into Curry's lol

 

[chaparral]

Wouldn't it be far better to just build or buy a cheap second hand PC base unit for the media & work use

 

[CuriousTomCat]

There's lots of racing SIM setups all over the internet. A lot of them are experts in the field and even they haven't frankensteined it to an office setup. That tells me from the outset that it's not practical.

 

[LeMson]

Probably should be a wide screen rather than 3 monitors or a vr headset

Or use another pc

 

[HRL]

Wouldn't it be far better to just build or buy a cheap second hand PC base unit for the media & work use

This, surely. The 2070S is going to struggle to provide decent frame rates across all the screens even if you figure out how to get them all connected, no?

Does Gsync even work across that many displays simultaneously?

 

[Jimmy Weirdarms]

This, surely. The 2070S is going to struggle to provide decent frame rates across all the screens even if you figure out how to get them all connected, no?

Does Gsync even work across that many displays simultaneously?

He's not talking about running them all at the same time, he's talking about sometimes doing casual tv gaming on one screen OR sometimes playing driving sims on three 1080p screens, OR sometimes working at a desk or playing WoW (1 main 1440p screen, one side screen. He just doesn't want to be plugging/unplugging constantly.

Seems perfectly workable to me.

 

[HRL]

@Jimmy Weirdarms Gotcha. Misread the OP’s post.

 

[Xon]

I'm just trying to do the best with the space I have...To be honest I'm not very happy with what the room will look like but the alternative would be giving up on the sim rig and after a couple of years saving for it I really don't want to!

• I have a desk with the monitors on it for working / the occasional WOW/FPS game.
• I have a sofa to the side with the TV for the TV eps / movies etc.
• I will have the sim rig in a corner of the room for, well, sim racing only.

As these are all in the same room it seems to me that the most practical way of doing things is in fact using one PC. Buying a second PC seems like a waste of money and a complication of matters.. @Jimmy Weirdarms got it right - I'll only be doing one activity at a time.

 

[LePhuronn]

Daisy chain the DisplayPort monitors?

 

[Xon]

Daisy chain the DisplayPort monitors?

Not sure if its a technical limitation by daisy chaining seems to be limited to 60hz office monitors..