Multi-display setup with different resolutions?

[SerumZero]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with a multi display setup with different resolutions. Right now I have 2 23 inch 1080p monitors, but I'd like a third one. I don't want the same one however, I was thinking a bigger display in the middle for gaming might look good, and since I've recently upgraded to a 1070 higher resolutions are within my options now. My question is: would I run into trouble or annoying issues if my middle display would be 1440p and my other two 1080? Would I have to switch back and forth between resolutions, would it mess with the scaling, or would this be fine? 

Thanks in advance!

[RileyTheFox]

5 minutes ago, SerumZero said:

Hi. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with a multi display setup with different resolutions. Right now I have 2 23 inch 1080p monitors, but I'd like a third one. I don't want the same one however, I was thinking a bigger display in the middle for gaming might look good, and since I've recently upgraded to a 1070 higher resolutions are within my options now. My question is: would I run into trouble or annoying issues if my middle display would be 1440p and my other two 1080? Would I have to switch back and forth between resolutions, would it mess with the scaling, or would this be fine? 

Thanks in advance!

I already do this setup. I have 1 1080p monitor and I use my TV as a second display. The TV really messes up at 1080p so I placed the resolution one below 1080p. The only thing that happens is that your mouse won’t be able to go to the other monitor at different parts of the screen. Such as, your mouse wouldn’t be able to go from the top of the 1440p monitor, to the 1080p monitor. Not really a big issue as you will definitely move your mouse across in the middle. 

[SerumZero]

Okay that makes sense. I was worried that the icons or my taskbar might have different sizes on the different screens. So windows resolves this automatically? 

[RileyTheFox]

Just now, SerumZero said:

Okay that makes sense. I was worried that the icons or my taskbar might have different sizes on the different screens. So windows resolves this automatically? 

I’m not sure about the taskbar, as I have it disables on the second monitor. Try it out and see for yourself. If it messes up, disable the task bar is all I can say.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

yes, it will work. it'll just be a bit annoying. Windows is not smart enough to realize you use the 3 displays next to each other at the same heights. what i mean is if you do this, abd bring your mouse to the bottom left for example, and try to go o your other monitor, it won't work. you have to do it in the middle of the edge of the main screen etc. 

 

1 minute ago, SerumZero said:

Okay that makes sense. I was worried that the icons or my taskbar might have different sizes on the different screens. So windows resolves this automatically? 

you can check this. google a  DPI and a PPI (pixel per inch) calculator. as long as you don't use dpi scaling, if the numbers are similar enough, everything will be the same size. 

 

side note, quote people, or else they don't get notifications. like this:

6 minutes ago, EvilCat70 said:

I already do this setup. I have 1 1080p monitor and I use my TV as a second display. The TV really messes up at 1080p so I placed the resolution one below 1080p. The only thing that happens is that your mouse won’t be able to go to the other monitor at different parts of the screen. Such as, your mouse wouldn’t be able to go from the top of the 1440p monitor, to the 1080p monitor. Not really a big issue as you will definitely move your mouse across in the middle. 

 

[SerumZero]

2 minutes ago, EvilCat70 said:

I’m not sure about the taskbar, as I have it disables on the second monitor. Try it out and see for yourself. If it messes up, disable the task bar is all I can say.

Right I could just turn down the resolution on one of my monitors and do some testing, didn't even think of that. Thanks!

 

[SerumZero]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

you have to do it in the middle of the edge of the main screen etc. 

I guess I can live with that. 

4 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

you can check this. google a  DPI and a PPI (pixel per inch) calculator. as long as you don't use dpi scaling, if the numbers are similar enough, everything will be the same size. 

OKay the PPI values are (1080 23 inch) 98 and (1440 27 inch) 108. I have no idea if that's far apart or not, I don't have any experience with this sorry. Could you help me out? 

 

6 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

side note, quote people, or else they don't get notifications. like this:

Got it, thanks!

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

18 minutes ago, SerumZero said:

Right I could just turn down the resolution on one of my monitors and do some testing, didn't even think of that. Thanks!

 

that is not recommended. it will make the display look fuzzy. if you want to do that, go to display settings, scaling and set a custom scale. this will make stuff look bigger without the fuzzyness that you get with lcd's and non-native resolutions. 

 

12 minutes ago, SerumZero said:

OKay the PPI values are (1080 23 inch) 98 and (1440 27 inch) 108. I have no idea if that's far apart or not, I don't have any experience with this sorry. Could you help me out? 

they are very similar. if it does turn out to be a problem, you can set the main screen at 105% scale or something, that will correct it. 

but if you use your screens like i use mine, you really won't notice. i have 3 1080p screens, 2 24 inch, and one 23.8 inch. the taskbars are slightly different, and everything is a little bigger on the side screens. but this doesn't matter if you just use them for 3 seperate desktops, because you can only look at one at a time. i really don't notice it unless i game in nvidia surround. then, the different sizes becomes an issue. 

[Glenwing]

4 hours ago, SerumZero said:

I guess I can live with that. 

OKay the PPI values are (1080 23 inch) 98 and (1440 27 inch) 108. I have no idea if that's far apart or not, I don't have any experience with this sorry. Could you help me out? 

 

Got it, thanks!

The 1080p screen has 98 pixels per inch, so if something is 98 pixels long on the 1080p screen it will be exactly 1 inch long in actual size. If the same thing is displayed on the 1440p screen that has 108 pixels per inch, then 98 pixels would be about 90% of an inch long (98/108). So everything will appear ≈10% smaller on the 1440p screen.

[SerumZero]

5 hours ago, Glenwing said:

The 1080p screen has 98 pixels per inch, so if something is 98 pixels long on the 1080p screen it will be exactly 1 inch long in actual size. If the same thing is displayed on the 1440p screen that has 108 pixels per inch, then 98 pixels would be about 90% of an inch long (98/108). So everything will appear ≈10% smaller on the 1440p screen.

Okay that clarifies it, thanks!

[SerumZero]

9 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

they are very similar. if it does turn out to be a problem, you can set the main screen at 105% scale or something, that will correct it. 

but if you use your screens like i use mine, you really won't notice. i have 3 1080p screens, 2 24 inch, and one 23.8 inch. the taskbars are slightly different, and everything is a little bigger on the side screens. but this doesn't matter if you just use them for 3 seperate desktops, because you can only look at one at a time. i really don't notice it unless i game in nvidia surround. then, the different sizes becomes an issue. 

okay so gaming on one display would'nt be aproblem but if I want to game on 3 screens it's gonna cause problems? Hmm gonna have to consider that one then. I've always wanted to try a shooter on 3 screens. (If my 1070 could even take that). But I feel like I'm well-informed now, thanks!

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

6 hours ago, SerumZero said:

okay so gaming on one display would'nt be aproblem but if I want to game on 3 screens it's gonna cause problems? Hmm gonna have to consider that one then. I've always wanted to try a shooter on 3 screens. (If my 1070 could even take that). But I feel like I'm well-informed now, thanks!

well, i think, surround needs 3 same resolutions, because if i put my screens in surround i get 5760x1080 resolution across the screens. i guess you can set yor main screen to 1080p manually, but i'm not sure if it would work. you can google this however. 

 

also, gaming on 3 screens only really works well if the displays are the same physical size. not just the same resolution.just because if you turn your head to look at something, it's nice to have the displays the same height. but this is just personal preference. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

11 hours ago, Glenwing said:

The 1080p screen has 98 pixels per inch, so if something is 98 pixels long on the 1080p screen it will be exactly 1 inch long in actual size. If the same thing is displayed on the 1440p screen that has 108 pixels per inch, then 98 pixels would be about 90% of an inch long (98/108). So everything will appear ≈10% smaller on the 1440p screen.

so he could set 110% scaling on the 1440p screen and that would correct for it right?

[Glenwing]

1 minute ago, firelighter487 said:

so he could set 110% scaling on the 1440p screen and that would correct for it right?

I think scaling in Windows can only be set in intervals of 25%

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

5 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

I think scaling in Windows can only be set in intervals of 25%

no. there is a thing called custom scaling in the same settings window. you can set any scale you want, from 100 to 500%. 

[SerumZero]

Okay, thanks everyone for the responses! 

[Glenwing]

15 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

no. there is a thing called custom scaling in the same settings window. you can set any scale you want, from 100 to 500%. 

That can only be applied system wide, not per display.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

6 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

That can only be applied system wide, not per display.

oh okay, didn't know that. thanks!