Additional monitors

[mti_]

Hi all,

 

I am currently running a main monitor at 1440p 144hz and a 1080p 60hz secondary.

Now I want to upgrade my setup significantly to at least 2 secondary monitors.

I like the idea of going 4k with them because for productivity reasons.

 

Now I am worried that this will cut into my gaming performance. I do not wish to lose a single frame with games being optimized the way they are and hence had the idea that I might want to add a second gpu to my setup to run the 4ks off of that.

What should I pay attention to? What are the do's and don'ts?

 

My current setup (I understand PCIe lanes might be an issue?):

GTX 2080ti

9900k

Maximus XI Formula

[minibois]

18 minutes ago, mti_ said:

Now I am worried that this will cut into my gaming performance.

If you are doing 'nothing' on your secondary monitor(s), it will not decrease your fps. It may increase the temperature a bit, but that is about all I have experienced, which is no issue at all.

18 minutes ago, mti_ said:

had the idea that I might want to add a second gpu to my setup to run the 4ks off of that.

I wouldn't bother with that, because of what I said above. Plus multiple GPU's will use more power and could be annoying for driver reasons (if they are different videocards)

18 minutes ago, mti_ said:

What should I pay attention to? What are the do's and don'ts?

Do:

- get more monitors! more is better!

- be sure to get stuff with decent viewing angles, for the side monitor(s)

 

Don't:

- I wouldn't get a second GPU without at least testing your current setup.

18 minutes ago, mti_ said:

My current setup (I understand PCIe lanes might be an issue?):

GTX 2080ti

9900k

Maximus XI Formula

If you are going to run a second videocard, the PCIE slots for both cards will go to x8, instead of x16. I wouldn't call that an issue though to be honest.

[BrinkGG]

4 minutes ago, mti_ said:

Hi all,

 

I am currently running a main monitor at 1440p 144hz and a 1080p 60hz secondary.

Now I want to upgrade my setup significantly to at least 2 secondary monitors.

I like the idea of going 4k with them because for productivity reasons.

 

Now I am worried that this will cut into my gaming performance. I do not wish to lose a single frame with games being optimized the way they are and hence had the idea that I might want to add a second gpu to my setup to run the 4ks off of that.

What should I pay attention to? What are the do's and don'ts?

 

My current setup (I understand PCIe lanes might be an issue?):

GTX 2080ti

9900k

Maximus XI Formula

As long as your 4k displays are not running graphically intensive content, this will not be a noticeable issue. (1% or less)

Sure, if you pull up a youtube video or a twitch stream while playing a game, or have OBS preview running, that'll cut you back a few frames, but that will happen at any resolution because the windows desktop AND fullscreen applications are all rendered by your GPU as part of DWM (desktop window manager). 

[mti_]

Thank you guys so much for your replies.

I do plan on running stuff on the side.

Muted twitch stream, yt video playing while waiting for the round to end etc.

Lots of applications everywhere (ts, discord, slack, all that sorta stuff).

I am a bit of a digital messy I guess.

 

So a video card running at 8x lanes does not "bottleneck" it over having 16x?

Are driver issues to be expected if I added, say a 2070 (or maybe 2060 to keep the heat in check?)?

I also thought about running productivity stuff from a different system entirely and using software to be able to use one set of mouse and keyboard but I am sure that will add input delay.

I just wonder what the most desirable solution is. I will check my bank account after to see what is feasible. For now let's not pay attention to being reasonable.

[BrinkGG]

4 minutes ago, minibois said:

If you are doing 'nothing' on your secondary monitor(s), it decrease your fps. It may increase the temperature a bit, but that is about all I have experienced, which is no issue at all.

I wouldn't bother with that, because of what I said above. Plus multiple GPU's will use more power and could be annoying for driver reasons (if they are different videocards)

I'm assuming this is what you meant to say, but for clarity, "If you are doing 'nothing' on your secondary monitor(s), it WON'T decrease your fps"

As I said, DWM is a thing and they're all rendered by GPU, but the performance hit is within margin of error. 

6 minutes ago, minibois said:

Do:

- get more monitors! more is better!

- be sure to get stuff with decent viewing angles, for the side monitor(s)

 

Don't:

- I wouldn't get a second GPU without at least testing your current setup.

If you are going to run a second videocard, the PCIE slots for both cards will go to x8, instead of x16. I wouldn't call that an issue though to be honest.

Agree with all of this  

[minibois]

1 minute ago, BrinkGG said:

I'm assuming this is what you meant to say, but for clarity, "If you are doing 'nothing' on your secondary monitor(s), it WON'T decrease your fps"

Thank you, my head totally flew over that sentence and I forget to add that  

3 minutes ago, mti_ said:

So a video card running at 8x lanes does not "bottleneck" it over having 16x?

x8 vs x16 on a 2080 Ti is somewhere between a 'minimal' and a 'somewhat noticeable' difference.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-pci-express-scaling/3.html

6 minutes ago, mti_ said:

Are driver issues to be expected if I added, say a 2070 (or maybe 2060 to keep the heat in check?)?

It could be, since Nvidia may make a somewhat different driver for a certain GPU. But I am not sure on that exactly.

[mti_]

28 minutes ago, minibois said:

x8 vs x16 on a 2080 Ti is somewhere between a 'minimal' and a 'somewhat noticeable' difference.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-pci-express-scaling/3.html

I mean this to me is a significant reduction in frames which is exactly what I am trying to avoid especially as this would be a constant value even at idle.

Is there no way of adding monitors without negatively impacting performance?

[minibois]

3 hours ago, mti_ said:

I mean this to me is a significant reduction in frames which is exactly what I am trying to avoid especially as this would be a constant value even at idle.

Is there no way of adding monitors without negatively impacting performance?

As far as I have experienced, I have not seen lower fps with multiple monitors. Only slightly higher temps