Tech Tips on a 3x2 monitor setup

[Boofbar39]

Imma be honest, I have been out of the game for years. Before dumping any money, I thought, I'd ask the community if this would even work.

What I want

I need a lot of monitors. Be it for programming, or doing multiple other things wilst gaming on a 3x1. Right now, I have just four monitors, which are not quite enough, especially for productivity. Also they are all different models, resolutions, panels, and sizes, which kinda suckz. What is red on one, is yellow-orangy on the other. Also, giant gaps between the bezels and stuff.

What I want to do is to buy 6x identical 27" 1440p monitors to create a 3x2 setup, all on vesa mounts, all IPS.

Monitor choice

In terms of monitors: They obviously have to be cheap. I thought of something like the ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQ1A, which is 170hz. Kinda overkill, but nice for gaming. At 320€, this would obviously be almost too expensive, as I would be dropping 1.5k on monitors alone. Do you have any recommendations? I definitely do want IPS panels, 27", and 1440p. I do not want motion blur. I'd rather take a 60hz model than blurry motion.

The biggest problem: The GPU

But, the biggest Issue may be the GPU: My nvidia 2070 sooper dooper is software locked to a resolution just above what 3x2x1440p  needs, meaning I would have to unplug stuff to play VR games. That sucks. But even then, it would not work, because my gpu does not have sufficient video ports, even when using adapters. So I would definitely need a second GPU. My sooper dooper is getting kinda old anyways. Nvidia is kinda p!ssing me off with their pricing model, so I definitely want to go with a Radeon as a new main gpu. This would also fit with me using Linux more often than Windows. Works way better with radeon cards.

Main question

But I don't know if I can even drive 3 monitors on an nvidia card, and another 3 on a radeon card... Does this even work? What happens when gaming? Which gpu would be used for the games rendering? Some games let you choose, some don't... Also, does AMD have something similar to nvidias surround or mosaic stuff, which lets you connect multiple physical displays to a single virtual one, allowing games to render on mulitple monitors at once, like on a single big one? This is just relevant for Windows though. On Linux I want them individually.

Thanks for any input on the matter!

 

Also, before anyone recommends ultrawides: no

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, Boofbar39 said:

But, the biggest Issue may be the GPU: My nvidia 2070 sooper dooper is software locked to a resolution just above what 3x2x1440p  needs

It isnt. Its locked to a max of 4 displays no matter what.

 

Dual gpu works just get stable drivers.

 

 

The gpu the monitor is plugged in to will be the default one uses to render whats on screen

[Boofbar39]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

It isnt. Its locked to a max of 4 displays no matter what.

 

Dual gpu works just get stable drivers.

 

 

The gpu the monitor is plugged in to will be the default one uses to render whats on screen

Thanks!

[manikyath]

if your goal is just more pixels, get 2 or 3 43" 4K panels.

 

the more displays you add, the more chance you have that things get weird if anything changes.

 

having that said.. if you insist on 6 displays, i suggest having your main display and everything 'for gaming' connected to the GTX2070, and for the displays that you cant connect to your main GPU due to lack of ports and/or software mimitations you either connect those to your on-board graphics (if you have those) or buy one of those "workstation" GPU's that are basicly a potato with 4 displayport ports.

[Likwid]

I have SAMSUNG QN700B 55 inch TV (8k resolution) as monitor and it replaced my multi monitor setup (also a programmer). It also makes thing a lot easier if you want to use laptop with your display setup.

[Boofbar39]

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

if your goal is just more pixels, get 2 or 3 43" 4K panels.

 

the more displays you add, the more chance you have that things get weird if anything changes.

 

having that said.. if you insist on 6 displays, i suggest having your main display and everything 'for gaming' connected to the GTX2070, and for the displays that you cant connect to your main GPU due to lack of ports and/or software mimitations you either connect those to your on-board graphics (if you have those) or buy one of those "workstation" GPU's that are basicly a potato with 4 displayport ports.

I do not have onboard graphics, and would like a faster gpu than my 2070 anyways... So I thought of making by 2070 my secondary, slower gpu, and a faster radeon as my new gaming/main gpu.

 

I do not just want more pixels, but a specific topology. I want a symmetric setup. with as much space to my left, as there is to my right. I don't want a bezel in the center, and I want to be able to game on just one without having to sit crooked. So there needs to be a center one. The only setups i know that can achieve this are 1x3 and 2x3.

 

1 hour ago, Likwid said:

I have SAMSUNG QN700B 55 inch TV (8k resolution) as monitor and it replaced my multi monitor setup (also a programmer). It also makes thing a lot easier if you want to use laptop with your display setup.

I think that would make it considerably harder to a) game on just a small subsection (dont want to game an 8k), and makes it harder to snap windows to subsections.

[manikyath]

7 minutes ago, Boofbar39 said:

I do not have onboard graphics, and would like a faster gpu than my 2070 anyways... So I thought of making by 2070 my secondary, slower gpu, and a faster radeon as my new gaming/main gpu.

 

I do not just want more pixels, but a specific topology. I want a symmetric setup. with as much space to my left, as there is to my right. I don't want a bezel in the center, and I want to be able to game on just one without having to sit crooked. So there needs to be a center one. The only setups i know that can achieve this are 1x3 and 2x3.

unless windows 11 drastically changed the way things work, you may as well sell that 2070 and buy a potato that takes up less space. only your main GPU does graphical work, the rest is just driving displays based on what the main GPU is doing.

[Boofbar39]

30 minutes ago, manikyath said:

unless windows 11 drastically changed the way things work, you may as well sell that 2070 and buy a potato that takes up less space. only your main GPU does graphical work, the rest is just driving displays based on what the main GPU is doing.

 

nice, so i could just get a video output gpu, idk a 3050 or something like that. nice. i guess it should not be too old/low tech. it still needs sufficient video ports and screen space i guess.

[manikyath]

27 minutes ago, Boofbar39 said:

 

nice, so i could just get a video output gpu, idk a 3050 or something like that. nice. i guess it should not be too old/low tech. it still needs sufficient video ports and screen space i guess.

for the goal of video output, i'd more like get something like this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/641891/visiontek-amd-radeon-rx-550-4m-single-fan-4gb-gddr5-pcie-30-graphics-card

 

although it does seem like the 'actually cheap' 4-DP cards have disappeared along with human sanity the past two years.

[Boofbar39]

26 minutes ago, manikyath said:

for the goal of video output, i'd more like get something like this:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/641891/visiontek-amd-radeon-rx-550-4m-single-fan-4gb-gddr5-pcie-30-graphics-card

 

although it does seem like the 'actually cheap' 4-DP cards have disappeared along with human sanity the past two years.

That looks cool! Especially because I would not have to worry about PSU cables and stuff. Does it have the horses required to drive 3x1440p@144hz? Not talking about actual DX rendering, but just driving the monitors.

[manikyath]

32 minutes ago, Boofbar39 said:

That looks cool! Especially because I would not have to worry about PSU cables and stuff. Does it have the horses required to drive 3x1440p@144hz? Not talking about actual DX rendering, but just driving the monitors.

it is built exactly for that sort of purpose. they're cards designed for office "workstations" where it just needs to push pixels.

[Stahlmann]

17 hours ago, Likwid said:

I have SAMSUNG QN700B 55 inch TV (8k resolution) as monitor and it replaced my multi monitor setup (also a programmer). It also makes thing a lot easier if you want to use laptop with your display setup.

That actually sounds like the best solution imo. Getting a 55" or 65" 8K TV and then using Fancy Zones to split them up as you need them. For gaming, these TV's typically also support 4K 120Hz or whatever resolution you want at 120Hz. If you don't want to play fullscreen, just have a black wallpaper and play the game in borderless windowed mode.

[Boofbar39]

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

That actually sounds like the best solution imo. Getting a 55" or 65" 8K TV and then using Fancy Zones to split them up as you need them.

What I don't like about it is that it's not curved. Curved displays are generally shit, because they're almost always VA, but a 3x2 you can make pseudo-curved, by putting the outer monitors at an angle. I imagine it pretty difficult trying to look at a screen at a 45° angle, which the outer sides would be at.

[Stahlmann]

Just now, Boofbar39 said:

What I don't like about it is that it's not curved. Curved displays are generally shit, because they're almost always VA, but a 3x2 you can make pseudo-curved, by putting the outer monitors at an angle.

Another option is the Samsund Odyssey Arc. It's a 55" 4K 165Hz "monitor" with a 1000R curve. It might be VA, but it's faster and better looking than 99% of all IPS monitors. Plus it has a miniLED backlight, which allows for great HDR performance aswell.

 

Again, Fancy Zones can be used to easily split it up into 6 zones for you to snap your work apps onto.