Planning multi-monitor, g-sync/freesync

[porina]

Currently I use a single ultra-wide bought for one game which I don't play any more. I'd like to return to multiple monitors for productivity priority. I should add I'm not going to do this "soon", probably later this year, so I have the flexibility of waiting to see what Vega brings vs. whatever nvidia will have at that time. I'm debating getting 3 of 24"-ish 1440p monitors as I don't think I need/want 4k at that size.

 

For gaming needs, I'll most likely play on a single monitor, leaving the others free for other tasks. Something I've not got a clear answer on in searching is, let's say you game with g-sync/freesync on one monitor, while leaving the others on desktop. Can the gaming monitor run high refresh + (g/free)sync while the others are at say fixed 60 Hz on desktop? In my searching it looks like this can work if the game is run full screen, but ideally I'd like borderless window mode to work too. And as it is in the not too distant future, I'd probably aim for HDR too. I'm guessing it isn't going to be cheap hence I only want to get one high end monitor, and cheaper side monitors. Exact models can be considered later.

 

I'll keep the ultra-wide and will move it to another system so I can still use it where it is optimal for the game.

[Pittman90]

24 minutes ago, porina said:

Currently I use a single ultra-wide bought for one game which I don't play any more. I'd like to return to multiple monitors for productivity priority. I should add I'm not going to do this "soon", probably later this year, so I have the flexibility of waiting to see what Vega brings vs. whatever nvidia will have at that time. I'm debating getting 3 of 24"-ish 1440p monitors as I don't think I need/want 4k at that size.

 

For gaming needs, I'll most likely play on a single monitor, leaving the others free for other tasks. Something I've not got a clear answer on in searching is, let's say you game with g-sync/freesync on one monitor, while leaving the others on desktop. Can the gaming monitor run high refresh + (g/free)sync while the others are at say fixed 60 Hz on desktop? In my searching it looks like this can work if the game is run full screen, but ideally I'd like borderless window mode to work too. And as it is in the not too distant future, I'd probably aim for HDR too. I'm guessing it isn't going to be cheap hence I only want to get one high end monitor, and cheaper side monitors. Exact models can be considered later.

 

I'll keep the ultra-wide and will move it to another system so I can still use it where it is optimal for the game.

Yes you can have only the middle monitor have gsync / high refresh rate with the others lower, but if you ever want to play with nvidia surround or amd eyefinity you will have to use 60 hz. The only downside of having different refresh monitors is that you can tell a difference between 60 and 144hz on the desktop, mouse movement is much more smooth on 144. If you can fit and afford it I would strongly recommend 27in monitors, I have 3 24in and they feel really small when I am only playing on the middle monitor, also try to match how the monitor looks to the other ones.

[WereCat]

Currently there are issues in Windows 10 which cause games to stutter a lot when playing above 60Hz in windowed/borderless mode and there is some animation happening on the secondary 60Hz monitor.

Only partial workaround is to switch to full screen and back but that doesn't work for every game reliably.

[porina]

8 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

Yes you can have only the middle monitor have gsync / high refresh rate with the others lower, but if you ever want to play with nvidia surround or amd eyefinity you will have to use 60 hz. The only downside of having different refresh monitors is that you can tell a difference between 60 and 144hz on the desktop, mouse movement is much more smooth on 144. If you can fit and afford it I would strongly recommend 27in monitors, I have 3 24in and they feel really small when I am only playing on the middle monitor, also try to match how the monitor looks to the other ones.

I haven't decided on the exact size or models yet, since I'll wait until HDR models are more common. I was wondering how easy it might be to match physical styling of the monitors, as well as their colour rendition so at least they were similar across them. Buy 3 of the same would be best, but the cost might get silly. Actually, gaming on 3x1440p would be 33% more pixels to push than 4k, so that's gonna stress the GPU a bit!

 

This is making me wonder if I should aim to go higher refresh on all, just for the desktop. Actually that might tip things in favour of fresync as possibly no extra cost, unlike G-sync. Just have to hope Vega doesn't under-perform.

[Pittman90]

1 minute ago, porina said:

I haven't decided on the exact size or models yet, since I'll wait until HDR models are more common. I was wondering how easy it might be to match physical styling of the monitors, as well as their colour rendition so at least they were similar across them. Buy 3 of the same would be best, but the cost might get silly. Actually, gaming on 3x1440p would be 33% more pixels to push than 4k, so that's gonna stress the GPU a bit!

 

This is making me wonder if I should aim to go higher refresh on all, just for the desktop. Actually that might tip things in favour of fresync as possibly no extra cost, unlike G-sync. Just have to hope Vega doesn't under-perform.

Asus has some monitors that if you took the stands off with a VESA stand then they would look very similar to each other, i don't know if HDR is going to be worth it on pc monitors tbh because I think they will take some time for some good ones at reasonable prices to come out. If you are planning on upgrading your gpu to Vega then I would totally get freesync, you can get it so much cheaper than gsync and most all high refesh rate monitors that are not gsnyc are freesync so you will save money, but I did see you had a 980 ti and that would prob be a stretch for tripple 1440p gaming 

[Pittman90]

17 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Currently there are issues in Windows 10 which cause games to stutter a lot when playing above 60Hz in windowed/borderless mode and there is some animation happening on the secondary 60Hz monitor.

Only partial workaround is to switch to full screen and back but that doesn't work for every game reliably.

Usually you have to use fullscreen for any sort of game over 60 hz so I am not surprised by this, but what do you mean about the animation on another monitor? Just when using windowed mode? 

[porina]

12 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

Asus has some monitors that if you took the stands off with a VESA stand then they would look very similar to each other, i don't know if HDR is going to be worth it on pc monitors tbh because I think they will take some time for some good ones at reasonable prices to come out.

I can afford to wait. I don't need to do anything immediately, but thought it worth starting to think about it. If HDR is the next big thing, I should probably aim for it.

 

12 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

If you are planning on upgrading your gpu to Vega then I would totally get freesync, you can get it so much cheaper than gsync and most all high refesh rate monitors that are not gsnyc are freesync so you will save money, but I did see you had a 980 ti and that would prob be a stretch for tripple 1440p gaming 

Similarly, I have no specific plans to get Vega, but it is both close and far enough away that it is a consideration. Also note, I don't plan on triple monitor gaming, just a single monitor with the side monitors doing other things. If I want to go wide, I'll use the existing ultra-wide which will be moved onto another gaming capable system.

 

For now, most of the games I'm playing don't benefit from being wider than 16:9. I like to have a video playing to the side for example, or perhaps a web page with info I need to reference.

 

[WereCat]

17 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

Usually you have to use fullscreen for any sort of game over 60 hz so I am not surprised by this, but what do you mean about the animation on another monitor? Just when using windowed mode? 

I have no issue playing on my 165Hz in windowed/borderless until for example I have YouTube playing on my secondary 60Hz. If I close the YT tab then the game runs fine again.

[Pittman90]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

I can afford to wait. I don't need to do anything immediately, but thought it worth starting to think about it. If HDR is the next big thing, I should probably aim for it.

 

Similarly, I have no specific plans to get Vega, but it is both close and far enough away that it is a consideration. Also note, I don't plan on triple monitor gaming, just a single monitor with the side monitors doing other things. If I want to go wide, I'll use the existing ultra-wide which will be moved onto another gaming capable system.

 

For now, most of the games I'm playing don't benefit from being wider than 16:9. I like to have a video playing to the side for example, or perhaps a web page with info I need to reference.

 

If you need it now there are some new HDR Asus monitors that came out at CES. 

[porina]

15 minutes ago, Pittman90 said:

If you need it now there are some new HDR Asus monitors that came out at CES. 

As said in OP I don't need to get anything "now". Seems a bit early still and will let HDR settle a bit. It was the CES reveals that made me think about where I want to go next.