Optimal Triple Monitor Setup for Arma 3

[Lefty Guns]

Hi Guys,

First off, I'm new to a multiple monitor setup for gaming and I have just begun to research it as I want to play ARMA 3 (breaking point mod) across three screens.

I haven't purchased my monitors yet. My new PC has two GTX 980's.

Questions:
1. From those who are using three screens, what is the overall quality/experience?
2. Is there any gotchas, caveats, or recommendations?
3. Physical setup: How are you connecting each monitor? Do I connect a displayPort from each monitor to the top card?
4. G-SYNC, NVIDIA Surround. Anyone using these?

Last, what monitor do you recommend? I am looking at BENQ and ASUS 27".

Thanks,
Lefty

[Julius]

1. Landscape mode (5760x1080) is awesome for the peripheral vision, especially in games that include motion (racing/flight/space sims) as actually seeing the objects as you sweep by gives a sense of speed that a single monitor can't. Since the sides are distorted (except in some games, e.g. DCS World) it's not really useful for any competitive purpose as the distances and positions mess you up in twitch games, so it's more about enhancing the feel than getting an advantage.

Outside of gaming, it's the best for work, as it allows you to multi-task really easily, or watch a movie while working. So if it was for pure gaming, then Oculus Rift would be more appealing - for both, triple monitors are awesome.

Portrait mode (3840x1920) is best for the high fidelity - it's essentially like sitting in front of a 4K (Ultra HD) TV. Works best for an FPS (seeing enemies from afar, regular sights almost feel like scopes at high res) or for example FIFA, where you can see the details of player movement really easily. Other than that. it generally offers a regular single-monitor experience, would probably be better off just buying a 4K monitor instead. It's just nice to have that option if combined with tiltable monitors/monitor stand to swap between the two.

Outside of gaming, it's the best for watching movies.

2. Not all games support triple monitors, and when you've used 'em it's really difficult to accept going back to a single one.

TN screens are only usable in landscape mode, the vertical distortion is very harsh in a portrait set-up. Also, nVidia surround doesn't support mixing rotations (AMD does), so attempts to resolve the vertical distortion by rotating won't help.

Remove the bezels or fork out extra cash to get thin-bezel monitors. Personally I did my stuff on a budget - 3x BenQ 21' TN monitors for 100 EUR each about a year ago, stripped the bezels. Putting the centre monitor in front of the other two allows you to overlap the remaining bezels, leaving only a 5mm one.

Check out mixing a large monitor with two small portrait-mode ones on the side - seems like a good setup.

Also, I'm personally running 4 monitors - three in surround and one accessory monitor for browsing, which is nice for gaming - DayZ maps, BF4 battle map, forums e.t.c.

3. Not sure about SLI as I'm running mine off a single GTX 970.

4. Pushing up to G-Sync FPS levels is usually out of reach for triple monitor users - most GTX 980 SLI benchmarks for ultra HD resolutions still seem to cap you out at 60-80 fps on ultra. Especially in Arma I doubt you'd reach it as it's far more CPU than GPU intensive.
Nvidia Surround works alright, but I preferred the AMD from my old card as they support mixing and matching resolutions, placements and rotations far better.

5. As mentioned, if I had to do it again I'd go for one high-quality 27' centre and two smaller portrait ones on the side, but Nvidia Surround wont support that. Obviously, if you can afford it, you could go 3x27' IPS/PLS screens - at some point I think the sheer size might even be annoying. Bit too many variables, got to know a budget to really tell.

[+Tooterfish]

I would actually avoid IPS if you want to enjoy anything over 60fps. I traded my 3 30 inch 16:10 monitors for 3 16:9 TN's with 144hz and Gsync, no regrets. It isn't obvious at all, you either want size and fidelity, or you want competitive-grade responsiveness.

[Lefty Guns]

Originally posted by Sephyrius:

1. Landscape mode (5760x1080) is awesome for the peripheral vision, especially in games that include motion (racing/flight/space sims) as actually seeing the objects as you sweep by gives a sense of speed that a single monitor can't. Since the sides are distorted (except in some games, e.g. DCS World) it's not really useful for any competitive purpose as the distances and positions mess you up in twitch games, so it's more about enhancing the feel than getting an advantage.

Outside of gaming, it's the best for work, as it allows you to multi-task really easily, or watch a movie while working. So if it was for pure gaming, then Oculus Rift would be more appealing - for both, triple monitors are awesome.

Portrait mode (3840x1920) is best for the high fidelity - it's essentially like sitting in front of a 4K (Ultra HD) TV. Works best for an FPS (seeing enemies from afar, regular sights almost feel like scopes at high res) or for example FIFA, where you can see the details of player movement really easily. Other than that. it generally offers a regular single-monitor experience, would probably be better off just buying a 4K monitor instead. It's just nice to have that option if combined with tiltable monitors/monitor stand to swap between the two.

Outside of gaming, it's the best for watching movies.

2. Not all games support triple monitors, and when you've used 'em it's really difficult to accept going back to a single one.

TN screens are only usable in landscape mode, the vertical distortion is very harsh in a portrait set-up. Also, nVidia surround doesn't support mixing rotations (AMD does), so attempts to resolve the vertical distortion by rotating won't help.

Remove the bezels or fork out extra cash to get thin-bezel monitors. Personally I did my stuff on a budget - 3x BenQ 21' TN monitors for 100 EUR each about a year ago, stripped the bezels. Putting the centre monitor in front of the other two allows you to overlap the remaining bezels, leaving only a 5mm one.

Check out mixing a large monitor with two small portrait-mode ones on the side - seems like a good setup.

Also, I'm personally running 4 monitors - three in surround and one accessory monitor for browsing, which is nice for gaming - DayZ maps, BF4 battle map, forums e.t.c.

3. Not sure about SLI as I'm running mine off a single GTX 970.

4. Pushing up to G-Sync FPS levels is usually out of reach for triple monitor users - most GTX 980 SLI benchmarks for ultra HD resolutions still seem to cap you out at 60-80 fps on ultra. Especially in Arma I doubt you'd reach it as it's far more CPU than GPU intensive.
Nvidia Surround works alright, but I preferred the AMD from my old card as they support mixing and matching resolutions, placements and rotations far better.

5. As mentioned, if I had to do it again I'd go for one high-quality 27' centre and two smaller portrait ones on the side, but Nvidia Surround wont support that. Obviously, if you can afford it, you could go 3x27' IPS/PLS screens - at some point I think the sheer size might even be annoying. Bit too many variables, got to know a budget to really tell.

Thanks for your detailed reply. It is really informative.

I honestly do not have a budget. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and I want to do it right. I want it STRICTLY for gaming. I don't care about anything else as I have my own profession setup for work and do not mix the two. I also have my own 5.1 surround with plasma tv for movies etc.

I purchased this monitor:
http://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/ROG_SWIFT_PG278Q/

I am thinking about purchasing two more and possibly removing the already thin bezel even more.

My CPU is overclocked beyond 5+ GHz using a closed loop liquid cooling system. I'm still in the process of OCing to find my sweet spot. I'm not sure what kind of frames I will get in A3 but I already get 60-70 with my old gen i7 extreme processor that I could only get OC'd to 4.4.

What are your thoughts on that monitor setup in a triple screen?

This doesnt sound good but hopefully it's been addressed or will be in the near future:
http://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1009038/

[Fast Pooper]

You can't remove the bezel on the PG278Q. You'll want another 980 in SLi for G-Sync Surround if you want to do 3xPG278Q (which is possible despite the outdated Asus support note).

If you have the money, though, I'd recommend going with a single 4K TV (Panasonic with DisplayPort for 4K60 4:4:4) instead as the increase in "real" FOV is much better than having 2 side monitors essentially only for peripheral vision, and spotting in-game is far easier with a large display. Get TrackIR as well, and you'll be blown away by the realism possible even if it's still in 2D.

[Lefty Guns]

Originally posted by ARGH:

You can't remove the bezel on the PG278Q. You'll want another 980 in SLi for G-Sync Surround if you want to do 3xPG278Q (which is possible despite the outdated Asus support note).

If you have the money, though, I'd recommend going with a single 4K TV (Panasonic with DisplayPort for 4K60 4:4:4) instead as the increase in "real" FOV is much better than having 2 side monitors essentially only for peripheral vision, and spotting in-game is far easier with a large display. Get TrackIR as well, and you'll be blown away by the realism possible even if it's still in 2D.

What specific 4K TV (panasonic model) would you recommend and isnt the refresh rate and response time going to be bad for gaming?

[Fast Pooper]

Originally posted by Lefty Guns:

Originally posted by ARGH:

You can't remove the bezel on the PG278Q. You'll want another 980 in SLi for G-Sync Surround if you want to do 3xPG278Q (which is possible despite the outdated Asus support note).

If you have the money, though, I'd recommend going with a single 4K TV (Panasonic with DisplayPort for 4K60 4:4:4) instead as the increase in "real" FOV is much better than having 2 side monitors essentially only for peripheral vision, and spotting in-game is far easier with a large display. Get TrackIR as well, and you'll be blown away by the realism possible even if it's still in 2D.

What specific 4K TV (panasonic model) would you recommend and isnt the refresh rate and response time going to be bad for gaming?

Panasonic AX800: http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/TC-58AX800U

This one has DisplayPort (for guaranteed 4:4:4 RGB color in 4K) and about 30-40 ms input lag which is excellent, good enough for anything besides professional level competitive gaming in all honesty.

If you don't mind some confusion about whether full 4:4:4 RGB is supported or not, the Vizio P series TV's are excellent with about 15-20 ms input lag (about as low as it gets for TV's, and only a frame's worth of input lag at 60 hz). The difference between 4:4:4 and otherwise is quite small if text is not involved; as you said you have a dedicated setup for work use, maybe you'll want to consider the Vizio P for lower input lag as well as price.

You're not going to be getting a consistent >60 fps in ArmA III anyway, so 144 hz and ULMB aren't even worth considering. The 10 ms input lag difference between the Vizio P and the PG278Q (20 vs 10 ms respectively) is going to be negligible, and it'll be far outweighed by the clarity of having a large 4K display instead of looking at a relatively small monitor. The difference is really drastic. If you do go this route, I'd recommend setting up the TV so it's at a distance where it takes up about 70-80 of your FOV. Things will have realistic size on the display in relation to the real world. Then get TrackIR so you can look around. It's better than VR with the Oculus Rift DK2 from my experience in terms of day to day use, especially in ArmA, which can really be a pixel hunt on a regular monitor, but one that becomes easy as hell with 4K res (that one pixel you're looking for will be 4x as large in 4K); in VR with the 1080p DK2 it's virtually impossible to see anything beyond your immediate surroundings.

If I had the money, I'd get the new 65" LG 4K OLED TV (around $5000 or more). I don't know how deep your pockets go, but it's worth suggesting IMO to see someone else get the ultimate experience.

Only thing you'd be missing out on going this way is G-Sync, but the much larger and more immersive FOV more than makes up for it.