Hidden costs (if any) running triple monitor mode vs single monitor mode

[anjenthedog]

I currently run Skyrim SE in single monitor mode

 

My Windows (10) setup runs in dual monitor mode (legacy of years as an artist and engineer).

 

in addition, I have an idle third monitor (same model even) that served a recently deceased laptop, and a third video port in my tower, (that's running skyrim), that I *could connect up if it served a useful purpose. 

 

I recently read about NVidia's "surround mode" (or revisited it anyway., I vaguely recall noticing it early on but never pursued it) for running multiple monitors for games.

 

Anyway. I'm just wondering if running in a triple monitor setup will  negatively impact the game, ie in fps or something else. 

 

Your thoughts/advise on triple monitor Skyrim? Experience? caveats? (both in terms of performance or other problems it could cause, idk stressing the processor or power supply or video card whatever...), important tweaks, etc.

 

ELI5 (ish) if possible. Not dumb, but ignorant.  I have basically zero experience with this sort of thing. And yes, I have done a bit of searching in the widenet. Most comes back as if made for people already familiar with using multiple monitors with games and overclocking and all the other gaming nuances I really never experienced in my previous pursuits, whether dull and  sciency or hip and kewl and arttist/musiciany. (closest I think I ever came was trying to use Cakewalk spread out onto two monitors, which didn't turn out to be all that beneficial after all)

 

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for someone to commit to writing a book for me and/or handholding me through the whole thing, (just so you know upfront you won't have to deal with that thread burden by posting, cough cough "it's all your responsibility that my game works or doesn't now!"), just any related practical thoughts, considerations,  experiences if you have them, one liners are fine, more if you like. I'm just trying to fill in a big blank space in my head on the subject before I proceed. So anything you can contribute would likely be helpful to me. I have learned by experience over ~40 years to not enjoy flying blindfolded. 

 

i7-9700K 4.7GHz  64G ram, NVidia 1060SC 6G - edit: regular air cooling, not liquid cooled or anything super special, in case that matters.

 

edited for content and typos

 

Oh PS> I'd either be using 5760 x 1080 or 1440 x 7680 Surround Triple Monitor Gaming for SkyUi 5.2 or Skyrim SE Surround  in game. (edit: unless of course there's something better I don't know about)

 

thanks in advance

 

[3reaker]

First off, I've never run Skyrim in triple monitor mode, but I have with several other gamesm and for me, there are two costs to doing it.

 

First one is the obvious one that 3x the monitors = 3x the resolution = 3x the rendering = you will get slower framerates. Epsecially on a 1060 card. I'm on a 3060, and noticed slowdowns, but it was still mostly able to be fast enough in the games I played that way.

 

Second one, and the one that for me was the showstopper that means it is just not worth the effort is that Nvidia Surround turns your entire desktop into a single virtual monitor. Well duh, that's what it's supposed to do, isn't it? Yeah, but think about that for a minute. That means that if you use your system for anything other than gaming, you get a start button in the bottom left of your leftmost screen, a notification tray bottom right of the rightmost screen, a single massive taskbar running across all three, snapping to edges that no longer makes much sense at all, fullscreen in every app that really means FULLscreen, etc. etc. etc.

 

It's a bit of a faff to toggle Nvidia surround on and off, and messes with other multi-monitor settings when you do. For example, I use StarDock Fences, and they don't cope well at all.

 

There are probably fixes out there for some of the issues with toggling it on and off, and with coping better with it while it is on. I certainly remember finding an app called DisplayMagician that looked promising ( https://github.com/terrymacdonald/DisplayMagician/releases/tag/v2.0.1 ) but for me, I do too many other things than gaming on my PC, so I just reverted back into single monitor mode for games as it is less hassle.

 

The only way to know for sure, though, is to try it for yourself

[anjenthedog]

3 hours ago, 3reaker said:

First one is the obvious one that 3x the monitors = 3x the resolution = 3x the rendering = you will get slower framerates. Epsecially on a 1060 card. I'm on a 3060, and noticed slowdowns, but it was still mostly able to be fast enough in the games I played that way.

I'll admit I wasn't *sure* that was "obvious", but it seemed to me to be a good possibility. Thanks for the confirmation of my suspicion

 

Also, good point about the "span" behavior of surround. that one I suppose I can deal with. I've run windows in span mode in the past (before we even had the choice to run with independent displays), so while a slight setback, I can cope. Flipping it on and off though, yes, would be most annoying. (desktop icon arrangements always seem to get messed with, so thanks for the reminder...it's been a while since I even thought about it)