Monitor refresh rate.

RobJackson85

RobJackson85

279
RobJackson85
Hi there, it's my first time posting in this section and I'm after abit of advice.

I'm looking at moving into the triple screen club for my pc. All I use it for is to browse the web, mess around on photoshop and play iRacing.

After making a rush choice in buying a GTX580 (upgrade from 9800gt) I think the best and cheapest route is to invest in a Matrox Triple Head To Go. Now looking at the specs on this, it only supports 5760x1080 at 50hz. My monitor is recommended at 59/60hz. However, if I uncheck an option in the screen settings box in windows 7 I can select numerous other refresh rates, one being 50hz. After my screen turning black, it comes back displaying 1920x1080 at 50hz. Checking the settings on the actual monitor I get the readings of 54hz and 50hz. (not sure which was vertical and which horizontal)

My dilemma now, after reading old bits of information I've found on the web, people say displaying the wrong refresh rate can damage your monitor. If I where to buy a Matrox and run at 50hz, would I therefore damage my monitor?
 
Most LCDs are 60Hz with a few being 59Hz.

The expensive LCDs are 120Hz which are the 3D ones.

My monitor has 60Hz and 59Hz on progressive and 30Hz and 29Hz on interlaced.

Stick to 60Hz.
 
Last edited:
Triple Head. The reason that Nvidia requires SLi for tri screens is because of performance limitations. Good luck getting a single GTX580 (Especially a 1.5GB one) to run at 5760x1080 on any modern game at a semi decent performance.

If you just want triple screens (without gaming) get a second graphics card for $30, doesn't matter what it is as long as it has two outputs. If you want surround gaming get another 580. (A lot of 580s are on the used market now as well due the the 680 release)
 
There's a thread on this in the Sim Racing Hardware forum, one user and myself both want to do triple monitor gaming and we both have GTX 580s as well, which can't drive three monitors at the same time. There are at least four other solutions:

- buy a Triple H2G
- buy a secondary card, any card, and run SoftTH
- buy a second 580 and run them in SLI
- sell the 580 and buy a 680 which can run three monitors at once.

I've decided to do the latter because it's cheaper than 1 and 3 (probably, it depends on how much I sell my 580 for) and 2 isn't ideal for other reasons (the software is still beta, for a start). I'm using three 1680x1050 monitors, though, so while the 680 may struggle at 3x1080p it should have an easier time with my setup, at least for now. I suggest you go have a read of the other thread, it's on page 2 of the forum. I'm posting from my phone right now so I can't grab the link for you, unfortunately.
 
neema_t
There's a thread on this in the Sim Racing Hardware forum, one user and myself both want to do triple monitor gaming and we both have GTX 580s as well, which can't drive three monitors at the same time. There are at least four other solutions:

- buy a Triple H2G
- buy a secondary card, any card, and run SoftTH
- buy a second 580 and run them in SLI
- sell the 580 and buy a 680 which can run three monitors at once.

I've decided to do the latter because it's cheaper than 1 and 3 (probably, it depends on how much I sell my 580 for) and 2 isn't ideal for other reasons (the software is still beta, for a start). I'm using three 1680x1050 monitors, though, so while the 680 may struggle at 3x1080p it should have an easier time with my setup, at least for now. I suggest you go have a read of the other thread, it's on page 2 of the forum. I'm posting from my phone right now so I can't grab the link for you, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

It was I who started the other thread, just wanted some more info on monitor refresh rates. As the Matrox is limited to 50hz at max res. I think I'm going to go down the SoftH route at first, but for this ill have to upgrade my PSU as the 650w I have now wont boot my computer with two graphics cards installed.
 
Ha ha, of course it was! That's what I get for posting from my phone at 3.40 in the morning. I do apologise, I'm honestly not working for nVidia so I will stop talking about the 680 (soon). I've read and heard from a number of places that refresh rates are normally restricted with good reason so it's inadvisable to run them at an unsupported rate, which is why I personally ruled out the Triple Head2Go. I still don't know if you could connect a Dual Head2Go to one DVI port and a monitor to the other port and play games that way, but it would be better than the Triple Head2Go if that does work because the Dual is cheaper and supports higher refresh rates, but I imagine it would be tricky to set up if it is at all possible.

You could have an external PSU for the other graphics card, by the way, I have seen that done before. The PSU in a Mac Pro, for example, isn't easily upgraded but it can't provide power for two graphics cards, so some people who wanted to Crossfire when booting Windows on their Macs got a small PC PSU and powered the second card with that. It's quite a hacky approach so you might not be keen, and it might be cheaper to sell your PSU and buy a 850W+ one instead, but it's doable, apparently.
 
neema_t
There's a thread on this in the Sim Racing Hardware forum, one user and myself both want to do triple monitor gaming and we both have GTX 580s as well, which can't drive three monitors at the same time. There are at least four other solutions:

- buy a Triple H2G
- buy a secondary card, any card, and run SoftTH
- buy a second 580 and run them in SLI
- sell the 580 and buy a 680 which can run three monitors at once.

I've decided to do the latter because it's cheaper than 1 and 3 (probably, it depends on how much I sell my 580 for) and 2 isn't ideal for other reasons (the software is still beta, for a start). I'm using three 1680x1050 monitors, though, so while the 680 may struggle at 3x1080p it should have an easier time with my setup, at least for now. I suggest you go have a read of the other thread, it's on page 2 of the forum. I'm posting from my phone right now so I can't grab the link for you, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I thought a 680 can run 3 monitors at once but not in surround mode. So you'd have to run a software solution anyway.

*Correction, I looked it up and I was wrong.
 

Latest Posts

Back