Nvidia G-Sync Surround. Worth it?

Let me start by saying that there's a good chance I'm going to take the plunge on this regardless of the feedback I get in this thread but I'm curious to hear some opinions and find out if anyone else has tried this. I currently have a three monitor setup. Two Dell U2711b 27" 1440p IPS monitors and one Rog Swift 27" 1440p 1ms 144hz monitor in the center.

My plan for a long time has been to replace the Dell monitors with Rog Swifts to run a G-Sync Surround configuration. Right now when I game on the center monitor alone it's great. When I run in Surround post GTA5 driver the center monitor's tearing is horrible, although I haven't played with it lately. I like my Dells but running three Rog Swifts would be awesome for the 6mm bezels and the ability to use g-sync across all the monitors while running in 7560x1440.

Has anyone on the forum tried this?

-Byshop

Gsync is a game changer. Really, the smoothness of even 40+fps is incredible, with no input lag. Now that I've gone gsync, I'll never be able to play without it again (or freesync). For surround, that's another question alltogether. It's fun (I've tried it a few times just for shits and giggles) but it's not that big of a deal for me.

Others don't seem to have the impact of Gsync affect them (or fanboys and trolls say it's not a big deal) and I honestly can't see how they wouldn't notice the impact it has. But to each their own. Gsync is amazing. I'm really bothered by tearing...I can't play with it on any game. And I'm not fond of lag introduced with vsync. For me, Gsync really, really made ALL of my games much more enjoyable.

I'm probably the only person on the planet who isn't bothered by tearing in games. I always have V-Sync turned off unless the tearing is VERY noticeable.

I totally agree. I have Gsync now. My question was is Gsync Surround worth the plunge and if anyone has tried it.

-Byshop

So...you've experienced gsync, and have a tri monitor setup, and your' wondering if it's "worth" it to have gsync on 3 screens...

Nobody is replying in here because whether it's worth it to you is totally up to you, and there's nothing here anybody could tell you. Take your gsync monitor, and imagine your other 2 monitors had gsync. Is it worth it to you? Only you know.

Yes, if I wasn't clear in my first post I game on the Rog Swift (which is a popular g-sync monitor) alone and it's great. My question isn't "do you think I'll like G-sync on 3 monitors" so much as "is attempting to run three monitors with Surround and Gsync at the same time a worthwhile endeavour and has anyone in here tried it already?" For example, since G-sync requires Dispalyport and early most early GTX980s only had one DP per card, you needed three cards to make what I'm describing possible. Earlier versions of the drivers didn't even allow g-sync to run if you were running more than one monitor.

These days, I'm running two superclocked EVGA 980s that have three DP ports each and my three monitors are plugged in via DP on a single card which is important because I need to run off of a single card to use SLI as well. Drivers allow multi-monitor g-sync as well as running g-sync on one monitor but not others (although not if you're running Surround). There may be additional hardware and software issues I'm not seeing so I was curious to know if anyone had tried this. Jumping from one Rog Swift to three is the difference between an $800 investment and a $2400 investment so it's worth doing research before taking that plunge.

And the thread is less than four hours old. Give it some time...

-Byshop

If the tech allows it and you have the money, why the hell not? Go for it!

It seems like it'll work and I've found videos of people who have done it (although those are three GPU setups). This should work based on what I've read but there are always little caveats that you only learn after actually trying it.

-Byshop

@Byshop: Just buy the monitors from somewhere with a good return policy and there is minimal risk involved.

These are actually being mounted in a cockpit. It's a whole big thing to swap them in and out. I was hoping that someone might have done this before, but because the total investment to make something like this work is pretty large it was a bit of a longshot. The issues I could potentially encounter may not be immediately obvious, either. When I first switched to an Eyefinity configuration it took a while to learn all the little pros and cons I could run into in different kinds of games. It was the same thing when I switched from AMD to Nvidia. I was hoping I might be able to pick the brain of someone who has already been running such a config for a while but like I said it was a long shot.

-Byshop

IPS panel based monitors with g-sync are right around the corner, so probably wait for those. There's an Acer IPS g-sync monitor out now, but it has some quality control issues, and it would be better to wait for a real brand, like ASUS.

This is actually a valid point. With a 3 monitor setup, viewing angles come into play. IPS is much better than TN for that. I love my Swift and viewing angles are not an issue with a single monitor, but I could see it bothering me in a surround setup. Another thing to consider is what type of games you will be playing in surround setup? If primarily cockpit style games like racing and flight, then VR will be preferable.

That's a great point and is exactly the kind of thinking I was hoping to get out of this thread. Even though I'm a -huge- IPS lover, there are two reasons why I wasn't originally going to go with IPS panels for this:

1) Because it's a cockpit and not a desk, viewing angles are not an issue. The monitors are mounted in the cockpit in an arc so each one faces me directly.

2) There is literally no one monitor that does everything I want. My perfect monitor would be:

IPS
144hz
G-Sync
3D Vision
Thin Bezel
Multi-input
Color Accurate

The Rog has more of those than any other monitor I have ever used. It's not IPs, but it has a very good viewing angle. Only one input is a bit of a bummer for consoles but there are always other options like capture devices for the PC to accomplish the same effect. Color accuracy can be achieved through the color calibration device I have. I'm aware of the Acer monitor but the bezel size is nearly twice that of the Rog and with my u2711Bs I'm already dealing with large bezels.

However, if there were to come out a monitor that had more of the above features than the Rog while retaining the specific "must have" ones like G-Sync then I'd seriously consider it.

The Rog is a TN panel, but I'm running it side by side with two very high quality IPS panels and with the exception of the color difference (that I mitigated) it's hard to tell this panel from an IPS. The viewing angels aren't -as- good but they are still excellent.

-Byshop

I just ordered the monitors. I'll keep you posted and post pics when it's all set up.

-Byshop

If that ain't sexy, I don't know what is. I'll fine tune and tweak the positions, color, etc, but Surround G-Sync works like a charm. Very handy in Surround, too, since there's a higher chance I'll get inconsistent frame rates running at such high resolutions.

-Byshop

@Byshop: Looks good. The thin bezels help a lot. Are there any limitations in surround? Are you able to run all monitors at 144hz?

Eh I am the same way, only do I do it when it is extremely noticeable.. Though I wish some one got a hold of the guys who programed WoW because recently got back into it to check out the changes.. With Vsync off pulling 120+ fps, I haven't noticed a single screen tear at all.

@Byshop: Waaaw that is sexy! Had time to break in those new monitors?

Yeah. Thin bezels are the only reason I didn't go with the Acer IPS Gsync monitors. Like I said above, there are about 8 qualities I want out of a monitor and no monitor has them all, so I picked g-sync+144hz+thin bezels+3Dvision over IPS+color accurate+multi-input. I've never seen any IPS monitor that has what most would consider "thin" bezels.

No issues with the G-sync. The EVGA 980s I have come with three Displayports per card, so I don't need to run three cards to drive three monitors like the old ones required (plus that means I can run SLI). I'm not sure if G-sync will work if I'm in extended mode instead of Surround and although I can do 3 monitor 3d vision, I can't do g-sync and 3d vision at the same time (the features can't work together). Other than that, it works like a champ. G-sync is very handy for 7680x1440 because at that res you are more likely to get dips. I'm actually runnign Elite Dangerous in full screen windowed mode so I can overlay TV in a window on a side monitor. It's a great way to spend an evening.

@insane_metalist: Yup. Lovin' it.

PS: One of the reasons I finally pulled the trigger on this was because I had a $600 pre-paid Visa from work for my 10 year anniversary and I just recently got my tax return late. Amazon had them for about 738, so after free shipping and no tax I was only out of pocket about $850. I plan on selling my two Dell U2711Bs which will probably go for around $250-300 a pop. At the end of the day, I may be out as little as $250 for this particular upgrade. Otherwise, this would have been a pretty over-the-top expense.

-Byshop

Cool setup - it kind of looks like it belongs at a carnival or Gameworks (I don't mean that negatively). Are those tweeters aimed above the head?

Thanks.

Yeah. They are the mains for a set of Logitech Z906s that are directly mounted to the cockpit using an optional speaker mounting kit (you and I discussed this before when I was figuring out what to buy). I know they aren't exactly top of the line but they are fine for my needs. However, if you have any suggestions on placement I'm open to them provided it doesn't require significant modification.

-Byshop

The only issue I have run into with this new configuration is that when Surround is enabled with my three primary monitors, I can't get any audio out of the fourth HDMI connection in my setup. I can see the reciever attached through the HDMI connection, but when I select it I get no audio output. If I turn off Surround it works fine. I know this is a bit of an "out there" config but has anyone else seen a similar issue?

-Byshop