Widescreen Gaming Forum

I have a dilemma which I hope you can help me with. I have recently acquired a second Dell U3011 monitor for free and can't decide what to do with it. My two options are, give the free U3011 to my sister to replace her 24” monitor or, keep it for myself and look at buying a third 30” monitor to create a dream gaming rig for myself. Decisions, decisions.

If I decide to go the triple 30” route what would I need to run these beasts?
Could I do it with my current set-up,

i7 – 2600K @ 3.4GHz
16GB RAM
2x Radeon HD6990

or would I need additional hardware? If so, what would you suggest?

What would the WSG forumites do in this situation?
All advice will be greatly received.

Gatherer.

Your current rig would be about as good as you can get. 2x6990 is pretty beastly. Though the 7990 did just come out. If you can afford the additional 30", I'd do that. That screen real estate would be amazing.

skipclarke wrote:Though the 7990 did just come out.

Well it was announced, but didn't come out yet. Not the official one at least. I am assuming that Quadfire drivers are still pretty bad. I would go with 2 Titan in SLI actually. Not sure for how much you can sell those 6990's, but such a setup won't be cheap anyway's. You are looking at 3000 dollars minus what you get for selling 2x6990.

Hey guys.

Thanks for replying. After a lot of thought I've decided to invest in a triple monitor set-up.
I'll need to source a new desk first as my current one is too small to accommodate such a large amount of screen real estate. I should have time this weekend to take proper measurements but, my initial thoughts are for a 1.6 x 1 metre desktop.
Hopefully, I'll have a new desk and the third monitor on order early next week.

With the HD6990's would it be the best option to connect all three monitors via Displayport cables? Would this guarantee a 7680x1600 resolution?

Gatherer wrote:Hey guys.

Thanks for replying. After a lot of thought I've decided to invest in a triple monitor set-up.
I'll need to source a new desk first as my current one is too small to accommodate such a large amount of screen real estate. I should have time this weekend to take proper measurements but, my initial thoughts are for a 1.6 x 1 metre desktop.
Hopefully, I'll have a new desk and the third monitor on order early next week.

With the HD6990's would it be the best option to connect all three monitors via Displayport cables? Would this guarantee a 7680x1600 resolution?

You WANT VERY MUCH to connect them all the same way. If you don't use all the same connections (say use that dual-link DVI port and 2 miniDP) you will get tearing on the odd man out... well kinda. Depends on what's your "Main" display. If you put the choose the DVI display as your main display, it will tear on both the miniDP monitors, but if you chose a miniDP as your main, it would tear on the dvi display. Easiest way would be to connect them all via Displayport. It's what I've done on my 5870 Eyefinity 6 and now my Xfire 7970 Lightnings. BTW, I run 7680x1600.

Hi Suiken.

I had an inkling there may be a tearing issue with mixed ports, but I thought I'd ask the experts first.


A quick update on my new build.
The third monitor was ordered today, a Dell U3014, along with 3 Displayport cables. I've re-arranged my office space a little to better accommodate the new desk, a 180×80 cm, height adjustable unit. I'll be heading to the supplier after work tomorrow to check prices and place the order.
The monitor should be with me on Wednesday, but the desk will probably take a couple of weeks at least to get here. When everything has arrived and I'm happy with the set-up I'll post some pictures.
In the meantime, if anyone has any tips or advice to pass on to a multi-display user noob, please post away.

Update 2.

My third monitor arrived last Thursday and I finally had time to set it up this weekend.
The new Dell 3014 is a good looking beast with nicely rounded corners and a black brushed aluminium style bezel. After calibration it was easy to see a noticeable difference in image quality between the old Dell 3011's and the new Dell 3014.
The DP cables turned up in the post this morning, so sometime this week I'll be able to perform a trial run of my triple set-up, to iron out any issues before the new desk is delivered.

Gatherer wrote:Update 2.

My third monitor arrived last Thursday and I finally had time to set it up this weekend.
The new Dell 3014 is a good looking beast with nicely rounded corners and a black brushed aluminium style bezel. After calibration it was easy to see a noticeable difference in image quality between the old Dell 3011's and the new Dell 3014.
The DP cables turned up in the post this morning, so sometime this week I'll be able to perform a trial run of my triple set-up, to iron out any issues before the new desk is delivered.

Sweet, good news. You will probably have a lot of trouble with matching the u3011 and u3014. They have two different types of backlights and they probably have two different panels.

suiken_2mieu wrote:Sweet, good news. You will probably have a lot of trouble with matching the u3011 and u3014. They have two different types of backlights and they probably have two different panels.

I had a dry run set-up last night and the Eyefinity software worked a treat. I was up and running in a couple of minutes and then spent the next couple of hours trying out as many games as I could find. I definitely made the right decision. Playing at 7680x1600 is just all kinds of awesome.
Suiken_2mieu, as you said, there is a noticeable difference between the new and old monitors, but having the U3014 as the centre monitor reduces the problem. Is it possible to calibrate all three monitors to display a uniform brightness/colour level when used as a triple set-up?

Gatherer wrote:

suiken_2mieu wrote:Sweet, good news. You will probably have a lot of trouble with matching the u3011 and u3014. They have two different types of backlights and they probably have two different panels.

I had a dry run set-up last night and the Eyefinity software worked a treat. I was up and running in a couple of minutes and then spent the next couple of hours trying out as many games as I could find. I definitely made the right decision. Playing at 7680x1600 is just all kinds of awesome.
Suiken_2mieu, as you said, there is a noticeable difference between the new and old monitors, but having the U3014 as the centre monitor reduces the problem. Is it possible to calibrate all three monitors to display a uniform brightness/colour level when used as a triple set-up?

It's possible, but I think you'll need a calibrator.

suiken_2mieu wrote:It's possible, but I think you'll need a calibrator.

At the moment I'm using an i1 Display Pro to calibrate my monitors. This makes setting up single monitors a breeze, but three, that’s a whole different ball game.
If, what I've read recently is correct, there is no way to do this type of calibration through software as Windows can only assign one colour profile at a time.
There may be a way to get a good colour/brightness match via the monitors manual controls and using something like ColorHCFR. I've got another couple of weeks before I can complete my set-up so I'll keep looking for a better solution.

Hey do you have any photos of your setup? I was thing of getting a third Dell 30", but I am not sure how to maximize 2 at the moment. They are so huge and barely fit on my desk. Did you mount them or set them up in Portrait (vertical) mode?

Really curious to see what you did.

dinglesniff wrote:Hey do you have any photos of your setup? I was thing of getting a third Dell 30", but I am not sure how to maximize 2 at the moment. They are so huge and barely fit on my desk. Did you mount them or set them up in Portrait (vertical) mode?

Really curious to see what you did.

Hi Dinglesniff.

Thanks for the reminder, I'd totally forgotten to update this thread.
As you can see from the pic I have my monitors in landscape mode. I use this system primarily for gaming and this is the best fit, for me. For reference, the desk is 180×100 cm; my old desk was far too small for three 30 inchers. It's also hight adjustable, as like to game standing up. Hope this helps.