How to Set up Triple Monitors for Ultra-Widescreen Gaming (and Work)
In the past, using more than two monitors was a luxury for those with the largest PC build budget. Large, high-resolution displays are affordable these days and graphics cards are more powerful than ever. If you’re attracted to the idea of playing (or working) on three displays at the same time, here’s how to do it.
Imagine: launching your favorite game and placing it on three gorgeous displays, full field of view where you can see the new bad guys go, and a larger view of the playing field, regardless of whether you are playing an FPS, racing game , top-down strategy or MMO. Even better, if you’ve bought or built a computer in the past few years, chances are you have a graphics card that already supports it. Of course, gaming with three displays also requires significant graphics power, so even if your card supports three panels, gaming with it is a different story altogether.
Before you start hooking up anything, you need to do your homework. Making the most of multiple monitors isn’t difficult , but a little planning goes a long way. Let’s walk you through what you need to know and how to set it up step by step.
Make sure the games you want to play support three panels
Before you do anything – and especially before you start spending money, find out if your favorite games support 3-panel games. Some games work right out of the box, while others will use your main display and ignore others. Titles like Battlefield 4, Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, GRID Autosport, Elite: Dangerous, all support three monitors with a little extra configuration, you just have to group them first (more on how to do that later.) Wide Screen Gaming Forum maintains a database of games with Eyefinity and Surround support. This is where you can search for your favorite games before you go out and buy a second or third display.
Even if your favorite game isn’t on this list, that doesn’t mean it won’t work. The list only contains games that have been tested to work with multiple panels, so recently released games may not yet be enabled, and games requiring customization such as third-party mods or FOV (Field of View) hacks will also not appear. Do your homework – chances are, someone has managed to get your favorite game to work. Even if they haven’t, there are tons of other games to choose from.
Make sure your graphics card supports three displays
Then, before you pick and buy another display, see if your current graphics card can support three displays. It’s kind of easy – just look at the back of your computer and see how many outputs your card has. If you’ve bought a mid to high end card at all in the past four or five years, chances are you have at least one DVI output, DisplayPort output, and HDMI output (possibly several of each). If you have at least three outputs (or one DisplayPort 1.2 that can be daisy-chained to compatible displays ), you’re in good shape.
If you only have two, all is not lost. Many video cards still support multiple displays connected to the same output using a video splitter. This will work for day to day use, but most likely not for gaming. You will need to consult the documentation for your card to be sure, or do a little research (for example, google your graphics card model and use the terms “multiple monitors” and “splitter” at the same time) before you select and buy a splitter.
Likewise, mixing the outputs of your graphics card can be challenging. Some graphics cards will work with any combination of connections, but others require specific ports. Some of them support “passive” adapters, which means you can plug in a dongle, for example, to convert a DVI port to a DisplayPort. Others require “active” adapters – which means you need an additional power supply before you can connect your card’s DVI port to the DisplayPort input of the display. Your best bet is to search online (again, look for your card’s model number and “3 monitors” or “active” and “passive”) to see if other people have successfully used your card in a triple monitor setup. If this all sounds like pain, it is. If you start to get addicted to weeds with a map you already have, or get conflicting information from your research, you might be better off just upgrading your graphics card.
Traditionally, AMD cards have been used in games with three (or more) monitors thanks to AMD Eyefinity technology . When it works, it works really well and easily covers your game across multiple displays and even gives you the option to compensate for the width of your display’s bezel or use different resolutions. NVIDIA, not to be outdone, has NVIDIA Surround for multi-monitor gaming, which supports up to five displays and even 4K resolution (on high-end cards, of course). AMD has a history of making games on three monitors that are easy to customize. up, but if you’re stubborn NVIDIA, your favorite card should work too.
If you upgrade, you’ll be happy to know that all economy cards of this generation can generally support three (or more) displays. Nearly all AMD GPUs support Eyefinity and they have a list of Eyefinity compatible adapters, while NVIDIA has a list of Surround-enabled GPUs so you can make sure the card you want will perform the way you want. Likewise, Tom’s Hardware has a great guide to graphics cards in all price ranges, so you have several options to start your search with. However, be sure to do a little research before buying to see how other people have connected the card of interest to the three displays and whether they made it work with the games you love to play. Some cards may require the mentioned splitters or common outputs on different connectors (for example, the DVI port and DisplayPort connectors are actually the same output). A little preliminary homework will make sure you get all the components you need right away and you don’t have to wait for an adapter or dongle to arrive before your dream setup is complete.
Make sure all of your displays can connect to your graphics card
Your next step is to make sure all of your displays can connect to the same graphics card. If you have displays with multiple inputs like DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI, and other connectivity options, you can mix and match with whatever your graphics card supports best. For example, Dell’s Ultrasharp line is well known for accommodating tons of inputs on a thin (and relatively affordable) display. However, if you are shopping for displays on a tight budget (and there are many cheap but great options ), you need to make sure your monitors have the required inputs before buying. Some great high quality panels that come with cheap input options keep the price down.
This means you canget a great 27-inch Monoprice display with , for example, one DVI-D and one VGA input. If you have a graphics card with multiple DisplayPort outputs, this can be tricky. I will have to spend money on adapters and dongles to get everything to work, and even then you can still run into problems. A simple game on three displays does not require all three displays to be connected at the same resolution and with the same connectors, but it certainly is. , it helps if there are any. If you have to switch the DisplayPort output to VGA, you can bet it won’t work when you try to play with that display in the mix.
Of course, this is all a bit like the chicken and egg situation. If you already have a graphics card and are buying displays, you can simply see how other people have installed three displays with your card and make sure you are getting displays with the correct combination of ports (preferably three of the same displays.) displays and you shop for cards, you can just buy according to the input parameters you have on those displays. If you already have both (as unfortunately I do), you can still get stuck buying keys and just hoping it works. At least you will be able to work with three displays, but your game may be limited to one or two.
Enable all three monitors in Windows
Once you have the right card and the right displays, now you just need to take it apart. If you have displays connected and they are all supported by the ports you connected them to, Windows should automatically recognize them. If you’re lucky, they’ll all work automatically. Otherwise, you may need to force your graphics card to detect or enable one of them. Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select Screen Resolution. You will see all the displays connected to your computer, as well as their position relative to your main display.
If one of them is missing, try clicking Detect to make sure Windows sees all of them. If it’s grayed out, there might be a connection issue or the screen resolution you’re trying to start the display with might be too high. Try decreasing the resolution on this display to see if it starts working. Likewise, make sure the Multiple Displays option in the Screen Resolution Control Panel is set to Extend These Displays. You may need to drag and drop their position a bit in the control panel to make sure your desktop layout matches where the monitors are physically placed on your desk. Once you have everything set up and all three displays are working, click “Apply” and “OK”. At this point, all of your displays are ready for everyday use. You can use them productively for anything – browsing the web on one, e-mail on the other, and opening documents on the third – whatever you like best.
Group displays and run games
Now that all three displays are connected to your PC and working, we need to set them all up for a three-panel game. Here’s what you need to do:
- First of all, update your graphics card drivers. Go to the AMD driver downloads page or the NVIDIA driver downloads page and get the most recent drivers for your card.
- Install drivers and reboot your system. After rebooting, launch the graphics driver software (NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Catalyst Control Center).
- Then we’ll set up your displays for multi-panel gaming. AMD owners should create an “Eyefinity Display Group” that tells your graphics card which display is primary (and should be the center of your field of view in the game) and which are on both sides. NVIDIA owners can click Adjust Surround, PhysX to do the same. Both control panels will also allow you to adjust the thickness of your display bezels, move displays, change display resolution while gaming, and more.
- Once your display groups are set up, launch one of your favorite headers. You will need to go into the game video settings and change the game resolution to match the overall resolution of your combined displays (for example, three displays with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels would be 5760 x 1200 pixels).
- Then, if your game allows you to change your field of view, you’ll also want to expand it to get more out of your peripheral vision. Experiment with different values. In some games, you start at roughly 45 degrees forward for one display, and some allow you to climb up to 75 or 90 degrees. You can go as high as possible, but you end up with distorted, thick-looking objects. Play around and see what works for you and the game you are playing.
Even if there is no FOV setting in your game’s video options, you can manually edit the game’s config files. Each game is different, so do some digging (for example, google the name of the game and the “FOV” field) to see what you can do. Either way, at this point your favorite game should be launched and laid out across three displays to make it look exactly the way you want it to.
Don’t be discouraged if it all seems complicated – it is actually quick and easy if you have all the parts you need and when you know they all come together. Triple display installations are easy to configure, but sometimes difficult to configure, mainly due to the many points of failure. You might run into a video card that doesn’t support different screen sizes or resolutions, or a game that doesn’t cover all three displays, or a broken driver causing crazy artifacts in a particular game, and so on. The details come together quite easily, but the devil is in the details.
Once you eliminate the kinks, the rest is cake. Playing on three displays – especially if the game you’re playing – is a lot of fun. Once you start, it is difficult to go back to not having the peripheral awareness that you have. If you’ve got the budget, desk space (and a great stand for three monitors or two ), and time to get things set up, this is a great way to improve your PC gaming experience.