2 monitors, 2 refresh rates, 1 graphics card.

[blankoos]

Hey.
So I'm going to buy a 970 and use one 1080p 144hz 1ms for gaming and one 1080p 60hz 2ms for accessibility. But is the graphics card able to run two monitors on two different fps rates? And/or will I experience screen tearing?

 

[Xivilain]

Simply put, screen tearing happens when the Video memory buffer updates while the Monitor captures the image, "in-process" and produces two images on one screen. In high speed movement games, it becomes very visible, and distracting/annoying/ugly. This can happen regardless of using two different monitors. So if you just used your 144hz 1080p monitor by itself, you may still experience tearing.

Now, you can still use two different monitors 60hz + 144hz together. You might not like using them together for gaming. Half your screen would appear smoother than the other. Unless you duplicate the image on both screens. (That would be interesting for side-by-side comparisons.)

Some games (or game modes) can black out your secondary monitor, while the main action happens in the other. You could avoid this by "windowing" your game, and not using the "Fullscreen" option. Or if you prefer that, then leave it alone.

I think the best experience would be one144hz monitor in fullscreen mode. But if you use the 60hz monitor as a secondary screen, and not use fullscreen gaming on both, then that would probably be nice as well. Maybe have Firefox open on it showing game stats (Battlefield 4 Battlelog) or Game guide websites, etc. Possibilities are endless. Have fun!

 

[blankoos]

Simply put, screen tearing happens when the Video memory buffer updates while the Monitor captures the image, "in-process" and produces two images on one screen. In high speed movement games, it becomes very visible, and distracting/annoying/ugly. This can happen regardless of using two different monitors. So if you just used your 144hz 1080p monitor by itself, you may still experience tearing.

Now, you can still use two different monitors 60hz + 144hz together. You might not like using them together for gaming. Half your screen would appear smoother than the other. Unless you duplicate the image on both screens. (That would be interesting for side-by-side comparisons.)

Some games (or game modes) can black out your secondary monitor, while the main action happens in the other. You could avoid this by "windowing" your game, and not using the "Fullscreen" option. Or if you prefer that, then leave it alone.

I think the best experience would be one144hz monitor in fullscreen mode. But if you use the 60hz monitor as a secondary screen, and not use fullscreen gaming on both, then that would probably be nice as well. Maybe have Firefox open on it showing game stats (Battlefield 4 Battlelog) or Game guide websites, etc. Possibilities are endless. Have fun!

Thanks!
Is there a way of checking weather a monitor is compatible with a specific graphics card, before buying them, that is.
And if I experience screen tearing on it could I not just solve the problem by setting, in this case, the vertical sync on adaptive in the Nvidia control panel?

 

[Xivilain]

A monitor would be compatible with a video card if:
1) The screen resolution is less than or equal to the video card's maximum screen resolution
2) The same interface is accepted (VGA, DVI-D, DVI-I, HDMI, DP, etc.) (This can be manipulated with adapters like HDMI to VGA, or DVI to DP)

That's it for normal monitors. Now if you want to make use of DFRC (Dynamic frame rate control) features, like FreeSync or G-Sync, you would just have to make sure both the monitor and the video card have that feature.

For Adaptive Vsync, I'd really only suggest using 1 monitor at a time for it to work properly. Otherwise you may get a lot of screen tearing anyway. If frames are refreshed faster than 60hz, then you'd be locking your 144hz monitor at 60hz, thus making it pointless to have such a beastly refresh rate. If frames are lower than 60hz, you may get some Judder as the video buffer isn't receiving new images to display fast enough to keep up to 60hz. Other people may attest to using VSync on dual monitors, or you can search the forums for more info on it. There is lots of info out there.