Question Complicated dual screen set up advice (PC gaming)

[JayJones]

Background -

My PC is currently output through a HDMI 4-way splitter to four different 1080p screens (mirror mode). This supports two workstations I have:

1) Living room station -

1 x television (1080p) (60hz)
1 x monitor (1080p) (60hz)

2) Office work/gaming station -

2 x monitors (1080p) (60hz)

Note - the television is connected to output one on the splitter, which is what the PC recognises as the monitor source. The other three are mirrors and do not show up within the PC's graphic/audio settings.

Upgrade situation -

I want to upgrade all my monitors for a better gaming experience. I'd be looking at -

3 x gaming monitors (1440p) (165hz)
1 x television (4k) (120hz)

Note 1 - For gaming purposes I have a graphic card (RTX 4080) that would support going up to 165hz.

Note 2 - The 4K television would continue to serve as the main source (output one) but I'd ensure my PC display is set to 1440p, in sync with the three mirrored monitors.

Note 3 - For gaming, I would be using my office work/gaming station and would ensure my television (in the living room station) is not in use.

Question -

1) To achieve 165hz gaming on this set up, for my mirror monitors, with a main source output television at 120hz, would I be ok to override the frame rate settings in NVIDA control panel on the PC?

2) If I set the PC display to 1440p (165hz) is this going to cause an issue on the main 4k (120hz) television during non-gaming usage? (baring in mind I would not use this for gaming and ensure it's switched off)

3) Would I be better off just aiming for 120hz gaming, using the full capabilites of the television and splitting this out to the monitors?

I realise this is quite a complicated question here but any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Jay

 

[Order 66]

Not sure how to get the displays to show up in Windows, but you will need something like a 4090 to drive 4 displays at those resolutions and refresh rates. Linus Tech Tips recently did a video showing how even extra monitors just being connected to the GPU and displaying the desktop impacts performance anywhere from 3-5% depending on how many monitors are connected.

 

[JayJones]

Not sure how to get the displays to show up in Windows, but you will need something like a 4090 to drive 4 displays at those resolutions and refresh rates. Linus Tech Tips recently did a video showing how even extra monitors just being connected to the GPU and displaying the desktop impacts performance anywhere from 3-5% depending on how many monitors are connected.

I've just watched it - that is testing on an extended monitor set up, not a mirrored one. Mirrored monitors, via a splitter, use no extra resource whatsoever- they're just copies/duplicates of one signal path. That's why only one monitor shows up on the PC - the others are not officially recognised because they're merely 'clones'. That's the whole point of a splitter - it splits one signal and sends a mirrored image to multiple places at the same time. Extra resource/strain would only occur on the graphic card if using 'extended' dual monitor set ups (like in the Linus tech video). For example, my 4080 graphic card has four ports 1 x HMDI and 3 x Display ports - if all were connected at once, to form a 4-screen extension set up, then that would of course put strain on the card as it's now sharing resource with (and powering) four monitors at once. A mirrored set up uses one port only - the HDMI port, with an additional splitter duplicating the signal to multiple places. In the Linus video he plugged four monitors into one graphic card - totally different.

I use the same technique with my Xbox Series X, PS5 and cable television box - all have splitters attached and send out the signal to all four of my screens at the same time.