Going double monitor for the first time. Need some advise

vandatene

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Aug 27, 2017
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510
Welcome!

I'm planning to upgrade my build with two 1440p 60hz monitors. I however came across several questions and concerns and I hope that those that are reading this topic can give me some answers and their own experience on what I'm about to do.

Before I start asking the questions, these are the important pc specs from my pc:
CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K Kaby Lake 4.20GHz (Not overclocked)
RAM: 16GB DDR4 1500MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z270-P
GPU: MSI GTX 1070 8G
Storage: Using SSD, but doubt that is important for this topic.

My first question would be regarding connecting the second monitor. The graphic card has only 1 HDMI port. A friend said he uses a HDMI to DVI connector to connect the monitor via HDMI to a DVI port. This however would remove the audio option. Both screens have a speaker build in, but only my main has to work since I can only use 1 audio output at the time so the second monitor doesn't need the audio. Is there however a better option? I also see DP (Displayport) ports which my monitor has as well, but are those better? Why is there only 1 HDMI port in the first place? I assume it has a reason.

Now comes the more discussable part of the topic, the GPU. I've always used one monitor, 1080p with 50hz refresh rate. With my current graphic card, I would like to use two monitors. I know a higher refresh rate than 60hz is not going to be worth it for me, and most likely won't bring good performance with my current GPU. I'm now considering using two 1080p or two 1440p monitors with 60hz refresh rate. Is it worth going to 1440p monitors? Not looking to price, only looking to performance.

I found this on a different site, which shows that using 1080p or 1440p has a difference of around 35 fps on average. That looks like alot, but I also lack information about the refresh rate so I'm not sure if this was done with a higher refresh rate.
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So in the end, I'm wondering if it is worth going for two 1440p 60hz monitors. I'm afraid the performance of games would be heavily decreased. As long as I'm above 60fps I shouldn't notice it, but I rather have a bit more to be safe, than being around 60 fps, and even lower.

Important is the games you play of course. For me, that would be games like Elder Scrolls Online, For Honor, Division and Battlefield 2.

Please let me know your experience or what you would suggest that I do? I hope to be going for 1440p but I rather hear the opinions of others before spending alot of money.

Thanks for reading!
 

RobCrezz

Expert
Ambassador
You are only going to be playing games on one of the screens right? If so then there will be no performance loss by running an additional screen.

Your system is a good enough spec to run 1440p @ 60fps in most things as long as you dont max the settings.
 

vandatene

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Aug 27, 2017
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Yes, I'll be running games on only one monitor. I do wonder if I could get some extra performance by increasing my ram to 32GB? Not sure if more ram is consumed with a second screen.

I also still need to figure out how to actually connect the second screen since there is no second HDMI port.

Also thanks for the quick reply. That was really fast.

 

RobCrezz

Expert
Ambassador


Theres no performance drop by running an additional screen really, as its not requiring any of the gpus power.

No theres no need for 32gb of ram, you wont get any performance boost from it in games.

If the monitors take DisplayPort just use that. It carries audio like hdmi but generally supports higher resolutions and refresh rates.
 

vandatene

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Aug 27, 2017
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510


When searching more information about the displayports, I read alot about connecting two monitors with displayport cables. But I assume each screen has it's own cable going toward the monitor?
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator


Correct.
 

vandatene

Prominent
Aug 27, 2017
10
0
510
Thank you both for the quick reactions. I now know how to connect the 2 monitors with my pc, and I also know that going for 1440p 60hz is worth it, however max settings is with newer games not reachable if I want to stay above 60 fps. Good to know that 1 or 2 monitors don't really make much difference in the need of performance, if you only plan on using 1 monitor for gaming anyways. Thanks alot!
 
Dual link dvi, hdmi, and dp can all run 1440p/60 and are all digital so it's the same quality. Dp and hdmi carry audio while dvi doesn't. You can only output to 1 audio device anyways. Use any port that's available without needing to buy adapters/cables unless you really want to spend money.

More monitors don't take more ram, they take more vram. More software running takes more ram and vram. That may sound like vram usage will go up a lot but it doesn't. It's a couple hundred MB for most uses.