Setting up Surround for triple variant monitors setup

[f.mullen]

i have a single GTX 1080TI, using DP cable to three of my monitors: 2 4k monitors(Acer XB281HK, Dell S2817Q) and 1 2k monitor(Dell S2716DG).
And i have tried using the Nvidia surround resulting 2 of my monitors giving me black borders around... hence im here to get an expert opinion
thx.

 

[Karadjgne]

Even the 1080ti only has a maximum resolution of 7680x4320. Using nvidia surround you link all 3 monitors together as a giant single monitor resolution, at the lowest setting, which is 1440p or 2560x1440. Times 3x that's a resolution of 7680x1440, but your 4k monitors won't scale out, so you get the black borders as they are running at 1440p resolution, not 4k. You won't be able to change this as it'll put you beyond the gpu max resolution and you'll get 3x black screens.

To get all 3x monitors on the same background, just use windows-display-extended desktop. That treats all 3 monitors individually not together, so resolutions will be correct. Wallpapers will scale out,though,you are using 2 different resolutions, but any apps will be correctly sized for the individual monitor used.

 

[f.mullen]

Even the 1080ti only has a maximum resolution of 7680x4320. Using nvidia surround you link all 3 monitors together as a giant single monitor resolution, at the lowest setting, which is 1440p or 2560x1440. Times 3x that's a resolution of 7680x1440, but your 4k monitors won't scale out, so you get the black borders as they are running at 1440p resolution, not 4k. You won't be able to change this as it'll put you beyond the gpu max resolution and you'll get 3x black screens.

To get all 3x monitors on the same background, just use windows-display-extended desktop. That treats all 3 monitors individually not together, so resolutions will be correct. Wallpapers will scale out,though,you are using 2 different resolutions, but any apps will be correctly sized for the individual monitor used.

What if having two 1080TI's on SLI, does it solve the nvidia surround issue i having? Or Use third party software like SoftTH or any alternatives...?

And is it worth it having SLI though?

 

[Karadjgne]

Sli wouldn't change anything but the fps on certain games. Nvidia surround was designed to run on 3x monitors in a game, so you get peripheral vision on the 2x side monitors. But not even a 1080ti can do that on 3x 4k monitors. To get that kind of game play setup requires no more than 3x 1440p monitors.

What sli does is split the screen, one gpu makes the top half, the other gpu takes the bottom half, working together to get 1 full frame. But that doesn't change the size of the frames (resolution) or the size of the ram, they work side-by-side, not added. You can run all 3 monitors with no issue, separately with extended desktop, but to span all 3 simultaneously you'll need to drop the resolution to something the gpu both can support and handle at decent fps. 3x 1080p monitors would be best, you'll game on all 3, not just the primary.

SLI is only supported in DX11 and prior. As of DX12, sli was dropped in favor of mgpu (multiple gpus) where both gpus would add their power, ram, etc together, unlike sli/crossfire which uses gpus separately but simultaneously. Unfortunately, game devs are lazy beasts about change, and really have not opened up game code for mgpu, so a single gpu is still the best bet, unless sticking to DX11, in which case it's a matter of just how well sli is supported.

 

[Glenwing]

GPU max resolution applies to physical screens, not to virtual screens created in Surround.

Usually the max resolution isn't real anyway, it's just their way of saying "yes it supports 8K monitors" when in reality there is no actual hard maximum.