# Dual Monitors question



## Jarester (Jan 27, 2016)

Ok hi, I'm upgrading my PC and I am wondering a few things about Dual monitors.

What hardware is required for monitors to run fast while both are running so I can effectively game on one and watch twitch, etc on the other? CPU, GPU? RAM?

And do I get to decide which monitor is the main and in what position? I'd like my main monitor in front of me and my secondary on the left is that easily possible?

Does it matter which input you use as your main/secondary? (DVI, Hdmi, etc) ?


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## RCoon (Jan 27, 2016)

GamerDude said:


> What hardware is required



Honestly, nothing. You could very easily plug in two monitors into a GPU, have one game while the other streams video. Your only slowdown for watching Twitch will be your internet speed. Doesn't matter what video output you use either.

As for dual monitor positioning, I have my primary monitor directly in line with my keyboard (not keyboard and mouse, just keyboard), and the secondary monitor off to the right. Might be worth investing in a dual monitor mount.


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## CounterZeus (Jan 27, 2016)

A second monitor with twitch running while gaming will require some extra CPU power. GPU/RAM not so much. Running dual monitors in general is piece of cake with every hardware.

For fast switching between your game and your other programs, I recommend using 'borderless window' option many games provide. this will stress your hardware a little bit more. You can always choose to switch back to fullscreen to get rid of the performance penalty.

If you use windows, you can easily choose which one will be the primary and how they are relatively positioned from each other. Some games even allow through their options to game on the non-primary monitor, but this is rather rare. Some older games will not start with dual monitors (although this is rare as well).

Inputs do not matter. Maybe just for boot which one is showing bios screen, never bothered to figure this out tbh.

Keep in mind most cards only can only have two active outputs, meaning if you want triple screen, check your video card specifications.


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## Jarester (Jan 27, 2016)

Alright, so I have a i5 3570k @3.4ghz and 24" 1080p 2ms monitor how much performance might I lose with dual monitors?

I actually read somewhere that the CPU does somewhat the same amount of speed and it relies more on your GPU ram and I kinda came here to see if that was true.

I haven't got my video card yet but I was thinking if I jacked up the ram a bit I might be alright. Maybe 4 gb ddr5? How would that play out? probably on a card similar to the r9 270/ r7 370

Or I was thinking possibly if it did come down to speed would making my 2nd monitor a different resolution like one of those square 19" 1280 x 1024 be a problem? Would it increase the speed? like this http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...spx?path=cce33a7285a6443522907438a05fb2dcen02

I'd probably prefer 2x 1080p but it's nice to have fast gaming


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## neatfeatguy (Jan 27, 2016)

I used to run two GTX 570s with 3 monitors. I noticed no performance hit while gaming on one of the monitors and running a movie on another.

I've moved to a GTX 980Ti and I still have no performance issues with gaming on one of the three monitors and watching a movie on another. 

As long as you have a decent mid to high end GPU, the performance hit will be negligible or non-existent on gaming performance. The only issue you come across is when switching between monitors has been addressed by CounterZeus.

As of the GTX 6xx series from Nvidia, each card can now support up to 3 monitors. Prior to that, you required multiple GPUs if you were going to use more than 2 monitors. As for AMD, I'm not sure how many monitors their cards can handle, but it should be similar to Nvidia.


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## Jarester (Jan 28, 2016)

Alright guess i'm not too worried about it then thanks a lot


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## Filip Georgievski (Jan 28, 2016)

R9 280x/290/290x are a good start from AMD.
GTX 970/980/980TI are a nice choice from Nvidia.
Get all the GPU power you can, it will come in handy for dual monitors.


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