Two Monitor Setup

[dokken1212]

Hi Everyone

Looking for a bit of advice please,

I currently use a 5120x1440 monitor  as my main gaming monitor and have bought a Samsung Odyssey G32 24" monitor to act as a second monitor (to display checklists, chucks guides etc). I am using a 3080 Graphics Card with AMD Ryzen 9 3900X with 32GB DDR4 3600MHz Ram.

Will this second monitor affect my performance in any meaningful way?

Thanks very much for any advice offered

Edited March 3, 2024 by dokken1212

[speed-of-heat]

The monitor won't impact your performance per-say unless you extend DCS to run across it... that said ... the apps you run on that monitor *might* impact your performance depending on what they are for example having many large documents open in say Chrome might have a performance impact, because it will take CPU cycles and memory and depending on how you have chrome set up it may also impact your GPU performance... 

[kksnowbear]

The word 'meaningful' in your question is well-placed, but makes the answer a good deal more complicated.  Having a separate display absolutely puts more load on any GPU, and resources must be used to drive the pixels on that display.  So there's no doubt that there is a 'hit'.

"Meaningful", however...well, that's a lot more subjective than objective.  I personally believe (and advise clients for whom I do builds including for DCS) that you should avoid running a second monitor on your primary GPU unless they're just no other option.  (And the key is that other options are readily available and not that costly). 

For me, since it is given that there will be *some* load on the primary GPU if you connect an additional monitor, it's best to just avoid that and thus avoid any problems (not just load, but also potential for conflict as we all know Windows is known for at times).  There are solutions which don't require installation in the PC case, cost ~$20 and can drive reasonable resolution displays.  I don't consider it the best idea, but in certain respects, it beats running anything other than your primary monitor off the primary GPU.

That said, though, I have worked on systems where there was only one GPU and the users seemed able to play their preferred games without enough of a 'hit' that it caused problems. 

One thing that definitely has to be considered is resolution of the second monitor:  Whatever the extra load is, it will be more at higher resolution - this is why I don't advise just saying "It won't matter".  The truth is it depends on a number of factors - including your own personal preferences and budget (believe it or not).

Edited March 3, 2024 by kksnowbear

[dokken1212]

Thanks very much - appreciate your time and responses

 

All the very best