4th monitor ( for dummies)

[stigs2cousin]

Hy guys,

a rather stupid question from a guys who really does not like computers.
I´m only driving on PC because consoles don´t do triples and refuse mods.

At the moment i´m using a graphics card that can feed my triple 1080p´s with 80FPS in AC
( most of the time, its the RX5700XT)

To declutter my main screens I´d like to add a 4th cheap monitor above which could be driven by a free HDMI port. It wouldn´t have to have a high refresh rate because it would onl show data and graphs.

Would it be possible to run lets say a 60 HZ monitor together with the 144`s?
And could I just drag the AC Apps into this monitor or would I have to use Simhub for that over USB?.
(Simhub is already running for my bassshaker system)

And is it possible to predict what that might do to the FPS of the main monitors?

Any advice appreciated

Carsten

 

[RasmusP]

Hi, I don't have triples and I only know about Nvidia GPUs but I think I still can answer most of your questions

Would it be possible to run lets say a 60 HZ monitor together with the 144`s?

Yes, this is possible with any gpu I've come across yet. There are only some issues when you're running freesync/gsync in non-fullscreen sometimes. But with a non-buggy driver even that should work fine.

Only thing that's non working is running vsync/gsync/freesync with the image across multiple monitors. For example using your triples as "triples" in the game and using freesync while the center monitor is 144 hz and the sides are 60 hz.

But what you're wanting to do should be perfectly fine!

And could I just drag the AC Apps into this monitor

No, ac apps only work within the ac game window. But your ac game window is across your triples.
If ac would support that, you would lose quite some fps due to a 4th monitor being rendered. And you would lose the vsync/freesync due to the 60 hz of it.

would I have to use Simhub for that over USB?.

Eh.. Via USB? Sorry I've not been using simhub for quite some time.
Normally simhub should be simply on the 4th monitor as an overlay or separate window?

Your game should run on the triples and the 4th should be just your windows desktop so you can put anything you want on it.

And is it possible to predict what that might do to the FPS of the main monitors?

Putting another 2D desktop on the gpu will only cause very low performance difference.
Maybe 1-3%, not more!
Ofc it depends on what you put on that 4th monitor. If the simhub overlay causes 10% cpu and gpu load, then that will be your performance loss. But if you would put the same simhub overlay on your triples, it would be exactly the same

Hope that helps as a first input

 

[Turk]

If your looking to display information from inside a sim there are apps for your phone that can do that.

This is one I came across on the official forum.

Generic - DashPanel dashboard app for Android - Now supporting console

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that after many requests my Android dashboard software DashPanel now supports Assetto Corsa on console via UDP....

www.assettocorsa.net

While I think what you want to do is possible I'd have worries it might cause headaches and glitches having a monitor running a different resolution on top of triple screen.

 

[Beef36]

Hy guys,

a rather stupid question from a guys who really does not like computers.
I´m only driving on PC because consoles don´t do triples and refuse mods.

At the moment i´m using a graphics card that can feed my triple 1080p´s with 80FPS in AC
( most of the time, its the RX5700XT)

To declutter my main screens I´d like to add a 4th cheap monitor above which could be driven by a free HDMI port. It wouldn´t have to have a high refresh rate because it would onl show data and graphs.

Would it be possible to run lets say a 60 HZ monitor together with the 144`s?
And could I just drag the AC Apps into this monitor or would I have to use Simhub for that over USB?.
(Simhub is already running for my bassshaker system)

And is it possible to predict what that might do to the FPS of the main monitors?

Any advice appreciated

Carsten

I only run Nvidia graphic cards, but in general the answer is Yes.

You can plug your 4th monitor into the motherboard own HDMI / DVI / DisplayPort running at 60Hz while your triples connected to the graphics card runs at 144hz.

There is no real impact to your graphics card from displaying things this way, however each additional app you run in the background will consume additional CPU cycles, hence your CPU will work harder and that may or may not impact your gaming performance.

Be mindful that the active window (e.g. the last window you clicked your mouse in) is the game. If the active window is something in the 4th monitor, I have experienced instances where the game runs at the speed of the active window's monitor (e.g. 60Hz), or the game screens go blank.

Below I use Z1 Dashboard on a 4th monitor running at 60Hz, with the game running at 200Hz. You can drag any window you like (e.g. Simcommander, iTunes, etc) onto the 4th monitor.

 

[stigs2cousin]

Looks like my CPU ( Ryzen 5 3600X) doesn´t have an onboard graphics solution so the HDMI of the MoBo shouldn´t work, right?

Shame that the AC Apps only work on the AC screen ( though its logical)

I´ll have to look into Simhub some more if I can find the things I seek.

Thanks everybody for your input,

MFG Carsten

 

[RasmusP]

Looks like my CPU ( Ryzen 5 3600X) doesn´t have an onboard graphics solution so the HDMI of the MoBo shouldn´t work, right?

Exactly, yep. Sadly not possible with the standard Ryzen.

About the ac apps:
Well they tank the cpu performance quite a lot so... Not too bad that they won't work

 

[stigs2cousin]

Havn´t noticed the "tanking part" quite yet, but i run a lot of apps.
(helicorsa, tyre, laps, performance delta, pedals, racer data, leaderboard, track maps and so on)
Thats why the fourth monitor was an idea to declutter.

Oh well, research goes on, well see in then end.

MFG Carsten

 

[Durge Driven]

Looks like my CPU ( Ryzen 5 3600X) doesn´t have an onboard graphics solution so the HDMI of the MoBo shouldn´t work, right?

Could you buy cheap video card like GT 710 for 4th screen

 

[stigs2cousin]

Could you buy cheap video card like GT 710 for 4th screen

That could be a possibility, but i can´t judge the viability and I don´t feel comfortable to work on my PC.
I bought a prebuild PC in an (almost ) local shop and have it serviced by the dealers service department.
( which is a good thing as power supply and ram have been swapped under the warranty.

MFG Carsten

 

[Beef36]

Havn´t noticed the "tanking part" quite yet, but i run a lot of apps.
(helicorsa, tyre, laps, performance delta, pedals, racer data, leaderboard, track maps and so on)
Thats why the fourth monitor was an idea to declutter.

Oh well, research goes on, well see in then end.

MFG Carsten

There is a roundabout solution but costs a bit and depends what additional hardware you have laying around.

Z1 Dashboard is one of the best "telemetry" tools available but it comes with a monthly subscription fee (something like $2 for the full suite of Z1 products). Its data can be sent over your local home network (or even over the internet) via Z1 Server running on your gaming PC.

Z1 Server takes up hardly any CPU cycles, but until recently, each instance of Z1 Dashboard used to consume around 8% CPU. I run 5 instances concurrently which consumed around 40% CPU (this issue was fixed by Z1 this year and running 5 instances now only consumes around 12% CPU).

Anyway to get around this problem, I had my 4th monitor connected to both my main gaming PC and a separate PC and I could run Z1 Dashboard on either PC.

So if I needed to reclaim CPU cycles, I could switch my 4th monitor to the "other" PC and run 5 instances of Z1 Dashboard from there.

So in theory, for some telemetry apps that have a built-in Server, you can run the 4th monitor from a separate PC.

 

[stigs2cousin]

You remember the " not PC person" part

Things are getting way to complicated for me for just a little declutter on the screens.

thanks anyway Carsten

 

[Durge Driven]

You remember the " not PC person" part

Things are getting way to complicated for me for just a little declutter on the screens.

thanks anyway Carsten

You don't have to be a car person to change a flat or electrician to change light bulbs
I would say Installing a GPU is no more difficult then those

"could you" was rhetorical
You can and it's 100% viable and will not affect your gaming performance in any shape or form

Your local store may have old secondhand GPUs would be perfect

 

[RasmusP]

Havn´t noticed the "tanking part" quite yet, but i run a lot of apps.
(helicorsa, tyre, laps, performance delta, pedals, racer data, leaderboard, track maps and so on)

The apps are mostly rendered in the REND graphics stats and show in the MAIN_T (main CPU thread).
When main_t gets close to 100%, you'll get physic issues and the famous cpu occupancy warning.

REND is just the frame time in milliseconds and is directly influencing the fps (60 fps = 16.67 ms frame to frame time).

Here are screenshots from my usual racing HUD at a race start against 30 AI:

With CSP disabled: ~ 60 fps

Only the "Custom Font Rendering" from CSP enabled, which lowers the cpu load from the HUD apps a lot: ~90 fps

That could be a possibility, but i can´t judge the viability and I don´t feel comfortable to work on my PC.
I bought a prebuild PC in an (almost ) local shop and have it serviced by the dealers service department.
( which is a good thing as power supply and ram have been swapped under the warranty.

MFG Carsten

Nah don't even think about another gpu or whatever.
Pluggin in another monitor is really adding ZERO load basically.

SimHub from my experience can be set up to have very low loads. My issue with it always was that I'm using gsync and therefore using "exclusive fullscreen" when running games. SimHub is just a window so you need to have the game running in borderless windowed mode.

But that's not an issue with a 4th monitor. Just put simhub on it and you'll still be able to keep the game in fullscreen on the triples.

 

[Durge Driven]

The apps are mostly rendered in the REND graphics stats and show in the MAIN_T (main CPU thread).
When main_t gets close to 100%, you'll get physic issues and the famous cpu occupancy warning.

REND is just the frame time in milliseconds and is directly influencing the fps (60 fps = 16.67 ms frame to frame time).

Here are screenshots from my usual racing HUD at a race start against 30 AI:

With CSP disabled: ~ 60 fps
View attachment 481587


Only the "Custom Font Rendering" from CSP enabled, which lowers the cpu load from the HUD apps a lot: ~90 fps
View attachment 481588

Pluggin in another monitor is really adding ZERO load basically.

SimHub from my experience can be set up to have very low loads. My issue with it always was that I'm using gsync and therefore using "exclusive fullscreen" when running games. SimHub is just a window so you need to have the game running in borderless windowed mode.

But that's not an issue with a 4th monitor. Just put simhub on it and you'll still be able to keep the game in fullscreen on the triples.

 

[Durge Driven]

Nah don't even think about another gpu or whatever.

Sorry don't understand that ?

It is okay to use onboard graphics as 2nd video but not a 2nd graphic card

Why ?

 

[RasmusP]

Sorry don't understand that ?

It is okay to use onboard graphics as 2nd video but not a 2nd graphic card

Why ?

Nah you got that wrong from me
- both is theoretically totally fine!
- I didn't reply about the onboard graphics chip because he doesn't have one anyway
- although plugging in an hdmi cable into the MoBo is a different level of "pc knowledge" than opening the case and putting in a gpu. Although that's probably the easiest task of building a pc

- my point is that using the onboard chip or another cheap gpu is unnecessary in general, since he has an hdmi port available on his main gpu and running a desktop with some hud will not cost him more than 1-3 fps, depending on how heavy the hud is ofc.

 

[Durge Driven]

Nah you got that wrong from me
- both is theoretically totally fine!
- I didn't reply about the onboard graphics chip because he doesn't have one anyway
- although plugging in an hdmi cable into the MoBo is a different level of "pc knowledge" than opening the case and putting in a gpu. Although that's probably the easiest task of building a pc

- my point is that using the onboard chip or another cheap gpu is unnecessary in general, since he has an hdmi port available on his main gpu and running a desktop with some hud will not cost him more than 1-3 fps, depending on how heavy the hud is ofc.

Yes you right of course, I should have read OP properly... " free HDMi port " doh

 

[stigs2cousin]

Well, I researched Simhub some more and found a lot of usefull info.

Sadly I´m even more undecided now.

The decision has to fall between "dashboard" (five to seven inches) above the wheel or a real fourth monitor above the triples.
Sadly the dash would (at least partly ) be obscured by my main wheel, a Sparco P310.
Would be fine with the big drift/classic car wheel but for that kind of driving i don´t need a dash

I think i will mock up a cardboard version of the seven inch and try it out on the rig.

MFG Carsten

Edith says:

After some meddling with an old smartphone I decided the screen was to small for a leaderboard and I didn´t like the dashboards readyly available.

So i tried a "proof of concept" with an old 42" plasma screen I had lying around and it worked easyly out of the box.
( after identifiing a defective HDMI Cable )
Even for a " not a PC person" it was simple to configure with simhub.
So the next step will be to find a more fitting screen that doesn´t produce so much heat...

 

[stigs2cousin]

And its done, just bought a 24" ASUS monitor (used/50€) and mounted it above the triples.
Installation was breeze, it was recognized instantly in Windows and Simhub.

I could get rid of some of the AC apps, now I need the right dashboard template to get rid of the rest.
The normal Simhub leaderboard is nice, but i want/need tyre temperatures.
Lets see what is available on RD ( and learn how to install that)

MFG Carsten

 

[VictorFT150]

Hy guys,

a rather stupid question from a guys who really does not like computers.
I´m only driving on PC because consoles don´t do triples and refuse mods.

At the moment i´m using a graphics card that can feed my triple 1080p´s with 80FPS in AC
( most of the time, its the RX5700XT)

To declutter my main screens I´d like to add a 4th cheap monitor above which could be driven by a free HDMI port. It wouldn´t have to have a high refresh rate because it would onl show data and graphs.

Would it be possible to run lets say a 60 HZ monitor together with the 144`s?
And could I just drag the AC Apps into this monitor or would I have to use Simhub for that over USB?.
(Simhub is already running for my bassshaker system)

And is it possible to predict what that might do to the FPS of the main monitors?

Any advice appreciated

Carsten

not sure. i can run 4 monitors on eyefinity all in the game.. and it dont matter what hz as long as the correct one is selected in settings for primary display it makes my 60 hz monitor run at 75 ? or just 60 and i cant tell diference.. find your Eyefinity setup. so you can actually set it up instead of just quick setup quick setup sucks