RTX 2070 mixing Displayport & HDMI for Multi Monitor set up

[M D Gourley]

Hello everyone,
I am looking at upgrading to a RTX 2070 and liked the look and specs of the Asus ROG Strix 2070 OC and as I have a Triple Screen set up 3x 1920 x 1080 Monitors @ 60 Hz, the Asus ROG Strix 2070 only has 2x Displayport and 2x HDMI.
...so question is can I still have my 3x 1920 x 1080 Monitors plugged in to the Asus ROG 2070 without any issues eg 2x Displayport + 1x HDMI....or...1x Displayport + 2x HDMI to have all 3 monitors going at once for nVidia surround....any thoughts welcome, thanks.

 

[Jens Roos]

I assume nothing has changed from 10xx series so mixing ports should be possible, but note that the low end port (hdmi) will limit the performance of your surrond setup in resolution and hz.

Your setup however, 1920x1080 60hz is within hdmi limits, but could be good to know if you going to upgrade your monitors.

 

[M D Gourley]

I assume nothing has changed from 10xx series so mixing ports should be possible, but note that the low end port (hdmi) will limit the performance of your surrond setup in resolution and hz.

Your setup however, 1920x1080 60hz is within hdmi limits, but could be good to know if you going to upgrade your monitors.

Thank you for taking the time to respond and the information supplied, much appreciated.

 

[BP]

Hello everyone,
I am looking at upgrading to a RTX 2070 and liked the look and specs of the Asus ROG Strix 2070 OC and as I have a Triple Screen set up 3x 1920 x 1080 Monitors @ 60 Hz, the Asus ROG Strix 2070 only has 2x Displayport and 2x HDMI.
...so question is can I still have my 3x 1920 x 1080 Monitors plugged in to the Asus ROG 2070 without any issues eg 2x Displayport + 1x HDMI....or...1x Displayport + 2x HDMI to have all 3 monitors going at once for nVidia surround....any thoughts welcome, thanks.

I've run 4 monitors for the past 3 years, using a GTX 980 ti and again with my RTX 2080...no issues. I have a G-sync monitor (DisplayPort) for everyday use/non-triple screen gaming and 3 x 1080p monitors for sim-racing and flight/space sims (these have DisplayPort as well as HDMI). Both of the cards I got have the same config: 3 DP ports and 1 HDMI port. I think your setup shouldn't pose a problem.

One word of advice:
1) Regardless of which ports you use on the GPU side, make sure you use the same ports on the monitor side for all 3 monitors (i.e. all three monitors should use their HDMI port or their DP port, don't mix and match ports on the monitor side). The reason for this is display quality/color matching varies depending on the port. At first I tried using the DisplayPort on my center monitor and the HDMI port on the side monitors, the colors were all wrong. So I bought a DP to HDMI cable for the center monitor so all three would use the HDMI port...perfect color match. Displayport has better color IMO (Deeper blacks/better contrast overall), but only 3 DP ports on nvidia cards currently so HDMI will have to do for me, but if your monitors all have DP, use those.

 

[M D Gourley]

One word of advice:
1) Regardless of which ports you use on the GPU side, make sure you use the same ports on the monitor side for all 3 monitors (i.e. all three monitors should use their HDMI port or their DP port, don't mix and match ports on the monitor side). The reason for this is display quality/color matching varies depending on the port. At first I tried using the DisplayPort on my center monitor and the HDMI port on the side monitors, the colors were all wrong. So I bought a DP to HDMI cable for the center monitor so all three would use the HDMI port...perfect color match. Displayport has better color IMO (Deeper blacks/better contrast overall), but only 3 DP ports on nvidia cards currently so HDMI will have to do for me, but if your monitors all have DP, use those.

Thanks for that great advice, much appreciated....I have now purchased a Asus ROG Strix RTX 2070 OC and it is up and running on Triple Screens with 1x HDMI cable from 2070 to Monitor and 2x Displayport to HDMI Cables used for the other ports...working very well.

 

[Case_]

The reason for this is display quality/color matching varies depending on the port. At first I tried using the DisplayPort on my center monitor and the HDMI port on the side monitors, the colors were all wrong. So I bought a DP to HDMI cable for the center monitor so all three would use the HDMI port...perfect color match. Displayport has better color IMO (Deeper blacks/better contrast overall), but only 3 DP ports on nvidia cards currently so HDMI will have to do for me, but if your monitors all have DP, use those.

It's possible your HDMI monitor was not using the full 0-255 range of colors as a monitor should, but only the limited 16-235 range that's meant for TVs. It is a known issue with nVidia cards on some systems, and it should be possible to fix it.

Otherwise there should be no reason for the colors to be different.

 

[BP]

It's possible your HDMI monitor was not using the full 0-255 range of colors as a monitor should, but only the limited 16-235 range that's meant for TVs. It is a known issue with nVidia cards on some systems, and it should be possible to fix it.

Otherwise there should be no reason for the colors to be different.

That would make sense...problem is, the middle monitor was the HDMI, the sides were DP and it was the sides that had the limited color range if I remember correctly (looked washed out compared to the middle monitor). It couldn’t be the NV control panel settings because it should apply the same color range to all three since all 3 screens are treated as one. I agree that the range shouldn’t matter since its digital, but I chalked it up to the DP and HDMI ports on the monitors are not calibrated to each other.

 

[Case_]

It couldn’t be the NV control panel settings because it should apply the same color range to all three since all 3 screens are treated as one.

The keyword here is "should"

 

[M D Gourley]

That would make sense...problem is, the middle monitor was the HDMI, the sides were DP and it was the sides that had the limited color range if I remember correctly (looked washed out compared to the middle monitor). It couldn’t be the NV control panel settings because it should apply the same color range to all three since all 3 screens are treated as one. I agree that the range shouldn’t matter since its digital, but I chalked it up to the DP and HDMI ports on the monitors are not calibrated to each other.

Having set up my new RTX 2070 using 1x HDMI cable to one Monitor and using 2x Displayport ports on the 2070 as well I had to set my Monitors back to 'Factory default' settings...now I can not see any difference between the mixed cable and port usage.

 

[BP]

Having set up my new RTX 2070 using 1x HDMI cable to one Monitor and using 2x Displayport ports on the 2070 as well I had to set my Monitors back to 'Factory default' settings...now I can not see any difference between the mixed cable and port usage.

Interesting...I never did reset my monitors to factory default, but I always made a habit of mirroring my monitor settings to all 3 every time, plus it was an issue I noticed early on, so I figured it wasn't a monitor settings problem. Maybe it's an issue with my monitors (I have the ASUS VN279), but I've got everything setup nicely so I'm not gonna rock the boat.

 

[Case_]

I wouldn't be surprised if mirroring monitor settings would not give you the same image, the individual monitors are probably not that closely matched in manufacturing, or the backlight for that matter. Hell, sometimes even the exact panels used may be different. That's really where color calibration steps in (though I really have no idea how it works with triples).

 

[GEO147]

Great info. SO I have now purchased another 970 strix to run sli. These cards have 1 dp 1hdmi and 1 dvi I think each. So I plan to use either 2dp and 1 hdmi or 1dp and 2hdmi. What would be my best option here?

Monitors have dp and hdmi and both ports are freesync enabled, which I wont be able to use yet anyway as cards are nvidia. But would like to hook it up so that if/when I change to amd I just swap card(s) and good to go.

 

[Case_]

If you run SLI, you plug your monitor to the first card only, you don't connect both cards.

Edit: Oh, right, you have triples. Here's a wizard that can help you, though the 970 used there seems to have different ports compared to the 970 Strix, at least from what I could find about the Strix, so say a 780 might be a better match there.

https://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/surround/system-requirements