I have been using a 43" 4K monitor for some years now and all in all I have been fairly happy, especially with the quality of the image. However, since the introduction of multi monitor support in MSFS I really would like to rebuild my cockpit around 3x 32" monitors. I don't have the room for 3 x 43" 4K monitors and to be frank, I really don't think it's a practical proposition from a performance perspective. The other consideration is image quality, I don't want to run 3 x 1080p monitors and give up the quality that I have come to enjoy with the 4K monitor, so the compromise would be to run 3 x 32" 2K monitors. This setup from a practical and space persepctive would fit the bill perfectly. However, I would need to be absolutely convinced that I would be able to run this setup without sacrificing too much in performance. I'm not someone who chases frames, except around airports where I like to maintain smoothness and 30fps in all scenarios. This I accomplish most of the time, except even with my setup I sometimes only see 26/28 under heavy loads at some airports. So I am concerned that I will not be able to get to my expectations of performance. I have accepted that an upgrade with the CPU will be on the cards, probably something like an I9 12900(?) So my question to all my simming buddies, is there anyone running 3 x 32" 2K monitors in MSFS and if so, what kind of performance are you getting and what is your setup? Thanks.

Edited December 24, 20223 yr by Rockliffe

2 hours ago, Rockliffe said:

I have been using a 43" 4K monitor for some years now and all in all I have been fairly happy, especially with the quality of the image. However, since the introduction of multi monitor support in MSFS I really would like to rebuild my cockpit around 3x 32" monitors. I don't have the room for 3 x 43" 4K monitors and to be frank, I really don't think it's a practical proposition from a performance perspective. The other consideration is image quality, I don't want to run 3 x 1080p monitors and give up the quality that I have come to enjoy with the 4K monitor, so the compromise would be to run 3 x 32" 2K monitors. This setup from a practical and space persepctive would fit the bill perfectly. However, I would need to be absolutely convinced that I would be able to run this setup without sacrificing too much in performance. I'm not someone who chases frames, except around airports where I like to maintain smoothness and 30fps in all scenarios. This I accomplish most of the time, except even with my setup I sometimes only see 26/28 under heavy loads at some airports. So I am concerned that I will not be able to get  to my expectations of performance. I have accepted that an upgrade with the CPU will be on the cards, probably something like an I9 12900(?) So my question to all my simming buddies, is there anyone running 3 x 32" 2K monitors in MSFS and if so, what kind of performance are you getting and what is your setup? Thanks.

I'm in a very similar situation as yourself. I have a 4K monitor. I used to have three 1080p monitors for my Sim computer, while I like flying in 4K, it used to be immersive with three monitors, but 3 4k monitors would kill any performance. I've also been toying with the idea of three 2K monitors, I'm eager for any response to your question.

I hope more of us move to multi monitor setups so it gives Asobo a reason to improve it sooner. 

Before I begin, my PC specs are: i7-8700 @ 3.2GHz, RTX 2070 8GB, 16GB 2666MHz RAM, 1.25TB M.2 NVMe SSD. Its 3 years old and I got it pre MSFS to play ETS2 and ATS. I still decided to take the plunge into a triple monitor setup about a month ago knowing full well that it could end up in disappointment. But I also knew that this would make for the best reason to upgrade my PC sooner rather than later.

Initially I went from a single 43" to 3x34" AOC 21:9 (ultrawide) monitors but quickly realised that while 3 ultrawide monitors give you excellent horizontal view, the vertical aspect is lacking. Just appears too narrow. Unlike racing sims where it probably does not matter much, it didnt seem right for a flight simulator. I returned and replaced them with 2x43" 4K LG monitors identical to the one I already had, so 3x43" in total.

Took me a while to solve the alignment problem. Videos from Russ Barlow and the Sim Simma helped enormously. What helped the most was the acceptance that the current beta version and physical space constraints cannot allow perfect alignment. I am fine with this now. It doesnt bother me that the angle between the centre screen and side screens is not always perfectly aligned if I am too high up or low in the cockpit or have physically moved my RL seat lower/higher or left/right.

In terms of performance from my very modest rig, I am pretty happy with it. I used to run 2k on a single monitor with medium to high settings and got a mostly stutter free experience averaging 40-60fps. I am now running 2k on 3 monitors with mostly medium settings (ultra clouds) and getting a stutter free 23-35fps. I also do not chase fps, rather a smooth experience. For me, the kind of immersion these 3 large screens wrapped around my viewpoint has given me is so totally worth the sacrifice in fps. I no longer need any kind of head tracker and a simple hat switch directional view mapping for the occasional look around is all I need. I have over 180 degree views so there is no need to to pan around with a button. Its just a beautiful thing. 

The one thing I am trying to resolve is a small amount of screen tearing I notice in sharper turns. I have played around with vsync settings and managed to bring it down, but its there and noticeable. All 3 monitors are running at 60Hz refresh rate with vsync at 50% of the monitor refresh rate. Also I got the 2 additional monitors one year after the 1st, they are obviously from different batches and who knows, maybe even built in completely different facilities. There is a slight difference in picture between them at the same settings. But its so small that its irrelevant in the simulator. Still preferable if able to get the same make and model from the same place at the same time. 

Needless to say your setup is miles ahead of mine. Based on this alone, odds are that your experience should hopefully be better than mine (and mine has been good). The fact that I am in no rush to upgrade my pc after upgrading to triple screens says something too. Good luck!

3 hours ago, Darth_Vapor666 said:

I hope more of us move to multi monitor setups so it gives Asobo a reason to improve it sooner. 

Before I begin, my PC specs are: i7-8700 @ 3.2GHz, RTX 2070 8GB, 16GB 2666MHz RAM, 1.25TB M.2 NVMe SSD. Its 3 years old and I got it pre MSFS to play ETS2 and ATS. I still decided to take the plunge into a triple monitor setup about a month ago knowing full well that it could end up in disappointment. But I also knew that this would make for the best reason to upgrade my PC sooner rather than later.

Initially I went from a single 43" to 3x34" AOC 21:9 (ultrawide) monitors but quickly realised that while 3 ultrawide monitors give you excellent horizontal view, the vertical aspect is lacking. Just appears too narrow. Unlike racing sims where it probably does not matter much, it didnt seem right for a flight simulator. I returned and replaced them with 2x43" 4K LG monitors identical to the one I already had, so 3x43" in total.

Took me a while to solve the alignment problem. Videos from Russ Barlow and the Sim Simma helped enormously. What helped the most was the acceptance that the current beta version and physical space constraints cannot allow perfect alignment. I am fine with this now. It doesnt bother me that the angle between the centre screen and side screens is not always perfectly aligned if I am too high up or low in the cockpit or have physically moved my RL seat lower/higher or left/right.

In terms of performance from my very modest rig, I am pretty happy with it. I used to run 2k on a single monitor with medium to high settings and got a mostly stutter free experience averaging 40-60fps. I am now running 2k on 3 monitors with mostly medium settings (ultra clouds) and getting a stutter free 23-35fps. I also do not chase fps, rather a smooth experience. For me, the kind of immersion these 3 large screens wrapped around my viewpoint has given me is so totally worth the sacrifice in fps. I no longer need any kind of head tracker and a simple hat switch directional view mapping for the occasional look around is all I need. I have over 180 degree views so there is no need to to pan around with a button. Its just a beautiful thing. 

The one thing I am trying to resolve is a small amount of screen tearing I notice in sharper turns. I have played around with vsync settings and managed to bring it down, but its there and noticeable. All 3 monitors are running at 60Hz refresh rate with vsync at 50% of the monitor refresh rate. Also I got the 2 additional monitors one year after the 1st, they are obviously from different batches and who knows, maybe even built in completely different facilities. There is a slight difference in picture between them at the same settings. But its so small that its irrelevant in the simulator. Still preferable if able to get the same make and model from the same place at the same time. 

Needless to say your setup is miles ahead of mine. Based on this alone, odds are that your experience should hopefully be better than mine (and mine has been good). The fact that I am in no rush to upgrade my pc after upgrading to triple screens says something too. Good luck!

Wow, this is great news. So you are running 3 x 2k monitors? Which monitors are you running? 

Edited December 24, 20223 yr by Rockliffe

52 minutes ago, Rockliffe said:

Wow, this is great news. So you are running 3 x 2k monitors? Which monitors are you running? 

3 x 4k monitors. Model is LG 43UN700-B 4K IPS. So the native resolution is 4k. But I run msfs in 2k. 

12 minutes ago, Darth_Vapor666 said:

3 x 4k monitors. Model is LG 43UN700-B 4K IPS. So the native resolution is 4k. But I run msfs in 2k. 

Are you willing to share a pic of the three running msfs? Is it mostly the windshield on screen? Do you have smaller screens for the instruments?

 

38 minutes ago, conundrum said:

Are you willing to share a pic of the three running msfs? Is it mostly the windshield on screen? Do you have smaller screens for the instruments?

 

Yeah sure thing. It's 4.30am here. Will do later in the day. 

I use vfr pilot view with half internal and half windshield since i dont have a cockpit. I think it's easier to create relatively distortion free views with windshield only. No other screens, just the 3. And no pop out views as that's a big performance killer.

https://dsm01pap004files.storage.live.com/y4mKmvCXW9CU27tykBWTCk8m5i6XmQp6DgUDMAvYvqV9tY8OXAqj5BhxV3esHka3yEhZDDKtdlt7jeU8nLmFSE5HQp1VuSN86v5ilP6Xnoe-Mauh4J5mJ7spe5JvOj_dAekTClqPCt0GSaLtXh3S_JWl4GYbB-DGeVm-l0C-CENQ622l7OFGvVR-vYYIylK8Vou?width=4000&height=2252&cropmode=none

https://dsm01pap004files.storage.live.com/y4mtjnLBLAdNMyrb9HJXxSVv5oz3GlhJSKKrY029lhG9qBPnPsDnt2amH4lUNON2bNOgWnqfPM0HGdlIU3eO41RVs235as-e-4TRLvY84QIKu23CU4-tff6KG7FtLa6lYt3AcLOGBjJsNAlys5lQ2aQefq2BZMYC2AuNaZdat7CDt_rhz9BE1Qw7dxJQgiLNMI8?width=3913&height=1236&cropmode=none

https://dsm01pap004files.storage.live.com/y4mb3x0uBQmbNc3cJe5m2vcDL5uLdNcUiop-tinq9sKoVGHVXL5-45fpy6nydjPfQP9Y4pjAiJysoZIt0KMfu9UL6JG1NN2SHkq3zc1KVq6FnTrmcinV67-Gmqu-SQS29sZFAeeTLvY-KLtUTY20WSpEry5iT7dnMz4o1k5LyyxK0znSNJ89Q492vNrQI5I70o2?width=2333&height=1485&cropmode=none

Pics attached. These are taken from angles that are not the usual eyepoint when simming so you will see distortions in alignment and in screen size. There are also gaps between the screens which are hidden when your eyepoint is centred. 

I have fps locked at 30 and using DLSS performance mode. Addons active include FSRealistic and FSLTL.

I am still experimenting and tweaking. If others have successfully or unsuccessfully tried multi monitor setups, please share your experience. Keen to learn from your experiences.

I'm running 3 4k monitors too, but in MSFS i set resolution at 2k, in 4k it would kill performance too much.

Using DX12 and FSR2, I have quite good fps, around between 35 and 55 (using dev mode, if i use amd overlay it tell me much higher).

In past I had same monitors setup, with a 6700XT and I had to downscale resolution and to keep low settings, now with a 13600K and 7900XT I'd say I'm quite happy with performance (clouds to ultra, TLOD 150, almost all other things mainly set to high, (except for bloom off, contact shadows low, FSR balanced, screen refections medium, ambient occlusion medium).

Some small stuttering during landing sometimes, but i suppose it depends on MSFS, and not pc performance.

Edited January 2, 20233 yr by ConairMSFS