NVIDIA Surround Set-up

[Joshua_88]

Hello Everyone,
I just got an MSI GT80 Titan as my home computer and as it is advertised it can hook up to 3 displays using the ports on the back. I'm running dual GTX 980M graphics cards in SLI configuration. I decided that I only wanted two displays and so I bought identical 1920x1080 monitors off Amazon and hooked them up with the laptop in the middle and one monitor to either side. I know how to extend the displays or duplicate the displays and that works as I expected it too but then I was reading a tutorial to actually play a game in surround mode. I opened up the NVIDIA control panel and configured the surround but it would only recognize the external monitors as monitors. I wanted it to show across all three screens but the laptop display goes black when I enable surround. Is there a way to make it so my laptop display is also recognized as a monitor/display? I will get another monitor and cable if I have to but I would prefer not to and I tried looking multiple places online but no one seems to have this particular problem. Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[VincentP]

Is the laptop screen the same resolution and refresh rate as the monitors?
Nvidia surround needs to send the same resolution to each monitor, and the refresh rate will be limited by the slowest refresh rate display.

 

[Joshua_88]

Is the laptop screen the same resolution and refresh rate as the monitors?
Nvidia surround needs to send the same resolution to each monitor, and the refresh rate will be limited by the slowest refresh rate display.

The laptop display is also 1920x1080 and I do believe the refresh rates are the same. When I open up the configure surround options it does recognize the laptop display as a display but it is grayed out and can't be selected. The only selectable options are the two monitors.

 

[VincentP]

Make sure you have the latest drivers from Nvidia.
It may be unsupported for some reason. Maybe the graphics output to the display is not DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort.

 

[Joshua_88]

Make sure you have the latest drivers from Nvidia.
It may be unsupported for some reason. Maybe the graphics output to the display is not DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort.

I will try updating and get back to you but I will have to do it after work. How would you tell if the output is HDMI or Displayport? Both monitors use HDMI inputs or VGA inputs. My computer does not have a VGA output so one of the monitors is hooked up via HDMI -> HDMI and the other is display port -> HDMI. The monitors however are selectable in the surround settings but the laptop display itself is not. You think it could be a driver issue or maybe the graphics really don't support 3 displays?

 

[VincentP]

The mid to high end Nvidia desktop cards support 4 displays, and surround.
I can't find any reference to surround or the number of displays supported for the 980M.

 

[Joshua_88]

The mid to high end Nvidia desktop cards support 4 displays, and surround.
I can't find any reference to surround or the number of displays supported for the 980M.

Should I ask NVIDIA Directly? See if they even support more than 2 displays?

 

[VincentP]

Well you already have the GPU and it's not going to change.
If the drivers don't help, you might just need a third monitor.
Are your GPUs going to allow decent frame rates with three monitors? What sort of performance do you see with two?

 

[Joshua_88]

Well you already have the GPU and it's not going to change.
If the drivers don't help, you might just need a third monitor.
Are your GPUs going to allow decent frame rates with three monitors? What sort of performance do you see with two?

I really know how to answer that one. I haven't noticed any problems though I haven't had them for very long. They seem to be alright. I like them but I don't know how to measure performance.

 

[IdolizeDT]

The video-out on the laptop may not be compatible with Surround WHILE using the laptop display.

 

[Joshua_88]

The video-out on the laptop may not be compatible with Surround WHILE using the laptop display.

I feel like this is the case because the laptop display turns off when I turn on surround. Would there be any way to subvert this so I can use my laptop display or is it locked into the system so to speak? I did update the NVIDIA Drivers