3 Monitors, 2 Graphics Card SLI or No

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Sep 4, 2007
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So I have 3 ASUS VS247 monitors and a EVGA GTX 970 4GB (04G-P4-2974-KR) currently.

I mainly play Diablo 3, ARK, and CS:GO. ARK seems to be the biggest culprit where my FPS are much lower with only one monitor enabled vs all three, even with the game only on one monitor. If figured this is mainly due to textures in the game and graphics memory.

I dont have a big interest in running my game across all three monitors. I recently purchased another EVGA GFX 970 4GB and want to know if I am better off running SLI with all three monitors connected or Non SLI (two independent cards) with one dedicated to the gaming monitor and the other one for the other two monitors.

Any feedback would be appreciated
 
The way I ran my Surround set up was that it was always on (when you're using all 3 monitors in Nvidia Surround, you can't SLi, it's using both cards for the set up but not in SLi mode) I would run the games that ran well and supported the res across all 3, and then the ones that didn't I simply set to 1080p and that would make it play on the "primary" monitor, just set primary to the center monitor, in ARK's case, it doesn't matter right now because it doesn't support SLi in anyway. So play your diablo and CS:GO surround, and single monitor your Ark.
 
Thanks for the replies guys...

After reading them and rereading my original post I can see where my question wasnt very clear.

I dont want to run surround gaming really at all. I understand I have the ability to do so and thats cool. I might make use of it from time to time, but its not something that interests me.

I run three monitors primarily for work, but I game a lot as well and only do it on the primary monitor. I noticed that FPS drops when I have 3 monitors hooked up versus just one. Rightfully so because I have three times the resolution (even if two of them are only 2D desktop resolution). So I decided to get a second video card, because my thought process was I could either run them in SLI or have one card dedicated to the primary/center monitor and the other card dedicated to the other two.

Now I was trying to figure out if anyone knew anything about what actually will provide better game performance. It sounds like a dumb question, but I thought Id ask.
 
Thanks for the replies guys...

After reading them and rereading my original post I can see where my question wasnt very clear.

I dont want to run surround gaming really at all. I understand I have the ability to do so and thats cool. I might make use of it from time to time, but its not something that interests me.

I run three monitors primarily for work, but I game a lot as well and only do it on the primary monitor. I noticed that FPS drops when I have 3 monitors hooked up versus just one. Rightfully so because I have three times the resolution (even if two of them are only 2D desktop resolution). So I decided to get a second video card, because my thought process was I could either run them in SLI or have one card dedicated to the primary/center monitor and the other card dedicated to the other two.

Now I was trying to figure out if anyone knew anything about what actually will provide better game performance. It sounds like a dumb question, but I thought Id ask.

The other two monitors should not affect your fps all that much. maybe a couple frames but something is weird if it is dramatically dropping your fps with only one monitor at 1080p. Do you get fps boost if you physically turn off the other two monitors? Sli should run games better but if there is something going on with your settings then you might want to fix that first. I have a second monitor and it doesn't affect my fps noticeably whether on or off.
 
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