How to Run Two Gaming Monitors at 165Hz?

As 165Hz monitors continue to become more popular and mainstream, there’s a natural demand to have more than one. The expanded viewing area is attractive to many gamers and desktop users, especially those keen on multitasking. We’ve done a pretty extensive guide to hooking up two or more monitors with 144Hz in mind, and of course all the essentials are exactly the same for 165Hz monitors. So we won’t bore you by repeating everything. However, some things are worth noting, especially the slightly elevated GPU demand posed by 165Hz compared to 144Hz in a dual monitor set up.

Referring to the title of this article, the pros are clear. You get twice the display size for greater immersion, more impressive viewing, and vastly more effective multitasking and productivity. The cons are of course extra cable clutter, incompatibility with certain apps and games, higher demand on your graphics hardware, and occasionally desktop or OS image setting conflicts. Having said all that, Windows 10 and all other major operating systems these days have come a long way towards accommodating dual and even triple screen set ups, and you’re not going to run into too many problems. 

The guide we did before has more info, but it’s really simple. Just a matter of connecting cables and then going into display settings in Windows and your graphics card driver to detect the displays and choose whether you want to extend or duplicate. For most people, extending is what’s needed. This is the way you get a massive viewing area for your gaming and desktop apps. Duplication is more for laptop users who want to view the desktop on a larger screen than the one provided with their mobile PC.

Once set up, your extended display offers a gigantic field of view in games and for desktop apps. Most people don’t notice the bezel in between the monitors after a while, and for the most part pairing two 1080p monitors is cheaper than buying a big 4K monitor, plus you get higher refresh rates with less GPU demand. Monitors with 4K 165Hz are basically unheard of in summer 2021, because GPUs that can sustain such performance in many games do not exist yet. Two MOBIUZ 25” 1080p 165Hz monitors offer nearly the same screen size as a 48” 4K monitor, but for about a third of the price and with just as many or even better gaming features, namely variable refresh, HDR, 1ms MPRT, and powerful audio. Remember, while great, those big 4K monitors are generally re-purposed TVs with slower VA panels or extra-expensive OLED. The bigger the screen, the slower the response and the more likely ghosting becomes. Two nimble 25” IPS monitors offer faster performance. 

With regards to set up and cabling, there’s no difference. But curved monitors are rarely used in dual monitor mode because their design doesn’t support seamless placement side by side. If you do put two curved monitors next to each other, there’s going to be a “ridge” along the line of connection, and that may bother you. Flat monitors are ideal for dual screen usage, for curved monitors we suggest you go with a single, slightly bigger display.

The bottom line is that the 165Hz screen refresh rate doesn’t make a difference until you hit bandwidth limitations. If you stick with 1080p 165Hz, there’s no problem because DisplayPort can carry that kind of visual data effortlessly. When the time comes for pairing two 240Hz 4K monitors we’ll just have to write a new article!