Multi-Monitor Gaming (1 Viewer)

[Buzz Foster]

Just building my new system. Here's the basic components:

1Gx2|CRUCIAL BALLISTIX PC-800
ASUS CROSSHAIR AM2 nForce 590
(2) EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR 8600GT 256M
AMD|A64 FX-62 2.8G AM2 WINDSOR DUAL CORE
(2) HD 500G|HITACHI DESKSTAR 7K 16M SATA2

I bought monitors this weekend, three Samsung SyncMaster 205BWs.

I like having the large desktop. I only have two runnig right now, one in analog mode, as the main components are not even delivered, yet. This is going to be so great for video editing, not to mention the speed increase over my old Athlon XP 2400+ -based system.

I haven't played many games in a while. The last ones I enjoyed were Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Doom 3. Do these, and other games work well with multiple monitors?

 

[Kamokazi]

Most games do not support multiple monitors. The exceptions I can think of are a few different flight sims and Supreme Commander. The rest do not support it. If you play games with them, the extra monitors will typically turn off.

There is a new product from Matrox, the DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go. I haven't looked into them much, but they are designed for what you are trying to do. The problem is you will come across many games that do not support the resolution required to use this thing with good quality. Assuming your monitors are 1680x1050, a game would have to support a 1050x5040 resolution. Many games will not support that, and lower resolutions will generally look pretty bad.

Also a comment on your system...If you can, I would retun the 8600GT's and get a single 8800GTS. It's only a little bit more and will give you MUCH better results. SLI is EXTREMELY overrated. It's really one of the last steps to do to get a performance boost out of your system (If you have an 8800GTX/Ultra already), or if you have an old system you want to keep going for a little while longer. You usually only get ~40% of the performance out of the second card, and that is IF the game even supports SLI, otherwise it will just use one card anyway. Most major games do support it, but you will run into the occasional one that doesn't, and if you play mid-range/indie titles, they are closer to 50/50. The 8800GTS is AMAZING bang-for-your-buck...trust me, you won't regret it.

 

[Buzz Foster]

Will a single 8800GTS support three monitors?

 

[Phil A]

Are you looking for a VGA distribution device? If so, they are made. I actually traded someone stuff I did not need for a Key Digital KD-RBGDA8 (which I also don't need but at the time I thought I had a possibility of using for something - so if it something you can use let me know). It allows the hook-up of 8 monitors and has a pass-thru so you can keep hooking it to another unit and hook-up 8 more, etc. They have lots of similar devices available.

 

[Gerald LaFrance]

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/reviews/parhelia/

Scroll Down to Surround Gaming some info about multiple monitor gaming is there. I am Planning on getting 3 Projectors and Use Falcon 4 (F-16 Flight Sim) Plus E-Dimensional 3D Glasses for a Real Virtual 3D Widescreen Effect !!

They also have a link to the Matrox Website which list about 150 Games for Surround gaming. here is a snippet of what he said in the above article:

"Surround gaming means playing games in TripleHead mode. Because the game sees only a single large monitor, and all 3 displays have hardware 3D acceleration (both OpenGL and Direct3D), any game that supports widescreen resolutions or has a windowed mode can be played in surround mode."

There are More and more games supporting Widescreen resolution. It is Probally gonna be the Future for Gaming as the LCD Widescreen monitor Prices are within reason.

 

[bobbyg2]

You will get better performance from a single more powerful card than dual less powerful cards. If you want to go with multi-monitors, go with the 640MB 8800GTS or the 8800GTX (depending on your budget, but the GTS should do fine.)

SLI sucks.

PS: I'd go with the Intel Core 2 line if I was you.

 

[Buzz Foster]

Well, the hardware is here, and I really don't plan on much gaming...really more interested in whether or not it is possible. As you can tell by my game selections, I am sadly behind the times. I will probably be spending more time with Premiere than with any games. It would just be nice to know that some software will work with this hardware.

This video card upgrade is a jum from a Geforce 4 ti 4200, so I am undoubtedly going to see a gain. Also, I am out of free money to spend, so this is going to have to be it for a while.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Most videocards have just two outputs, so to get three one usually needs two cards - or something like an Nvidia Quadro with four outputs, of course.

I run on two old 6600GT's, works great for everything except gaming.

As has been pointed out, multiscreen gaming is still pretty much a no-go except on a few games who support it, and even there (for instance, with Supreme Commander) you may be limited, SupCom supports two screens, and they have to be connected to the primary graphics card.

The Matrox TripleHead2Go takes the signal from one graphics card out and splits it into three outputs for three screens, but it maxes out at 3 x (1280 x 1024).

Edit: forgot - with multimonitors, you need (not want, not might-be-nice-to-have, but need) UltraMon. It makes it easy to manage windows across the monitors and give advanced wallpaper support etc. Get it.

 

[Buzz Foster]

Well, fart. This is going to take longer than i thought. Realized the old PS was utterly insufficient to power the new Asus Crosshair, and ordered a new, much more powerful one.

It's still not going to be powerful enough. Crap. New case arrives Friday, as the Asus Arctic Square did not fit in the old case I was going to use. Going to have to RMA the new PS to Newegg and buy a better one locally. The BFG Tech 650w should do it.

Its been five years since I did all this the last time. When did all this shit get so expensive? Time was when a case + PS was under $80. You got no lights or windows, but who cared? Damn.

Should be a rather kick-ass system when done. I'm betting I can convert .vob files to .avi divx files in no time, and realtime effects in Premiere 6.5 will be no prob.

 

[Colin Davidson]

Since we are talking gaming, video cards and monitors what is the best 20 or 21 inch monitor to get nowadays? Seems a daunting task to try and wade through all of the specs and info to figure it out.

 

[bobbyg2]

For gaming? Just look for something with at least a 1600x1200 pixel rating and under 5ms response time.

 

[Kamokazi]

22" monitors are the sweet spot right now. They are all 1680x1050 resolution. Standard aspect is phasing out, and most games are supporting widescreen now. You can get a 22" for just a little over $200.

Also Steve, what PSU did you order? Many people go WAY overboard on powesupply, and you often actually need less than what you think (I've seen a review of a 500W Antec powering a 8800GTX, Core 2 Extreme, and 4 HDD's). As long as you have a QUALITY power supply, 400W should power your system no problem.

Here is a quick lists of brands to avoid from OCForums:


If you see yours on the list, 500W would probably be the minimum you would want.

Really good brands in particular are: Antec, Enermax, Hiper, OCZ, and Xclio. I like Xclio in particular because they are priced very well, and they use the same OEM as Antec, which is often considered the best. Newegg has a 500W for $50. So if your PSU on the way from Newegg meets these guidelines, I wouldn't RMA it.

 

[bobbyg2]

It also depends on how many 12v rails you have and how many amps it puts out. I currently have a OCZ GameXStream 700Watt with Quad 12-volt rails that puts out 72 amps. May be a little overkill for my current setup (E6320, 7600GT, 320GB HD) but it gives me HUGE lee-way for upgradability.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Seasonic (and Corsair 520 and 620, which are rebadged Sesonics) are also good. I got the 620 version from Corsair with modular cables, great PSU.

Then there's PC Power & Cooling, they have some great PSU's but can be pricey. Their 1KW model is pretty cool, but also $500 and massive overkill.

Personally I looked at http://www.silentpcreview.com for tips, as I didn't want a computer that sounded as if an Apache attack helicopter at low altitude was hovering over the house...

 

[bobbyg2]

PC Power & Cooling are quite literally the most stable power supplies on the market, They're expensive for a reason. They're the best power supplies you can possibly get.

 

[Buzz Foster]

Woo-Hoo! I got a good one! I bought an Antec TPQ-850.

 

[bobbyg2]

Since when is Thermaltake a bad PSU?

 

[Kamokazi]

If you read the posting at the bottom it explains. Not all of them are bad, but many can be. They apparently have 2+ manufacturers. The ones made by CWT are good, but the other ones are of poor quality or are questionable. So it's best not to risk it (uness you can find out somehow if it's a CWT one).

When you find a specific one or few you like, always hunt down a review anyway. Even the best manufacturers can kick out a bad model from time to time.

 

[Buzz Foster]

I am having a problem. Anyone know why a video window on monitor two or three would cause a problem? It seems to grind everything to a crawl when I drag an active video window across, or open it in either two or three.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

You've wandered into the murky depths of the video overlay wilderness.

Using BSPlayer for instance you can choose how to render video. Switching to VMR9 as opposed to Overlay allowed me to play video across two screens, but with overlay just one at a time.

I won't pretend to be an expert on the topic, but most likely your problems are either driver related or renderer-related, probably the latter.