dual screen question, will it effect performance?

[thlnk3r]

Stupid question here, my 7900gs has 2 dvi ports so I was going to run dual screens. By doing this will it degrade performance while playing games such as cs:s?

Thanks in advance

[Mr. Roboto]

Nope. Doesn't for me anyways.

[thlnk3r]

Cool thanks :)

[Section8]

Yes running 2 monitors does effect performance. Run some benches you will see.

[zexmarquies01]

yes, it DOES effect performance. But as long as you arn't trying to play 2 games at once, one on each monitor, you won't really notice much of a performance drop.

Or, if you are trying to run a super beefy game, the extra monitor WILL suck up some of the FPS. So if you are going to try to load up oblivion at max settings, you may want to disable to the 2nd monitor.

But i also have a 7900GS, and i'm running dual monitors. And i game, and browse/chat ALL the time. and i don't really notice the difference. I find the convenience of the dual monitors when gaming out-weighs the performance loss.

[Sam__]

It all depends on what gameyour playing how much u will nocitce it. I run mine with dual screens fine.

[lordkosc]

I just disable my 2 other screens. And play games on the my 20inch wide.

[akkuma]

I definantly noticed a difference when I tested out using both my regular 17" monitor and my 56" hd dlp. Not a huge difference though.

[UglyChild]

Its a very little performance hit.
Go in to Control Panel and change performance to Single Screen, that we'll help.

[thlnk3r]

In my case though, one screen which is my main will have counter strike source on it and the other would just show the desktop with my browser or the temp controls...that shouldn't really effect anything right?

[Mr. Roboto]

You guys actually notice a performance hit? I was wondering the same thing when I got my second 2407, so I ran 3dmark with it, and without it, and the difference was Negligible. I noticed no such slowdown in games or anything. I too have a temp monitoring program open on the second one when gaming, as well as vent so I can see who else is on the server.

[Hazaro]

I ran STALKER on my 7900GS, and I noticed nothing when I went to dual which surprised me.

Yay for medium quality!

[Hipcrostino]

I notice a massive differance in performance with two screens verses one. I use a program called MultiMon (which was way overpriced IMO, but oh well) and amungst other things, it allows me to disable the second monitor from the systray which is convenient so if i play intensive games like oblivion or fear then i disable the second monitor. when it comes to HL2 though, it makes no differance at all.

I run 2x 19" CRTs at 1600x1200 each

[Freaky_Llama]

I run dual screens on my 7900GS, and I didn't notice any real performance hit. My secondary screen shows xfire and TeamSpeak so I know who's online when scrimming. To me, having that valuable in-game info outweighs any 'slight' performance hit.

[zexmarquies01]

yeah, most people here seem to agree that if you are gaming on one monitor, and only have a web browswer/chat program running on the 2nd monitor, the performance hit won't be THAT bad.

Now, if you try playing a game on both screens THEN you will see a huge drop in performance :D I used to play Eve-online that way. i had 2 accounts, and the game lets you run multiple clients at once. So i had a game going on, on each monitor. Wow, talk about slow-down! But all i did was mine and haul in that game, so its not like i really NEEDED 60 FPS to watch a laser shoot at an asteroid.

[thlnk3r]

Ah I remember eve-online good game :)

[thlnk3r]

Guys I have a question. Ok so I have an Acer al1916w 19" as my main screen and a second lcd hooked up (vga-dvi) which is AOpen 15". The nview display settings only allow "clone", "horizontal span" and "vertical span". Is it possible to have my main keep the same res and have the 15" have its own res w/o the taskbar ect. Basically I'm wanting the Acer to not span over to the other screen. Would it be better just to run a PCI vid card instead?

[akkuma]

You can't do it from the stock controls you need to download a program to do it... can't remember what I was using when I decided to hook up my 56" but I had that same problem.... scan majorgeeks.com I think thats where I got my program from.

[Neuromancer]

I know that was a problem with older nVidia drivers and why I stayed with ATI for so long (been using dual monitors for years)

Try updating your drivers.

If not, dont use nVidias control panel.

Right click desktop select porperties Settings. Click on the box wit hteh 2 in it... then check the box "extend my desktop onto this monitor" hit apply and then you can adjust resolution wit hthe slider. To adjust your primary click the blue box with the one in it.

Note: Sometimes Windows will assign a 1 or 2 backwards.. not a big deal.. there is a box for "make this the primary display"



The program akkuma is talking about though I think is called ultra mon I have never used it though even when I ran 5 monitors on my PC XPs display controls ran everything fine. But it does give you other features too so I am sure its good for someone else...

[Hazaro]

You can also click and drag the 1 and 2 boxes so you don't have to manually move them :)

Also, when I play a game it takes up one screen, the other screen is still there, but it's resized and I can't drag my mouse over there (Dual view)

I would have to alt tab out of the game and that minimizes it...
How would you go about chatting or browsing while the game is still up?

[thlnk3r]

Thanks guys, got it all figured out :bday:

[Neuromancer]

You can also click and drag the 1 and 2 boxes so you don't have to manually move them :)

Also, when I play a game it takes up one screen, the other screen is still there, but it's resized and I can't drag my mouse over there (Dual view)

I would have to alt tab out of the game and that minimizes it...
How would you go about chatting or browsing while the game is still up?


You cant. Once you click off screen (some games do not take exclusive control of the mouse, most do though) the game minimizes. You would need some thing like xfire or whatever to chat in game.


As for the secondary display "resizing" you can avoid that by running your game resolution the same as your desktop resolution. The second display may still resize during ingame movies and starting up but once your in the meat you can see everything just fine on the other monitor(s)




Glad you got it all figured out thlnk3r

[Hazaro]

Right, but some games I'm running can't change like Soldat. :cry:


yeah, most people here seem to agree that if you are gaming on one monitor, and only have a web browswer/chat program running on the 2nd monitor, the performance hit won't be THAT bad.

So I'm wondering, is there any real point to this since you could just alt tab?

[smokie mcpott]

there are a lot of games that you can run windowed.. run a fullscreen window game on the main screen and your browser, etc on the other

[Hazaro]

Are there any programs that allow games to be windowed?

[Neuromancer]

Are there any programs that allow games to be windowed?

Most programs have a way to force windowed mode within the settings (same with adjusting resolution and such)



As for the benefit of doing dual monitors rather than alt+tabbing?

You dont need to minimize the game to see if somone IMed you. I put my taskbar on the second monitor and that way can see new message if they have popped up or new email and such.

[Hazaro]

Right I only mentioned that since only one game I never play runs in windowed mode.