Dual monitor setup but only using one at a time for gaming?

Ksanti

Ksanti

Ksanti

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Okay guys, as a couple of you know I'm a moderately avid simracer. Now my problem with this has always been that if you have a wheel mounted to a desk it gets in the way of the keyboard and mouse and if you mount it further away you're generally too far away unless you play on a 60" tv.

I've got my wheel rig separate from my the monitor desk, but if I line up the sim rig then a a separate desk for FPS games is inherently off centre which isn't ideal.

I've been considering either a rolling desk to slide over my sim rig when I'm playing FPS games but then the logistics of that aside, it would necessitate me using wireless peripherals which adds 10 degrees of hassle, mainly in terms of finding a mouse I'd be happy with as nothing really offers everything I want in wireless while a million and one do so in wired forms.

The solution I've come up with is basically to hook up two monitors to the desktop, and have one desk for most gaming and then a separate simrig for my racing. Now my question is, will it be practical to run a setup like this and will it affect my PCs performance? I'm running off of a single 5870 and I'm pretty happy with the performance I get from that at 1080p. Is there decent support for running one one monitor within a dual monitor setup? And could I swap between the two or would it always default to playing on the main screen? I don't imagine having the basic Windows desktop open will add too much strain to the system.

I could also have a twisting platform for a single monitor I guess, but the ideal position for driving for my monitor is far lower than it would be on a desk.
 
I'll probably be revamping my desktop to a certain extent over summer, reinstalling everything, adding SSDs and a new GPU in all likelihood so a /little/ extra strain probably won't be too much of an issue. Not going to change the i7 though as it's still running fine and my photoshop work is almost entirely done on a laptop nowadays. Not sure if that's relevant but I guess if new equipment is necessary that would be when it comes in.
 
As far as I know you would have to change the monitor settings to play on the other monitor, I have 2 monitors and use one for gaming and the other for game stats, teamspeak etc. I would like to know if your suggestion maybe possible also, I could do with setting my wheel permenantly on my desk.
 
By monitor settings, do you mean I'd need to go into the Windows settings and make whichever one I wanted to game on the main Windows monitor? Ugh that sounds like a lot of hassle, which is what I'm trying to cut out of my system as it's such an inelegant solution right now.

I guess what I could do is just run it as a single monitor and split the outputs? It's not like I have a huge amount of use for twin monitors 3 feet apart from each other haha

EDIT: If I choose to duplicate the monitor in Windows and run both on the same thing then would that work? Would a dual output desktop card (well, 3 outputs) be able to support that without affecting performance?
 
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Ksanti said:
By monitor settings, do you mean I'd need to go into the Windows settings and make whichever one I wanted to game on the main Windows monitor? Ugh that sounds like a lot of hassle, which is what I'm trying to cut out of my system as it's such an inelegant solution right now.

I guess what I could do is just run it as a single monitor and split the outputs? It's not like I have a huge amount of use for twin monitors 3 feet apart from each other haha

EDIT: If I choose to duplicate the monitor in Windows and run both on the same thing then would that work? Would a dual output desktop card (well, 3 outputs) be able to support that without affecting performance?
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Yeah that would work, you could just turn the other one off, nice thinking.
Other than that I'm not sure if you could somehow rig the settings to a programable macro key on your keyboard/mouse to change monitors.
I have a 120Hz for gaming and a 60Hz for BF3 stats, teamspeak etc and thats working fine, you can set them up in the windows settings, no need to go to eyefinity etc. To me, there is no noticeable loss of performance, not that I know of anyway.
Ok just found out pressing windows key + p will quickly get to some monitor settings, see how you get on. It works pretty well tbh. I use extended desktop from left to right but if I want my left monitor (gaming one) I press Windows key +p I hit 'projector only' then if I want just my right screen I hit 'computer only'.
 
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You can look into a program called UltraMon, you can set up monitor profiles and switch outputs with hotkeys and all sorts.
 
I'd also suggest looking into Ultramon. If you create a script you can switch between monitors with a single click and have each monitor set exactly as you want it. Plus it saves power in not having to drive the GPU to mid clocks for a display that is not even in use.

I do a similar thing between my monitor and two HDTVs.
 
Andybtsn said:
Ay reason why you choose that over Ultramon apart from it being cheaper?

I use DisplayFusion, not had many issues.
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Window locking and unlocking on the fly was initially my main reason(really useful for streaming) aside from pricing, but it has a bunch of other functionality Ultramon does not. Works wonders alongside the sister app, Actual Window Manger.

Not seen DisplayFusion before, going to check that out and see what it has to offer.
 
Decided to go with duplicated monitors and just putting them back to back, less hassle and was never going to look at both at the same time anyway
 
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