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Connecting 3 monitors for gaming?

geordie56

geordie56

geordie56

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452
Hi, sorry to go on but i had 1 samsung T260HD lcds and had another samsung 26" lcd. However today i have come across 2 T260HD lcds for £200 each and have bought them. I want to know the best way to acheive the best graphics and how can i utilise all 3 screens for gaming on? What res would i get on each monitor? And last thing i have posted previous would it be worth getting or would i have to get a third decent card for this? Thanks a lot guys.



Abit IN932X-MAX Mboard, Intel 6850 Quad Core Extreme
OCZ PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series Ram 8Gb
2 300gb sata Hard Drives, 2 NEC DVD re-writer drives
1 Samsung 1TB spinpoint hard drive
Coolermaster 1000W PSU, x2 BFG 8800GTX Overclocked and Watercooled
Thermochill 3 Fan Rad + Laing Pump with XSPC clear top + XSPC Drive Bay and 1/2" Tygon Hose running 2 GPUs
Thermochill 1 Fan Rad + Aquaero Pump + Aquatube Res + 10mm Hose running CPU
All controlled via Aquaero monitoring system running Vista 64bit
 
not sure you can have a game span across all the screens as i think generally there limited to one or you will have the screens frames in the way. 5760x1200 would be you maximum possible res on those screens if 2x8800GTX's can handle it which im not sure about.
 
There are 2 methods I know of, Matrox's TripleHead2Go and SoftTH.

The TripleHead2Go is basically a hardware unit, connects to a dual link dvi port, which you then output 5760x1200 (eg 3x 1920x1200) on and it then splits that up between the 3 monitors.

SoftTH is a bit more awkward as you output to each monitor individually (meaning you need 3 *working* DVI ports (not sure about SLI but in crossfire only one or maybe 2 of the DVI ports work, meaning a seperate card is needed, but that doesn't have to do any rendering, just output)

Depends on the game as to how worthwhile it is I'd imagine, for a racing game that setup would be great (and tbh that's why I keep getting expensive thoughts of buying 2x T260's to match my current T260HD like yours) but for other some games I can't imagine it'd be worth the hassle, but might be I dunno...
 
Thanks guys and just another quick one Skill, does the TripleHead2Go support 3x 1920x1200 as the website says maximum 1680x1050? Has this since had an update to support it? and lastly if i got a third card to run each monitor off individually would i have to disconnect the sli and would it have to be the same card? cheers?
 
Best stick to one thread, heres my response in the Monitors forum.

Typhoon said:
Yes TripleHead2go would be best if you wanted to game. Maximum supported resolution is 5040x1050 (3x 1680x1050). Didnt you say you had a 295GTX as well in a previous post? If that is still the case, as I said before, get rid of those 8800GTX's and fit your 295GTX. You only need 1 card to run TH2Go.
Click to expand...
 
If gaming is most important to you you should be running Triplehead2 go. As you dont know how this works, the TH2go is a box that sits outside your computer between your graphics card and 3 monitors. 3 monitors connect to the TH2Go box and the box connects to your graphics car via a single DVI cable. So it does not matter how many graphics cards you have, the TH2Go only plugs into 1 of them. So unless you are running TriSli (which you cant with your motherboard) you cant make use of 3 cards. Anyway that 295GTX you have is superior to 2 or 3 " BFG 8800GTX Overclocked and Watercooled" GPU's.
 
Triple 1680x1050 is the safest bet, if you want triple wide. I have a 3840x1024 setup myself, but it is not being used right now.

Be warned though, Matrox are still working on proper GTX295 driver support.
 
Ok thanks to both of you guys. Death so if i purchase it does that mean there may be a new model i would have to purchase possibly or would there be an upgrade for the one i buy? cheers and Typhoon ok looks like i may go with the 295 then with the thought of another in the future, what mboard would be best suited to get me started and keep my cpu as it is a good one?
 
Sorry, completely forgot about this thread, whilst the hardware TripleHead2Go only supports 3x 1680x1050 it seems, the software version doesn't have this limitation afaik, and the secondary card (for the 3rd DVI output) doesn't actually do any rendering so can be any old pcie card...

Here's a link with download/info:
http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/
 
I personally would suggest softTH. I have a 280 with a 8800gts card as the slave, but as mentioned, it doesn't do any rendering, so can be pretty much anything.

You obviously need a motherboard with two PCI-E, but i have had issue with the Matrox unit in the past. They have just updated the firmware, however still i prefer the SoftTH method..
 
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