Dual monitor setup - any tips?

caff · 27 Jan 2007 at 22:45

Any dual screen owners who can give me hints / tips on ways I can properly pimp my dual monitor setup?

I have an Nvidia card, 2xDVI outputs

One problem I have is playing games full screen, and using alt-tab to switch to the browser window. This minimises the game.

Jaap74 · 27 Jan 2007 at 22:46

are you using UltraMon ?

caff · 27 Jan 2007 at 22:56

Yep I'm using ultramon with dual taskbars at present

Jaap74 · 27 Jan 2007 at 23:05

I have a BenQ 20" widescreen LCD for general use as well as a 32" Samsung LCD TV connected for gaming.... I just switch between the 2 for games but I can't seem to play Far Cry or DOOM3 at anything higher than 1024 x 768 on the Samsung.... no idea why as it's resolution is 1366 x 768 which both games support...... weird ??

Mud · 27 Jan 2007 at 23:11

Are you using 1366 or 1360? Just a thought, but EDID can't deal with 1366 properly.

Jaap74 · 28 Jan 2007 at 12:03

whats EDID ?

the game mode is 1360 x 768.... which is less than 1366 x 768 so why can't it display it I wonder ?

Mud · 28 Jan 2007 at 12:18

Have a link, it'll probably do a better job of explaining than I would. Of particular interest is:

wikipedia said:
A major limitation of EDID is that it cannot express the native resolutions of the most common wide screen flat panel displays and liquid crystal display televisions. The number of horizontal pixels must be a multiple of 8. The number of vertical pixels is calculated from the horizontal resolution and the selected aspect ratio. To be fully expressible, the size of wide screen display must thus be a multiple of 16×9 pixels. For 1366×768 pixel Wide XGA panels the nearest resolution expressible in the EDID syntax is 1360×765 pixels. Specifying 1368 pixels as the screen width would yield an unnatural screen height of 769.5 pixels.

Just a guess though, and if you're using 1360x768 then it shouldn't be a problem. I assume you're getting 1360x768 in windows no problem?

Jaap74 · 28 Jan 2007 at 12:22

yeah 1360 x 768 in Windows no problem..... seems such a waste to not use the full resolution when gaming.....

gumbald · 28 Jan 2007 at 15:01

caff said:
Any dual screen owners who can give me hints / tips on ways I can properly pimp my dual monitor setup?

I have an Nvidia card, 2xDVI outputs

One problem I have is playing games full screen, and using alt-tab to switch to the browser window. This minimises the game.

Run the game windowed?

My second monitor is on the way, I would also be interested for tips for when I get it. I've got UltraMon ready for it...