Is this possible?

shootersam · 28 Nov 2011 at 18:34

Is it possible for me to have one monitor for word, web browsing, photoshop, etc and then the other for gaming?

Surveyor · 28 Nov 2011 at 18:43

Yes, as long as your graphics card (I assume you have one) has the necessary outputs for the monitors in question.

It may be a bit more complicated if one monitor is 120Hz and the other 60Hz.

What graphics card do you have and what monitors?

reflux · 28 Nov 2011 at 18:44

Yeah, it's just a question of manually putting what you want on each screen. When I play DiRT3 I stick it on the telly.

shootersam · 28 Nov 2011 at 18:54

Surveyor said:
Yes, as long as your graphics card (I assume you have one) has the necessary outputs for the monitors in question.

It may be a bit more complicated if one monitor is 120Hz and the other 60Hz.

What graphics card do you have and what monitors?

I'll be using my 40" T.V to play games for the time being, and will be buying a new 60Hz monitor, 1080p like my T.V.

I'll temporarily be using a GTX 260, but will be getting a new graphics card when the new ones are released.

shootersam · 28 Nov 2011 at 18:59

Should say, when I buy a monitor, I will buy the same one again after a month or so.

Axeia · 28 Nov 2011 at 19:35

A few exceptions aside your cursor will be locked in the game so you will have to alt tab out if you want to interact with the other screen. Other than that it's business as usual.

Games by default start on the monitor that is set to the 'main display' (it's the one that has the taskbar).

shootersam · 28 Nov 2011 at 19:41

Axeia said:
A few exceptions aside your cursor will be locked in the game so you will have to alt tab out if you want to interact with the other screen. Other than that it's business as usual.

Games by default start on the monitor that is set to the 'main display' (it's the one that has the taskbar).

So I assume it's pretty easy to change games to the other monitor, not main display. Or am I wrong?

Axeia · 29 Nov 2011 at 07:47

You're wrong, I haven't been bothered by it enough but from the 5m I did spend looking for a solution it seems near impossible unless the game offers the option itself (I think WoW and/or Starcraft 2 offer this as an option in the settings screen).

[edit]
I think you might be able to trick yourself a bit though with the programs that allow you to have a taskbar on more than one screen. If you can disable it on the main screen and enable it on the secondary screen then games should launch on the main screen. Or just clone the taskbar on both screens and then it really doesn't matter to yourself which is the main and which isn't.