Triple Monitor setup advice

sid · 3 Feb 2009 at 13:16

creed said:
u can just tell nvidia control plan to do horizontal span with 2 monitors but whilst impressive, u end have ur crosshair overlapping the edge where both screens meet, so it's not really playable.

Sid can you tell me what settings u used in the softh file, cos i tried to get COD4 working last night and it wouldnt work on the side monitors (17"). Concerned it could be that the matrox card i have doesnt have full support for direct3d...BTW that setup looks awesome!

Wish i'd spent an extra £15 at the time and gone for a P35 DS4 so i'd have the second PCI-e slot grrrr

The settings for the game are on SofTH forum mate.

I just tried it and it worked first time. Its running at 4:3 res multiplied by 3 so its stretching it out on the three screens

I will do more experiments tonight.

sid

edit/ Please don't mix nvidia and ATI cards, it wont work properly. Just easier to stick to one.

Edit2/ That matrox card is unikely to be able to render at a high res with decent framerate I'm afraid.

jvowles · 3 Feb 2009 at 13:45

+1 for soft TH. Have a GTX280 and 8800gt (overkill on the 2nd card). Works amazingly.

Hairboi · 3 Feb 2009 at 14:07

Triple monitor possible without Sli / xfire?

Typhoon · 3 Feb 2009 at 16:00

Hairboi said:
Triple monitor possible without Sli / xfire?

No you dont need sli or crossfire. If you are running Triplehead2Go you need 1 graphics card for 3 monitors (you can have SLI if you want). If you using SoftTH you need 2 cards (not in SLi or Crossfire, no need for identical cards), but the second card only needs to be Direct3d capable (most low end graphics cards will do this)

MoRT489 · 3 Feb 2009 at 17:37

hmm wondering if i should upgrade to a P45 or x38 for the second PCIe slot and buy a 9500GT (i guess about £200) and use SoftTH or go £250 for the TH2G...Throw some pros and cons at me plz

Tonyator · 3 Feb 2009 at 17:42

For triple monitors using SoftTH, would a HD4850, and an X800 work?
Does it matter that the X800 is only shader model 2, and DirectX 9? I'm guessing it doesn't matter as the 4850 does the work.
Also would it work with two 22" widescreens (1680 x 1050) with a 19" CRT (1600 x 1200) in the centre?

Thanks

the_jetsetwilly · 3 Feb 2009 at 17:54

simbady said:
anything like softth for 2 screens?

yes, softth

in the config you set one of the displays to -1 which basically deactives one of the 2 extrs displays so you'll get center+the other display

which has the advantage of the crosshair etc will still be dead center of the "middle" monitor. resolving the bane of running span etc

you dont need a 2nd card to run in this mode either (if you GFX card has 2 outputs)

sid · 3 Feb 2009 at 18:08

creed said:
hmm wondering if i should upgrade to a P45 or x38 for the second PCIe slot and buy a 9500GT (i guess about £200) and use SoftTH or go £250 for the TH2G...Throw some pros and cons at me plz

Erm you have a P35 board with a second PCI-e?

That will be fine unless im missing something.

If you are serious about multiple screen gamign then its proper triple head for you.

sid

MoRT489 · 3 Feb 2009 at 19:18

sid said:
Erm you have a P35 board with a second PCI-e?

Nope the P35 DS3R only has 1 PCI-e slot unfortunately. At the time i decided I wouldnt being going xfire as i prefered nvidia cards (drivers) and the 4x lane would cripple it, didnt think of running a third monitor at the time :rolleyes:

Your above awakening to softth looks good so why do u say proper TH2G?

sid · 3 Feb 2009 at 19:29

creed said:
Nope the P35 DS3R only has 1 PCI-e slot unfortunately. At the time i decided I wouldnt being going xfire as i prefered nvidia cards (drivers) and the 4x lane would cripple it, didnt think of running a third monitor at the time

Your above awakening to softth looks good so why do u say proper TH2G?

It supports a larger number of games and probably easier to configure although anyone gaming on 3 screens is likely to be geek lol

I 've setup deadspace now at 5040 * 1050 lol. I would certainly try the Software option first though.

Btw I'm running my second card on a 4X slot , seems fine to me.

Typhoon · 3 Feb 2009 at 19:47

If theres only £50 in it TH2Go wins it for me. Works for nearly 300 games and almost all new releases out of the box. For games that dont, Matrox regularly releases updates for its Surround sound gaming utility which patches the games for you. SoftTH works properly with much fewer games (about 20 I think), software often has to be specifically written for the game before it work. There is a big frame rate hit with SoftTH as well. The bezel management tool for TH2GO is great and can be adjusted to suit the size of the bezels on your monitors. SofthTH does not work with DX10 games. SoftTH does not support SLi or Crossfire or ATi X2 cards. The good thing about SofTH is you have a wider choice of resolutions and refresh rates, and you can mix resolutions on different monitors. Its also free

With TH2GO you are limited to the resolutions supported by the unit (though this can be expanded by firmware which was dome recently to allow 5040x1050.

5:4 vs surround gaming HalfLife2 Demo http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VkPmABOOWV8&feature=related Click watch in HD for maximum effect.

MoRT489 · 5 Feb 2009 at 15:28

Will i notice any difference in FPS games if i'm using a primary with 2ms response time and left/right of 5ms? Also what if contrast ratio differs?

Typhoon · 5 Feb 2009 at 16:54

creed said:
Will i notice any difference in FPS games if i'm using a primary with 2ms response time and left/right of 5ms? Also what if contrast ratio differs?

Doubt it will make much differance, not to FPS. Most of the action happens on the centre screen. Side screens are mainly for peripheral vision and that much vaunted phrase when it comes to surround gaming "immersion".

Happy · 10 Feb 2009 at 21:14

sid said:
It supports a larger number of games and probably easier to configure although anyone gaming on 3 screens is likely to be geek lol

I 've setup deadspace now at 5040 * 1050 lol. I would certainly try the Software option first though.

Btw I'm running my second card on a 4X slot , seems fine to me.

What size is that LG screen? Looks massive :confused:

datawrite · 15 Feb 2009 at 23:00

What about using a USB 2.0 TO VGA DISPLAY ADAPTER ? Any good?

sid · 16 Feb 2009 at 12:59

its a LG 22" , It looks large because of wide angle distortion.

A usb to VGA doesn't have decent bandwidth for games. Avoid at all costs. Second graphics card is the way to go.

sid

MoRT489 · 21 Feb 2009 at 11:56

Is there any way to get ATI card to work at 5040x1050 resolution? The 4870X2 is such a good price at them mo (£333) and i dont fancy paying £300+ for a GTX 285 as it's only a rebranded GTX 280!!

Typhoon · 21 Feb 2009 at 14:12

No way to get it to work at that res unfortunately.

neologan · 21 Feb 2009 at 17:55

Never really gave this much thought, but it looks amazing.

Still, i feel it will be much better in the future when display port catches on an eradicates the current bandwidth limits. Would be something else to game on 3x 24" panels at 1920x1080 (5760x1080) @ 120hz. I think we're a few years away from that, though!

And then there is the GPU requirements as it's way more demanding than 2560x1600.

2560 x 1600 = 4,096,000 pixels
5760 x 1080 = 6,220,800 pixels

I guess this is when Tri-SLI will finally make sense (performance-wise, not financially).

Velineon · 21 Feb 2009 at 21:38

Here i pic of mine running Dead Space using TH2Go

I really should buy a decent camera