Dual Monitor gaming Qs:

[rivan]

So, it's been a long time since I had a dual monitor setup at home, so I've got a few very basic questions.

-When launching a (full screen) game - what happens to monitor #2?

-Should I expect any issues running two screens at different resolutions? (It'll be 1680x1050 and 1280x1024)

-Is there a way to say, play full screen on monitor 1 and use a browser on monitor 2, or do I need to play windowed mode on monitor 1? If I have to do windowed mode, is there any way I can get borderless windows to simulate full screen play?

-How much of a performance hit can I expect? My current card does well enough on a single screen - does running that second screen take much?

If it matters, my machine's a E6300 with 2G ram, and an x850xtpe.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: rivan
So, it's been a long time since I had a dual monitor setup at home, so I've got a few very basic questions.

-When launching a (full screen) game - what happens to monitor #2?

It continues to show the desktop. If the game changes the resolution of the monitor it's running on even for a split second, it will push windows onto the other desktop. It especially screws with yahoo widgets and sidebar gadgets.

-Should I expect any issues running two screens at different resolutions? (It'll be 1680x1050 and 1280x1024)

Windows will appear to change size as you move them across unless both monitors have the same pixel density.

-Is there a way to say, play full screen on monitor 1 and use a browser on monitor 2, or do I need to play windowed mode on monitor 1? If I have to do windowed mode, is there any way I can get borderless windows to simulate full screen play?

Yeah, you'll need to use windowed mode. Although some games like WoW can maximize to be borderless...really depends on the game.

Most games will properly lock the mouse cursor to the game. Sometimes they dont, and if you move your mouse onto the other monitor and click, it'll be like alt-tabbing, which has a tendency to screw up and/or crash many games even on a single monitor setup.

-How much of a performance hit can I expect? My current card does well enough on a single screen - does running that second screen take much?

In gaming, windowed mode takes a MASSIVE hit. Fullscreen mode doesnt take ANY hit as far as I can tell, even though its still technically displaying the other desktop.

As far as general windows goes, you wont notice any performance diference.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: rivan
-When launching a (full screen) game - what happens to monitor #2?

This depends on a couple things. First off, if your full screen game isn't the same resolution, it will mess around with the orientation of your second desktop. I use nVidia's DualView with my dual monitor setup and if I go into an "improper resolution", my second monitor's picture gets shifted over to the right.

Originally posted by: rivan
-Should I expect any issues running two screens at different resolutions? (It'll be 1680x1050 and 1280x1024)

I don't see an issue with this. I mean, windows will "shrink" or "enlarge" if they're on a different monitor because of the resolution difference. Personally, I prefer the same resolution on both.

Originally posted by: rivan
-Is there a way to say, play full screen on monitor 1 and use a browser on monitor 2, or do I need to play windowed mode on monitor 1? If I have to do windowed mode, is there any way I can get borderless windows to simulate full screen play?

Yes, you can do this as long as you aren't using a span and using something like nVidia's DualView. The only issue that you'll have in full screen is that you must alt-tab to go into the other windows. In Windowed mode, you can simply move your cursor off the game. In World of Warcraft, I use Windowed Maximized, because of the type of play that MMOs provide (fairly decent down-time which allows for good multitasking).

Originally posted by: rivan
-How much of a performance hit can I expect? My current card does well enough on a single screen - does running that second screen take much?

Not really, unless you're doing something graphical on both monitors.

 

[Thyme]

A handful of games will support the second monitor, but I don't know if that is the case with the ATI cards as they used to not support Direct X on both screens.

I have some programs that use docked windows that run on my second monitor, so on games that mess those up, I tend to disable the second monitor beforehand. I use Ultramon which lets me enable/disable easily and quickly and also saves all the window locations.

This might not be the case with the newer cards, but I used to run into problems where some games would detect my machine not being Direct X capable when my second monitor was enabled, so that was another reason to sometimes disable it.

 

[aka1nas]

Supreme Commander is the only game I know of that actually will use the second monitor for anything useful.

In XP, you were able to mess around with spans and stretch some games across two monitors. It looks like crap generally though, as it's still not a normal WS resolution and no games support odd resolutions like that correctly. If you're using two identical screen, the middle of the screen would be cut off by the borders of the monitors anyway.

Vista currently doesn't allow you to span games across two displays in such a way.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

yeah i was wondering if tehre was any cool way to use 2 screens like in supcom...but i dont think there are

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: Thyme
A handful of games will support the second monitor, but I don't know if that is the case with the ATI cards as they used to not support Direct X on both screens.

I have some programs that use docked windows that run on my second monitor, so on games that mess those up, I tend to disable the second monitor beforehand. I use Ultramon which lets me enable/disable easily and quickly and also saves all the window locations.

This might not be the case with the newer cards, but I used to run into problems where some games would detect my machine not being Direct X capable when my second monitor was enabled, so that was another reason to sometimes disable it.

I'm actually just wanting a mapping application easily accessible on the secondary monitor while I play LoTRO.