Does running a dual monitor setup hurt gaming performance?

[Sonikku]

I'm running a 9600XT 128mb video card with a gig of corsair value ram and a 2400+ Sempron cpu. I play a lot of World of Warcraft, however for I also run my monitor in a dual setup with my tv for more desktop space. (The screen outputs the same graphics on the tv when I'm gaming though) Does this hurt performance any versus only having my card output to my one monitor? I thought about getting the 256mb varient of the 9600XT card that was a few dollars more, but users told be the difference could not be seen in this price range. Does the video ram have an impact on running two displays?

 

[Unkno]

i think there is a performance hit because your gpu would have to output for both monitors/tv. How big of a performance, i do not know. Why don't you just try to plug it in with one monitor, then try with two.

 

[dug777]

at 1280, the other desktop uses something tiny like a MB or less of the gfx card memory...insignificant.

that said, nvidia drivers USED to have a problem with duallies and gaming, but as far as i'm aware, that problem has been fixed.

 

[imported_g33k]

Does running a dual monitor setup hurt gaming performance?

To answer your question, yes it does. Your graphic card has to work harder because it has too display to two monitors. I havent benched it, but as a very rough estimate I would say its 20% performance hit. No question you will notice the difference. My advice to you is to turn off a monitor before you start the game.

 

[kirbymixmasta]

Originally posted by: g33k

Does running a dual monitor setup hurt gaming performance?

To answer your question, yes it does. Your graphic card has to work harder because it has too display to two monitors. I havent benched it, but as a very rough estimate I would say its 20% performance hit. No question you will notice the difference. My advice to you is to turn off a monitor before you start the game.

20% is way off. I run dual monitors. I don't notice anything to different running 1 monitor vs 2. Maybe when running 3dmark05' possibly up to 100 less. But nothing big.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: g33k

Does running a dual monitor setup hurt gaming performance?

To answer your question, yes it does. Your graphic card has to work harder because it has too display to two monitors. I havent benched it, but as a very rough estimate I would say its 20% performance hit. No question you will notice the difference. My advice to you is to turn off a monitor before you start the game.

20% is definitely way too high.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: bjc112

Originally posted by: g33k

Does running a dual monitor setup hurt gaming performance?

To answer your question, yes it does. Your graphic card has to work harder because it has too display to two monitors. I havent benched it, but as a very rough estimate I would say its 20% performance hit. No question you will notice the difference. My advice to you is to turn off a monitor before you start the game.

20% is definitely way too high.

dammit no one reads anything i post here do they?

that sounds about right if you are running a nvidia 6800 (IIRC that is...but it was def a high-end nvidia card) and older drivers...i remember this problem cropping up when one of the big three (hl2/d3/farcry) was released...

NOT an issue now, for either ATI or nvidia cards...like i said at 1280 the desktop uses up a mb or so of your VRAM=insignificant effect on 98% of all games.

even 3dmark05 shows an insignificant hit when i bench with my 9800 pro & duallies running (practically a margin of error...) vs. a single monitor.

 

[Sonikku]

I just played WoW for a few hours and on average I got about 8 more fps, moving from 24 to 32. They were badly needed.

I'm getting a new Sony 900 monitor that supports 1920x1200 and was curious if the ram of the card had any impact in that regard. Under most cirumstances pushing that kind of resolution would be crazy for this card, but considering how much my Socket A cpu seems to be bottlenecking the 9600xt I figured it would be worth a try. Just the same, would the 256mb varient of my card perform better at higher resolutions?

 

[imported_g33k]

So you got 8 more fps? Looks like my 20% number wasnt too far off then. Maybe when I get home I'll bench it and see what exact numbers I get.