Performance hit while playing games and using two additional monitors.

[Nebben]

I'm currently using my 6600GT for my primary monitor, and powering two 17" monitors, one with the other output on my 6600GT and one with a 2MB PCI Matrox Mystique. (Yeah, the one from like 20 years ago.)

I have noticed some pretty big performance hits in 3D games, whereas I'd get a constant framerate with just my 6600GT I'll get a lot of stuttering when using the other monitor(s). I have tried using a second Mystique and only powering my main monitor with the 6600GT, but it's the same.

Is it because of my crappy 2MB Mystiques that this is happening? I'm guessing so, because I'm assuming it's putting extra load on my processor, but I want to be sure. I don't want to end up buying a decent card with two outputs to power the other monitors and end up having the exact same problem.

All that's generally running on the other monitors are Trillian and Winamp, while I'm playing games anyway.

 

[Nebben]

Bump... nobody's dealt with this issue before?

I can afford to spend ~$50 on a decent dual-output card, but if it's not going to solve my problem I don't want to waste my money.

I really like having two additional monitors for my instant messenging and music programs. It's much better than constantly minimizing and switching applications on one monitor. But I would rather have one nice 21" monitor for gaming and no additional monitors if that's what it comes down to.

Can anyone offer a solution to this problem?

I don't know a lot about how graphics cards work... but I have a feeling my old PCI cards really tax the processor and RAM and maybe a newer card would help. Input?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

te 6600gt should be able to power two monitors..it has 2 outputs on the back right?

jus use the DVi to VGA converter on the Dvi port and it should work. i have a 6800gt with a DVI and VGA, n i tired hooking up my other monitor to it...worked fine

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
te 6600gt should be able to power two monitors..it has 2 outputs on the back right?

jus use the DVi to VGA converter on the Dvi port and it should work. i have a 6800gt with a DVI and VGA, n i tired hooking up my other monitor to it...worked fine

He has three monitors (read the post again).

You shouldn't see a big performance loss with more video cards/monitors in the system. Have you tried anothre card, like maybe one made in the last decade?

 

[Nebben]

Hehe. That's just it, I don't have a single card that will work as a secondary card that is new at all. All I have is old PCI cards (which don't work as secondary adapters, the Mystique is a rarity) and a few AGP cards, that aren't that good anyway, and won't work in my PCI-E board.

Is it normal for a 2MB PCI card from a million years ago to suck performance out? My theory says yes, because it doesn't do much by itself like new cards do. So I should probably just pick up a Radeon or something and see how it goes.

 

[EightySix Four]

don't pick up a readeon if you already have a 6600gt... probably a driver hell

 

[Nebben]

Really? Why is that? I've had no problems running my Matrox card alongside the 6600GT, other than the fact that the Mystique sucks.