Question Regarding Dual Monitor Setup

[kjackson09]

Well my new rig (see specs in signature) is setup and running very smooth. I have been very happy with the performance up to this point and would like to use some of the additional hardware features.

My VideoCard is the eVGA 6600GT which offers dual monitor display through nView. I would like to use two CRT monitors, having dual display with indpendent displays on each monitor. For example, I can be playing World Of Warcraft on one monitor while I surf the internet on the other monitor.

From what I understand this is not to difficult to setup, However I do have a question regarding performance. Will this be a significant drain on system resources? Will this be bad for my video card?

Help would be great appreciated.

Thanks

Kerry

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: kjackson09
For example, I can be playing World Of Warcraft on one monitor while I surf the internet on the other monitor.

Yes, but most games that run fullscreen will not allow you to switch away from the game (it's like hitting alt-tab, essentially). With these sorts of games, you can have windows up and visible on the second screen, but you cannot interact with them.

Games that can run in a window do not have this problem. I don't play WoW, so I'm unsure about it; asking in the Software forum, or in a WoW-related forum, would probably find an answer.

From what I understand this is not to difficult to setup, However I do have a question regarding performance. Will this be a significant drain on system resources?

No (other than that any programs you have open on the second monitor will require RAMa nd CPU time, etc., but no more than usual).

Will this be bad for my video card?

Um, no. Why would you think that doing what a dual-monitor card is designed to do would be "bad" for it?

 

[kjackson09]

Well I do know that WoW does allow for "Window Mode" I was fooling around with this yesterday.

I will ask in the some alternate forums regarding swtiching beteen Full Screen Mode (Monitor #1) and Standard Desktop (Monitor #2).

I am also glad to hear that this won't be a significant drain on system resources.

As for the questionas regarding dual display, I have read that the cards can get VERY hot when running in dual mode, and extrenous heat over an extended peiod of time can cause damage. That is why I was looking for experience from others.

Cheers.

 

[ZobarStyl]

I've run dual screen for almost a year now; 6 months on a Ti4200 and the last 5 on a 6800GT...and I've seen nothing that leads me to believe that the card is that much hotter in dual mode. The Ti4200 got relegated to my fiancee's computer after the 6 months of being on 24 hours a day in dual mode, and it still works fine. As for usefulness, all you have to do is have whatever program/game in a window and size the window to fill the entire second screen. However, some games basically size down a window of x size and you lose a couple of pixels, so watch out for WoW doing that. For example, in PlanetSide I would have my desktop at 1024x768 and the window would size itself to about 1024x740, so those 28 lines got lost between program and screen and I ended up with diminished IQ on text. However, pretty much any other program/game you should be able to size the window exactly and not lose any IQ. Also, try Doom3 spanned across 2 monitors with a modified FoV, it's just beautiful, minus the gap between monitors *Gets hacksaw*. If you want Duallies for usefulness, go for it, but if you want it for FPS spanned, you better get monitors with a millimeter bezel.