Running dual monitors

[daw123]

Hello guys and girls,

I've just bought a Benq G2400WD 24" monitor and I'm thinking about buying a second one.

My question is how does it work with running dual monitors:
1. does one monitor display half the screen and the other half is on the second monitor? Or;
2. can you display different things on each monitor? Or;
3. does each monitor display the same thing? Or;
4. can you control whether options 1-3 above is displayed using s/w?

If its only option 3, then what's the point of having two monitors.

My rig is in my sig.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lonyo]

Any of the above, depending on OS and card manufacturer (NV and XP can do #1, not sure ATI can on any OS and I'm not sure NV can on Vista).
All can do #2 (normal setup) or #3 (not very useful setup).

 

[daw123]

Thanks for the response Lonyo.

 

[PCTC2]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Any of the above, depending on OS and card manufacturer (NV and XP can do #1, not sure ATI can on any OS and I'm not sure NV can on Vista).
All can do #2 (normal setup) or #3 (not very useful setup).

well, number 3 is for presentations and similar. It can be difficult to work on a large screen, but you can work on the small screen and present off a projector. Any of the above work, but number 1 requires work arounds. I have two monitors and work on one and display web pages, iChat, and iTunes on the second.

Word of caution: Video cards have a maximum resolution and when I try to run 2x 1920x1200 monitors off of one card, I usually blue-screen with the nvidia drivers crashing. Not sure if it's a memory issue or what. So i have each one hooked up to a different monitor.

 

[WelshBloke]

Both NV and AMD are pretty crap for multimonitors (not that you've got a lot of other options).

You get the bare minimum with both of them (ie both monitors will work and you can have extended or mirrored desktops)

I really wish they would put a bit of work into their drivers on this issue, it would be worth way more that 2 or 3 fps in the latest games.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Any of the above, depending on OS and card manufacturer (NV and XP can do #1, not sure ATI can on any OS and I'm not sure NV can on Vista).
All can do #2 (normal setup) or #3 (not very useful setup).

well, number 3 is for presentations and similar. It can be difficult to work on a large screen, but you can work on the small screen and present off a projector. Any of the above work, but number 1 requires work arounds. I have two monitors and work on one and display web pages, iChat, and iTunes on the second.

Word of caution: Video cards have a maximum resolution and when I try to run 2x 1920x1200 monitors off of one card, I usually blue-screen with the nvidia drivers crashing. Not sure if it's a memory issue or what. So i have each one hooked up to a different monitor.

Thanks for the responses.

So I could get around this by plugging one monitor into one X2 and the other monitor into the second X2?

Originally posted by: WelshBloke
Both NV and AMD are pretty crap for multimonitors (not that you've got a lot of other options).

You get the bare minimum with both of them (ie both monitors will work and you can have extended or mirrored desktops)

I really wish they would put a bit of work into their drivers on this issue, it would be worth way more that 2 or 3 fps in the latest games.

I agree. If they are selling graphics cards with dual outputs (and most of the mid- to high-end cards have this) then the drivers should be good enough to do it.

 

[ilkhan]

1: stretch
2: extend
3: mirror

My nV card allows all 3 under 7x64.

 

[WelshBloke]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
1: stretch
2: extend
3: mirror

My nV card allows all 3 under 7x64.

Where are you getting the stretch mode from? (I'm assuming by that you mean the task bar running along the bottom of the two moniters)

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: WelshBloke

Originally posted by: ilkhan
1: stretch
2: extend
3: mirror

My nV card allows all 3 under 7x64.

Where are you getting the stretch mode from? (I'm assuming by that you mean the task bar running along the bottom of the two moniters)

NV control panel has option called "horizontal span", however that works only well if both monitors use same resolution.

 

[WelshBloke]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: WelshBloke

Originally posted by: ilkhan
1: stretch
2: extend
3: mirror

My nV card allows all 3 under 7x64.

Where are you getting the stretch mode from? (I'm assuming by that you mean the task bar running along the bottom of the two moniters)

NV control panel has option called "horizontal span", however that works only well if both monitors use same resolution.

Sorry, but by that you mean it only works if both monitors have the same res?

If so I'll stop looking as I cant find it and am running different resolutions.

 

[postmortemIA]

you can have different resolutions but then whichever vertical resolution is lower out of these two will be used on both screens.

 

[ilkhan]

I run a 1920x1200 side by side a 1600x1200. It works just fine on the GTX+.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
I run a 1920x1200 side by side a 1600x1200. It works just fine on the GTX+.

same

ati 4890 (also did it with my 8800gt in win xp 64)

1920x1200

and

1600x1200

extended

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: daw123

Originally posted by: PCTC2

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Any of the above, depending on OS and card manufacturer (NV and XP can do #1, not sure ATI can on any OS and I'm not sure NV can on Vista).
All can do #2 (normal setup) or #3 (not very useful setup).

well, number 3 is for presentations and similar. It can be difficult to work on a large screen, but you can work on the small screen and present off a projector. Any of the above work, but number 1 requires work arounds. I have two monitors and work on one and display web pages, iChat, and iTunes on the second.

Word of caution: Video cards have a maximum resolution and when I try to run 2x 1920x1200 monitors off of one card, I usually blue-screen with the nvidia drivers crashing. Not sure if it's a memory issue or what. So i have each one hooked up to a different monitor.

Thanks for the responses.

So I could get around this by plugging one monitor into one X2 and the other monitor into the second X2?

Originally posted by: WelshBloke
Both NV and AMD are pretty crap for multimonitors (not that you've got a lot of other options).

You get the bare minimum with both of them (ie both monitors will work and you can have extended or mirrored desktops)

I really wish they would put a bit of work into their drivers on this issue, it would be worth way more that 2 or 3 fps in the latest games.

I agree. If they are selling graphics cards with dual outputs (and most of the mid- to high-end cards have this) then the drivers should be good enough to do it.

My 7800GT worked with all the games I threw at it in XP using horizontal span mode across 2x17" LCDs for a 2560x1024 effectively single screen.
Games would be displayed going across both monitors as one contiguous screen and the only frame rate reductions were due to rendering twice as much as normal.
Using a single screen for games and a second monitor displaying other stuff has also had minimal impact on my gaming performance both with NV and ATI. I've never felt a need to disable the second monitor.

And on the point of using dual monitors in games, some games support it, such as Supreme Commander, and if other devs decide not to make use of dual monitor opportunities that's not the fault of the graphics card manufacturer.

 

[Cookie Monster]

You can do 1~3 no problems. But what thing for sure is that relying on nVIDIA/ATi control panel for multi monitors is a joke. They provide the bare minimum support in this area. What you want however is ultramon. This software is a must for dual/multi monitor setups because it allows alot of flexibility.

 

[WelshBloke]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
you can have different resolutions but then whichever vertical resolution is lower out of these two will be used on both screens.

Where is the option for span? I can get extended and mirrored.

 

[WelshBloke]

Ok, looked into it a bit more and under vista/win7 you cannot have span mode.

You can have extended desktop and mirrored desktops.

 

[ilkhan]

Ive never seen the benefit of span mode myself. It just shows exactly what extended mode shows, but with fewer options (cant put the taskbar in the middle of the desktop like I do now, for one).

 

[WelshBloke]

Originally posted by: ilkhan
Ive never seen the benefit of span mode myself. It just shows exactly what extended mode shows, but with fewer options (cant put the taskbar in the middle of the desktop like I do now, for one).

Games and apps span across all the screens.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
You can do 1~3 no problems. But what thing for sure is that relying on nVIDIA/ATi control panel for multi monitors is a joke. They provide the bare minimum support in this area. What you want however is ultramon. This software is a must for dual/multi monitor setups because it allows alot of flexibility.

I'll look into that S/W, Cookie Monster.

Thanks for all the other replies, guys.

 

[Cookie Monster]

The S/W aint free unless ... well you know

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster
The S/W aint free unless ... well you know

I understand

 

[mcvickj]

Not to derail your thread but where did you find / purchase the G2400W? This is one of the monitors I've been looking at but it is a deactivated item at Newegg and Amazon lists it as a refurbished monitor.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: mcvickj
Not to derail your thread but where did you find / purchase the G2400W? This is one of the monitors I've been looking at but it is a deactivated item at Newegg and Amazon lists it as a refurbished monitor.

I live in the UK, so it probably won't be much help to you in the US, but here you go:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149843

They also have it on clearance for £15.00 less:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161780

 

[mcvickj]

Doh. Didn't think to check your profile before asking. Thanks for posting the links.