USB Monitors and Gaming

[ibex333]

So I got myself a Mimo Magic Touch 10.1" Touch Display, USB (UM-1010A) to fool around with. It was interesting for me to find out how games would look on such a tiny monitor, plus I never used USB monitors before.

In the case of this monitor, BOTH video and power are transferred via a single USB 2.0 cable. No other connections are available or required.

My excitement quickly changed to frustration, when I noticed many games don't run at all or don't run properly. Sometimes, a DirectX API error will come up, and sometimes the game simply wont start at all and there will be no indication as to "why".

Yet, many games DO run, and I wonder why that is. For example, pretty much all Blizzard games run just fine. (Diablo III, Starcraft 2, Overwatch etc)

"The Surge" runs, but cannot adjust to monitors 1024x600 resolution so only a small piece of the screen is visible.

Company of Heroes, Opposing fronts runs very well, yet Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War doesn't run!

I did some quick google searching, and found out that in the case of USB monitors, it's the CPU that does all the heavy lifting and not the GPU. So if I understand correctly, my GTX 1080 is not playing any role in this whatsoever and my 6600k is doing everything instead. On one hand, this is kinda cool, because I got an average of 48fps in CoH with Ultra settings, something the built in Intel HD graphics would never pull off, even at 1024x600. On the other hand, so many games not running at all, is not cool at all!

And whats up with me not being able to change the resolution of the monitor in Windows? It always stays at 1024x600 and the resolution options are always disabled, both in game menus as well as in Windows.

Can someone with knowledge on the matter tell me more about USB monitors? Are there any tricks, or workarounds to make games that refuse to run, run anyway?

 

[mnewsham]

and found out that in the case of USB monitors, it's the CPU that does all the heavy lifting and not the GPU.

Well yeah, think about it. How does your GPU work? By interfacing between your monitor and your CPU/Motherboard. It does this with HDMI, Displayport, VGA, or DVI.

Your GPU doesn't have a USB output does it?

 

[Rifter]

What is this the return to 1990? Who wants to game on their CPU????

GPU was invented for a reason, the reason CPU not good for gaming.

 

[ibex333]

What is this the return to 1990? Who wants to game on their CPU????

GPU was invented for a reason, the reason CPU not good for gaming.

You'll be surprised how good it actually is when games do work. I got 48 fps on average in Company of Heroes 2. Yes that was on low resolution 1024x600, and yes this is only concerning games that DO work, but this is on all Ultra settings, and good luck getting this sort of fps on something like Intel HD 4000


Also, don't forget this is using a usb 2.0 connection, so it could have been potentially much, much faster.


Plus, don't forget. I am doing this just for kicks, not because it's something I cant live without.

 

[Rifter]

Moving to USB3 would solve alot of the issues, but unless they find a way to loop in the GPU somehow its still going to suck.

 

[Wall Street]

I think that you will find that the games that are working at a decent frame rate with 3D are able to use separate devices for the rendering and the output of the game. Games that don't support this are the ones which wont load. It is possible to having output and rendering happen on different GPUs, look at how the freesync with GeForce bug works.

The reason that you can't change the resolution is probably because the USB monitor doesn't have a scaler, a piece of hardware which allows digital monitors to display non-native resolutions.