Which dual setup should I use?

[fourty03]

Hello all,

I've search and couldn't find anything relevant on what I am trying to find out.

I just bought another monitor to have a dual screen setup in Microsoft Flight Sim X..

I am unsure if I should utilize the onboard video with the PCIe video card I have installed, or keep it like I have it now, which is DVI to primary and VGA to secondary.

My system specs are:
Biostar A785GE w/ onboard ATI 4200 video...
AMD Athlon X2 250
2GB DDR3
Sapphire ATI 4650 PCIe w/ 512mb

Prior to this additional monitor purchase, I had the onboard video connected to a LCD television and used it for putting a movie on the television set. There is an option in the BIOS to enable "surround view" which I cannot find much information on. When I am done watching a movie or finished, I would just disable the 4200 onboard through ATI Catalyst.


Currently, I still have the television set up (but hardly use it) and connected to the onboard. I have the both monitors plugged into my 4650. Would it be beneficial for me to keep the dual plugged into the 4650 or should I plug the secondary monitor to the 4200 onboard?

Would I see anytime of performance gain from this? When I have both cards running, the display is extended (with my monitor being the primary).

I am thinking with the logic that the 4650 has to work extra hard to scale the display across two monitors. Also, what I am not understanding about the "surround view" is that I am not sure if the GPU is being utilized in the 4200 when it's in use.

Thanks a lot everyone !

 

[happy medium]

Currently, I still have the television set up (but hardly use it) and connected to the onboard. I have the both monitors plugged into my 4650. Would it be beneficial for me to keep the dual plugged into the 4650 or should I plug the secondary monitor to the 4200 onboard?

Would I see anytime of performance gain from this? When I have both cards running, the display is extended (with my monitor being the primary).

I would keep both monitors hooked up to the 4650 and use the 4200 for movies on the TV. I don't think a 4650 will use a 4200 together, therefore you will see no performance gain.

 

[fourty03]

Its funny you said that, when AMD first published the compatibility for the hybrid crossfire, it listed a 4650 as compatible... lol

Thats what I figured.. So whatever is connected to the 4200 onboard recieves no hardware acceleration? Or is it a pass through?

I've tried running games with my primary monitor and the TV LCD (primary was connected to the 4650 and tv was connected to the 4200) and although I was not looking for scalability, it worked okay for a low end system I suppose.

Im actually just curious now more than anything. Thank you for the reply, and I will stick with the 4650 until a couple weeks until I get me a 6xxx card.

 

[fourty03]

I actually found this on Wiki ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_Hybrid_Graphics

SurroundView

The SurroundView technology is a multi-display technology available in the 690G chipset, and the AMD 780G IGP chipset.
This technology supports the connection of multiple monitors. For the AMD 780G chipset, at most two monitors
(four supported along with a discrete graphics card) can be connected onto the supported video output ports (one through LVDS, that is either HDMI or DVI-D port
and one D-Sub port), in "extended desktop mode" or "duplicate mode", for better desktop utilization and to provide more flexibility.
The integrated graphics processor and the discrete graphics processor work in parallel to drive multiple displays. Therefore it is different from Hybrid CrossFireX.

Im actually just curious about the Surround View.. So it seems like instead of the two working together, they are each processing the same thing, at the same time basically. I noticed when I put on a HD movie (blue ray.. etc) that I see no performance issues when I am in the flight sim .. hmm this is interesting.

 

[lifeblood]

Ive done both with my setup, run the second monitor on the 4830, and run it on the onboard video. I haven't seen any difference. Of course I don't run flight simulator so I can't speak to that.