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Question about Triple Monitor Hardware
http://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=24260		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Jademalo [ 03 Jun 2012, 14:57 ]
Post subject:  Question about Triple Monitor Hardware
Hey, I've got a couple of questions, mainly out of my own curiosity since I can't seem to find answers anywhere.

I know that things like Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround/SoftTH essentially render the image at a superwide resolution, then split it up and send a part to each monitor. MatroxTH2G is similar, although its only plugged into one output of the cards and makes the card think its a triple wide monitor plugged in.
Now, my question arises when none of those solutions are used. I know that a directX game can only be run fullscreen on a single logical monitor, but in most games its possible to choose which one you run it on. If it isnt, it runs it on the primary windows monitor.
Say for example, we have an nvidia GTX580 in the first GPU slot, and an 8800GT in the other. We plug two monitors into the 580, and one into the 8800GT. We set the primary monitor to be one plugged into the 580, and windows to extended desktop. I know that if we used SoftTH, it would render the full triple wide image on the 580, since that is the location of the primary monitor, split it up, and send a third of it to each monitor, using the 8800gt as a slave for displaying the already rendered image.
Am I also right in thinking that if we were to set a game to run on the monitor plugged into the 8800GT without using SoftTH, it would only be rendered on the 8800GT?

The main question I have though, is if we use this setup - how does running a game windowed work?
e.g, if you take Minecraft, you can stretch it across all three monitors. Even if it's just set to extended desktop. Is it rendered on what is classed as the current primary monitor and sent in a manner to SoftTH, or is it rendered on the 8800gt for the area that is displayed on the monitor using that card? or does it just not work? The reason I ask is because I've got two monitors plugged into a single 570, and I can stretch minecraft over both monitors but not fullscreen it.

If anyone could answer that, I'd appreciate it
Thanks!
Author:  Jackal Frost [ 04 Jun 2012, 17:21 ]
Post subject:  Jademalo wrote:Hey, I've got
Hey, I've got a couple of questions, mainly out of my own curiosity since I can't seem to find answers anywhere.

I know that things like Eyefinity/Nvidia Surround/SoftTH essentially render the image at a superwide resolution, then split it up and send a part to each monitor. MatroxTH2G is similar, although its only plugged into one output of the cards and makes the card think its a triple wide monitor plugged in.
Now, my question arises when none of those solutions are used. I know that a directX game can only be run fullscreen on a single logical monitor, but in most games its possible to choose which one you run it on. If it isnt, it runs it on the primary windows monitor.
Say for example, we have an nvidia GTX580 in the first GPU slot, and an 8800GT in the other. We plug two monitors into the 580, and one into the 8800GT. We set the primary monitor to be one plugged into the 580, and windows to extended desktop. I know that if we used SoftTH, it would render the full triple wide image on the 580, since that is the location of the primary monitor, split it up, and send a third of it to each monitor, using the 8800gt as a slave for displaying the already rendered image.
Am I also right in thinking that if we were to set a game to run on the monitor plugged into the 8800GT without using SoftTH, it would only be rendered on the 8800GT?

The main question I have though, is if we use this setup - how does running a game windowed work?
e.g, if you take Minecraft, you can stretch it across all three monitors. Even if it's just set to extended desktop. Is it rendered on what is classed as the current primary monitor and sent in a manner to SoftTH, or is it rendered on the 8800gt for the area that is displayed on the monitor using that card? or does it just not work? The reason I ask is because I've got two monitors plugged into a single 570, and I can stretch minecraft over both monitors but not fullscreen it.

If anyone could answer that, I'd appreciate it
Thanks!

In my understanding, MC uses the main GPU (Most likely the one hooked up to the primary monitor) and renders it with that, and displays it to the window, not to a specific screen, when you go full-screen, it's a bit more involved intimately with the graphics card, and it's limited to one screen.
Author:  Zodiak [ 05 Jun 2012, 19:07 ]
Post subject:  Now, I have 3x GTX 580s +1
Now, I have 3x GTX 580s +1 PhysX Card and they are in SLI. All the same model of video cards are required for SLI. Now the NVIDIA control panel displays that its best for me to have 1 monitor hooked up to each of the video cards individually.

Seeing as you have 2 different video cards, I would mainly use the GTX 580 ti push the multiple monitors and have the 8800GT as a dedicated PhysX card maybe.

If both video cards are different models and one is weaker then the other, that may result in crippled results. Your GTX 580 is more than capable on running multiple displays and can do NVIDIA Surround through the NVIDIA control panel.

Now I find it odd that you can do windowed games but cannot fullscreen minecraft. If your monitors are setup to span, then it should be considered a single monitor. This is the same I do except I have 3x GTX 580s and 3 monitors
Author:  Jademalo [ 06 Jun 2012, 19:41 ]
Post subject:  You've slightly misunderstood
You've slightly misunderstood my question - it was mainly hypothetical. I know that setting it up to span would work, its just my curiosity with setups that I cannot personally use and how things work on a sliiightly more technical level.

Also thelolotov - That sounds like a fair enough explination. Does this mean that theoretically fullscreen windowed applications could do triple monitors without being set to span mode?
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