Clarification on the Windows issues

[Aurix]

Hi everyone, new boxer here and after reading through as much info as I can with the time I have, I need to clarify some things with the windows'es.. Please, correct me if I'm wrong and point me to a post I may have missed with all the answers to the questions below. BTW I run two instances of WoW on a 5600+/2GB ram machine on a 8600GTS card with a 20" wide and 17" regular LCD's.

1) Windows XP, up to SP3 (and even XP 64 bit), when using two monitors, will not support vid acceleration to both monitors, which is why FPS blows on my second one..no? When I drag the second box of WoW to the main monitor, FPS goes up a tad (about 2 FPS), but really the focused/foreground window has 55fps, the other has 15fps, and vice versa when switching focus on that same monitor. This leads me to believe that it's not "accelerating" both windows equally, not necessarily both monitors. Is this normal?

2) Which version of Vista supports acceleration on BOTH monitors/windows, if any? I've seen some mention of this issue being "Fixed" in Vista but no mention of which versions. Was thinking it may run smoother with more RAM on XP or Vista 64 bit...

3) Will buying up a higher end (or 2nd) vid card fix this problem?

4) Is there another way around this, such as a single resolution between both monitors? How hard is virtualization? I seriously want to avoid Vista but if the alternatives are too painful then maybe I should consider it... Or just get used to smaller res windows since I'm so used to full screen.

Thank you very much!

[Chranny]

1. This is perfectly normal.

2. Afaik all versions of Vista should fix it.

3. No, buying a better gfx card will not fix it.

4. You can use Horizontal or Vertical span. The problem is only if you're using Dualview.

[zanthor]

4) Is there another way around this, such as a single resolution between both monitors? How hard is virtualization? I seriously want to avoid Vista but if the alternatives are too painful then maybe I should consider it... Or just get used to smaller res windows since I'm so used to full screen.

The issue with this is that you can ONLY use horizontal span if you have identical resolution monitors... I used to have two monitors at 1280x1024 and span worked great, once I upgraded to a 22" wide and kept my 19" in the picture I had no choice... vista it was.

And yes, any version of Vista should do the trick, however if you are going to upgrade to vista I'd recommend taking the plunge for 4gb of ram as well, so I'd go with any version of Vista 64 after verifying that you can get drivers for all your hardware.