Dualview problem with 4:3 + wide

[Rufio]

Hi
I bought a second monitor yesterday and placed it next to my old one. The old one is 19", res. 1280*1024, the new one is 22", res 1680*1050.
Now i read i have to set my nvidia settings to horizontal span because fps is cut in half when using Dualview. But the thing is i don't like horizontal span because all my apps stretch over 2 monitors, and the image on my wide screen look stretched.
Is there any way to keep dualview but with a good framerate?
Thx

[Rufio]

Btw i'm running XP and do not plan to upgrade to Vista (altho that would fix the problem).

[Ken]

I have exactly the same screen setup as you. I think that having a lower FPS can only be countered by buying a better graphics card.
A GeForce 8800 or something similar should be sufficient. (a GeForce 8800GT seems to perform better than a 9600GT by the way, and the former is cheaper than the latter)
I have a GeForce 7900 with 768MB RAM and this can perform well in Windows XP 64bit. I don't use horizontal spanning, I use both screens separately.

[edit] I don't know how much of a performance loss I encounter at home with horizontal span vs. dualscreen. I just know that I get 20 to 140fps, depending on the environment, which is very acceptible.

If you have old graphics card drivers, you might want to consider updating them.

[Rufio]

Hm i don't think my graca is the problem, it's not the best but it's quite recent and does the job (don't know the specs, i'm at work now so can't lookup). I also have latest drivers.
When I play 2 instances of wow on the same screen i get a nice 50 fps on both. When i drag one wow window to the other screen, my fps drops on both windows to 10 fps or even lower (feels like 1 fps sometimes).
Meanwhile i have read this is a windows XP (or DX9) problem and not a graca problem.
So I'm looking for a solution that doesn't require me to buy a new component or OS.

[X2Guy]

To do dual-view with good frame rates you will have to go Vista32 or 64. XP has a problem in dual- view, being it will only accelarates one monitor.

If you do not want to upgrade, Horizontal span is your only choice for good frame rates.

[Rufio]

Dejmn. Gonna give horizontal span another try then. But probably will have to reset to dualview every time i'm not playing WoW. Bother. Thanks for the advice!

[Ken]

Hm i don't think my graca is the problem, it's not the best but it's quite recent and does the job (don't know the specs, i'm at work now so can't lookup). I also have latest drivers.
When I play 2 instances of wow on the same screen i get a nice 50 fps on both. When i drag one wow window to the other screen, my fps drops on both windows to 10 fps or even lower (feels like 1 fps sometimes).
Meanwhile i have read this is a windows XP (or DX9) problem and not a graca problem.
So I'm looking for a solution that doesn't require me to buy a new component or OS."Quite recent" doesn't say anything :P It can be a low-end or low-mid-end card, which is probably not enough for 2 screens and multiple 3D applications.
You can try to run wow in OpenGL mode and see if this fixes it. (this might confirm that it's a DX problem):
http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t15607.html

[edit] Check this btw:
Horizontal Span vs Dual View on nvidia ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2175')
Running in opengl mode seems to fix it. I'll try this at home too, to see if it gives a performance increase.

[edit2, another solution]



step-1
run WOW-1 on current primary display
step-2
switch current primary display to 2nd display ( while first wow session is running )
run WOW-2
done.
both wows will be using full speed of the videocard.

[Rufio]

I think i have the following card: http://www.hardware.no/nyheter/images/xfx_geforce_7800_gt.jpg (i think i remember the box :p).

So OpenGl? might give it a try ...

That last solution, does it really work? Will try that too!

Thanks for the advice, results are in tonight

[Ken]

I just tried to reproduce the problem you have and I have exactly the same problem. I didn't try all of the solutions yet though.

[Rufio]

I'm running them in OpenGL now. I don't get more then 30fps on my master andd 15fps on my slave. This also seems to switch when i set focus to the slave box.
So not ideal no, but playable. Tbh I can't see much diffrence when playing at 30fps or 50fps, but maybe that's just me.
It's worse in towns tho, or the moment i run another app in windows. If i had the recources i would buy me vista probably.

[Mystrana]

I had that prob as well till i used maxfpsback set to 8 fps on all and
maxfps set to 60 was getting 50-60 fps out side of major citys on me
main wow instance in duel view

i have 22" viewsonic as main and 19" viewsonic as second



just upgraded from 8600gt NVidia to 8800gt gona try duel view again and see how that runs now.