AHK + G15 + Vista64 + 8800GTX Dualview = dual-boxing beast!

[defiant]

First off, thanks for all the great info on this forum. I finally got my setup working based on some of the great examples and ideas.

Setup: One PC with 2 monitors (1920x1200 and 1280x1024)
C2D 3.4GHz, 4GB, 8800GTX 621/1000
Logitech G15 kb (with actual 18 G keys haha)
Vista64 (and XP) with Autohotkey loaded.

Performance with every Video options maxed (no AA tho):
25+fps (in Shattrach by the laggy fp facing the NPCs) to
100+ fps (in outdoors or UC or Org haha) on both displays.
It swings wildly depending on the number of toons and movement. I'd said 30-50fps 90% of the time. Expecting a Q6600 this week, so I am hoping it can do even better.

The surprising part is that Vista64 performs about 2X of XP - not only in fps but also the response feel. I noticed that under Vista both the CPU cores are near 100% always. There isn't any noticeable difference in response though between empty and crowded areas. It's instant!
XP's dualview performance in split head mode has to be crippled beyond belief.

I will post more details on how I setup my G keys with ahk later today. Too damn tired now.

[Shakey]

definant I'm new to the forum as well. Just a few questions on your rig though because I've been thinking of upgrading and going single GPU again.

I currently run an XP rig with two Nvidia 7800's in non SLI mode, with a 1920x1200 connected to each. Prior to twoboxing, the second monitor displayed ventrilo, web pages, etc.

Now when trying to two box I can get a window on each screen with Maximizer. I'm supposing here that they run on the different screens (though when starting the second window it flashes briefly on the main screen before coming up on the second. However fps takes a nosedive

Am I losing performance on that versus going back to SLI mode and making the single "seen" GPU dual-head? Am I beyond the capabilities of Nvidia here wanting to split one to each GPU?

The reason I hopped off SLI mode was that it caused some issues running things outside of games. It's very nice being able to do nearly anything on the second screen no matter which game I'm in.

[Lost Ninja]

The loss in video performance is something to do with dual-view and twin-view or something similar I'd hazard a guess. Forget which is which but one performs substantially worse than the other (NVidia anyway). Might be worth checking.

[hapiguy314]

@Shakey

You're not alone with your loss in performance with dual view using one machine. Best work around having 1 g/x card and 2 monitors is to have your monitors have a HORIZONTAL SPAN rather than individual monitors - then position each wow window on the two separate monitors. I operate at about 35 - 50 FPS on my machine this way. If I have individual views, I get like 9-20 FPS.

Hope that helps.

[Lost Ninja]

@Shakey

You're not alone with your loss in performance with dual view using one machine. Best work around having 1 g/x card and 2 monitors is to have your monitors have a HORIZONTAL SPAN rather than individual monitors - then position each wow window on the two separate monitors. I operate at about 35 - 50 FPS on my machine this way. If I have individual views, I get like 9-20 FPS.

Hope that helps.
Just what i was trying to say but said so much better. :D

[defiant]

Like others said, Nvidia's Dualview performance is horrendous under XP, but the latest Vista64 driver resolved this issue. Under XP, my maximum dualview performance is about 50 fps on 1920x1200 and 30 fps on the 1280x1024. Significantly lower than the 100+ fps under Vista64 on both monitors. That's the bonus of running Vista64 now.


Shakey,
I have never played with SLI or dual-GPU before, so I can't speak definitively about your scenario. The best thing is to try the different combos to see how it performs. Do you have Vista to try? Normally I would advise against it, but given its dualview performance, it's worth a shot. I am only using it for WoW and later for Crysis.


About the G keys, I assigned each one to generate Control-A to Control-R. AHK will listen for and issue the same or different key strokes to the 2nd WoW window. I used Sorn's code to identify between main and clone WoW instances.

Example - G1 generates a Control-A. AHK will pass that on to the clone window.

^A::
#IfWinActive, World of Warcraft
{
ControlSend,, {Ctrl down}{A down}{A up}{Ctrl up}, ahk_id %idClone%
}
Return

Those Control-A to Control-R are mapped to macros on the clone window to command my priest to single-button targeted/self heal, nuke, dot, mount, follow, etc. AHK is quite picky on which assigned keystrokes it will be able to detect coming from the G keys. A lot of the Control-Alt or Control-Shift combos just don't work between AHK and the G keys.