3 Different Resolution Moniters, 5 Boxing, 1 Account

[Qlimax]

Salutations, again,

I am currently trying to decided whether to build another PC for alts or use the current one. Right now the space issue on the moniter is hard. I have a 30' 2560x1600, a 17' 1650x1050 and a 19' (i believe) 1680x1020 (or w/e that res. is). My rig (6400+, 4gddr2, 2 8800ultra) can handle the 5 accounts, but I'd like to put two accounts on each of the smaller moniters and have the big moniter host my main. Forgive me for being unknowledgable in this subject, but is there any way I could get max. resolution from the 30' while having one or two of the other moniters plugged in? I tried splitting the screen, into 1 8800, with both plugged in and I was forced to use the res for the 17' on the 30'. If i were to plug in the 1 30' into the top 8800 and 17' and 19' (running same res) into the bottom 8800, without SLI, would it work out? Any suggestions, even purchasing certain things, is welcomed, thanks!



Qlimax

[Bollwerk]

From what I've learned around here, you would need Vista to do what you want, because XP has horrible multi-monitor support unless you use horizontal or vertical span (which requires one dimension to be equal across all monitors). What you need is "dual view" and only Vista can adequately handle 3D acceleration on multiple monitors in dual view. Once you have Vista, it's just a simple matter of plugging in the monitors to each card output (and making sure you DON'T use SLI).

[Qlimax]

Thanks for clearing that up. If i were to install vista onto this rig, will I lose information or will windows convert the files over to the vista partition? If not, can I put those files on a seperate drive and just transfer them over later, meaning will the xp format 2ndary drive work with the vista drive? I appreciate this, and will it be pretty much plug, click and play?

Qlimax

[Mystrana]

I run 3 intances on one comp .. i have 2 lcds running in Duel View with
me main on 22 and the other 2 running in sep windows on the 19 got no
prob whats so ever in this set up

2nd and 3rs acc. run at 8fps main runs at 45fps (will drop to 20fps sometimes in main citys)



Spec



2.1 Core2 duo Intel

8600gt NVidia

4gig ram

80gig main drive

160gig SATA (this runs all 3 acc.)

Audigy 4 sound (5.1 speakers)



Viewsonic 22" and 19"



EDIT doh forgot to say i run Window XP SP2

[Bollwerk]

Thanks for clearing that up. If i were to install vista onto this rig, will I lose information or will windows convert the files over to the vista partition? If not, can I put those files on a seperate drive and just transfer them over later, meaning will the xp format 2ndary drive work with the vista drive? I appreciate this, and will it be pretty much plug, click and play?

Qlimax

It depends on which version of Vista you get and what type of install you choose. I'm not an expert on Vista installs/upgrades, but if you poke around on Google, I'm sure you can find a ton of information. As for me personally, I have multiple hard drives and did a dual-boot setup, so I have 32-bit XP on one drive and 64-bit Vista on another. It takes some research though to do something like this.

[BobGnarly]

I have a similar setup (1x30" + 1x20"), and have tried quite a few things to get a good working (multi-monitor) system.

Unfortunately, I've yet to find any solution to use more than one monitor that is satisfactory to me. If I run (I'm using XP btw) dual-view (which is how you can make XP use the full res of your 30), then the performance really sucks. If I use horizontal span (which is supposed to work better on these issues), then I'm giving up a lot of main screen resolution AND getting a crappy picture on my 30. It does run better, but I'm not sure that isn't just because I'm running the main at 1600x1200 instead of 2560x1600.

I've heard mixed news about vista. It's supposed to be better, but I've heard others doing similar things that aren't having much luck either. Plus it has its own set of unrelated issues that I'd pick up by going to it.

The best idea I've had is buying two more machines and running one (new) 22" LCD on each, for a total of 3 machines. I really am just not ready to give up the keyclone PiP stuff yet though.

Wish I had better news, and I'd definitely be interested to hear if you figure out anything that works great. Money isn't really an issue here either.

[Qlimax]

Greetings,

Well, I must say that I have learned to appreciate my single moniter setup, lol. I had an old drive withh 64 bit Vista on it, so I tried using it. I logged in fine, went well, plugged the 19' moniter in and was astounded that it actually worked with 2560x1600 on the 30' and 1280x10xx on the 19'. I then decided to put in my second 8800 ultra (took it out due to heat and me not using SLI) and try connection the 30' to the top 8800 and the 2 smaller screens to the lower 8800. I tried this and it showed up as only the cards plugged into the top 8800 as registering. (Also, im using the Nvidia utility that came with the cards to make these multi moniter adjustments.) Unfortunately, I plugged my old xp drive in to transfer data that I wanted to keep onto a spare drive so I could later use it on my, after having done this, I plugged my Vista drive in just fine. Now, for some reason I couldnt do what I had done earlier and use a certain 2560x1600 res on one moniter and a lower on the other. I decided to reset the comp to see if that would work, and I got a loop of the blue screen of death just before logging into the system. Now Im back to my single moniter on my 30' setup. Im going to wait till tomorrow till I try again.

So hears my questions:

How do I get my comp to recognize monitors plugged into the second (lower) 8800?

Are there any utiilities that allows the multi monitor support (with dif. res.) on XP?



Any suggestions, and I appreciate your help,

Qlimax