Computer monitors, dual monitor setup

Azisien · 04-29-2012, 10:24 AM

I'm making some improvements to my desk space in preparation for school in the fall. Also, the change is nice.

I've decided to finally make the jump to multi-monitor solutions. Totally new with it. General tips, suggestions, etc, would be appreciated. My plan of attack is literally to just run one DVI and one HDMI out of my video card into each monitor and pray to the computer gods that NVIDIA settings can save me. I'll make a great computer scientist.

Around the same time, my current monitor is quickly fading. It's an ASUS MK241H, 23", 1900x1200 resolution. Bright as fuck. it's served me very well. There doesn't seem to be any movement forward in monitor tech though? They all seem to have the same specs more or less. 1080p resolutions, 1 DVI/HDMI port, same brightness, same size, same everything. It's like they all roll off the same damn factory in China and get stamped with different brands! It's....oh wait that's probably what happens.

Anybody recommend a particular monitor? I would be purchasing two. Prefer 23-23" range unless you can sell me on something else. Budget: $600.

I plan on having the dual monitor setup with my PC, and I also need a free HDMI port on one monitor, preferrably the second one, to plug in my PS3. Having ANOTHER free HDMI would be neat too, because then I could plug in my 360.

Sithdarth · 04-29-2012, 10:36 AM

You might be interested in something like this or the TripleHead2Go. I've got the TripleHead2Go myself and it is quite nice.

Azisien · 04-29-2012, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

You might be interested in something like this or the TripleHead2Go. I've got the TripleHead2Go myself and it is quite nice.

What's the explicit benefit of this adapter versus just routing multiple cables through my video card? I have a GTX295, with 2 DVI-D and 1 HDMI.

akaSM · 04-29-2012, 12:28 PM

Your video card should be able to handle it. My card (GTX 460) has the same outputs as yours and it worked pretty nicely when I tried it (1 HDMI + 1 DVI to VGA adapter). Right now I'm using both my GTX 460 and my CPU's GPU (Intel HD 3000 or something) for no reason other than "I has 2 GPUs!".

That thing Sith posted has a couple things that I haven't seen in my setup (maybe I haven't looked around the settings a lot)

Extended destop WITH the taskbar going across both monitors (it only shows in my main monitor) if they're the same resolution.
It can add up to 4 monitors on your PC.

But, right now I don't see any real benefit for getting it if you just want to use 2 monitors :/

Sithdarth · 04-29-2012, 12:53 PM

What it does is essentially turns the monitors into one giant monitor which has a couple of benefits. One being the taskbar all the way across. Another is the ability to have one wall paper (assuming you can find one big enough) across all your screens. The biggest potential benefit is basically being able to use SLI across all of your monitors. Generally one GPU runs one monitor and the other GPU runs the other monitor or you can choose to use SLI on one monitor and then the other monitor will either shut off or won't have hardware acceleration. With this your computer thinks that it is just one really big monitor so you have full SLI on all of your monitors.

Also, it comes with some software to optimize you multimonitor experience if I recall correctly. Mostly though its about getting maximum hardware acceleration on all of your monitors.

Azisien · 04-30-2012, 12:14 PM

Hm, I'm wondering if such a setup would put some strain even on the good venerable GTX295. I'm not sure I'm in the neighbourhood for upgrading the video card either, since it would be an expensive upgrade and I would have to choose a pretty powerful card to trump it solidly enough to get my money's worth (aka, most likely, the GTX680).

I'm bookmarking that site though Sith, since I may grab one of those eventually.

Shopping for monitors is annoying!

akaSM · 04-30-2012, 02:01 PM

My not as nice GTX 460 seemed to handle it really well. Or you could always disconnect the 2nd monitor when you're going to play a game or something.

Demetrius · 08-08-2012, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

What it does is essentially turns the monitors into one giant monitor which has a couple of benefits. One being the taskbar all the way across. Another is the ability to have one wall paper (assuming you can find one big enough) across all your screens. The biggest potential benefit is basically being able to use SLI across all of your monitors. Generally one GPU runs one monitor and the other GPU runs the other monitor or you can choose to use SLI on one monitor and then the other monitor will either shut off or won't have hardware acceleration. With this your computer thinks that it is just one really big monitor so you have full SLI on all of your monitors.

Also, it comes with some software to optimize you multimonitor experience if I recall correctly. Mostly though its about getting maximum hardware acceleration on all of your monitors.

I know this is mildly old, but I thought I should mention a couple of bits of free software that have treated me well, and achieve the same effect as that adapter. I use Actual Multiple Monitors, a free set of software with a paid option for more goodies. I also make use of VirtuaWin to allow for multiple desktops as well.

Sithdarth · 08-09-2012, 05:15 AM

Those programs will indeed give you the over look as the adapter. However, your video card will still see more than one monitor. SLI works by redirecting the output from one gpu from the monitor output to the other gpu so that they can work in parallel. Thus some ports are simply disabled when in SLI mode.

Although, recent updates to my Nvidia drivers have allowed me to keep my other monitor on in an no accelerated mode so maybe Nvidia is working on multi-monitor SLI support. I imagine their newest $1000+ cards could probably give you SLI graphics on three monitors.

04-29-2012, 10:24 AM	#1
Azisien wat Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,177	Computer monitors, dual monitor setup I'm making some improvements to my desk space in preparation for school in the fall. Also, the change is nice. I've decided to finally make the jump to multi-monitor solutions. Totally new with it. General tips, suggestions, etc, would be appreciated. My plan of attack is literally to just run one DVI and one HDMI out of my video card into each monitor and pray to the computer gods that NVIDIA settings can save me. I'll make a great computer scientist. Around the same time, my current monitor is quickly fading. It's an ASUS MK241H, 23", 1900x1200 resolution. Bright as fuck. it's served me very well. There doesn't seem to be any movement forward in monitor tech though? They all seem to have the same specs more or less. 1080p resolutions, 1 DVI/HDMI port, same brightness, same size, same everything. It's like they all roll off the same damn factory in China and get stamped with different brands! It's....oh wait that's probably what happens. Anybody recommend a particular monitor? I would be purchasing two. Prefer 23-23" range unless you can sell me on something else. Budget: $600. I plan on having the dual monitor setup with my PC, and I also need a free HDMI port on one monitor, preferrably the second one, to plug in my PS3. Having ANOTHER free HDMI would be neat too, because then I could plug in my 360. Last edited by Azisien; 04-29-2012 at 10:27 AM.

04-30-2012, 12:14 PM	#6
Azisien wat Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,177	Hm, I'm wondering if such a setup would put some strain even on the good venerable GTX295. I'm not sure I'm in the neighbourhood for upgrading the video card either, since it would be an expensive upgrade and I would have to choose a pretty powerful card to trump it solidly enough to get my money's worth (aka, most likely, the GTX680). I'm bookmarking that site though Sith, since I may grab one of those eventually. Shopping for monitors is annoying! Last edited by Azisien; 04-30-2012 at 12:20 PM.

04-29-2012, 10:36 AM	#2
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	You might be interested in something like this or the TripleHead2Go. I've got the TripleHead2Go myself and it is quite nice.

04-29-2012, 12:53 PM	#5
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	What it does is essentially turns the monitors into one giant monitor which has a couple of benefits. One being the taskbar all the way across. Another is the ability to have one wall paper (assuming you can find one big enough) across all your screens. The biggest potential benefit is basically being able to use SLI across all of your monitors. Generally one GPU runs one monitor and the other GPU runs the other monitor or you can choose to use SLI on one monitor and then the other monitor will either shut off or won't have hardware acceleration. With this your computer thinks that it is just one really big monitor so you have full SLI on all of your monitors. Also, it comes with some software to optimize you multimonitor experience if I recall correctly. Mostly though its about getting maximum hardware acceleration on all of your monitors.

08-09-2012, 05:15 AM	#9
Sithdarth Friendly Neighborhood Quantum Hobo Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Outside the M-brane look'n in Posts: 5,403	Those programs will indeed give you the over look as the adapter. However, your video card will still see more than one monitor. SLI works by redirecting the output from one gpu from the monitor output to the other gpu so that they can work in parallel. Thus some ports are simply disabled when in SLI mode. Although, recent updates to my Nvidia drivers have allowed me to keep my other monitor on in an no accelerated mode so maybe Nvidia is working on multi-monitor SLI support. I imagine their newest $1000+ cards could probably give you SLI graphics on three monitors.