Dual Monitors? Single Vs. Dual Monitors

[EkkO 0]

Just bought a new ati radeon x700 pro and was wondering if I should run dual monitors on it. I want to be able to play games like half life 2 and doom on it, but I hear from other people that it can make the gameplay slower and laggier. I don't know if it's true or not and that's why I need your help. It's a toss-up because I do a lot of editing and the dual-monitor configuration would be really nice, but I also like to game. Please help me!

[madmax1405241478 0]

Dual monitors can be good for gameplay as you have a truly panoramic experience. I dont know about the lagging to which you referred. When using an editing program like Adobe Premiere, dual monitors becomes extremely advantageous because you can spread all the palletes and windows out. The X700 pro supports overlay so video editing on dual monitors should be fine. Also, since the computer only sees one "widescreen" video card most the dialog boxes will pop up right in the middle with half being on each monitor.

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Haha cool.. I've always wanted to have a dual display - but never got around to setting it up.. From a designers perspective it does seem that I'll be great help in having all your tools and designing screen so well spaced out - Leaves a lot more room to concentrate on what you are doing and avoid all that ugly cluttering of tools... Now my question is: what about those dialog boxes that are displayed right in the middle - do they split up and (lol) show one half each on each of the monitors ?? Or you can customize them somehow to pop up as whole on either screen... ??

[Trekkie101 0]

Yeah Ive always wondered how they worked with spliting properly. but I can imagine it must be pretty cool to have. Imagine 2 24" plasma screens, pure heaven. lol

[harriko 0]

yeh same here as a web desginer. i want to set it up but the only thing i need is another monitor. if your talking about playing doom3 or halflife2 on one screen and the other screen to do other stuff, in my theroy, it wil slow your pc down so much. as doom3 and halflife2 needs high requirements to play on your system. is will be possible if you have the most powerful pc in the world.

[kevlar557 0]

I play hl2 with all settings on high, with a dual monitor set-up. I can see no choppiness at all. I have even played winamp with a full screen visualization on one monitor, and hl2 on the other.

[szupie 0]

Why would you use Dual Monitors? Wouldn't that stretch the whole screen horizontally? Why not Quardruple Monitors? And also, wouldn't the side of both screens where there is no display, but only the plastic protection, make a gap in the abutting monitors?

[marijnnn 0]

well, there wouldn't be missing parts if that's what you mean. if you move your mouse, the moment you go out of one screen, you're on the other. there isn't a gap between them.about the lag... it would only be normal if there was one. videocard would have to make more calculations for the splitting & stuff, + a double resolution.but if you have an ati card, you can easily shut one screen down temporary for playing games and then switch it back on when doing graphic stuff.but the modern cards can handle dual screen. just try it out.

[qwijibow 0]

i could get used to dual monitors quite easily...i have 4 virtual destops on my monitor, and i make heavy use of thembasically to seperate downlods / compiling's from things like web browsers chat windows / hatever.

[wwheeler 0]

The only reason I have dual monitors is for my America's Army gaming...I run the game on one screen, and a product called team speak on the other..But I have not noticed any lagging in the speed of the game...

[szupie 0]

well, there wouldn't be missing parts if that's what you mean. if you move your mouse, the moment you go out of one screen, you're on the other. there isn't a gap between them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't mean a gap, I meant... The screens would be seperated by the space that isn't the display around the monitor. Doesn't every monitor have that?

[amkrisis 0]

Just bought a new ati radeon x700 pro and was wondering if I should run dual monitors on it. I want to be able to play games like half life 2 and doom on it, but I hear from other people that it can make the gameplay slower and laggier. I don't know if it's true or not and that's why I need your help. It's a toss-up because I do a lot of editing and the dual-monitor configuration would be really nice, but I also like to game. Please help me!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i'm using a dual monitor configuration on my G4 powerbook, using my old 15" CRT at 1240ish in res. I don't know of it's an option or setting on windows based os'es but i can switch back to single display to play games, so that only one monitor is being used, and so, can use all the GPU power

[gangsta_zar 0]

Here's a site that sells 5 screen monitors (go-l.com). They are in the middle of switching websites right now, but the products they have to offer are amazing. Has anyone ever seen 5 screen monitors like this from any other company?

[EkkO 0]

Yea I've been playing hl2 on my card today and it's been flawless. I have my desktop on one monitor, then the game on the other, so i can do other things like write essays or respond to aim convos when i'm waiting in CS:S. I don't think I will ever go back to a single monitor. This is heaven and i'd recommend it to anyone.

[SingleDaddyof2 0]

Why would you use Dual Monitors? Wouldn't that stretch the whole screen horizontally? Why not Quardruple Monitors? And also, wouldn't the side of both screens where there is no display, but only the plastic protection, make a gap in the abutting monitors?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use dual monitors--wish I had Quadruple monitors, lol. What a huge time saver! It is so convenient when creating my webpages. I just click 'save' on my text editor on one monitor and refresh my browser in the other monitor and almost instantly see the modified webpage, thereby eliminating switching back & forth between windows on one monitor. Also great for many other apps.

 

With my ATI Hydravision, I can have active windows stretch across both monitors I wanted to or only one. Here's a couple of links for more multi-monitor information:

 

Dual Monitor Setup Saves Time

Multi-Monitor FAQ