First time using multi monitors

[itgl72]

I'm just dipping a toe into multi-monitor use and have some questions.

I have a 24 inch, and a 17 inch monitor at the moment (have another 17 and 19 to use if need be later) I have a 5870 ATI card. I have both monitors plugged into the video card.

I've noticed when I extend the desktop to both screens I have some "flickering" on the second 17 inch monitor. Almost like its trying to adjust itself to something automatically. It only flickers when I scroll the mouse wheel up and down a page or move a window around, etc. Seems to happen when one screen has a browser at full screen and something might be leaking over to the other screen, not sure if I can explain it better than that.

When I create an eyefinity group even though the monitors are different I see no flickering at all, all is well.

Just wondering if this is some setting on the smaller monitor I need to look into? Its a Dell 1704FPV.

ALSO, I am assuming this videocard with two monitors on it may take a performance hit if I use it while gaming? For example have the 24 inch be the gamer monitor and have the 17 inch showing the desktop with a browser window, or teamspeak on it?

[Oraijon]

The flickering sounds odd, how have you connected the screens? I'm assuming both through DVI or is the 17" connected over D-sub (oldschool blue vga connector)? Flickering when using the mousewheel almost sounds like a circuit problem, is the monitor grounded?

One thing you can try (if your power connector can be used that way) is to pull the powerplug out, turn it around 180 degrees and plug it in that way. Sounds f**king weird but i've seen cases where that actually solves such problems. If you cant turn it you could try another wall outlet.

As for the performance hit: if you use the second screen for teamspeak and such, you shouldnt be able to notice any performance hits unless you actually manage to extend the game onto this screen (and thus increase the resolution). Otherwise the images your GPU is creating arent any different from the ones they make on a single screen.

Keep in mind though that most games dont let you move the mouse from the game screen onto the offscreen unless you have windowed mod turned on (which sometimes impacts the performance a LITTLE bit).

[itgl72]

The resolution is 1280x1024 and it does not flicker on its own. It does not flicker when I use it in an eyefinity group. Only has that flicker when I have it set to extend desktop.

Maybe the wire? I have it coming out the VGA port on the pack of the 17inch to a converter that goes from VGA port to DVI port then into the video card's DVI port.

[jerrolds]

I've noticed when I extend the desktop to both screens I have some "flickering" on the second 17 inch monitor. Almost like its trying to adjust itself to something automatically. It only flickers when I scroll the mouse wheel up and down a page or move a window around, etc. Seems to happen when one screen has a browser at full screen and something might be leaking over to the other screen, not sure if I can explain it better than that.

If you plug the monitors in separately is it OK? It's probably a refresh issue or resolution, make sure its set to 1920x1080@60hz or whatever. Although i wouldnt recommend pairing a 17" with a 24" for Eyefinity.

ALSO, I am assuming this videocard with two monitors on it may take a performance hit if I use it while gaming? For example have the 24 inch be the gamer monitor and have the 17 inch showing the desktop with a browser window, or teamspeak on it?

Yes youll take a huge hit performance wise, both from the GPU (rendering 2 screens) and the CPU (compute for 2 screens worth of stuff) - but ifyoure talking about 1 screen for gaming, and the other for desktop work - then no, with a decent enough video card/cpu you wont notice a diffrence. The video card barely breaks a sweat doing desktop stuff, and if you have a 4 core cpu - all the desktop work will be on other threads, most games dont take advantage of more than 2 cpus. A 5870 and a cpu newer than 4 years should be fine for what youre trying to do.

[Oraijon]

Electricity can do weird things, replacing cables is always a simple try (so is changing wall outlet and turning the plug around).

Another thing you can do is update your videocard drivers (12.6 is the latest non-beta i believe), or if you're using those try getting 12.4.

Edit: By sheer chance i stumbled onto this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NES1rgwNyc
Maybe it's the same for you? Ati Overdrive enabled?

[itgl72]

I can try the driver later, Ive now swapped out power wires, and where I plugged it in, and also connected a DVI cable now to the DVI port on the card, same effect.

The flickering isnt constant, and its not a full screen flicker, its more so sort of a line at different parts of the second monitor depending on whats going on, on the first monitor.

One thing it does not like is if theres one of those small movies that are adds or promos on screen one, if I have that displayed on screen one, it flickers badly on screen two, like a mirror attempt of something odd like that. Hmmm...

[itgl72]

Electricity can do weird things, replacing cables is always a simple try (so is changing wall outlet and turning the plug around).

Another thing you can do is update your videocard drivers (12.6 is the latest non-beta i believe), or if you're using those try getting 12.4.

Edit: By sheer chance i stumbled onto this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NES1rgwNyc
Maybe it's the same for you? Ati Overdrive enabled?

THATS IT!

Wonder if I'll miss overdrive? Turn it on for games then I guess.

[Oraijon]

Awesome :)

Honestly i would just leave it off, if you really want to overclock your card try using MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.