Softth using a PCI-E and a PCI

AlexAlive · Post by **AlexAlive** » 25 Nov 2007, 14:14

Hi everyone!

I'm new to these forums and I have come to ask a question which I've been Googling for over 3 days now. Although I have found out lots about it I am still unclear as I've heard many contradicting views.

Can I run Softth using an ATI x1950xt for the center and left screen plus a PCI card such as a ATI Radeon 9250 to power the right screen?

I understand that Softth uses the primary card for all the rendering so the second card does not have to be powerful as it is just passing on the information to the third screen. I want to play games on this setup as I love the idea of surround gaming. I've already got the left and center screen working and it looks amazing on Oblivion! Just need to know whether a PCI card is what I need? I don't have a motherboard with two PCI-E slots and I cannot afford the price of a triplehead2go. :(

If anyone has any experience with a similar setup or has the know how it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Alex

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 25 Nov 2007, 18:26

Softth is supposed to handle pci based cards too, but with reduced performance, not sure if it would be playable.

AlexAlive · Post by **AlexAlive** » 25 Nov 2007, 19:27

Thanks for the reply Mesh

I'm guessing the reduced performance is due to the bandwidth?

I'm not worried about high resolutions on the side monitors as my attention is focused on the center screen.

So if I set a resolution of say 640 by 480 for the side monitors would this eliminate the bandwidth problem as the PCI card is only passing on the images rendered by my main card?

If anyones tried a setup like this before would love to hear of what sort of performance they got?

Thanks again. :)

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 25 Nov 2007, 21:06

bandwidth issues yeah, couldn't say how bad/well it'd run, I haven't even gotten softth to work with 2-3 pci-e displays. Seems the software part of it just won't work.

AlexAlive · Post by **AlexAlive** » 25 Nov 2007, 22:27

Guess I'll just have to get one and find out. :?

What games did you try with it?

It took me a hell of a long time to work out the configurations for Softth but when I did it worked brilliantly.

If anyones tried a PCI-E and a PCI setup would love to hear from you.

I wish triplehead2go was cheaper...

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 26 Nov 2007, 00:03

need for speed mw, nwn 2, ut2004, silverfall demo, tomb raider ani. demo, and probably others I'm forgetting.

the best I got it to run is under nwn2 but that's only some of the times and the mouse was locked to the middle screen which made it useless.

AlexAlive · Post by **AlexAlive** » 26 Nov 2007, 00:22

Grrr yeahh.

Softth is still in beta so I guess a lot of games wont work as I'm finding out. But still I can play oblivion and thats mostly what I play anyway. I'm gonna try get hold of a super cheap PCI and see what it can do. If it doesn't work I'm gonna Ebay for a new motherboard with Crossfire or SLI.

Cheers.

AlexAlive · Post by **AlexAlive** » 26 Nov 2007, 00:27

Still if anyones had any experience using this setup would love to hear from you.

avioni · Post by **avioni** » 15 Jan 2008, 06:42

hey, im using softTH with a pci-e x900xtx and a regular pci x1550 you do get the slow response from the screen connected to the regular pci but to lower this you should enable 16bd for the secondary screens, that will work way better.

the only game ive found that has issues with running 16bd on secondary screens is HL2 episode 2, the screen on the pci card goes very dark when in 16bd mode. other than that its great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cwKcatXME0

[email protected] · Post by **[email protected]** » 20 Jan 2008, 16:39

That freetrack setup is sweet especially considering the price of a track IR.

M3chick · Post by **M3chick** » 02 Apr 2008, 17:52

Hi Avioni!

Any luck using the PCI card for the 3rd monitor?

ithrial · Post by **ithrial** » 02 Apr 2008, 18:47

im currently using a PCIe 8800GTS and a PCIe x1 card that picked up on ebay...if you're an ATI guy, you can purchase several PCIe x1 cards for cheap...

Link

Heres a X1550 Radeon 256mb card for $100 bucks. the PCIe x1 wont be as fast as your PCIe x16, but it will be a lot faster than PCI...

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