Widescreen setup and higher resoutions....

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 02 Feb 2008, 22:52

I too have had questions about higher resolution running widescreen monitors and a TH2GO. Originally I was using an ATI X1950w/256MB, a TH2GO Digital Ed. and (3) 20" Widescreens. The widescreen monitors had a native resolution of 1680x1050 and the TH2GO caused an undesirable resolution when all 3 monitors were being used with the TH2GO. In fact, I think the game play resolution was worse using that setup combination then when I simply used (2) of the 20" WS monitors hooked directly to the (2) DVI ports on the X1950 and "stretch" the desktop horizontally via the Catalyst driver.

To make a long story short, I replace my equipment with an nVidia 8800GT 512MB, TH2GO and (3) 24" widescreen monitors with a native resolution of 1920x1200. Over all this setup gives me better/higher resolution then my first setup. But I still feel the over all resolution is not what it could be if the TH2GO didnâ€™t limit the resolution available for output.

So I wanted to ask if I add a 2nd nVidia 8800GT and connected to the other in SLI mode, would I get high resolution available with 2 cards in SLI mode using the TH2GO? I actually use a total of (4) 24â€

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 03 Feb 2008, 00:35

Sli disables all but 1 port, forget any multi-monitor+sli combinations.

Nvidia is reported to be working on that but that's still more rumor then anything.

3x1920x1200 is simply not possible with a TH2G, the bandwidth required is physically beyond the max of a dual-link dvi connection / 2560x1600 is a good reference for the max possible.

Best you can do is use a 3x 16:10 res., using the highest one you can run properly and that the TH2G supports.

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 03 Feb 2008, 02:11

Pretty much all what I hoped would not be so. I do have a different approach to try I guess. I picked up a new Asus P5N-T that supports 3-way SLI meaning it will take 3 PCI-E Video cards. If possible could I use (3) EVGA 8800GT Super Clocked video cards NOT use them in SLI mode and use (3) 24" 1920x1200 separate monitors, 1 monitor on each card? Could I then stretch the desktop horizontally as with 2 monitors on (1) cardâ€¦ probably not. It's probably a losing battle with WS monitors but it seems that is where everything is going.

Thanks. Any additional advice would be appreciated!

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 03 Feb 2008, 07:30

That ati card can only render 1920x480!

The new Cat 8.1 drivers supposedly do what you are talking about for games that support OpenGL, but haven't seen any real world uses.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 03 Feb 2008, 13:11

That I know of stretch only works properly on the 2 outputs of the same card. And in my experience isn't that useful (I was maxed at 2x1280x1024 on 2 1920x1080/1920x1200 screens) If you don't need gaming though 2 cards with 2 monitors each and both in dual-view would get you 4 monitors to use for desktop apps. You could also have 1 ouput to a TH2G for the max 3840x800 it can do with 16:10 or the 3840x768 you use now and the 4th monitor to the 2nd output on the 8800gt. I don't think that res. would benefit from sli anyways.

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 03 Feb 2008, 21:19

You can't use a stretched desktop in SLI. No one is talking about using 4 monitors anyway.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 04 Feb 2008, 00:59

You can't use a stretched desktop in SLI. No one is talking about using 4 monitors anyway.

uh, acerocksWS is ...

Unless I misunderstood the objective of acerocksWS's first post, please let me know if that's the case.

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 04 Feb 2008, 01:07

Hmm, lesse, 4 monitors stretched for gaming, thats going to work great, won't be any ease of use issues there at all.

And, Mesh, what are you talking about SLI is not going to help while rendering 35x9? C'mon, man, start thinking about your posts a little, or be more specific.

Just bc your biased doesn't mean you don't have to make sense.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 04 Feb 2008, 03:25

"I actually use a total of (4) 24” widescreen monitors "

so noone using 4 monitors huh?

Sli is a pointless expense in money, time, problems, heat and noise.

An 8800 gt has been show to edge on a 8800GTX, plenty to run a 3 way 3840x768 or x1024.

Heck a 8600gt on this laptop can work 1920x1080 just fine!.

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 04 Feb 2008, 03:55

I can read, bro, but thats not the application we're talking about, at all.

As for the rest, I'm not going to bother bc, imo, you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. I'm not saying you're wrong in all cases, although generally I think you are, atleast with the GT->GTX comparision. Had you said the G92 GTS, you might be getting closer to reality.

Learn about the relationship between the frame buffer and screen resolution before you go spouting off more nonesense. While true that a lot of games don't need a lot of video memory, generally the higher the resolution the more memory becomes relevent and a bottleneck.

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 04 Feb 2008, 04:00

Iâ€™ll try to make it a bit clearer for all who have replied to my postâ€¦

As for (4) monitors, I wasnâ€™t planning on using that setup ultimately for widescreen gaming. What I was referring to with the (4) monitor setup was that (1) monitor by itself (1920x1200) and (3) monitors on the TH2GO (4080x768) was basically dual view between 2 monitors as the nVidia control panel and XP Display properties was concerned.

When using the above setup, I used the 2nd monitor to open new windows while in FSX and pushed the new window to monitor #2 (the â€œ4thâ€

Tucson · Post by **Tucson** » 04 Feb 2008, 04:34

Dear god that's sick.

I'd probably scrap the TH if you are getting what you wanted. For those situations that can't use the SoftTH well a single 24" should be fine.

Also, I think Matrox will announce higher definition TH adapters in the next 18 months, and you can move to a triple SLI then. Course that is only reserved for the GTX class cards but it doesn't sound like your budget is too limited to upgrade!

Mesh, here is a good write up illustrating my point: http://en.expreview.com/?p=159&page=16

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 04 Feb 2008, 04:53

What you said in your last post is exactly how I'm going to approach things. I might keep the TH2GO only if I can't get FSX to work with SoftTH. I was thinking of returning the GT's and getting GTX's for the option of 3-Way SLI FSX if TH2GO is the only way I get it to work. But the way I look at it by the time Matrox has a newer TH2GO that has higher res. There will probably be more advanced/better cards available then the 8800's. Thanks everyone for all the replies!

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 04 Feb 2008, 05:10

acerocksWS you do know tri-sli only works with gtx/ultras with double bridges right?

Tucson ... ... ... ... find, your own reply, mine seem pointless and misunderstood every time.

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 04 Feb 2008, 05:16

Yeah... that way I mentioned I was think of returning the GT's and get GTX's if I wanted to go Triple SLI.... still thinking about it.... but probably will just stick with what I currently have and wait and see what news comes from Matrox over the next few months.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 04 Feb 2008, 05:48

just a thought but maybe a gtx for main/softh/th and a gt or other for 3rd of the trio and 4th screen?

softh doesn't use the 2nd card's rendering so it's level is fairly irrelevant, a passive 8500/8600 could probably work there too

depends on the price difference for the gtx of course though returning the gts for it might be more or less equal

acerocksWS · Post by **acerocksWS** » 04 Feb 2008, 05:59

Oh... I never thought about mixing different cards such as an GTX and GT. So use a GTX as the main video card for either TH2GO and/or monitor #1 for SoftTH, and use (2) GT's for SoftTH for monitors #2, #3 etc... Good idea!

JKeefe · Post by **JKeefe** » 04 Feb 2008, 22:42

What you said in your last post is exactly how I'm going to approach things. I might keep the TH2GO only if I can't get FSX to work with SoftTH.

That's what I would suggest in general - if you are happy with the games you can play in 5760x1200, then stick with that only. If you find incompatibilities with SoftTH, then maybe keep the TripleHead2Go.

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