Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey everyone. Just found out that the new ati cards don't require a triplehead2go for multiple monitors.
Here's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3jpG3rv4zI a video of Microsoft Flight sim w/8 monitors hooked up to 4x38xx ati's. More info: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=475&pgno=8
Anyway, I am going to get a second 3870 eventually(waiting for my first one now), or maybe a 3870x2 when it comes out for 3 total gpu's w/my x38 board. Anyway, thought I'd share my findings while doing my own research.

Hasn't MS Flight Simulator always done multi monitor by running the game in a windows or multiple windows ?

... and so as far as I know it is nothing new with these new cards ... :?

Yep, MSFS has always supported this, which is where that crazy picture of one version running on 11 or 13 monitors comes from.

Indeed, this kind of setup would be nice for a game that natively supports the connection of more than one independent monitor. However for the majority of games (that only support a single independent display/frame buffer) this "Spider Setup" wouldn't give the same immersive effect that you achieve with a TripleHead2Go because you'd only be able to take advantage of one display output.

Indeed, this kind of setup would be nice for a game that natively supports the connection of more than one independent monitor. However for the majority of games (that only support a single independent display/frame buffer) this "Spider Setup" wouldn't give the same immersive effect that you achieve with a TripleHead2Go because you'd only be able to take advantage of one display output.

That is INCORRECT. Did anyone read the link I posted besides the flight sim one? Here it is again: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=475&pgno=8
It's not just for ms flight sim! This is a standard feature now on the new cards.





WIth the previous gen ati cards, this wasn't possible.[/img]

That is INCORRECT. Did anyone read the link I posted besides the flight sim one? Here it is again: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=475&pgno=8
It's not just for ms flight sim! This is a standard feature now on the new cards.

I see nothing in there that supports your point. Your link says Alternatively, you can use the four graphics cards to display out to 8 monitors. Yes, it is now possible to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on eight monitors should you be rich enough to afford the whole setup.

It still specifically mention MSFS, and we know that that has been possible for a long time. And of course 8 monitors are possible - that's also been quite possible for a long time. What isn't possible is gaming on 8 monitors, i.e. outputting to a single frame buffer and splitting that image 8 (or more than three) ways, for many game titles.

[quote]That is INCORRECT. Did anyone read the link I posted besides the flight sim one? Here it is again: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=475&pgno=8
It's not just for ms flight sim! This is a standard feature now on the new cards.

I see nothing in there that supports your point. Your link says Alternatively, you can use the four graphics cards to display out to 8 monitors. Yes, it is now possible to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on eight monitors should you be rich enough to afford the whole setup.

It still specifically mention MSFS, and we know that that has been possible for a long time. And of course 8 monitors are possible - that's also been quite possible for a long time. What isn't possible is gaming on 8 monitors, i.e. outputting to a single frame buffer and splitting that image 8 (or more than three) ways, for many game titles.

It says it's POSSIBLE w/ms flight sim. It doesn't say "This feature only works with specific games" anywhere. ATI isn't gonna invest all this time and money for multiple monitor gaming just so people can play MS flight sim on their cards. It says "Multiple monitor gaming" and "new EXTENDED MONITOR and Profile features". Not MS flight sim only. However many DVI ports you have w/you new ati card/cards, is how many monitors you can plug in and span them across up-to 8 monitors.

http://multicore.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Multi-Core/Quad-Core-Advantage/Spider.aspx "up to 8 monitors".

I'd like to believe you, I really would. I just don't see enough supporting evidence.

You can connect 8 monitors or more to a system with 4 GeForce 2 cards if you want; with Windows XP a many-monitor environment is completely possible and has been for a long time. Presumably the same is true for Vista. What Spider gives us is the ability to drive those monitors with 4 PCI-E GPUs, which previously has not been possible because there have been no motherboards with 4 PCI-E x16 slots.

If ATI has developed a Crossfire system that will allow 3D output to 8 monitors, that's fantastic. But the sketchy information leads me to believe that they haven't done that. The very fact that the capability is advertised using MSFS leads me to my skepticism. If ATI really has done something very cool here, they need to make a much bigger deal out of it so people aren't left guessing.

http://multicore.amd.com/us-en/AMD-Multi-Core/Quad-Core-Advantage/Spider.aspx "up to 8 monitors".

Granted, the ad is clearly ambiguous at best. However... there is, as you know, a fundamental difference between supporting multi-monitor output and spanning a game over multi-monitors.

If you had a new ability to SPAN a game over multiple monitors (ala TH2Go), would you only trumpet MSFS; a game that is DESIGNED to span multi-monitors.... or would you be showing screens with WoW, Crysis, Gears of War, CoD4 and all the other huge FPS games that would make users buy these cards in droves??

Based upon the totality of the evidence at this point, I think the most reasonable conclusion is that the functionality is not the same as the TH2Go.... but I do hope I am wrong.

It is nothing but good for us TripleHead gamers than to have more and more acceptance of the concept of triplehead gaming move more into the mainstream.

Hey look ^^^^^^

Simultaneous posts!

You owe me a Coke JKeefe! :shock:

You can connect 8 monitors or more to a system with 4 GeForce 2 cards if you want; with Windows XP a many-monitor environment is completely possible and has been for a long time. Presumably the same is true for Vista. What Spider gives us is the ability to drive those monitors with 4 PCI-E GPUs, which previously has not been possible because there have been no motherboards with 4 PCI-E x16 slots..

Yeah, but before in xfire, you could only use 1 monitor output with the older hardware in xfire. That's not the case anymore. It states specificly that it supports "multiple monitor gaming". Not JUST multiple monitors. The 4 gpu thing isn't required and isn't my point.

Good point. Even just removing the Crossfire/SLI - multimonitor limitation would open the door for more processing for SoftTH applications. I will wait and see what becomes of this.

When I get my hd3870 I'll post my results. :D

When I get my hd3870 I'll post my results. :D

....you would need two to accurately prove what you're trying to describe.

... and a 79FX motherboard...

[quote]When I get my hd3870 I'll post my results. :D

....you would need two to accurately prove what you're trying to describe.

No I don't! It'll work with as many DVI ports as I have availible. Do I need another 3870 to try 3 screens? Yes, but I can still test it w/2 monitors(like a dualhead2go).

... and a 79FX motherboard...

Nope. If I wanted to hook up 4 of those video cards, then yes, that would require me to have a 790fx motherboard. But that's not what I'm doing. I'm just trying to game on multiple monitors w/out a th2go.
So if I have 1 video card, that allows me to use 2 monitors. With 2 video cards I can then have up-to 4 monitors hooked up.

Ok, I stand corrected on the "xfire" part. You can hookup the multiple monitors like I was excited about, but if you do, you have to disable xfire.
I was so excited, but I read it closer and it's either xfire or multiple monitors.
Not both. :x

Nuts. Same old, same old, unfortunately.

I don't believe it until they show a game that isn't MSFS. In order for this test to be valid, I'd need to see it on more than just 2 monitors. Dual-monitor spanning has been around forever for same card use. Show me spanning across 3+ monitors and 2+ video cards using standard drivers NOT using MSFS...

Xetura, most of us around here know first hand about this stuff the hard way. If you can achieve the conditions above surround-gaming will change sigificantly in the future.