Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi everyone - first time post-er, but long time troll of the boards.

I'm finally ready to invest into multiple-screen gaming with matrox TH2G and figured I'd run my plans by you guys to get some more experienced input. Just to preface it, my current system (a budget build) is based on:
[list]
- an E2200 2.2G;
- a single 8800 GT 512M; and myMB is a GA-P35-DS3L that doesn't support SLI;
- I'm still on XP and my current monitor is a samsung 930B, max 1280x1024, aspect 5:4;
- Finally I play racing games like Rfactor and GTR2, and occasionaly FPS and MMO's.
[/list:u]

PLAN A: my "budget plan" involves picking up 2 more 930B's (or something similar) w/ max res 1280x1024 (so in summary I've got 3x1280x1024). My rationale is that "it works", since that's essentially what the previous max resolution was (using a matrox). Also I figure that the WSG community has been using it for a while so there's plenty of games and support available.

PLAN B: I was going to pickup 3 samsung 932BW 19" lcd's w/ 1440x900 (so in summary I've got 3x1440x900). I think this is still within the performance envelope of my GPU and I'd take advantage of Matrox's recent upgrade.

My questions are:
1) Can I do plan B even if I haven't upgraded to Vista? In other words, is the 3x1440x900 dependent on DX10?
2) Is it worth it to do Plan B? Can anyone speak from experience - considering the additional expense, and I assume my fps will go down - will the extra 3x160 pixels be worth it?
3) Am I better off saving my money and using kegetys.net SoftTH instead of Matrox? My understanding is that SoftTH would be an additional load on my system, thus lowering fps even more. Am I right?
3)Any other recommendations?

Thanks for your help!

What kind of fps are you getting now? The impact to MMO play would be minimal (in my best guess). Which one are you playing? Not sure about the racing games. FPS is probably be most sensitive to the performance hit.

I think either A or B would work. The wider FOV of the 3x1440x900 will provide a bit of a performance hit over 3x1280x1024.

Here is some info on bechmarking TH2Go - link

Most people find the stretching isn't bad. You may even look at 3x1680x1050. I found that in a 19" widescreen from Asus - link

1 - Vista not required
2 - I don't know of anyone who has upgraded from 3xNormal to 3xWS. I'm about to do it, once my monitors come in.
3 - I would say it isn't worth it. People report a noticeable performance hit over TH2Go. There is also less support, and fewer people here who can support you.
3 - Make the best investment in monitors that you can. It's not a component that you will swap out regularly. Procs and GFX have a much shorter life span. An investment there, doesn't have the same ROI.

1) Yes ! You need a DX10 GPU, not DX10 software environment :)
2) The good : a wider middle screen means more stuff between bezels ;)
The not so good : 16:9 is not the best for PC gaming imho. You can't mix aspect ratios w/ TH2G, and I'm not sure having two 16:9 screens sitting on your desk as side panels is really worth it. The moderate increase in pixels shouldn't really tax even your budget rig though - still, any triple display definitely will !
3) You totally can give SofTH a try before you consider buying a TH2G. An important thing to know though : you'll need an additional graphics card. You can choose a cheap, PCI-not-express one though.
3) (Uh?) I wouldn't recommend going from single 5:4 to triple 16:9 just like that. Why not start by going widescreen ? It's a lot more comfort already. I'd buy a nice 20-22" 16:10 display and see how that budget rig handles it. ;)

Bloody hell, too long post, Ibrin got here first :)

Thanks for the advice guys - that benchmarking link proved especially helpful. It looks like depending on what I'm running, I could see potentially see a 40% drop on fps by going to surround. :shock:

I think I'm going to take scavvenjahh's recommendation to start off with a single 22" 16:10. If I'm still not satisfied, I know it's time to upgrade the cpu+gpu and consider an additional 2 lcd's at that point.

Regardless, as Ibrin said, an investment in lcd has a more long lasting impact, as I'll be replacing my cpu/gpu much more regularly.

Thanks again!

And, since you have an NVIDIA GFX, you can always try Surround aspects with Faux TH2Go

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6570