Help with Nvidia SLI and Extended monitors

[stangflyer]

I have had my 5970 for almost 3 years and it is time to upgrade. I know that Nvidia has made big upgrades in how it handles sli and multiscreen. I have read many conflicting things about my next question.

Want some experts to clear this up for me. Either going 670 sli 4gb a 690 or depending on this answer 2x 7970.

I have 3 screens. CAN i play a fullscreen game on my middle u2711 IN SLI while at the SAME TIME have my two outside monitors both be in extended mode using 670 sli or a 690.
I want to have my temp monitor and ts3 up while playing.

Thanks

[Oraijon]

Not sure if you're still looking for an answer, but as far as i know full screen turns off the side screens by definition.

If you want screen filling game on the center and have the other screens showing TS and such, it will depend on the game in question. If it can run in "Windowed fullscreen" it should be exactly what you're looking for. Alternatively you can run it in windowed mode and use third party software to turn the window borders off (effectively putting it over the entire screen.

[Cinnabuns]

The 3 monitor "surround group" looks to windows like a single large monitor.

So basically you'd have to run in windowed mode to have any use of your side screens and doesn't windowed mode only use 1 GPU?

I believe ATi handles this the same way but I'm not familiar with it enough to say either way.

[Grast]

OK the answer to your question is YES and Yes/To My Knowledge.

YES a GTX 670 can play a game full screen on the center monitor while still displaying content on the outer monitors. HOWEVER, here is the qualifier. You need Windows 8. I am using Windows 8 do this right now. I will try to post a screen shot on my config doing this exact same thing.

As to SLI, I believe the answer is YES, I cannot verify due to only having 1 GTX 670. But is make technical sense, you can enable SLI without enabling Surround. In this case with Windows 8 you could have SLI enabled and a game running on the center monitor FULL SCREEN.

Qualifier: An important note. When you are running the game, you will not be able move mouse to the other screens. Unless you ALT-TAB out of the game. I typically have Netflix running in Left Monitor, Game in center, and Mail/IM apps running on Right screen. I can see the left and right screens while playing game but NOT interact. I have to Alt-Tab out of the game to interact with Left and Right Screens.

Hope this answers your question... Later.

[Cinnabuns]

Grast, Windows 7 handles that the same way.

In the Nvidia driver panel you select "Activate all displays"
In Windows "Screen Resolution" menu (right click the desktop) set your center monitor to your Main Display.

Any games you run now will run on the the center monitor with the side displays still showing the desktop and as Grast explains, you can't mouse to them unless you alt-tab.

The only solution to this is running the game in windowed mode and putting it on the center monitor and then you can mouse around freely however I don't believe SLi works in windowed mode for the game you're running.

Not sure on that though as the info is sparse.

[AllGamer]

here's the beef

both ATI / AMD and nVidia handles Eyefinity 3 and Surround View the same way.

when enabled all 3 screens becomes 1 giant screen.

here's the twist

if you have a 4th monitor, then you can plug it into any of the extra DVI / DP ports in your AMD or nVidia card, and they will act as the Accessory screen for your Team Speak, or System Temp / OC Stats, etc.

that's why you always see people using inverted T setup, or 3+1 on the side setup, so they can use the full real state for game and work, while the extra monitor will handle the Walk-through guides or whatever you want to run there



ATI / AMD does not require you to have 3 identical monitor sizes / resolution

nVidia 2D Surround View will not work if the 3 monitors are of different resolution

nVidia 3D Surround View will not work if the 3 monitors are of different resolution or brand & model

I have had my 5970 for almost 3 years and it is time to upgrade. I know that Nvidia has made big upgrades in how it handles sli and multiscreen. I have read many conflicting things about my next question.

Want some experts to clear this up for me. Either going 670 sli 4gb a 690 or depending on this answer 2x 7970.

I have 3 screens. CAN i play a fullscreen game on my middle u2711 IN SLI while at the SAME TIME have my two outside monitors both be in extended mode using 670 sli or a 690.
I want to have my temp monitor and ts3 up while playing.

Thanks