8600GT multi monitor question

HydrogenY RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> I have 3 monitors and I want to upgrade my video cards.
>
> I was looking at getting 2x 512meg evga 8600GT cards.
>
> Would I be able to use them in SLI for full screen gaming across the 3
> monitors?
>
> I was also thinking of getting a faster card and using a matrox
> dualhead2go to span the three monitors, but my middle and newest
> monitor has a stupid 1050 native resolution while the other 2 have
> 1024 and I'm not sure that it would work.
>
> TIA for any info.
>

Can you test the middle monitor at 1024 using your existing
video card, and see what it looks like ?

If that works, then maybe you can use a TripleHead2Go. This
one is digital. Presumably a dual-link DVI connector is needed
on the video card driving the connection to the TripleHead2Go,
because 3840 x 1024 @ 60Hz is a lot of pixels to push.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/compatibility/compatibility.php

"Key features

* Features a dual-link digital input for high-end workstations
and DVI monitors."

They list a contact address of insales
at matrox.com, if you have questions for them.

GPUs equipped with dual-link DVI.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_extreme_hd_gpu.html

The gap between monitors can be annoying, and that is why
I wouldn't waste the money on this. (I have seen monitor
designs, where LCD panels are joined on hinges, to make a
panoramic display device, so that might give a smaller gap.)
Also, it is possible that game support for those panoramic
resolutions might not exist (something you want to check for
your favorite game at least). This article is for the analog
version, so the digital one won't have the same internal design or
connector types on the outside of the Matrox box.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2806

Regarding SLI video cards, this is from the Nvidia FAQ. Two
cards drive one monitor while in SLI mode, or four monitors
in non-SLI mode. Using SLI mode and a TripleHead2Go, is one
way to make a single connector span three monitors. So I
guess, in a sense, there is no difference between one
big video card driving a single connector, and two in SLI
driving a single connector.

http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html

"How many monitors are supported when running in SLI mode?

When in multi-GPU mode, SLI currently supports one monitor.
When in single-GPU mode, users have the ability to use up to
four monitors using NVIDIA nView multi-display technology and
Windows XP Dualview."

Best guess,
Paul
 >> Stay informed about: 8600GT multi monitor question 

On Nov 25, 11:10 am, Paul <nos... RemoveThis @needed.com> wrote:
> Hydrog... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> > I have 3 monitors and I want to upgrade my video cards.
>
> > I was looking at getting 2x 512meg evga 8600GT cards.
>
> > Would I be able to use them in SLI for full screen gaming across the 3
> > monitors?
>
> > I was also thinking of getting a faster card and using a matrox
> > dualhead2go to span the three monitors, but my middle and newest
> > monitor has a stupid 1050 native resolution while the other 2 have
> > 1024 and I'm not sure that it would work.
>
> > TIA for any info.
>
> Can you test the middle monitor at 1024 using your existing
> video card, and see what it looks like ?
>
> If that works, then maybe you can use a TripleHead2Go. This
> one is digital. Presumably a dual-link DVI connector is needed
> on the video card driving the connection to the TripleHead2Go,
> because 3840 x 1024 @ 60Hz is a lot of pixels to push.
>
> http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.phph...://www.
>
> "Key features
>
> * Features a dual-link digital input for high-end workstations
> and DVI monitors."
>
> They list a contact address of insales
> at matrox.com, if you have questions for them.
>
> GPUs equipped with dual-link DVI.http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_extreme_hd_gpu.html
>
> The gap between monitors can be annoying, and that is why
> I wouldn't waste the money on this. (I have seen monitor
> designs, where LCD panels are joined on hinges, to make a
> panoramic display device, so that might give a smaller gap.)
> Also, it is possible that game support for those panoramic
> resolutions might not exist (something you want to check for
> your favorite game at least). This article is for the analog
> version, so the digital one won't have the same internal design or
> connector types on the outside of the Matrox box.
>
> http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2806
>
> Regarding SLI video cards, this is from the Nvidia FAQ. Two
> cards drive one monitor while in SLI mode, or four monitors
> in non-SLI mode. Using SLI mode and a TripleHead2Go, is one
> way to make a single connector span three monitors. So I
> guess, in a sense, there is no difference between one
> big video card driving a single connector, and two in SLI
> driving a single connector.
>
> http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html
>
> "How many monitors are supported when running in SLI mode?
>
> When in multi-GPU mode, SLI currently supports one monitor.
> When in single-GPU mode, users have the ability to use up to
> four monitors using NVIDIA nView multi-display technology and
> Windows XP Dualview."
>
> Best guess,
> Paul

Thanks for all the info, Paul.

The display looks wretched on the middle monitor at 1024 resolution on
the desktop, though in games it doesn't seem that bad. If there's not
too much messing around involved, maybe I could change the
configuration when I want to use it for gaming.

I have my games set up on a separate boot partition at the moment. It
may not be too big a stretch to have the video go a different
direction on a kvm just to play full screen games and keep my native
resolution intact on my regular login.

I was thinking about a dual head from matrox because usually nvidia
cards have dual head built in already, so splitting one of those heads
into 2 would give me three outputs for my monitors.

I will be upgrading from two 5500's AGP/PCI. This will be my first SLI
configuration and I'm not sure exactly what impacts SLI will have on a
multi monitor setup. The descriptions in all the FAQs would probably
only make sense to people with SLI experience.
 >> Stay informed about: 8600GT multi monitor question 

HydrogenY RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:

>
> Thanks for all the info, Paul.
>
> The display looks wretched on the middle monitor at 1024 resolution on
> the desktop, though in games it doesn't seem that bad. If there's not
> too much messing around involved, maybe I could change the
> configuration when I want to use it for gaming.
>
> I have my games set up on a separate boot partition at the moment. It
> may not be too big a stretch to have the video go a different
> direction on a kvm just to play full screen games and keep my native
> resolution intact on my regular login.
>
> I was thinking about a dual head from matrox because usually nvidia
> cards have dual head built in already, so splitting one of those heads
> into 2 would give me three outputs for my monitors.
>
> I will be upgrading from two 5500's AGP/PCI. This will be my first SLI
> configuration and I'm not sure exactly what impacts SLI will have on a
> multi monitor setup. The descriptions in all the FAQs would probably
> only make sense to people with SLI experience.

With two video cards in SLI mode, there are four major connectors total
on the combined two cards. But only one of the connectors works while
SLI is being used. The other three connectors will not be active.

http://www.overclockers.ru/images/lab/2005/01/19/sli-cards.jpg

To make the content of that single connector, available to three
monitors, you could use a TripleHead2Go. It is kinda restrictive
on useful resolution choices.

So your SLI idea isn't really a good one if you want to drive
three monitors.

A single card plus a DualHead2Go could drive three monitors (because
the single card has two working connectors). A single card and
two monitors is a much cheaper experiment to try out, before you
spend the money on a DualHead2Go.

What I cannot tell you, is if an SLI configuration has a "preferred"
connector, or just the first one it finds, wins. You might be able to
connect three monitors, use the system mostly in non-SLI config, then
when you want to game, switch to SLI and make sure the middle monitor
is connected to the correct single connector. Then you could game on the
middle monitor, the one that has the better resolution than the others.

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: 8600GT multi monitor question