Widescreen Gaming Forum

@ JKeefe

Thanking you! It is amazing how talking things through, with those generous in sharing their knowledge, can uncover a critical aspect to a solution.

I now know that anyone who needs 3 monitors for general office work, in addition to gaming, needs, at least, a second graphics card and Ultramon.

I have a 3x 20" 4:3 setup(1600x1200) and just switch to a 3x24" widescreen. ....For work I would much perfer 3x 4:3 monitors. I wouldn't have got 24" if I wasn't a gamer looking for the next thrill. it is too bad that they [don't] really make 4:3 screen anymore.

Might 3 X 20", @ 3 x (1680 x 1050) [16:10] (widescreen), be the sweet spot compromise?

Or 3 X 22", @ 3 x (1680 x 1050) [16:10] (widescreen)?

[quote]Hope this helps someone in making their decision

Your comprehensive post has certainly helped me. Thanks.

I switch to single screen 4320x900 or 5040x1050 for gaming only. the rest of the time I switch to triple display mode 1920x1200 via dual videocard and use Ultra Mon to manage my multi monitor.

I presume this "switching" is a simple affair. That is, via a hot key or something.

If so, I imagine your set up is as follows.
1. Primary Card Head 1 -> TripleHeadToGo -> 3 monitors
2. Primary Card Head 2 -> spare port on monitor 1
3. Secondary Card Head 1 -> spare port on monitor 2
4. Secondary Card Head 2 - > spare port on monitor 3.

Is that right? Do monitors generally come with the 2 inputs needed for this?

If so could we also throw crossfire or SLI into the mix. Eg Use the two cards in SLI when using Th2Go, switch, turning SLI off in the process, to use the two cards independently. Is that kind of solution possible, usual, or desirable?

glad I can help, here's how my monitors are hooked up:

1st video card 9800GX2 nvidia (dual display)
2nd video card ATI FireMV 2400 (quad display)

Th2g is connect to DVI1 on my 9800gx2

-=-= MONITOR CONNECTIONS =-=-
Left monitor - DVI to port in FireMV
- Analog to Left output on TH2G

Center Monitor - DVI to center output on Th2g
- anaglog to 2nd output on 9800gx2

Right Monitor - DVI to port in FireMV
- Analog to Right output on Th2g


-=-=-= DISPLAY MODES/SETTINGS =--=-=-

I use UltraMon and have hotkey or 2 clicks to switching between screen setting. I mainly use two modes. this is in windows

1) Triple display: 3x 1920x1200 (for regular work)
- L and R monitors are run from the DVI port on the FireMV
- center is run form Th2g via DVI in 1920x1200 res.

2) Matrox Th2g: 3x 1440x900 (for gaming)
- disable DVI output from FireMV to L and R monitor
- th2g runs at 4320x900. Center monitor run by DVI. L & R run by
th2g but in analog mode and the monitor automatically switch to analog input since it autodetects and the DVI feed is stopped.


3) Analog gaming: Single 1920x1200 VGA Direct connection to center monitor
- I have to set SLI output from matrox dvi port to the other port on my 9800gx2 via Nvdia control panel
- I only use this when I need to play games that have to use pesky resolutions or when the game gets " blank screen but runs" because this direct connection to the monitor gives more usable resolution without bugs than say the th2go that only have a limited mode.

I'm surprised it worked out so well with no major bugs other than my Th2g not being able to use single 1920x1200 in games.

Th2g is only used when I game the rest of the time it's useless and my 2nd videocard + ultramon does a better job. and can use my monitor's full resolution.

One chunk of software I found indispensable with my TH2G is GridMove. It requires a bit of setup at first - though I posted my TH2G grid here: (Link)

The great thing is that (1) it's Free and (2) it's so simple to use once set up: [Win]-[1] resizes the active app to screen 1, [Win]-[2] resizes the active app to screen 1... [Win]-[6] sends the active app to zone 6 etc. (see link above for zones). For me this makes Windows and the TH2G so much easier to use well (productively) both in games as well as outside of games.

I also use it on another system with only two screens and no TH2G / DH2G - though with a different "grid" file.

One chunk of software I found indispensable with my TH2G is GridMove. It requires a bit of setup at first - though I posted my TH2G grid here: (Link)

The great thing is that (1) it's Free and (2) it's so simple to use once set up: [Win]-[1] resizes the active app to screen 1, [Win]-[2] resizes the active app to screen 1... [Win]-[6] sends the active app to zone 6 etc. (see link above for zones). For me this makes Windows and the TH2G so much easier to use well (productively) both in games as well as outside of games.

I also use it on another system with only two screens and no TH2G / DH2G - though with a different "grid" file.

pretty cool. but the only thing is the th2g doesn't support triple 1920x1200 :(

Does nobody here use 3x24" (with 1920x1200 native and 1680x1050 under TH2GO)? I cannot stand the horrible TN panels that you get with <24" myself.

Does nobody here use 3x24" (with 1920x1200 native and 1680x1050 under TH2GO)? I cannot stand the horrible TN panels that you get with <24" myself.

thing is why would someone use lower than their native resolution?

as for TN panel. this is my first time getting one...
- it's cheaper I only paid $279 after tax for each of my 24" screen
- response time is faster mine is 2ms.

bad thing is:
- it don't fully display 24bit colors and when viewing photos the color reproduction is not as good. and u may notice some dittering.

I hardly do any video or photo editing and when I do it's for simple stuff so color fedility is not that important to me.

I do game tho so fast response time is a plus for me.

the rest of the time I'm doing office/email/internet type of thing and the colors are fine for me.

One chunk of software I found indispensable with my TH2G is GridMove.

I recently had a look at a few 22" monitors at 1680 x 1050. Opening up a browser to fill the whole screen was often too wide. Many web designers don't code for a liquid layout. Even when they do the text feels too stretched out. Opening another app to halve the screen meant that the browser was too narrow.

Gridmove will allow me to define a centre or side grid of any size I like. That makes me far less nervous about going widescreen (let alone triple widescreen). Gridmove looks like an essential piece of software.

Tyinsar, this really is a valuable piece of advice. Thanks.

Triple wide like triple 22" monitors is nice for gaming but may be stressful to your eyes when doing regular desktop tasks. Maybe you'll get used to it though. I've tried it before and it's just too much for my eyes. lol!

Maybe one advantage of triple wide is that if a game doesn't support TH2Go then you can still play on 1 widescreen monitor compared to just 1 standard monitor.

Maybe one advantage of triple wide is that if a game doesn't support TH2Go then you can still play on 1 widescreen monitor compared to just 1 standard monitor.

BIG advantage...5040 for FO3, FC2 etc...1920x1200 for BF2, CoD4/WaW MP etc. Much better than 1280x1024 :)

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