Widescreen Gaming Forum

Alright, I'm gettin the feaver for surround gaming. And I got it bad.
I built this machine almost a year ago, actually had my stepson help ALOT. I have upgraded the vid card once since then. And now of course as with all my other addictions, "I want more".
My questions are many but a few to begin with are:

1. Can I even do this with the hardware I currently own? I know I need another monitor, and thinking Matrox Triplehead2go is best?
2. Will I be able to play online games such as, Red Orchestra, BF2, All COD's, etc. with Punkbuster enabled?

My hardware is as follows:
MSI k8n neo4 platinum
AMD Athlon x2 4400+ Toledo
ATI X1900XTX
Apevia 680w
NEC Multisync LCD1970gx 19" (main monitor)
Synaps 19" LCD (basically same specs as NEC, currently 2nd monitor)

I have tried to read most of the posts to learn, but this stuff is a bit over my head and any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I really like to play games that are smooth with as much eye candy as possible. Course it gets real spendy real fast. As most of you are aware.
Thanks in advance,
Sincerely, Garcol

Well I found the campatibilty utility for the Matrox 3head2go and it said if I ran at 2400 x 600 and use one of the display drivers they list it would run at that resolution.
Hmmm would it be worth it? Iam use to running at 1280X1024 and like it alot.

yes you should be able to run punkbuster on triplehead as long as you're using a supported resolution in the game

and thinking Matrox Triplehead2go is best?

... it is the only way to get TripleHead gaming ... but as you have found out ... your biggest problem is your X1900XTX ... it won't allow higher that 2400x600 ... :(

BF2 ... whilst it is possible to get going in surround the tool/hack used to do it is not allowed by PBunkbuster ... :(

All COD's ... not sure about COD but COD2 can do it see here ... http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/6685

Red Orchestra ... I can't remember ... but I think it can do it ... :?

In your opinon....
Do you think it would be worth it to run in 2400 X 600? At least for the time being till I could afford another video card? Or step up to SLI.

Do you think it would be worth it to run in 2400 X 600?

... only if you can use lots of antialiasing ... try a game at 800x600 ... see what it looks like.

I have played many games at 2400x600 on my old TripleHead system using the Parhelia ... it looked fine as the Parhelia allowed 16xAA without much cost to fps ... and it didn't look so bad. The surround "experience" made up for the low res in my opinion.

I will be trying that.
Thank you for your advice. I will either go a head and get the triplhead and the monitor and wait for the video card(s) set up. Or maybe just wait on it all.

Depends on how hard Christmas has hit me, and what kinda sales I find for monitors. Will keep lurking here for more info and keep you guys up to date with what I do.
Thank you once again,
Garcol

Well I tried the 800X600 and it looked pretty good. So Yesterday I got my new 19" to add to the other two. Different brands, but all running 8ms 1280x1024 etc. specs. I also got my triplehead2go. Once hooked up I downloaded the latest SGU and found it would only give me a 1940x 468 or ?? resolution. Waaa Although it looked ok I could barely play anything once I got close to it, like looking thru a telescope the whole time. I then tried the original SGU and got the 2400X600 resolution. Unfortunately I only own two games on that list, FEAR and Quake 4. Fear was totally awsome, Quake 4 was kinda squashed and just didnt look right.

So for using an ATI card, I suggest Dont do it unless your going to upgrade to an Nvidea.

I have shopped and looked for a new card to run with my triplehead2go, with being limited by 1 pcie slot. Looks like I am going to order a 8800. But still having a rough time justifying it. I have read and read these forums, and hope Im making the right decision.

Seems that for a single card solution this is going to be my best bet.

Thank you all for your information and sharing. It has helped me immensely to try to get my dream of surround gaming up to reality.

Now have any of you run Surround headphones? This is what I have, http://www.medusa-usa.com/ , and even with my onboard sound it is awsome.
Garcol

Glad you are getting there ... :D

Quake 4 was kinda squashed and just didnt look right.

... solution here ... 8) ... http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/6681uake

Whoa!!!! Got my new card yesterday. What a difference.
COD1 is freagin AWSOME! It is also one one my favorite games I have ever played.
FEAR and FEAR XP are also pretty awsome. I did have to turn some things down a bit in them though.
Far Cry seems to be a bit "in your face", But I just need to search in here for some configuration stuff. Even as it is "straight out of the box" it plays pretty dang good.
I have also found with three different type monitors, even at the same specs. Are kinda a pain to get set exactly to each other as far as brightness, contrast, colors, etc. But it does look pretty good once you get them there.
I had to rearrange some things in my Mid Atx box and had some issues with drivers. But in reality everything went great. The 8800 GTX fit in there better than my X1950XTX ever thought about. I had to move one of my hard drives down 1 bay as the 8800 is so long it cannot share with a hard drive.
Iam having some issues with some of my games not working, but with the ones that are I feel pretty good.
Well guess that is about it for now..
Thank you guys for the advice and all you have shared in these forums.
Will definately be catching you guys soon.
Happy New Year to you all!!
Garcol