Eyefinity question

[mattchapman]

I currently have an nVidia 8800GT. One DVI goes to my 24" 1920x1200 monitor and the other feeds to my 46" 1920x1080 HDTV. I was able to set it up such that when I turn on the HDTV and select the 8800GT output the display automatically flips from the monitor the the HDTV (and changes res accordingly). I do this when I want to watch HD movies.

I'm researching a video card upgrade and have been reading about Eyefinity. Does this mean I could have the video card output pumping simultaneously to both displays at different resolutions?

Is there any downside to this (i.e. does it negatively impact performance)? My HDTV will be off most of the time when I'm gaming so I wouldn't think there would be any performance hit in that scenario.

Lastly, does nVidia have a similar feature in its new cards?

Thanks

 

[guitarguy6]

Eyefinity is for running (typically) three of the same monitors as one monitor. Ex: I run 3 X 1080p lcd's at 5760 X 1080. It sounds like you just want to run 2 displays at slightly different resolutions which will also works but has nothing to do with eyefinity. You shouldn't see a negative impact on gaming performance by having 2 displays instead of 1.

 

[noquarter]

If you're wanting to clone your desktop at different resolutions to 2 displays neither nVidia or ATI will do that anymore.

You can always do extended desktop at different resolutions but that is different than clone.

 

[mattchapman]

If you're wanting to clone your desktop at different resolutions to 2 displays neither nVidia or ATI will do that anymore.

You can always do extended desktop at different resolutions but that is different than clone.

Yes this is what I had in mind. You say neither do that anymore...so they used to but no longer?

 

[noquarter]

Yes this is what I had in mind. You say neither do that anymore...so they used to but no longer?

Yup many years ago the drivers would allow you to clone the desktop to a different resolution, the smaller of the 2 would scroll around the virtual desktop when you put your cursor against the edge. It's something they could do with the drivers they just don't feel its a feature anymore for whatever reason. You would have to use a pretty old card along with old drivers to get it though.

I only know for sure nVidia had this feature btw but I'm fairly sure ATI had it too. You can read the feature on page 48 of the nVidia 28.32 driver guide: ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/28.32/NVIDIADisplayPropsGuide.pdf

I don't know what version they got rid of it. For all I know you could turn the feature on with some registry hacks though but who knows.

edit: it may be that the feature disappeared at 190.38 with Windows 7.