Performance loss with dual displays?

animosity

animosity

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
270
I had no idea where to put this, I debated for awhile and ended up here. Scold me if needs be.

Like the title says I'm running two monitors, a 19" Sony CRT and an 20" IBM LCD.

I run all my games on my Sony and do everything else on my IBM. About a month ago I purchased an evga 7800gtx and ran some of the nvidia test demos, which yielded horrible FPS (around 3-5). I'm also in a beta for an mmo game (I can't say but think super heroes) and I would also get terrible FPS in it as well. On a last ditch effort I tried playing with a single monitor and behold my FPS issues vanished. I now get around 25 in the Nvidia demos and 60-80 in the MMO. I've tried a few different drivers from Nvidia and all seem to get about the same performance.

Is there any explanation to why I'm taking just a performance hit? Does having dual displays usually do that? It doesn't seem to do it in all games, but most it does.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

My system is as follows:
P4 550 (3.4ghz w/ Thermalright 90cu)
Intel 915pbl motherboard
2x512 Kingston HyperX PC4300 DDR2
eVGA 7800GTX
160GB Maxtor Sata150 hdd
Aspire 510watt PSU
 
Yes, I read rather explicitly that having a second display enabled during a 3d game gives a hit. Sometimes significant, sometimes negligable, from what I've heard
 
Well, if all you are doing is clone mode, no, there should be no performance hit, as every card for ages has had dual DACs (the processor's that actually convert the data from the GPU to images you see) that will do a monitor each. It's when you want to display different things that you will almost certainly develop performance troubles, because the GPU must process both the first and second display before sending it to the respective DACs.
At least, this is how I'm given to understand such things...lol.
 
Ah yeah... I'm running it on Dual Mode, with my Sony on 1280x1024 res, and my IBM on 1600x1200res.
 
ive noticed this for a while, and ive just turned off the second monitor, right click on desktop, prop, and unclick expand windows..
its easy and helps
the other thing that hurts is 2 resolutions, the more info it has to render the worse it is, ie 1680x1050 + 1600x1200 will be a lot better than 1024x768 + 1600x1200, for some reason it seems that the big difference in Size hurts not just the pixel area
 
Interesting, I know nvidia has an option to disable the 2nd display when playing a 3d game. I bet thats where the hit is coming from, having 1680x1050 and 1024x768 displays
 
I run counterstrike at 1280x1024 on one moniter, with the seconds moniter at 1024x768, holding my widgets and my trillian conversations. No difference at all for me, but then CS isn't a very CPU intensive game. For playing HL2 or Americas Army I do disable the second moniter though, my PC is slow enough as it is.
 
Yea, counter-strike doesnt could... usless your gaming on an MX440. We're talkin more along the lines of BF2 and HL2 with lots of AA and AF ;)
 
n64man120 said:
Interesting, I know nvidia has an option to disable the 2nd display when playing a 3d game. I bet thats where the hit is coming from, having 1680x1050 and 1024x768 displays
Click to expand...
Where is this feature located? It's such a pain to open properties everytime.
 
i use ultramon that allows me to right click its icon in the taskbar and choose 'disable secondary monitor" when i wan to play bf2 on my primary.
 
Hmm, I knew I've seen it before but I can't seem to locate it now. I even recall reading a help section, explaining its use. Well if you do some google work or somthing, and find out about it, please let us know how it's done, as I have forgot.
 
wow. I've never heard of this before. Is this typical with nvidia cards? I was considering switching to nvidia from ATi but that would suck because I run dual display's. However I run my primary display with an X800XT and my secondary off of a PCI 9250.

Would dual cards with an nvidia setup decrease my performance or have no hit?
 
I dont know which handles dual better, ATI or Nvidia. But running 2 in a "Dual View" atleast, like I do with nvidia, says that you may experience a slight performance hit. It's negligable enough I'm sure, in most cases, to not base your ATI/Nvidia decision on it
 
My performance hit was not slight at all. It was VERY drastic. 5fps compared to 30fps....

Also I use Ultramon, and I'm an idiot for not thinking of using that feature, thanks for reminding me!
 
I game with dual displays all the time with no noticeable effect (both on a 6800gt and 7800gtx). Only game that I need to disable it for is doom3, which has a known issue with dual display.
 
I game with dual displays all the time with no noticeable effect (both on a 6800gt and 7800gtx). Only game that I need to disable it for is doom3, which has a known issue with dual display.
Click to expand...

I was wondering that. Because if I buy two 7800GT's and have one monitor on each videocard and it still messes up my gameplay.I'll be pissed.

One question I have though is if I buy two 7800GT's does that mean I can have 4 monitors hooked up at the same time???
 
Its a simple fix all u gotta do is go to advanced options in the drivers and disable hardware aceleration for secondary monitor. No more performance loss.
 
Chickenleader said:
Its a simple fix all u gotta do is go to advanced options in the drivers and disable hardware aceleration for secondary monitor. No more performance loss.
Click to expand...
I'll try this when I get home today. If it works, I might try to hug you.
 
*screams like a school girl and hugs chickenleader*

YOU are awesome indeed.
 
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