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radeon x800xt and multiple monitors..

  • Thread starter Deleted member 21895
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okay, so i've got myself an x800 xt... currently i've got my crt on the vga hook up, my 32'' digital tv going through s-video.. and now i have a dvi lcd screen...

when i first had one monitor and I went into display properties that second monitor was greyed out (the one you have to right click and hit attach to get dual monitors)..
now theres no third monitor to attach? so my question is can i have tri monitors? or is this just not possible with my graphics card...

running ultramon, pretty sure i have the latest drivers... anything i can install to get it working?

the graphics card has vga/dvi/s-video so i'd be filling up all 3 outputs
 
Nope, its not possible. The only manufacturer that supported triple monitors (AFAIK) was Matrox.
The ATi cards only have dual RAMDACs, meaning they can only process 2 output signals, therefore only allowing you 2 monitors. The RAMDACs are autosensing, and choose which output(s) you are using to display on those ones. This is configurable to some degree if it does not detect properly, but you will not be able to "fool" it into displaying on 3 monitors.
Oh, and desktop spanning on ATi cards isn't possible either unless you're a Linux user
( :mad: :mad: :mad: ). Just in case anyone was wondering....
 
banGerprawN said:
Nope, its not possible. The only manufacturer that supported triple monitors (AFAIK) was Matrox.
The ATi cards only have dual RAMDACs, meaning they can only process 2 output signals, therefore only allowing you 2 monitors. The RAMDACs are autosensing, and choose which output(s) you are using to display on those ones. This is configurable to some degree if it does not detect properly, but you will not be able to "fool" it into displaying on 3 monitors.
Oh, and desktop spanning on ATi cards isn't possible either unless you're a Linux user
( :mad: :mad: :mad: ). Just in case anyone was wondering....
Click to expand...

damn... that does suck a lot :( I was really hoping for a cool 3 monitor setup...

and what did you mean by desktop spanning on ati cards isn't possible unless on linux? cause i've got vga and s-video going out right now with dual monitors?
 
Desktop spanning is where your desktop is stretched across the 2 monitors to create one large on. The default mode is called cloning, where the 2nd monitor is an exact copy of the first monitor.
Linux users have an option in the drivers ATi supplys for a feature called BigDesktop. This is pretty much just an option for a spanned/stretched desktop.
 
banGerprawN said:
Desktop spanning is where your desktop is stretched across the 2 monitors to create one large on. The default mode is called cloning, where the 2nd monitor is an exact copy of the first monitor.
Linux users have an option in the drivers ATi supplys for a feature called BigDesktop. This is pretty much just an option for a spanned/stretched desktop.
Click to expand...

now are you referring to the taskbar? or the desktop in whole? Cause there is no taskbar until I fire up ultramon where i guess it simulates the taskbar...

but i've got 2 desktops on my ati card?
 
is it possible to just throw an old voodoo card in a spare pci slot and let that take care of a third monitor?
 
sniper991122 said:
now are you referring to the taskbar? or the desktop in whole? Cause there is no taskbar until I fire up ultramon where i guess it simulates the taskbar...

but i've got 2 desktops on my ati card?
Click to expand...

You have 2 desktops, but one is just a copy of the other. There are multiple modes for multi-monitor displays.
Spanning: This is where you're one desktop is stretched across both screens. Therefore, if both monitors operate at a resolution of 800x600, then you will effectively have a giant desktop that has an effective resolution of 1600 (width) by 600 (height). This is the mode that is not available on ATi cards at the moment, probably because of the way their driver works.
Cloning: This is the default mode on just about every single video card. It involves setting a primary monitor (VGA-out usually) and a secondary monitor (DVI-out, S-Video Out). The secondary monitor will display the exact same image as what the primary monitor will display. You will not receive any additonal space, you will just have 2 screens showing exactly the same thing.
Extended: This is a Windows supported view. It involves creating a "virtual desktop" on your secondary monitor, with no taskbar, icons, windows, etc on it at all. Any program that you open on the primary monitor can then be set to show on the secondary monitor, while the primary monitor is left free to show an entirely different set of programs/information. Extremely useful for image editing, music mixing, etc.

That said, just use a PCI card to create a 3 monitor setup.
 
hmm.. okay that helps some... so that would leave me with an extended desktop currently?

whats the big difference between extended and spanning? Cause I can put a browser halfway between both monitors.. or stretch it to view it on both monitors?

i also have a taskbar and icons/a different wallpaper on the second monitor (however I suspect that is all from the aid of Ultramon)

I guess a better question may be what can a spanning desktop do that extended cant?
 
sniper991122 said:
is it possible to just throw an old voodoo card in a spare pci slot and let that take care of a third monitor?
Click to expand...


It would probably be better to put an old radeon 7000 PCI card in so that driver conflicts dont exist.
 
Cause I can put a browser halfway between both monitors.. or stretch it to view it on both monitors?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's possible to have a browser half-way between both monitors, or to stretch it to take up both monitors when you have an extended desktop, as long as you have your display settings configured to "extended" mode. This is possible by going to display properties, selecting the 2nd grayed-out monitor in the advanced tab, and checking the box that says "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor". This will allow you to drag programs over to the second monitor, leaving the first one free, or to stretch windows to fill both screens. The thing you will not be able to do though is have the same taskbar on the 2nd monitor, or to have a widescreen movie playing. That is the only limitation.

i also have a taskbar and icons/a different wallpaper on the second monitor (however I suspect that is all from the aid of Ultramon)
Click to expand...

Yes, this is due to UltraMon. It is called a "virtual desktop", and it makes you appear to be running 2 entirely different computers, hence why you have 2 different sets of icons/wallpaper/taskbar, etc. This is simply an extended desktop with a little more complex configuration options. it can be extremely useful depending on how much multi-tasking you do.

I guess a better question may be what can a spanning desktop do that extended cant?
Click to expand...

The thing a spanned/stretched desktop is good for that an extended desktop cant do is to display full screen programs (games and movies in particular) in a widescreen format. That means, instead of having to go out and spend thousands on a 30" Apple Cinema Screen, you can just get 2 incredibly cheap 15" LCD's with ultra-thin bezels and put them next to each other and enjoy the benefits of widescreen on the cheap. This is really the only benefit spanning desktops has, it just allows you to run full screen programs in a widescreen display. It's what I use with my media centre PC and 2 projectors. No bezels, just 70" of widescreen goodness!
 
banGerprawN said:
The thing a spanned/stretched desktop is good for that an extended desktop cant do is to display full screen programs (games and movies in particular) in a widescreen format. That means, instead of having to go out and spend thousands on a 30" Apple Cinema Screen, you can just get 2 incredibly cheap 15" LCD's with ultra-thin bezels and put them next to each other and enjoy the benefits of widescreen on the cheap. This is really the only benefit spanning desktops has, it just allows you to run full screen programs in a widescreen display. It's what I use with my media centre PC and 2 projectors. No bezels, just 70" of widescreen goodness!
Click to expand...

ah :) that seems like a good reason... is it more processor intensive simulating a second desktop with windows as well as ultramon?
 
The second desktop should be almost entirely handled by the graphics card's RAMDACs, so I seriously doubt you will experience an increased overhead, unless you're running something like a Voodoo 1. But, as you're not, there shouldnt be any problems at all.
However, Ultramon already takes some system resources to create the virutal desktop that it uses, so if you arent experiencing any adverse performance problems while using that at the moment, than I would still say no.
 
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