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Tom's Hardware Reviews Multi-Display Gaming

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the getting-just-a-little-crazy dept.

MikShapi writes "Most gamers out there today own a dual-head graphics card (most of us completely neglecting the second port), and games such as X2 are offering support for this already (at least on nVidia cards, due to the "span" driver feature). Tom's Hardware did a nice rundown on the technology, complete with screenshots and benchmarks."

15 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. You know who'd love this??? by Howard+Beale · · Score: 5, Funny

    Zaphod Beeblebrox!

    1. Re:You know who'd love this??? by neelm · · Score: 3, Funny

      I found it pretty damn funny, funny enough to stop looking at my digital watch....

  2. Re:Hornet.....1989 by Cyclotron_Boy · · Score: 1, Funny

    I smell a QIII Arena hack coming on...

  3. heh by big_groo · · Score: 4, Funny

    cross your eyes...it's cheaper.

  4. Re:I never understand why... by Garg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I never understand why twin display never caught on.

    Simple, it's a lot easier to hide the fact that you bought a kick-ass graphics card from your wife, than it is an extra monitor sitting on your desk.

    Garg

    --
    Garg
    Alumnus, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
  5. Awesome! by lacrymology.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean when I play Pong, I can have one paddle on one screen, and the other on another! That is dope!

    -m

    --

    #
    # Modus Ponens
    #
  6. Re:Cool. Now to get some money... by sYn+pHrEAk · · Score: 5, Funny

    but I can't see myself forking over several hundred dollars for the purpose of playing a game.

    Then you're definitely no gamer.

    "WOW! GEFORCE 5000! MOMMY CAN I HAVE $750 FOR A COMPUTER PART?!?! ALL THE OTHER KIDS MIGHT GET IT FIRST IF YOU DON'T HURRY!"

    "No, Jimmy. Now take your medicine, go to your room and lie down. You know how your blood pressure gets when you're excited ever since you turned 40."

  7. Re:From the DOOM FAQ by GizmoToy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh man, Descent was the worst! I played that a few times, and every time I felt sick, so I had to give up. Imagine if there was a 3 monitor Descent! Talk about feeling sick...

  8. Re:I never understand why... by tehcyder · · Score: 5, Funny
    Plus it takes longer to hide 2 screens of pr0n from her when she sneaks into the room behind you...oh, just me then.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  9. Re:My Favorite Line by jwilhelm · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good point. Must be nice to just have free hardware thrown at you... "Yeah, I'm going to need a few more of these GeForce FX 9999 Super Ultra Plus ++'s for some, uh, tests..."

  10. Re:Cool. Now to get some money... by Tophorn · · Score: 2, Funny
    , but gaming is only a money pit
    No WAY! Do you realize how much money is actually saved by people who play Counter-Strike? They pay $15-45 U.S. (depending on when they bought the game) for the actual game and then pay for their monthly internet connection (which they arguably would have anyway). Then they don't need to be wasting money on things like dinners at nice restraunts on dates or on movies or any of the other things that "normal" people throw their money away doing. It's the perfect cheap date.
  11. Re:Mach L 3.8 etc.. by srmalloy · · Score: 2, Funny
    anybody remember these guys? http://www.go-l.com/monitors/index.htm last i recall, they had fraud rumors flying left and right, but then they showed up to some convention or other with an actual setup and made everyone eat their words. i still think a lot of their desktop descriptions sound like complete hogwash, but whatever. that grand canyon display still looks pretty badass.
    Or, for a wider range of multi-monitor styles, you could check out 9X Media. Their expandable multimonitor units run up to 32 displays; their 3-over-3 six-monitor configuration would be almost ideal for a flight simulator, particularly an air-combat sim -- the front three and front-up three views visible all at once would improve your SA in a dogfight situation immensely.

    Of course, with a setup like that, you're limited in your choice of video cards; only the Colorgraphics Xentera video card is available in an eight-head model, and that's only available for PCI, and only supports eight displays in analog mode (4 DVI outputs); if you were willing to sack the up/front/right and up/front/left views, though, you could get 9X Media's 1-over-3 monitor configuration and the Xentera GT-4 quad-head card, which supports 4 DVI displays and is available for AGP. Of course, the video card is pricey, but when you're ponying up $7,400 for the four-monitor display unit, what's a $600 video card? Besides, $8,000 for a multiple-monitor gaming configuration that none of your games support is the ne plus ultra of excessive technology -- the mark of the true uber-geek.
  12. Re:Edges of screens by fredrikj · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pretend that the edges are power loader (or other arbitrary vehicle or techy outfit, whatever suits the game) support beams.

    You'll get an extra kick out of the realistic bumpmapping.

  13. Re:My Favorite Line by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny
    "Yeah, I'm going to need a few more of these GeForce FX 9999 Super Ultra Plus ++'s for some, uh, tests..."

    You think that's bad? The producer of the last Bond movie allegedly had to ring up his contact at Aston Martin, which had lent them several DB7s to play with, and explain that they'd just accidentally crashed a car with a six-figure price tag into an iceberg.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  14. Re:Cool. Now to get some money... by mcmonkey · · Score: 2, Funny
    The drivers also address your Desktop as one big Desktop (not Xinerama). So when you maximize a window, it maximizes across all 3 monitors.

    Best. Minesweeper. Ever.