Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi all, this is my first post, I have been going through this site all day today, and I believe I like wide screen gaming.

Let me first say what I want to do: I want to game with 3 monitors horizontally, preferably 3 1680x1050 monitors to get a combined resolution of 5040x1050. Right now I have only 1 GTX260, and I am able to expand that to two. I will use this for both gaming and personal use. (these monitors will be DVI, and my GTX260 has 2 DVI inputs

Now my confusion: TH2G (Triple Head 2 Go) Vs. SLI. From my understanding and research TH2G is a kind of splitter that will extend your desktop up to 3 monitors. My knowledge of SLI is that for 1 video card that has 2 DVI inputs, I can have a dual-monitor setup, and with 2 video cards that have 2 DVI inputs each, I can have up to a 4 Monitor setup. First of all, why do people have TH2G if they have an SLI setup, don't both achieve the same thing. What is the difference between TH2G and an SLI setup?

My other questions: It is possible to play games on a 5040x1050 resolution using 3 monitors hooked up to 2 video cards having 2 DVI inputs each? Also what is the performance of 2 GTX260s in SLI outputing to 5040x1050, for new games like ARMA2, World in Conflict, GTA IV, any really; what is the FPS, everything (if you can link me to a thread, or somewhere that compares it or at least shows any frame rate information, I would be glad). And how hard is it to play games on 5040x1050, is set up required with most games, is it possible to play some games at 5040x1050 out of the box, how much set up is involved and what is it like if I have to do something to get the game working?

Thanks in advance for any replies :) I look forward to chatting with you guys on the forum.

What is the difference between TH2G and an SLI setup?

Not the same purpose at all.

- SLI is "two cards working as one" for additional performance. That's all. If I'm not mistaken you can only use 2 displays when using SLI (i.e only the main card's outputs).
- Having two graphics cards with SLI disabled allows you to use all 4 outputs. So you can use 4 displays for desktop apps, or run SoftTH (which requires 1 ouput per display) for multi-mon gaming.
- TH2G doesn't care if you use SLI or not, and will allow you to connect a triple-screen setup to one output only.

Now for the performance part. I used SLI'ed GTX260s in 5040 and they're totally up to the task with "moderately high" settings in recent games. AA has quite an impact on nvidia cards at such high resolutions though.

Take a look at the nav bar on the left : the TripleHead FAQ covers pretty much everything you should know before you make the jump. Then search your faved titles in the Games list and take a look at their Detailed Report, it should give you an idea of how common native TripleHead support is and how hard it is to make it work otherwise.

Hope this first reply helps a bit, and welcome to the WSGF !

I have already looked through so many things, and my decision is to get a 5870, and run it in eyefinity with 3 - 2209wa dell monitors. A person on this forum has already done this and it is working great for him.TH2G is going to die soon because of ATI.

It is also my suggestion to place the information you gave me about SLI into the TripleHead FAQ.

Thanks for making it clear

:neutral:

TH2G is going to die soon because of ATI.

TripleHead & SoftTH are not the only ways to play on a triple-screen display anymore, that's right. Eyefinity is an exciting new solution and I can understand some people may think it's "ideal". Users nvidia cards, DVI displays and not-quite-brand-new hardware might find your point of view a little bit naive though. ;)

It is also my suggestion to place the information you gave me about SLI into the TripleHead FAQ.

I guess a renewed Multi-monitor FAQ could use some "Eyefinity vs. multiple cards vs. SLI" disambiguation indeed.

You kinda led me down a dead track here, but I hope you'll like your non-TripleHead, non-GTX260 setup anyway ! :lol:

it probably is, but its not bad since I actually found this stuff out on sunday :P I am still doing tons of research

Thanks for taking into consideration my suggestion.

Question: if I get a gtx 295, can I put the third monitor on a separate PCI (not express, just PCI) video card?

Hi BloodTotal

The GTX 295 Card requires a PCI Express slot and wont fit in a normal PCI slot :(

You can use a PCI card to output to another monitor but I am not sure if this will be powerful enough for Soft TH as the PCI card may slow the PCIex speed down...maybe someone else can shed some more light on this?

What motherboard have you got in the system?

The GTX 295 Card requires a PCI Express slot and wont fit in a normal PCI slot

Reminds me of this: http://www.fredk.com/profile/media/cut_video_card.jpg, and of course I know that 8)

Yes that is precisely what I am asking, will the bandwidth alow, can anyone try this out it would be a quick test, and would do me a lot of good, because I have a good chance to buy a GTX 295 for about $500, and my choice now is between eyefinity or the 295, thing is I have a single PCI-E motherboard so I will not be able to just stick another card in, so im basically wondering if I should do eyefinity or GTX295.

I have a SoftTH setup on my home desktop, and originally I was using an 8800GTS 320mb as the main card with an ancient 5200FX (PCI) as the second card.

No matter what I was doing using SoftTH, the framerate was capped at 20 fps (all monitors). Whether it was Bioshock on full settings or Half Life at 640x480, the framerate wouldn't go over 20.

So I highly recommend you get another PCI-E 16x card instead of a PCI one.

Thank you very much for confirming this, the GTX 295 is out of the question now. I believe I will go for the ATI 5870, possibly the 5970

I swear im gonna break the bank with this escapade :shock: :wink:

If I'm not mistaken you can only use 2 displays when using SLI (i.e only the main card's outputs).

Actually, if you don't have Windows 7 you can only use a single output of the four available when SLI is disabled. Windows 7 finally gives the ability to drive dual monitors in SLI mode.

In any case the outputs of a second GPU are disabled when SLI is in use.