Widescreen Gaming Forum

Currently in BETA status

I have just done the basics of this tutorial/guide to how to get games running on surround-gaming. I will be including the new 6 display port Eyefinity card soon, and will also be including various monitor setups such as 2 vertical monitors and 1 horizontal monitor etc. I thought I might as well release this to the public, maybe for googlers that are deciding to get surround-gaming like me. I will be updating this Emensly this is just the first stage. I will be revising the outline and categories also.

Here it is :)

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Surround Gaming Options

I will not be commenting on PCI video cards, they are not powerful enough to sustain surround-gaming

2 Monitors

Option 1:
- 1 or 2 or 3 video card slot motheboard
- Any combination of video cards
- Matrox TrippleHead2Go of MView
- Requires Matrox TrippleHead 2 Go software which comes with Matrox TrippleHead2Go or MView Software which comes with MView

Option 2:
- 1 Video card slot motherboard
- 1 dual dvi input video card
- Any windows
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 3:
- 2 video card slot motherboard
- 2 of any variation of cards, though not in SLI mode (note that only the primary video card will render graphics, the secondary video card will be there just to output to the monitor, hence a more powerful primary video card and a secondary video card capable of just outputting to a monitor would be optimal)
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 4:
- 2 Video card slot motherboard
- 2 video cards with either 1 or 2 dvi inputs each or both a 1 dvi input and a 2 dvi input video card
- Note that you will only be able to output to the monitors through the primary video card, that limits your amount of possible monitors to 2
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

3 Monitors

Option 1:
- 1 or 2 or 3 video card slot motherboard
- Any combination of video cards
- Matrox TrippleHead2Go of MView
- Requires Matrox TrippleHead 2 Go software which comes with Matrox TrippleHead2Go or MView Software which comes with MView

Option 2:
- 1 video card slot motherboard
- An ATI Eyefinity capable video card (which currently includes only the 5850, 5870, and 5970(previously named 5870x2)) which has 2 dvi inputs and 1 display port input
- A proper dvi to display port adapter
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 3:
- 2 video card slot motherboard
- 1 dual dvi input and 1 either dual dvi or single dvi input video card (note that only the primary video card will be doing the game rendering)
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 4:
- 3 video card slot motherboard
- Any 3 video cards, each video card outputting to 1 monitor (note that only the primary video card will be doing the graphics rendering)
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 5:
- 3 video card slot motherboard
- 2 video cards in SLI, the primary video card has 2 dvi inputs. Primary video card in SLI outputs to 2 monitors, third video card outputs to third monitor (note that only the video cards in SLI will be doing the graphics rendering)
- Requires Windows 7 for outputting to 2 monitors from the primary video card in SLI
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

Option 6:
- 3 video card slot motherboard
- 2 video cards in SLI, the primary video card has 1 dvi input. The third video card has dual dvi inputs and outputs to 2 monitors (note that only the video cards in SLI will be doing the graphics rendering)
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

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Just a couple of suggestions:

1. Triplehead2Go only has one P in it
2. Some of your lines seem to be duplicated in themselves.

Option 6:
- 3 video card slot motherboard
- 2 video cards in SLI, the primary video card has 1 dvi input. The third video card has dual dvi inputs and outputs to 2 monitors (note that only the video cards in SLI will be doing the graphics rendering)
- Requires SoftTH for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively for games that do not run your monitor resolutions natively

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Otherwise look forward to seeing how this pans out.

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Nice effort, but some more research may be required before getting into such an immense task as to list all possible multi-mon setups and prerequisites, don't you think ? ;)

I'm afraid some of your info on SoftTH and MView is just wrong...
-SoftTH is not a magical toy that can add support for surround resolutions. It is a software mock-up of the TripleHead hardware. It tells Windows that your three screens are actually a single one, so that the combined display can be used in games.
-Last time I checked, SoftTH didn't like SLI.
-MViewer is just a cheaper TripleHead with no advanced software functions.

Also watch that copy/paste mania...
And why count MB slots and graphics cards ?

Take it easy mate, hang around the boards, you'll learn a lot in little time. When the picture's clear in your mind, you can go back to enlighting the crowd with guides and stuff...