A dual monitor/card question for our on-duty hardware guys

[zladuric]

Hey guys,

I have a theoretical question. I've got a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 Ghz thingy. I also have an integrated (disabled, not used) AMD Radeon HD 3300 (from this board).Asrock (http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?model=m3a790gxh/128m).

I also have some crappy Samsung Syncmaster 2233 1680x1050 monitor. Now I'm thinking about getting a second monitor.

Questions:
1. It'd be best to get a same-resolution monitor, correct?
I don't really need Full HD since my GPU won't support that stuff anyway, I think.

2. Would I get some GPU improvement if I hooked up a crossfire to that integrated 3300 card?
I'd probably have to give it some RAM, but I have 8 gigs, so it's fine.

3. What if I just used those two as separate cards?
I wouldn't get extended display, would I? You know, like one 3340x1050 desktop surface?

What do you think? And don't laugh on my hardware, the box works quite fine and makes me a lot of money and I get to play BF3 on it such as it is!

[Burning]

Crossfire? No it will downclock your 7770 to the intergrated speeds. Which will hurt your performance. The 7770 is faster than the intergrated GPU. way faster.

On the Duel monitors. If you get 1 lower resolution monitor, you overall resolution will lower; You cannot run 1 monitor 1080p and 1 720p. It's not possible. Like crossfire. it will always adjust to the slowest component

I had terrible issues with 1 monitor on my Sandy GPU and 1 on my 6950. I don't recommend doing that.

What i recommend is getting 2 1080p monitors (or 1 1680x1050 ) and hooking them both up to your 7770.
Then turn of windows aero (the transparant windows interface, it saves you quite some performance) and extend the display.

This way you can game but also see stuff on the side. Run your game in window mode if you don't want it to minimalise when you put your mouse on the 2nd screen.

[zladuric]

That's some sound advice! I guess another 1680x1050 monitor will do it.

Are there any issues with playing in windowed mode?

[Burning]

That's some sound advice! I guess another 1680x1050 monitor will do it.

Are there any issues with playing in windowed mode?

Very minor performance drop, like 1 or 2 frames.
It maybe takes some getting used to. You can always run fullscreen. But you need to keep in mind that if you do run full screen. And you want to click something on the 2nd monitor. It will minimize the game like it does when you alt-tab.
Window mode prevents this.

So it's up to you, if you just want to be able to take a look at teamspeak or something, keep it minimized, if you want to browse the web in between spawntimes. Put it on window mode.

I have no issues running in either of those. However some games are a pain to get to run in window. Since they do not have the build in feature. I believe battlefield does.

[zladuric]

Thanks m8, when I get the 2nd monitor, I'll play with it and see.

Thanks for the time to answer.

[Burning]

Correction.

You can use different resolution displays in windows. But it changes to the lowest one while gaming.
So go ahead get a 1080p monitor. Use that as your main screen, and ÂÂ*use the other one as a side screen.


Thanks to Mister Caveman for making me aware of my error :)

[Caveman]

U can use whatever resolution monitor beside eachother.

But when you game on both togheter with the game on both screens it will lower in resolution to the lowest resolution of the two.

If u use 1 monitor for the game and another for ts/procon or whatever you please it doesn't matter.
You can play bf3 on 1080p monitor and use the lower resolution monitor for ts/procon and so on. :wink: