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Is this going to be the new approach to surround gaming?

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  • Is this going to be the new approach to surround gaming?

    I saw that gigabyte is releasing a motherboard that supports dual video cards which means up to 4 monitors with most video cards. Does this mean I will soon be able to toss my Parhelia and play the latests games in all their glory?


    Last edited by Dilbertland; 11 January 2005, 13:04.

  • #2
    No.

    You can already do this. WindowsXP will support 12 displays (16 if using Matrox quad MMS cards).
    But for surround gaming, the desktop MUST be seen by the system as a single display.
    This can only happen if you are running in a stretched mode resolution.
    You can only run a stretched mode from a single GPU.
    If you have multiple cards, or multiple GPUs (like the MMS cards), you can ONLY run in independant mode...thus no surround gaming.
    Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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    • #3
      I thought the SLI systems showed up as one video device?
      Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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      • #4
        The gaming picture on their website (half-way down) gives the impression that it's being streched across all four monitors. It would be really nice if that wasn't just "creative" advertising.

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        • #5
          Looks like Parhelia's main claim to fame is looking a bit dated now.

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          • #6
            Although looking closely at the pictures on that Giga-Byte webpage, for the desktop one they have a green winXP "start" button on each of the screens. So I reckon they're just being a little creative with the photoshopped publicity materials
            DM says: Crunch with Matrox Users@ClimatePrediction.net

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            • #7
              also says gamers can open "control and telemetry" windows on other screens, ie you cant actually game over more than 1 screen, however as wombat said, i was under the impression that SLi showed up as a single GPU, can anyone verify this?
              Then it would be down to drivers to implement it.
              is a flower best picked in it's prime or greater withered away by time?
              Talk about a dream, try to make it real.

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              • #8
                It isn't very wise to use four monitors for gaming, because the most important (middle) view will be splitted across two monitors and you will see the monitor borders all the time.

                IMO, it's either one or three monitors, NOT two or four monitors...

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                • #9
                  Unless you could have three in fornt and one at the your rear. handy for combat flight sims
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                  • #10
                    And dot'n go asking me what fornt is pls
                    Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
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                    • #11

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Mikko
                        It isn't very wise to use four monitors for gaming, because the most important (middle) view will be splitted across two monitors and you will see the monitor borders all the time.

                        IMO, it's either one or three monitors, NOT two or four monitors...
                        Yes agreed, but i think the point is IF you could stretch across all 4 displays, it would'nt be very difficult to stretch only across 3, much like the parhelia will stretch across 2 or 3 displays, it would also be pretty customer unfreindly to say you must have 4 screens, and pleasing customers is something Nvid are very very good at.
                        is a flower best picked in it's prime or greater withered away by time?
                        Talk about a dream, try to make it real.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by borat
                          Yes agreed, but i think the point is IF you could stretch across all 4 displays, it would'nt be very difficult to stretch only across 3, much like the parhelia will stretch across 2 or 3 displays,
                          That was my hope also, that if you could do four you could just as easily do three. And what I would love to do in a FPS type game is to display the view on 3 montors and have a 4th that keeps a full size map open (or something like that).

                          Maybe I'm just getting a little too desperate for surround gaming alternatives, but I really hope this has the potential to work. I'd like to think that 1-2 years from now my gaming system won't still be chugging along with the parhelia (even though I do like it).

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