Dual 19" Monitors and 42" HDTV on 1 PC with 2 graphic cards?

[ocp_15k]

Right, I'm gonna try and not confuse myself.

I want to have a Dual Monitor setup with 2x 19" monitors and a Large HDTV to watch movies and play games on the pc. I want to have a decent graphics card for gaming and a cheap one for multi tasking and watching movies.

My question is, how do I make this work? Will this be possible? I have a mobo with 3 PCIe sockets. Am I able to play games while multi taking and watch movies aswell? Is Windows XP able to output display on all 3 monitors at the same with with 2 graphics cards?

Something that I want to do is: Watch something on 1 19" monitor while have msn and browsing on the other 19" and game on the 42".

or

Watching something on the 42", browse and maybe game on the other 2 19"?

This is my first time turning to multi monitor set ups. Hope you guys can help me out as this is so confusing.

My system:
2x 19" VX924 + vx922 + 42" 1080p Toshiba X series TV
e6600
2gb ram
P5n sli plus
6800GT - will be upgraded soon.

 

[skyguy]

Yes. You'll need at least 2 graphics cards. 1 to power the main 42", and the 2nd to power the dual 19" screens. 42" would be set to be the primary, and the other 2 would be the 2ndary monitors.

However, you may run into resolution issues, since I would assume the 42 and 19's run at different resolutions. So while in Windows, you might find it VERY weird trying to move your mouse, windows, etc across the screen.....it'll appear to "jump/skip" up and down when moving across since they won't line up. My suspicion is that the 42 will run at 1366x768? And the 19s would run at 1280x1024. So you've got some weird differences there, not to mention that the 42 will look fuzzy up so close while the 19s will look crisp. And if you move the 42 back so it looks decent then you may find the 19s are too far away and look small. So if you can put up with the headache then fine.

But technically speaking, yes it can easily work.

Also check out Ultramon.....it's a great help for multiple monitor setups. I use it. Nvidia Control panel should be fine, but Ultramon has more advanced features.

 

[ocp_15k]

Thanks for the reply skyguy. I have another question. Since my 42" is going to be the primary and the other 2 second. I'll say, play a game on the 42" will my task bar be on the secondary monitors so I can still load programs n stuff?

 

[skyguy]

Depends how you setup the monitors....span, clone, dualview, etc in the Control Panel. I currently have my toolbar just on my primary. But that can be changed. However, Ultramon has more advanced features for that sort of thing too. But yes, it can be done.

 

[dozer63]

I have a 3 monitor setup. 1 24" primary and 2 20" secondary. running on a x1900xt and x900gt. as far as the task bar goes it will be stuck on your primary monitor but to get around this I use a program called desktop sidebar and keep it running on the left hand side of the primary. although some games won't let the cursor go over to the other screens. one other thing or at least on my setup is that the other secondary monitor to the right of the primary does act strange when entering games, resolution changes and desktop items are move. as for software support windows XP does handle it.

 

[ocp_15k]

What about if I was to run 2 monitors on 1 graphics card and I played a game on one of the monitors and browsed on the other? Will that slow the framerate on the game by half?

 

[dozer63]

No it won't

 

[ocp_15k]

Cheers for the quick reply. I'm sure I will lose some sorta frame rate but around how much? enough to notice?

 

[dozer63]

I'm not a hardcore gamer, but to me not real noticeable. one other thing if the game does let the cursor go to the other monitor as soon as you click on any thing the game will minimize

 

[ocp_15k]

What if its played in Window Mode? Like WoW.

 

[dozer63]

That I'm not sure of, but my guess it wouldn't minimize like nfs most wanted like I'm referring to