Multiple Monitors & Gaming

rodney_ws

Splendid
Dec 29, 2005
3,819
0
22,810
I do not currently have a desktop, but I know that I'll have a nice one before the end of the year. I'm a gamer, but I find myself having to Alt+Tab out of games to look to see who IM'd me or perform various other small tasks. I guess I'm a little fuzzy on exactly how a multi-monitor setup would work if you're gaming in full-screen mode on the primary monitor. Does the other monitor go blank? Does having a multi-monitor setup reduce overall GPU performance? I'm not wanting to do anything fancy. My employer has multi-monitor setups and I'm clear on how they work, but no one here is playing TF2. I'm assuming whatever video card I end up with will have dual DVI outputs.

Any insight or pointers on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
 

mikecs

Distinguished
Jan 30, 2009
73
0
18,640
The 2nd screen will not go blank it will (depending on they way you are using it in your OS) usually it'll continue to show an extension of your desktop even while playing a full screen game on the main monitor. So for you, leaving up your IM windows and other misc browsers will be useful as you can see the persistent incoming IM's or read from a forum while still playing. Only thing is to actually go over and type replies or scroll down etc. you will have to 'alt+tab' out of your game. Which will minimize your game to allow you onto both screen's desktop areas. 2 screens is nice, but huge advantages aren't there for me. I use a laptop next to me for small things like IM, guides, vent so that I can manipulate them and play without having to alt+tab all the time. As for performance running 2 monitors isn't a huge strain unless your doing 3d graphics on both monitors. Back in my WoW days I had been known to run at least 2 instances of the game from time to time and you will see large drops in performance there. But browser windows and IM chat will be very negligible.
 

rodney_ws

Splendid
Dec 29, 2005
3,819
0
22,810
I guess I'm mainly unsure how mouse control is passed from one monitor to the next. At work it just rolls right on over to the secondary screen... but I can imagine something like this driving me bonkers in a game. From what I'm reading in your response, there is no way to make the secondary screen actually active without alt+tab. Ok, maybe I'll just get a cheap netbook! Really appreciate the response... it was just a thought.