Could someone explain how dual monitors work while gaming?

[Sens]

I'm thinking of getting a 2nd monitor and utilizing the extended desktop function.
Could you please let me know how this would work if I wanted to play a game? Would I be able to have the game appear only on one monitor? Also does this incur any performance penalties? I've been reading that when playing games the second monitor freezes and it's essentially useless. So would I not be able to play a game on one monitor and browse the web on the second? Would I also have to alt tab/minimize the game I am playing on the main monitor in order to get the mouse to the second monitor?

 

[Avocade]

You don't game across dual monitors.... Its not smart the bezel will be right in the middle of your viewport

 

[Deleted member 1272578]

No you can't game on one monitor and browse the web on another but you could set the game to windowed mode or even better borderless windowed and then it would work fine.

 

[Sens]

You don't game across dual monitors.... Its not smart the bezel will be right in the middle of your viewport

I don't want to game across two monitors, I just want to game on one and browse the web on the other at the same time, is that possible?

 

[Sens]

No you can't game on one monitor and browse the web on another but you could set the game to windowed mode or even better borderless windowed and then it would work fine.

What happens when games like Civ 5/Tropico 5/SC2 require me to move the mouse to the edge of the screen to move. Will the mouse just hop to the second monitor instead of moving the game?

 

[Deleted member 1272578]

What happens when games like Civ 5/Tropico 5/SC2 require me to move the mouse to the edge of the screen to move. Will the mouse just hop to the second monitor instead of moving the game?

Possibly, but if the game has a windowed mode it'll be fine.

 

[Avocade]

Ahh my bad I lazily skimmed. As mentioned above you must be in windowed mode. All my games are windowed border less so I can work and play

 

[Sens]

Ahh my bad I lazily skimmed. As mentioned above you must be in windowed mode. All my games are windowed border less so I can work and play

You don't have issues with the mouse hopping to the other monitor when you don't want it to while in game? Also, do you need to Alt-tab to free the mouse in some games?

 

[Avocade]

No you just get easily use to it.

 

[oxiide]

No you can't game on one monitor and browse the web on another but you could set the game to windowed mode or even better borderless windowed and then it would work fine.

What happens when games like Civ 5/Tropico 5/SC2 require me to move the mouse to the edge of the screen to move. Will the mouse just hop to the second monitor instead of moving the game?

Short answer is no. Generally speaking, games running at fullscreen will not allow the mouse to go off the primary monitor, its no different than gaming with only a single monitor. You can see the other just fine, but you'll need to alt-tab to interact with it. Windowed or Fullscreen-Windowed modes will allow you to mouse over to the other monitor without alt-tabbing, so those are very nice when available.

The nuanced answer is that there are some games out there that have poor or thoughtless support for multiple monitor systems. Once in awhile there will be a game where the mouse cursor is allowed to leave the primary monitor even in fullscreen mode, but its pretty rare. In years of gaming with multiple monitors, I've rarely had any serious problems.

As I recall, Civ V allows the mouse to leave the monitor in fullscreen mode but there is an option in the settings menu to lock the cursor to the screen. I can't comment on the other games.