4 monitor?? = 3 monitors for the game + one external monitor

Hi all, I am just curious about how can I use 3 monitors (frontal, left and right views as force-dynamics 401) with my motion system?...

My actual situation:

* 1 PC for both sender and profile.
* My Graphic card is a Geforce 450gts 1gb with 2 video output.
* I am using 2 monitor, one is mounted on the 3dof motion system and one is an external monitor to check the x-sim and simulator when I am not on/inside the motion system.
* Both monitors show the same image.

Now, how can I transform my single monitor 3dof motion stystem in a 3 monitors 3dof motion system?
I would to mantain the external monitor too.

Some suggestion?? Thank you all!

ATI Eyefinity is a great way to run multi monitor. A HD 6870 would be a great low cost upgrade for you if your motherboard/PSU is compatible. I don't think you can run a separate single monitor desktop with it though. In addition to an Eyefinity craphics card you need a Display port to HDMI, DVI og VGA adapter ($20 I think) because at least one of the display ports has to be used for Eyefinity mode to work.

I'm using a HD 6870 driving three 2-port HDMI splitters to split the same picture between my three 24 desktop monitors and three 24 monitors on the simulator.

If you want to use the graphics card you have now you need something like a Matrix triplehead2go, but that'll probably be more expensive than a HD 6870, with worse performance.

Hi Aldoz
Good to have you back
AFAIK triple head works only with two connected (SLI) graphics cards of your type. You can have a try with this software solution SoftTH where you can use your old card solely for the output of the side monitors or there is also a hardware solution from Matrox. However I think for the money of the TripleHead2Go you can also buy a second card

Make sure you have selected Extend these displays in the display properties to have two different images on your two monitors.

mmm.. in first thx dudes and HI value1!! :hi:

So if I understand well, looking the HD 6870 pics so I can use 4 monitors :
2 of these monitors must go in DVI link
1 of these monitors must go in VGA (using VGA adapter)
1 of these must go in HDMI link

So I have to check If all my 4 theoretical monitors using the HD 6870 requested video links.

About the Matrix triplehead2go I read that can hande max 3 monitors for application..
So I could obtain my 3 dof with 3 monitors for frontal, left and right view but I could't get an external monitor (in where run the same application -rFactor for example-)

About SLI configuration.. just my mainboard can't
But the SoftTH software seems interesting! (but I think performances could get down bad..)
I will try to test this software before to think about change video card. Just to try! :yes:

Thanks!!

With the ATI you don't have to use VGA, you can use either DVI, HDMI og VGA for any or all of the monitors, whichever you prefer, but at least one of the monitors need to be driven by a Display Port, which is a new kind of interface (superior to the others). You need one display port signal adapter to convert the signal to either DVI, HDMI og VGA for this.

With a HD 6870 you can run up to six monitors, depending on how many connectors it has. You can only run one desktop though. I don't think you can clone desktops when in eyefinity mode. That's why I'm going to use external splitters.

Ah ok now it's more clear the situation. And for this new display port I have to buy a converter.
And I must to use at least one monitor with this new display port.

mmmm external splitter mean that I can split both my 2 actual video output and I will obtain 2 monitors for each video output?? :

I just like to add, I have a ati 5870 eyefinity setup. I love it it makes sim racing completely awesome even tho I dont spend much time looking at the two side monitors. But from a periferal vision sense you have better judgement and sense of speed plus any long bends you can see all the way around them. My setup uses left monitor HDMI to DVI cable, center monitor Display port adapter with DVI cable and right monitor plain simple DVI cable.

Now here is a point I dont think has been mentioned as I only scan the post, eyefinity requires the same display resolution on all 3 monitors to work so it is better to have all the same monitor or monitors with the same output resolution. Where as SoftTH I think can be configure to use any resolution but apparently it is a little hassle to setup correctly.

I recommend eyefinity, it is good solid and very reliable for me and works perfect a 6970 card should be good enough for any game you play and cheap as amd have just started releasing the new cards. My 5870 is a little slow and cant display more than 40-50fps on rfactor 2 at medium high settings so I am going to upgrade to a 7990 when that is released in march april.

Yes. That's what I do. I have three outputs from my computer, and with a splitter on each output I can have three monitors both on my desktop and on my sim.

BTW. The monitors in an Eyefinity setup need to run at the same resolution. The thing that makes Eyefinity different from extended desktop is that with Eyefinity the three monitors are shown as one picture to Windows/games, instead of three pictures. With three 1920x1080 monitors Windows sees one monitor with a resolution of 5760x1080, for example.

There are drawbacks to Eyefinity though, unless all the monitors are connected via Display Port, but it's not a big problem since it's not always visible, and only shows during fast panning if you look at that monitor. One of the monitors may have a horizontal tear which will appear during horizontal panning. This is due to the different ways Display Port works compared to the other standards. Display Port is synced externally, while the other interfaces are synced in the graphics adapter (or something like that). I have arranged my setup so that the left monitor (Connected via HDMI) has this tear, but the two others, center and right, (connected via Display Port) don't. That's one of the reasons why my next graphics card will have at least four Display Ports, so that I can run all monitors from Display Ports.

I'm looking to upgrade to a HD 7950 or 7970 card soon, with four Display Ports.

Really thanks a lot to all for info!

A last question:
With 2 vga splitter and with my geforce 450gts, I can use 4 monitors ok.

But.. using these vga splitter, can I have 3 monitors showing frontal left and right views and one monitor showing again frontal view?

Can nvidia utility permit that? Can nvidia standard utility see the 2 splitters letting me to make my personal configuration?

A splitter will only split the same picture to two monitors. It can not spread the picture across monitors. The matrox double- or triple2go units will spread the picture across several monitors though.

Yes, If you have triple screen support you can split the signal for the center monitor and show it on a fourth monitor as well, for example. With 6870 Eyefinity the Windows start button will always be on the left monitor though, so to have access to it from outside the sim you need to split the signal for the left monitor instead.

mmm dude, sorry, but what you mean with if you have triple screen support ?
I have a Geforce 450gts with 2 DVI video output.
Probably I am losing something... :

In other words : Just using my geforce can I obtain a triple screen support using these vga splitter? :brows:

No. The opposite. You can only use the splitter(s) if you already have triple screen support, like with Eyefinity or Matrox.

Ah, now I got the point thx mate

Nvidia cards support 2 screens with physx working. If you want an Nvidia card to run 3 screens, you would use the 2 dvi and one HDMI and turn physx off. This is no good if a game specifically requires physx to run. Although you may be able to get the nvidia control panel to set the physx to run from the cpu and not gpu.
ATI cards are better designed for 3 screens from one card. You use the 2 dvi and one HDMI. They incorporate the shader clock as part of the memory clock, (if my memory serves me correctly). So the ATI cards can run physx better than Nvidia.
There are differences between ATI and Nvidia and they generally are a horses for courses difference. Yes ATI is a one card soulution, but they may not perform as good as 2 Nvidias, but that again is where you need to compare specs of cards.
Good places to read up more are www.guru3d.com ( to check actual benchmarked figures of cards) and www.gpureview.com to compare specs between cards.

You need to use a Display Port for Eyefinity work. As far as I know Radeon cards only have the ability to use two of the HDMI/DVI outputs at once because they are limited to two RAMDACs. I have tried and it doesn't work without a Display Port with its own external RAMDAC. I have not tried using the three conventional outputs in extended desktop mode, but it's Eyefinity you want for gaming because it works with just about all games since it's recognized as one display, and it has bezel correction, which is a big deal.

Most modern Radeon cards have two DP and two or three conventional (HDMI/DVI) ports. They can drive four regular monitors if both DP are used (more with expensive daisy chainable native DP-monitors).

BTW. If you want to use VGA cables you need two DP-to-VGA adapters because only one of the DVI-connectors are able to output VGA. I think that covers all the bases.

good informations about here. Really interesting and a bit more complex of what I supposing..
I think I have to change my really good and bought recently 450gts :?

For my latest pc build, I went a SLI motherbaord and 2 x GTX 560ti, (as I am an Nvidia fan). I can run up to four screens, 3 for games and one for display. I would need to set the physx to be controlled by the cpu to do so.
Although, AMD have the bulldozer cpu with built in GPU. Good for setting physx control on the cpu.
Also I forgot, Nvidia are making dual core gpu cards, like the GTX295 and GTX590 that I can remember. They have also re-done a GTX 560 or 580 that is single gpu and can run up to 4 screens. Sorry, cannot remember what card it was.
You can read up here on eyefinity details http://www.amd.com/us/products/technolo ... inity.aspx

I am a Nvidia fan too and I really hate the idea of : 1) to change my video card. 2)and change with an ATI!!... :tape:
However I think maybe I can try some tricks mantaining my actual geforce..

I have a strange idea about using 2 pc.. the famous 1gaming pc for game+sender and another one pc for profiler...
these 2 pc are obviously linked via ethernet (switch or router no matter, they are linked!) and both the sender+game pc and the profiler pc have a dual video output... So I have 4 video output..
In other words:

1st PC (game + sender) ----> 1st VGA output = 3dof frontal view
1st PC (game + sender)-----> 2nd VGA output = 3dof right view

2nd PC (profiler) ------------> 1st VGA output = 3dof left view
2nd PC (profiler) ------------> 2nd VGA output = external monitor showing frontal view

haha stay calm please!! :coffeenews: I would to make this strange configuration using some software like TEAM VIEWER!!.. what do you think about? just science fiction?
Maybe but something telling me that maybe I can do just a try!

do a search to see if anyone has done a similar thing already, otherwise, try it.