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[AldoZ]

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!

[tahustvedt]

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.

[value1]

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

* Both monitors show the same image.

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

[AldoZ]

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

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!

Thanks!!

[tahustvedt]

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.

[AldoZ]

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.

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.

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.

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

[BartS]

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.

[tahustvedt]

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.

[AldoZ]

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?

[tahustvedt]

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.