Dual Monitors and Performance

[will h4x 4 food]

Does having 2 monitors effect the performance of a game if you are playing the game on only one of the monitors?

 

[Sora]

I believe it only effects it if you are playing the game with both monitors. However I am not too sure about it.

 

[Phantom118]

No... well, It doesn't for me anyway. I usually play a game on one and watch TV on the other.. and dont notice it.

 

[b1gapl]

I do the same thing, and haven't noticed anything either.

 

[Sora]

Im not cool like that lmao. I only have one monitor and cable TV 3 feet to the left of me

 

[spartan1121]

Not many games actually use dual monitors, but what i think they're best for is to play a game on one screen, and have all your IM junk on the other, so you can allways see when someone is talking to you. Dual monitors are just great for keeping extra stuff up. I keep google desktop, aim buddy list, google talk buddy list, MSN and any IM's all up on the right screen, and i do internet browsing and games on the other. Also i keep all my desktop icons on the right, so i don't have to minimize anything to use them. I <3 dual monitors!

 

[motoxer4533]

Not many games actually use dual monitors, but what i think they're best for is to play a game on one screen, and have all your IM junk on the other, so you can allways see when someone is talking to you. Dual monitors are just great for keeping extra stuff up. I keep google desktop, aim buddy list, google talk buddy list, MSN and any IM's all up on the right screen, and i do internet browsing and games on the other. Also i keep all my desktop icons on the right, so i don't have to minimize anything to use them. I <3 dual monitors!

And your computer doesnt lag at all when you play games? **** you must have a nice computer.

 

[MrCoffee]

Well I get the exact same benchmarks with cloned monitors that I do with single, and if you have nothing on the second that also has no impact. You can have stuff on the second screen like a playlist or IM client, personally i've not noticed any performance difference, I guess there's the extra hit on the CPU same as if they were running in the background but there's is no logical reason for it to impact the graphics card performance.

If the game actually supports dual monitors though you should expect a big hit in performance (e.g. Supreme Commander).

 

[b1gapl]

motoxer4533...you don't need a nice computer to run dual monitors. The system in your sig can handle it.

I like to play games on my main left screen, and I usually have all my stats like temperatures, memory usage, running music, on the secondary screen.

 

[Blitersety]

lol, look at my system specs. Even with a 1.6 ghz proc and half a gig of ram plus an old 6200 AGP card, I still have 2 monitors and it runs just fine. Of course, I can't play any of the newer games, but I always keep winamp and aim open in the right along with any system monitors, and my main application on the left screen.