http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/specs/

The Matrox TripleHead2Go (which lets you plug 3 monitors into one DVI port and have Windows see them as one massive screen) now has an update to allow 3 1680x1050 screens. Previously the highest resolution was 3 x 1280 x 1024.

It was this limit that was stopping me trying it, as I wanted to use three 22" screens. SoftTH (same thing but done in software) has been able to do this for a while, but disables SLI and crossfire so its been tricky to get enough grunt together to run such silly resolutions.

I'm now torn between two beefy SLI'd cards with the TH2G or SoftTH with the 2GB 3870X2 which I think is possibly the first single card capable of running things on high enough detail at 5040 x 1050. The latter would be a lot cheaper, but the former would probably handle things better.

Also I'm not sure if this would work under XP as apparently the maximum horizontal resolution for hardware acceleration is 4096 pixels wide (Vista can do 8192).

EDIT: oops, link was broke - fixed it.

XP is not the problem with the width limit - DX9 is.

Personally i'd go with SoftTH and then a very fast single card (i.e. a 1 GB 4870x2) with a second 8400GS or similar for SoftTH and maybe PhysX if needed as I find having windows see one giant monitor is rubbish if you want one app on one monitor and you want the convieniance of hitting "Maximise".

I aoslo think that certain cards are width limited

For example I think any of the G9x based GPU`s can do 5040

Again, any DX10 card can do a maximum width of 8192, this was one of the things the 8800GTX first brought in.

Also, SoftTH can't do DX10 which I only found out today.

Not a problem if you only play LFS, but will increasingly be if you play other games. Depends if Kegetys intends to update it (which I imagine he will).

I'm now completely torn between better compatibility vs. less cost.

Can't you get a display manager for your desktop which gets rid of the 'accidentally hitting maximise' problem? I seem to rememeber reading that.

Yeah I use ultramon which should sort that for you

Quote from Jakg :

XP is not the problem with the width limit - DX9 is.

Personally i'd go with SoftTH and then a very fast single card (i.e. a 1 GB 4870x2) with a second 8400GS or similar for SoftTH and maybe PhysX if needed as I find having windows see one giant monitor is rubbish if you want one app on one monitor and you want the convieniance of hitting "Maximise".

Again, any DX10 card can do a maximum width of 8192, this was one of the things the 8800GTX first brought in.

Not trying to be pedantic mate but your post suggests that dx9 (the software) limits your width

It is the Dx9 architecture that limits width

i.e. XP with DX9 installed with a DX10 compatible card is fine.

I run iRacing at 5040x1050 with EVERYTHING max'd except shadows.. I get 60-75FPS non stop. I havent raced a grid with over 12 people, but even at 12 it doesnt drop down at all.

GTX280 with SoftTH... This card is fast as hell...

I heard some rumors people have been able to get SoftTH working with a triple SLI mother board, using 2x cards in SLI and a third as the slave... I may look into this soon..

Well the thread title doesn't make sense for my question, but some content shines light that some may be able to help. I am looking into getting the third monitor soon, after years of dual monitor usage I want to step up to the third for multiple reasons, one of course including gaming. I don't use LFS with two monitors, although I will when I go to 3. All three monitors will be 1680x1050, (5040x1050 total).

I however am not interested in this setup if I can not do both of the following in a very easy fashion. I want windows to detect the fact that I have three monitors so that I can use the maximize functionality and separate things onto the monitors, very very useful. But I also want LFS stretched across all three in full screen thinking that there is 1 monitor... I don't really want to connect/disconnect something such as TH2G all the time, nor do I really wanna set properties every time I go play LFS, however it may be required so I could probably live with it. I will not buy an ATI video card, as I favor nVidea and really haven't found much good about ATI (except possibly their price). I don't want to look into upgrading video cards if possible, although I am looking for what will achieve the above goals. I can look into budgets later but need to know what the limits are and if that is at all possible to begin with.

Quote from MrRoper :

It is the Dx9 architecture that limits width

i.e. XP with DX9 installed with a DX10 compatible card is fine.

Your 100% sure of this? I have a DX10 compatible card, but I don't want to be worrying about this since LFS uses DX8 at this time...

Quote from blackbird04217 :

Well the thread title doesn't make sense for my question, but some content shines light that some may be able to help. I am looking into getting the third monitor soon, after years of dual monitor usage I want to step up to the third for multiple reasons, one of course including gaming. I don't use LFS with two monitors, although I will when I go to 3. All three monitors will be 1680x1050, (5040x1050 total).

I however am not interested in this setup if I can not do both of the following in a very easy fashion. I want windows to detect the fact that I have three monitors so that I can use the maximize functionality and separate things onto the monitors, very very useful. But I also want LFS stretched across all three in full screen thinking that there is 1 monitor... I don't really want to connect/disconnect something such as TH2G all the time, nor do I really wanna set properties every time I go play LFS, however it may be required so I could probably live with it. I will not buy an ATI video card, as I favor nVidea and really haven't found much good about ATI (except possibly their price). I don't want to look into upgrading video cards if possible, although I am looking for what will achieve the above goals. I can look into budgets later but need to know what the limits are and if that is at all possible to begin with.



Your 100% sure of this? I have a DX10 compatible card, but I don't want to be worrying about this since LFS uses DX8 at this time...

You want to use SoftTH then, when you play LFS you have the game on all three monitors but when you switch back to Windows you have three seperate screens, with maximize locking the window to one screen. If you also install UltraMon, which you should, then you can even have a seperate taskbar for each monitor, and it adds buttons to the windows to maximize to all screens if you should want to.

I can also confirm that a DX10 card with LFS will let you use the maximum resolution of your monitors. I have done 5440 horizontal resolution with LFS with my 8800 GT.

Quote from blackbird04217 :

Well the thread title doesn't make sense for my question, but some content shines light that some may be able to help. I am looking into getting the third monitor soon, after years of dual monitor usage I want to step up to the third for multiple reasons, one of course including gaming. I don't use LFS with two monitors, although I will when I go to 3. All three monitors will be 1680x1050, (5040x1050 total).

I however am not interested in this setup if I can not do both of the following in a very easy fashion. I want windows to detect the fact that I have three monitors so that I can use the maximize functionality and separate things onto the monitors, very very useful. But I also want LFS stretched across all three in full screen thinking that there is 1 monitor... I don't really want to connect/disconnect something such as TH2G all the time, nor do I really wanna set properties every time I go play LFS, however it may be required so I could probably live with it. I will not buy an ATI video card, as I favor nVidea and really haven't found much good about ATI (except possibly their price). I don't want to look into upgrading video cards if possible, although I am looking for what will achieve the above goals. I can look into budgets later but need to know what the limits are and if that is at all possible to begin with.

Windows thinking you have 3 monitors and LFS thinking you have 1 is the exact reason SoftTH is better than TH2Go for me - in Windows I have 3 monitors, and I can hit maximise on a window and it fill that one monitor but in LFS I have a single 5440*something screen.

I use a 8800GTX and a 6600GT and as you can see I run in a res over 4096 wide, but i'm using Vista.

You need to use the same make of GFX card as your current one (i.e. nVidia or ATi) unless you fancy trying to play jiggery poky with the drivers.

Yeah, if you're not planning on messing about with SLI then SoftTH is they way to go.

I really, really hope Kegetys updates it with DX10 compatibility before too long though.

Quote from Jakg :

Windows thinking you have 3 monitors and LFS thinking you have 1 is the exact reason SoftTH is better than TH2Go for me - in Windows I have 3 monitors, and I can hit maximise on a window and it fill that one monitor but in LFS I have a single 5440*something screen.

Ultramon will stop the 'maximising to all three screens' problem.