Disable your Monitors to Increase DK2 Performance

[tommywright]

We've been talking about this in a couple of other threads and I want to make sure it gets some more exposure. SlackR stated that he disables his monitors when playing ED on the DK2 and as some of us started trying this, it does in fact impact performance in a positive way.

For Nvidia:
In the Nvidia control panel, simply check off all your other monitors. This will push everything over to the Rift so make sure to place ED Launcher and your nvidia window are in the center so you can get to them. Nvidia will have that "yes, this is what I want" window and then hit Play on ED.

To get back to your main monitor, simply turn the rift off (hit the physical off button on the DK2) and your monitors will automatically turn back on.

Let us know if this makes a difference. So far we have seen about 3 people (including myself) saying this makes a pretty big difference. I guess the gpu must use some cycles for your extra monitors.. enough to see a difference in game.

Also let us know if this is true for ATI cards.

 

[Logical Viking]

Would this have the same effect as just hitting the power button on the main monitor once using the rift? I'd test it but I'm not going to be home for a while.

I just wish I could figure out why sometimes the rift will play locked at 75 hz and others I can't do anything to get it from locking at 60hz. Somehow, the main monitor's 60hz rate is effecting the dk2 but only some of the time without rhyme or reason.

 

[adoredtv]

Would this have the same effect as just hitting the power button on the main monitor once using the rift? I'd test it but I'm not going to be home for a while.

No.

If you're using an AMD card you'd be best to set up a profile for your monitor and one for Rift only, that way you can easily switch between both with a hotkey or by right-clicking on CCC/Invoke Preset.

 

[SlackR]

I would also recommend setting up your ED 3D setting profile to include single monitor performance

 

[Juniper]

I've been doing this for a while also.

In my 3 screen setup, I run a program called Display Fusion which (among other things) allows me to set up profiles for different monitor configurations. As soon as I turn the Rift on in Extended mode, it turns off both the side monitors, leaves the centre monitor on, and sets the Rift to the secondary screen. It's then child's play to run it in E: D. When I'm done, I just turn the Rift off and the side screens come back on automatically.

This does make a noticeable performance increase - it's basically the difference for me between getting judder every few frames and none at all. Btw, I'm running two AMD HD7870s in Crossfire mode.

 

[herbertfan]

BIG YES! an obvious improvement by doing this, in-game text become totally readable, and i can see much more details in space station, feels like my dk2 just made a physical resolution upgrade. AWESOME!

 

[Logical Viking]

I just wish I could figure out why the rift sometimes limits itself to my 60hz monitor and sometimes runs properly at 75hz. That way I wouldn't have to do any crazy tweaks or use software. I usually play with pandora running in the background so I like the ability to lift my DK2 and change stations or something like that. If my main monitor is off, I can't easily do that and it shouldn't be this way.

 

[SlackR]

It's a Dev kit... Plain and simple ... But crazy tweaking is part of the fun! look at it as a challenge and remember ... You were one of the first to embrace this tech and get it working. In years to come everyone will be taking their 16 k Unbreakable Rift glasses out of their back pocket and wireless connecting to ED ... Plug and play is still at least six months away im afraid

 

[Logical Viking]

Yeah, believe me you are preaching to the choir about it being well worth it despite being "beta" hardware. The very day I first got it and tried it in iRacing I dismantled my beautiful triple screen setup! I tweak everything but just want to understand why it is defaulting to 60hz sometimes so I can tweak that from happening, lol.

 

[NoiseCrime]

My main monitor just died (power supply bricked), so i've been forced to switch to old one that doesn't appear to support 75Hz at any resolution at all which obviously causes issues in extended mode.

Remembering this thread I tried the suggestion whilst viewing some 3D video using 'LiveViewRift' and the micro-stutter along with lack of persistent vision was fixed. I assume the difference was going from 60Hz to 75Hz by disabling the main monitor. However I remembered that there is a function in Windows to switch displays using the windows key + p. On Win 8.1 when hitting this key combination you get 4 options where the charms normally appear and which can be accessed using the keyboard (arrow keys up/down and return to select). The options are Primary display, duplicate, extended and secondary display. ( You get the same in win 7 but in the center of the screen, but i'd guess that keyboard controls would work there too).

I've found this to be a much easier way to enable/disable monitors as well as temporarily duplicate or extend the desktop to the displays. I haven't yet tried it with E, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work there too. It might be a bit fiddly, perhaps dependent upon which is set to primary monitor etc, but could be worth trying, though the biggest benefit is that you don't have to physically turn the rift off/on to switch monitors.

Edit: Confirmed this does work and switching between primary (PC) and secondary displays works, though you have to alt-tab when switching back to rift to select the running E instance. Unfortunately it took a good long while to get it initially set up and may not be worth the trouble. However using the OP's method and then using windows key + p might be useful to switch displays without turning the Rift on/off.

 

[rascaluk]

I've been doing this for a while also.

In my 3 screen setup, I run a program called Display Fusion which (among other things) allows me to set up profiles for different monitor configurations. As soon as I turn the Rift on in Extended mode, it turns off both the side monitors, leaves the centre monitor on, and sets the Rift to the secondary screen. It's then child's play to run it in E: D. When I'm done, I just turn the Rift off and the side screens come back on automatically.

How have you set this up? Is it simple? Might pick up DisplayFusion for my three screen + Rift setup if it is...

 

[Logical Viking]

Finally found an easy solution to getting the DK2 to work at 75hz instead of 60hz that doesn't involve switching primary monitors or disabling anything.

Using a tool call CRU (custom resolution utility), I overclocked my monitor to 75hz. Now the rift, set as secondary monitor runs all the way up to 75 as it should.

If you look into DIY for monitor overclocking they are going to mention using some patch files before CRU (especially for AMD). DO NOT USE THEM IF YOU ARE ON THE LATEST AMD OMEGA! I do not know if they are needed for one of the older beta drivers but it is not needed and likely to cause problems with omega.

Just run CRU as they tell you and set the higher refresh rate in CCC. So happy I found this, I was pulling out what little hair I have left to get it to work at 75hz easily without fuss.

 

[Von_Tornefeld]

I ve tried to disable my monitor wich is a samsung tv running at 75hz, and it worked perfectly. In the rift i can play at max settings (it's new to me i always have played at low, before gamma) with slight judder but ok in stations, with my i5 4670k 4400hz and a GTX 770.
Before this tweak i wasn't able to play in extended with low persistency, but was ok in direct mode but with judder . Thanks to this thread (sorry for poor english)

 

[Jonathan E]

I ve tried to disable my monitor wich is a samsung tv running at 75hz, and it worked perfectly. In the rift i can play at max settings (it's new to me i always have played at low, before gamma) with slight judder but ok in stations, with my i5 4670k 4400hz and a GTX 770.
Before this tweak i wasn't able to play in extended with low persistency, but was ok in direct mode but with judder . Thanks to this thread (sorry for poor english)

i'd be willing to bet your English is better than my <insert language here>

 

[Thoemse]

Finally found an easy solution to getting the DK2 to work at 75hz instead of 60hz that doesn't involve switching primary monitors or disabling anything.

Using a tool call CRU (custom resolution utility), I overclocked my monitor to 75hz. Now the rift, set as secondary monitor runs all the way up to 75 as it should.

If you look into DIY for monitor overclocking they are going to mention using some patch files before CRU (especially for AMD). DO NOT USE THEM IF YOU ARE ON THE LATEST AMD OMEGA! I do not know if they are needed for one of the older beta drivers but it is not needed and likely to cause problems with omega.

Just run CRU as they tell you and set the higher refresh rate in CCC. So happy I found this, I was pulling out what little hair I have left to get it to work at 75hz easily without fuss.

I do this as well. My three HP Pavilion 27Xi manage 75hz easily when overclocked like this. People should be adviced that there is a risk of damaging or destroying your display by doing this!

Sure helps a lot with stuttering though.

 

[jumbobreakfast]

There is an easier way to do this without having to turn off monitors or use 3rd party software. This method will allow you to switch between 75Hz and 60Hz modes by just turning the rift on and off and the 75Hz using this method is safe as it is supported by your monitor:

-Make sure your Rift is turned on and running extended mode so it appears to Windows like an extra monitor.
-Most 60 Hz monitors will allow you to set a lower resolution that supports 75Hz so do this for each of your 60Hz monitors (keep lowering the resolution until 75Hz becomes an option).
-Apply the setting and windows will remember this combination of settings.
-Once that is done you can turn off your rift and Windows will reset your monitors back to their previous 60Hz and resolution settings.
-Turn on the rift and the 75Hz settings will be re-applied across your monitors so there is no confusion in game as to what refresh rate to sync to.

 

[Soda Popinski]

Is it really just the refresh rate? I figure it has to do with the extra overhead with the monitors.

 

[niall2600]

i'll give this a go tomorrow morning and see how I get on. I can play on max settings currently with the rift in extended mode at 75Hz and my monitor left on at 60Hz. I do get stutter in asteroid belts. Hopefully doing this will give me the boost I need to run smoothly anywhere as I just can't go back to playing on a monitor after using the rift.

 

[TnNytehawk]

I can confirm better frame rates in the rift when disabling all other monitors.

I'm getting a solid 75 FPS in the Rift with all monitors disabled and all settings turned to max, except blur which is disabled.
The same settings with the monitor + Rift on is only getting 55 to 60 FPS.

For hardware reference I'm running 2 x GTX 770 in SLI, Core i7 950 @ 3.07 GHz, Samsung EVO 840 SSD, and 24 GB RAM.

 

[Espege]

I use Dell 24" and laptop screen as secondary. Just turning them all off increased performance on my DK1. So yeah, do not torture your poor graphic card.