Hardware & Technical So, I have a few questions about running a second monitor.

[Deleted member 110222]

First, running a second monitor. Can I still just use the one for playing Elite, and have the other reserved for browsing the web, YouTube for example, at the same time? How does this work? What cables do I need? Will audio from the second display work? How do you go from playing the game to doing whatever is on the second monitor? Is it like alt+tab? I really don't know.

Finally, out of curiosity, could a GTX 960 4GB run this, or should I wait until I can get a 1070?

Many thanks.

 

[Porina]

Cables: find one that'll fit a spare socket on the video card and monitor. If you use DP or HDMI you can carry sound over it. DVI and VGA doesn't.
Sound: Windows tends to prefer one default device, and everything will come out of that unless you can override it in the application.
Switching: I haven't tried myself with ED but believe if you set borderless window mode you can just move the mouse between the two. If you use fullscreen on one monitor, then you would have to alt-tab to switch focus.

Shouldn't significantly impact performance so if 960 is ok now, go for it.

 

[Yaffle]

As Porina said.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-960/specifications the 960 will handle four displays, so you should be fine.

Note that in full screen the game will be on one monitor, but when you move the mouse and click on the other the game will minimise. It comes back fine, but bear it in mind.

Your next issue will be that with two monitors it looks a bit asymmetric, so you start thinking about a third...

Oh, cables, yeah, forgot. See what input the new fella has. You can get a converter from and to most video interfaces.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Thanks guys. I'll only be getting the second. Just want something to run other things on, like the forums.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Get a third and enjoy triple screen goodness

Grab an ultracheap chromebook or landfill tablet for forums etc

 

[Insomnia]

I've used 3 screens before and are currently using 2 screens. When you're setting up your monitors you will have to choose which monitor is your number 1, or main monitor. Games will be displayed on your main screen. Like others have said, of you use borderless or windowed mode in games, you can move the mouse pointer to the secondary screens. Some games will automatically recognise you've switched window and will pause the game, others like Elite will still be active but you won't have any control over it until you activate the game window again. Very convenient if you're coding or just want to listen to something else on Spotify. Or browse the ED forums.

Cables is all depending on what kind of outputs your graphics card has. And do check if your graphics card really supports a multi monitor setup. My card supports up to 4 monitors (1x HDMI, 2x display port, 1x DVI port).

Using 3 screens is amazing in Elite but it also takes a huge toll on your performance, basically doubling the performance cost due to the insane vertical resolution. It also distorts the he'll out of the image, making planets on the side monitors look like eggs.

But do try a second monitor. It doesn't need to be the same size of have the same aspect ratio even. The graphics card will detect any native resolution on your monitor.

Excuse my English. I hope I made myself somewhat understandable.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

I didn't get on that well with a second monitor, I was hoping to be able to have eddb.io and such open on the second one, but the switching between game and browser is about the same as alt+tabbing so went back to that instead ( and run my primary at it's 144Mhz rather than the lowest common denominator of 60Mhz) - I have on occasion used my laptop alongside but you don't get the integration with ED Market Connector

 

[Insomnia]

I didn't get on that well with a second monitor, I was hoping to be able to have eddb.io and such open on the second one, but the switching between game and browser is about the same as alt+tabbing

I'm not sure I follow... Why didn't it work?
When I play, let the mouse cursor rest on the window I'm actively using such as YouTube or Notepad++.

 

[Ben_BigBen]

I'm not sure I follow... Why didn't it work?
When I play, let the mouse cursor rest on the window I'm actively using such as YouTube or Notepad++.

It was the switching that I was hoping would be a little more seamless - I had as Prof. Yaffle describes above; "Note that in full screen the game will be on one monitor, but when you move the mouse and click on the other the game will minimise. It comes back fine, but bear it in mind." which, to me, is about the same as alt-tabbing. Ideally I'd want to be able to search for a system on eddb.io whilst still being able to control my ship ( or at least not have the screen minimize so I can see what I'm about to crash into ) Please feel free to enlighten me if I've set t up wrong !

 

[Insomnia]

Think of it as you control your active window.
If a webbrowser is active, then your game window becomes "inactive" and vice versa. But it's important to set the game window to borderless windowed or windowed to skip the "mode switching" when the screen becomes black for a second when switching between monitors or windows.
But controlling two windows at the same time on the same machine is impossible I believe. :/

 

[Runis]

Thanks guys. I'll only be getting the second. Just want something to run other things on, like the forums.

Make sure you are careful when you pick your Nvidia driver version, some of them have known issues with multiple monitors (blackscreens, driver crashes etc). I use 368.81 for a while now and i have no issues. Also the newest driver versions are also not the best.

 

[JS_Starlance]

I'm running 2 monitors of different sizes & resolutions...

Primary monitor is 24" 1920x1200 for E, etc, Secondary is 22" 1680x1050 for all the other stuff while in space, to prevent "space madness"

However, as my motherboard has Intel Graphics, my secondary is connected to that and not to my graphics card.

Seems to work ok, just remember to use "windowless" in E

 

[Connor Caple]

I run two monitors for FSX, but don't tend to use the second one in ED. I'd love ED to let you break out the control panel(s) to another monitor like FSX does.

In FSX I use the lower monitor for the panels so I can still have the 3D cockpit view on the upper one (with headtracker), as an extra monitor is a LOT cheaper than all the Saitek switch/radio panels that I'd love to own