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FSX, Windows 7, 3360x1050


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HELP

Hello

I've been searching the web for more than a week now. A lot of people have the same problem, but there is no answer!

I build my new PC: i7 930, GTX470, X58A-UD7, Windows 7 64, 12GB. No to my problem:

In XP, it was possible to set my resolution to 3360x1050 and then I had a nice large view over my 2x 22"

But in Windows 7 there is (untill now) no way to do this. My last hope is this forum.

Has anyone got a solution for this problem?

Sorry if the problem was discussed before. I did not find it.

Thanks for your answer.

Rudi

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I'm running FSX over my 3 screens at 3840x1024 with otherwise a similar config (except ATI 5870 / VGA / Triplehead2go). If the graphics card reports the resolution is available then windows/FSX will use it AFAIK so maybe your problem is there.

Can you set your windows desktop to 3360x1050 and the problem is only with FSX, are you really struggling with Windows ??? What do you actually get?

B21

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Thanks for your comment B21. The problem is the Windows 7 NVidia driver. There is no 3360x1050 in W7. When I start the NVidia configuration in XP, there is an option to use the video settings on a large screen modus (big horizontal desktop). This option is missing in W7. I hope NVidia will solve the problem in one of his next drivers.

Good landings

Rudi

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lol - I understand what you mean - it's the issue of lack of 'horizontal spanning' mode in both Vista (I think) and Win 7, e.g. this fairly entertaining thread as gamers try and explain it is a problem to non-gamers who just can't see the issue if ou have 'extended desktop'.

I.e. you need the graphics card to report to the OS that it has one big screen not multiple smaller ones, which is what my Triplehead2go does in a fairly clunky way by using additional hardware, so graphics acceleration is seamless across the whole screen area.

ATI/AMD has a solution in the form of a feature called 'Eyefinity' - the graphics card maps multiple monitors into a singe display space so effectively it's a bit like having a built-in triplehead2go, with one 5XXX card being able to support 2 x DVI cards plus 1xDisplayport so you can have 1, 2 or 3 monitors in this setup with 1 graphics card.

For Nvidia, your possible salvation is somewhere in their recent '3D surround vision' driver support, MAYBE...

If you have 2 Nvidia cards and 3 identical monitors, then you're good to go, but it's not clear to me the Nvidia solution supports 1 Nvidia card with 2 monitors (even though the graphics card obviously supports this connectivity). But as the 3-screen solution clearly involves 2 of the screens being connected to one of the cards, maybe a 1-card-2-screens solution is possible.

As mentioned I'm a ati 5870 guy so can't confirm myself what the 'nvidia surround' options look like in their latest drivers.

B21

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OK, I've tried all possible options. Graphic card with 2 monitors is not what I expected it to be. I think/hope DualHead2Go is gonna bring what I am looking for. Thanks B21.

Rudi

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OK, I've tried all possible options. Graphic card with 2 monitors is not what I expected it to be. I think/hope DualHead2Go is gonna bring what I am looking for. Thanks B21.

Rudi

Yikes! It does look like Nvidia multi-monitor requires 2 or more graphics cards, even for just 2 displays (for *gaming* - it's well understood you can have extended desktop for non-directx apps on 2 screens with 1 nvidia card. And of course there are people that will say 3-screen gaming is better than 2 but that doesn't help someone wanting to configure 2 screens).

Makes sense for 3 screens (cos nvidia cards only have 2 outputs) but needing 2 cards for 2-screen gaming is just totally broken. I thought the 3rd screen on ATI being Displayport-only was a pain-in-the-ass but it's nothing compared to this....

I bought my th2go box long before my 3-port ATI 5870, and ran it off a Nvidia 8800GT which worked ok for FSX (although I cut the resolution down). If I *didn't* already have the th2go box I think I would have looked seriously at the supported alternatives from ATI and NVidia. For ATI I would have either bought a displayport screen for my third screen (2 DVI/VGA screens is a non-issue with ATI) or I'd have at least bought a displayport-DVI active adapter.

Rather than outlay the cash on a dualhead2go box (150 bucks) it would be worth considering a second Nvidia card or keeping the existing Nvidia as a spare and buying an ATI card, but I guess you've already done that.

Incidentally, to avoid confusion for anyone reading this thread who hasn't looked into it deeply, both nvidia and ATI/AMD have graphics cards with 3+ outputs on the back but they're not all usable simultaneously.

* One ATI 5xxx can drive 3 displays simultaneously, but the third has to be displayport. The ATI driver has a feature called 'Eyefinity' that allows 2 or more displays to be apparently combined into one large display space so the application thinks there's one display - hence most applications work seamlessly so long as they are not hard-coded limited to certain resolutions. E.g. FSX works very well (in fact all my games do but I know particularly older games are non-widescreen). So ATI is particularly good if you only have 2 screens, and for three there will be extra expense but it's doable.

* One Nvidia 4xx card can drive 2 displays simultaneously in 'extended desktop' mode, but to run directx graphics (e.g. FSX) on both screens you need 2 graphics cards. This limitation is with Vista and Win 7, but not XP.

B21

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Boah! B21, this stuff is exceeding my English knowledge. :blush: I am from Belgium (Flemish part). I hope you can give me a good advice regarding this issue. I ordered a DualHead2Go, but thats no problem. What would you do with 2x Lenovo L2250p and 1 GTX470? …...playing FSX, NFS Shift and soon Codemasters F1 2010? A short advice please, if possible. I have no place for a 3de monitor. Thank you!

Rudi

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Boah! B21, this stuff is exceeding my English knowledge. :blush: I am from Belgium (Flemish part). I hope you can give me a good advice regarding this issue. I ordered a DualHead2Go, but that’s no problem. What would you do with 2x Lenovo L2250p and 1 GTX470? …...playing FSX, NFS Shift and soon Codemasters F1 2010? A short advice please, if possible. I have no place for a 3de monitor. Thank you!

Rudi

Firstly the gtx 470 has got plenty of performance in a single card, so that's not an issue, and FSX doesn't fully use the graphics card anyway.

With *some* games you can run on two screens in "windowed mode" (not full screen) - there's a possibility that NFS Shift will do this. I think it means the game has to have 'multi-monitor' support but I'm not sure, e.g. here. I tried FSX in 'windowed' mode across two screens in my office (i.e. no eyefinity) and the framerate became very low as soon as I moved the window half way across the other monitor, i.e. only one display was accelerated. So there are possibilities but it is totally dependent upon the game. But if you already have the 2-screen setup you could test 'windowed mode' for a game and see what you get.

DualHead2go is guaranteed to work with virtually everything - in my experience the only time an issue might occur is where a game simply can't cope with the super-wide-screen aspect ratio but even old FSX is ok (there's a setting you have to change.)

Lenovo L2250p is 1680 x 1050 (as you know) which means you have to have the DVI version of DualHead2go at 180 euro (i.e. resolution too high for cheaper VGA version)

Simplest choice is dh2go, but like my triplehead2go ultimately it's money you don't get much for.

You could buy a second graphics card, but would need a minimum 700W power supply for 2x470. The modern games would benefit very much (you could have more anti-aliasing), but it would make no difference to FSX. And would cost 280 euro for the card plus the PSU if you needed one.

Good luck,

B21

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Been following this thread now somewhat closely since having the ATI HD5670. Been running dual screen now a couple of days, Awsome Stuff now!!!

Scott

Lol Scott you and I can be smug with our ATI 5xxx native multi-screen support... don't rub it in. Are you using bezel compensation?

B21

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Well thanks a lot B21. I have the dh2g here now but I am still waiting for the VGA cable. Sure I took the digital one. My PU is a bequiet750 but I hope to get the expected wide screen in FSX with the dh2g. (Buying a second GC really exceeds the financial limits ;) ) In fact this is the main reason for all this: flying over a wide view landscape and getting more realism in FSX this way. I will tell about my experience.

Rudi

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Lol Scott you and I can be smug with our ATI 5xxx native multi-screen support... don't rub it in. Are you using bezel compensation?

B21

I have to thank you B21, for mentioning the bezel compensation thing. I'm going to look back into that option tonight, because I know I'm not running it.

Scott

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Any window bigger than 1680x1050 stays black

eh what? Maybe you've fixed this already...

This *is* with the DualHead2go ??

If you're still waiting on your VGA cable you'll have to wait until you get it - the FSX parameter doesn't magically make your graphics acceleration work on the second screen so you've got to expect problems there until you've got the dualhead2go hooked up. *Some* games have multi-monitor support built into the game (not FSX) so the game knows it is driving two screens and this should work in Vista/Win7, but this support is fairly rare and FSX doesn't even come close.

The FSX config change is only to put "WideViewAspect=True" in the [Display] section of fsx.cfg. I think this alters/improves the aspect ratio of the view drawn by FSX but I don't think it is actually essential - i.e. your screen should still work without it, just the view will be slightly different.

But if you *do* have your dualhead2go connected and you're having this problem, that's wierd/unusual/interesting/I'm sure fixable...

... if you connect your DualHead2Go to the PC (VGA to the PC, and DVI to each of the two screens) what actually happens??

You get the Windows desktop across both screens and if you right-click anywhere on the display background and look at display properties you see a single screen at 3360x1050? So the dh2go unit is basically working?

B21

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Well, the bezel compensation is not working for me (No option for it anywhere). So I've done a lot a searching today for answers. My problem is I've got 2 different screens but have the same resolution. There is someone on the internet trying to enter a registry key, but there isn't much followup to trust what he's suggesting.

I gotta cut this short, I'm at the school right now.

Scott

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Well, the bezel compensation is not working for me (No option for it anywhere). So I've done a lot a searching today for answers. My problem is I've got 2 different screens but have the same resolution. There is someone on the internet trying to enter a registry key, but there isn't much followup to trust what he's suggesting.

I gotta cut this short, I'm at the school right now.

Scott

Yeah you might not get bezel management with different monitors - the registry hack was probably good, but in a youtube comment the guy advocating it says it was available in ati 10.3 drivers but disappeared in the 10.7 drivers:

B21

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Thanks B21, I'll keep looking for more info. I should have an older set of drivers on one of my drives, hopefully newer than 10.3 and older than 10.7.

Thanks again for possibly what drivers to look into.

Scott

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Hallo pilots & co

I just say: GREAT GREAT GREAT !!! Just how I wanted FSX to look like. @B21 yes..just connecting and installing the dh2g driver and 3360x1050 appears in the display settings. Then making the fsx.cfg correction and everything runs smoothly in wide view over 2 screens. All FSX settings to max (except traffic) and FSX runs with the standard Friday Harbour at 40-70 f/s! Thank you B21 for your advices.

Sorry it took a few days for my answer.

Good landings

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  • 1 year later...

Is the above post by Abvrukr spam probably? Seems to me there was another post on the SOAR forum in the last month or so that I thought was spam, but didn't report it. I'll look into it tonight if I get a chance.

Scott

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