Will a second monitor for multitasking effect performance?

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dremic

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 9, 2011
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I have a 2nd U2713HM just sitting here. I was considering opening it up and using it for multitasking while playing games.


if I hook up the 2nd monitor just for watching netflix, browsing the web etc. will I lose performance ( still gaming on one screen )


thanks :)
 
No. Depending on the game(s) you play you may find it harder to use than you think.

My limited experience examples: (note I own a Titan)

WoW: To be able to see the 2nd screen you had to force the game to run in windowed full screen mode, this cause a drop in FPS. If you didn't force this screen mode, it was a 50/50 chance the 2nd screen was visible or not. That is, loading the game caused the 2nd screen to go black. Window keying in and out of the game will eventually make it so you can see the 2nd screen.

SC2: Second screen was ok and didn't need any special tricks to get it to show.

I didn't find it handy for my needs at all, mainly because I have two computers/monitors right next to each other and I can use the other computer for other stuff while gaming.

I have a feeling it's not going to work the way you're expecting it to, you'll still need to task switch out of the game to access the 2nd screen unless you run stuff in window mode.
 
I think you would have to run the game as a non-exclusive full-screen "window", which should impact performance negatively.
 
It will affect it a bit depending on the game and settings, should be minor though.When i had two screens i always found myself moving my mouse out of one screen and into the other when i played windowed full screen.
 
I've been running dual-screen since Windows 98, never had a problem with it. I play mostly FPS's, and everything tends to just get along. You can see the game in the main screen and whatever other windows that you had moved to the second in the second. Yes, to switch from the game to the other windows you need to Alt-Tab out (or use the Windows key). But if you just need something static (like a video, or a hint website, whatever) open for glancing at while gaming, it's no problem at all and really nice. This with both Nvidia and AMD cards throughout the years.
 
canon.tk said:
WoW: To be able to see the 2nd screen you had to force the game to run in windowed full screen mode, this cause a drop in FPS. If you didn't force this screen mode, it was a 50/50 chance the 2nd screen was visible or not. That is, loading the game caused the 2nd screen to go black. Window keying in and out of the game will eventually make it so you can see the 2nd screen.
Click to expand...

I had that same issue with my GTX680s in SLI. I found that if I disabled Aero, the issue went away. I made a macro to disable Aero when I launch the game, then I just hit enter in the command prompt window once I exit to restore Areo.

start /Normal "" "World of Warcraft Launcher.exe" /wait
net stop "UxSms"
pause
net start "UxSms"
Click to expand...
 
dremic said:
I have a 2nd U2713HM just sitting here. I was considering opening it up and using it for multitasking while playing games.


if I hook up the 2nd monitor just for watching netflix, browsing the web etc. will I lose performance ( still gaming on one screen )


thanks :)
Click to expand...

You can loose performance when you watch a video mostly in flash. If you have "Hardware Acceleration" enabled fullscreen flash video can hurt your performance. I play on three monitors and use one for gaming and the others for videos and browsing.

When I make an HD flash video in fullscreen in WoW my FPS take quite a big dip. Thats usually the only time I ever really notice a significant negative impact on performance. I can watch the same video not fullscreen and my performance isn't impacted.

Watching TV and videos on VLC player or windows media center I don't notice too much of a performance hit in WoW.

I've been running multiple monitors for a few years now.

I will say playing games windowed works alot better, fullscreen games will still need to be alt-tabbed to if you want to do anything on the second monitor.
 
Ive been using dual screens since back in the early 2000's - I like to boost to three if I have an onboard solution to use :p .

If you run the game monitor at non-native resolution in a game, the second screen becomes almost useless - it kicks things out of alignment due to resize. You can still use a program like UltraMon to have chat windows and such open in this case - the start bar doesnt alternate, so if you have items on the second screen and they flash, you can still seethem in the start bar over there. You can also move the windows so that when it resizes, it kicks them to the visible part of the second screen. (I think this issue applies for all dual monitor setups, but for reference, I have my main display and game display as the left, extended to the right monitor - I dont know if it acts any differently if you reverse their order, I dont like them that way)

Every game that is not in a windowed mode, you have to alt+tab to use the other screen. If you're in windowed, you usually can just move the mouse out of the screen - if not, you'll have to alt+tab anyway.

VERY few games make the second screen completely useless - the most likely thing is to run into issues as I stated above in running a game at the main monitors non-native resolution.

One of the ones I used to think was useless was FS:X, but I realized that the second screen is black because its an active display - you can open views and such on second monitor. There are *very few* games that natively support a second screen like this. I think Supreme Commander (first one) also allows the second screen to be a tactical overview map. Only two games I know that make use of the second screen. (Please note - this is different than eyefinity and surround monitor setups - it's the OLD way of "surround" and "extended display area" gaming - you generally only get additional features from the second screen, the game doesnt expand to use both - with the exception of FS:X. I open the "right seat" virtual cockpit view there so I have a left seat view on my left monitor and right seat view on my right)

You will not (usually) lose performance if you run games in fullscreen, but its a crapshoot if it messes up when you have a game in windowed modes. Doing HD video or anything on the second monitor raises the chance you'll see an impact - but Ive never really noticed it.

On a note about WoW, I've never had issues running two monitors with WoW - whether in full screen or windowed full screen, the second monitor has always been visible. Guess I just got really lucky to avoid issues over the 8? years I've had an account..


One of the biggest peeves, and Windows Vista and up REALLY improved it, is the volume issue when running multiple things across monitors - it used to be a pain to go into every game and lower volumes when you have a video playing on another monitor - just being able to single click and control all open programs volumes made it so much better. I know this isnt a "monitor" thing, but its a side effect of having mutiple monitors and multi-tasking across them. Just keep in mind that other small issues like this, that pop up as an indirect result of multi-monitors, are things you have to deal with.

I can certainly say, when I go from 2->1 monitor, I feel constricted. I have spentmaybe three months in the past 10+ years with only one monitor - it's so essential to me that I'll pull out an old CRT if I must to get that second screen.
 
FighterAce124 said:
I can certainly say, when I go from 2->1 monitor, I feel constricted. I have spentmaybe three months in the past 10+ years with only one monitor - it's so essential to me that I'll pull out an old CRT if I must to get that second screen.
Click to expand...
One of my monitors died, and I was stuck with a single for a week. It felt like one of my arms was cut off. "I'll just put this other window or video on the second monitor while I do this on the first... oh, right, no second monitor." One monitor sucks.

If there's a noticeable performance loss, I'd say it'd be from the program being run than from simply having a second monitor. This is where those lower-end CPUs that can play a game ok in benchmarks with nothing else running start to falter in actual use when you are multitasking. I was playing a game the other day doing some dual-core Ivy testing, and playing a 720p video on the second monitor dropped the game from like 30fps down to 25fps.
 
GotNoRice said:
I had that same issue with my GTX680s in SLI. I found that if I disabled Aero, the issue went away. I made a macro to disable Aero when I launch the game, then I just hit enter in the command prompt window once I exit to restore Areo.
Click to expand...

You can actually just go to the shortcut properties, compatibility tab and check off "Disable Desktop Composition" which will disable aero whenever that program is run ;)
 
cre3d said:
You can actually just go to the shortcut properties, compatibility tab and check off "Disable Desktop Composition" which will disable aero whenever that program is run ;)
Click to expand...

That's true but it has a tendency to leave Aero off once it turns it off, even after you exit the program you needed it turned off for. You also have anomalies sometimes given that you have two separate exe's involved in launching WoW; the launcher and the game itself. My macro gives me a fine degree of control over when Aero gets disabled and re-enabled, which is exactly what I wanted. If the compatibility page gets it done for you then great.
 
GotNoRice said:
That's true but it has a tendency to leave Aero off once it turns it off, even after you exit the program you needed it turned off for. You also have anomalies sometimes given that you have two separate exe's involved in launching WoW; the launcher and the game itself. My macro gives me a fine degree of control over when Aero gets disabled and re-enabled, which is exactly what I wanted. If the compatibility page gets it done for you then great.
Click to expand...

Aye, no offense meant, just thought I might save you some effort in case you weren't aware of the option. It has worked without a hitch for me so far, wasn't aware some people encounter issues with that method. Kudos for finding a workaround though!
 
Only if you have an ATI card

Radeon drivers are all sorts of fucked up and a lot of hardware accelerated web apps will strangle your clockspeed when played in another window. Yay for web browser 2d acceleration clock overriding 3d full screen clock speed.
 
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