Dual monitor question

[Guest grim_marmazet]

Hi,Ive recently bought a second monitor and want to know if its possible to run FSX full screen on one and leave the desktop on the other.Cheers,Rik

[january 19]

Rik- can't speak for FSX but with my triple mon setup, FS9 Full Screen just doesn't run well- if at all.If you have 2 monitors, I would highly recommend opening a second view to increase your Field of View. The FS View Fwd is only 45

[Art_P 6]

I am unable to run two monitors with FSX full screen. The display flashes back and forth between the two monitors. Running FSX in windowed mode and using two monitors was such a performance hit, that I abandoned that notion and just run it on one 22" widescreen monitor. Running other applications on a second monitor is an option, but it still requires FSX be in windowed mode, and my experience is that FSX runs a lot better in full screen mode.ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor

[january 19]

Art- interesting. I, too, can only run a single monitor in Full Screen with FS9. But I can detect no difference in FPS between single monitor Full Screen or Window mode- if anything Window mode may have a slight performance edge. What will KILL FPS is allowing a view to overlap an adjacent monitor.Also always reclick on main mon to restore focus after having clicked on a secondary mon.(the above comments re single monitor are defined as only one FS View Fwd on main mon, no Popups nor Views open on secondary mons although these mons are still active as part of the wide Desktop.)Alex Reid

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

Art, With Vista you must auto-hide the windows task bar to solve the FPS loss issue when running FSX windowed.Gary

[Guest iksound]

>I am unable to run two monitors with FSX full screen. The>display flashes back and forth between the two monitors. >Running FSX in windowed mode and using two monitors was such a>performance hit, that I abandoned that notion and just run it>on one 22" widescreen monitor. Running other applications on>a second monitor is an option, but it still requires FSX be in>windowed mode, and my experience is that FSX runs a lot better>in full screen mode.>>Art>>Biostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce>8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home>Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitorHi Art, A small point, but I notice you have 4GB of RAM, and Vista 32, doesn't this mean you only have 3GB (will probably say 3.5) of RAM?due to the address length of memory about 3GB, 32bits isn't enough. sorry if i'm pointing out the obvious.Ian.

[Art_P 6]

>due to the address length of memory about 3GB, 32bits isn't enough.I'm not sure about the intent of the above statement, but System Information indicates that Windows recognizes 3.581+ GB. So, having 4 GB installed seems worthwhile. I'm not willing to deal with software incompatibilities from using 64 bit windows since my computer is used for more than FSX.ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor

[Gerald Plotts 0]

There is a fix for the flashing screen problem at Microsoft. Just go here and apply the fix. This worked like a champ for me. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933590Jerry

[Art_P 6]

>There is a fix for the flashing screen problem at Microsoft.>Just go here and apply the fix. This worked like a champ for>me. >>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933590>>>>JerryThanks. It worked for me also. However, it is only good for experimenting since the extra display serously brings down my framerates and causes OOM errors.ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor

[january 19]

--"since the extra display serously brings down my framerates--"--------------Art, when you say "seriously" do you mean an unusable/unsatisfactory framerate? I can only refer to FS9- but with a single monitor, I will get typically 32-40 FPS. Bringing up a second view (Fwd R) on monitor 2 drops FPS into the 21-22 range and a third view (Fwd L) will drop FPS to 18-19.Regardless- the quality of image doesn't really change much. Just as smooth & flyable at 18 as at 32 FPS.Here's where the arithmetic of multi mons gets interesting- If you multiply resolution times number of monitors times framerate you get the number of pixels being delivered to your eyes. Presumably the more pixels per second, the better the image.When I do this I get-single monitor/view = 28.3 megapixels per secdual monitors/views = 34.6 " " "three monitors/views= 42.6 " " " (monitors res @ 1024 x 768)In effect, even though frame rate has dropped significantly, the total number of pixels being delivered to my eyes with triple views/monitors has increased by about 50%! I think that's a very worthwhile gain. As long as no pauses or stutters, frame rate really doesn't mean much to me.Alex Reid

[Art_P 6]

Thanks for the information Alex. As I said, the full screem multiple monitor fix now gives me the opportunity to experiment, and I did. My main display is 1680x1050 (native) and gets 28-32 FPS at a typical smaller airport in full screen mode if I set frames to unlimited. This drops to 20-24 FPS in windowed mode, so I really need the full screen mode for best performance. If I display the GPS and/or radio stack, the FPS decrease slightly and it doesn't make much difference whether they are displayed on the main monitor or the second monitor. However, if I add a second virtural cockpit view on the second monitor, the frame rate goes down to 8 and eventually goes to an OOM error.While a second monitor has proven to be beneficial to me for displaying multiple applications during everyday computing, it's not of much use with FSX. Since I need to run FSX in full screen mode, running another application on the second monitor at the same time is not realistic. You apparently have a much more capable computer than mine in addition to the smaller displays.ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor

[Art_P 6]

>Ive recently bought a second monitor and want to know if its>possible to run FSX full screen on one and leave the desktop>on the other.So after all that, I guess the answer to the original question is NO? At least that's what I found out.ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor

[january 19]

--- "You apparently have a much more capable computer than mine in addition to the smaller displays."-------------Art: Haha- I refer to my 'puter as "Smithsonian Vintage". It's a 5 year old AMD XP2200 1.8 GHz with GeForce FX5200 vid cards, 2-8yr old 19" CRTs plus a 17" LCD (replacing a 13 yr old CRT) to save a bit of space! There's nothing that compares with a triple wide Field of View. Needless to say, I haven't attempted any FSX experiments!Sorry I couldn't help.Alex Reid

[Art_P 6]

I'm sorry that I wasn't paying attention. Of course you are running FS9 on that system. My last computer for FS9, has an AMD XP2800 CPU and a 6600GT video card. The difference between requirements for FSX and FS9 is really amazing. Still, I think you are getting outstanding performance with your system. ArtBiostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM, Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium 32 bit, CH Yoke & Pedals, 22" WS LCD monitor