Requirements for a Dual Monitor setup?

[Adamx]

Hopefully this topic is worthy of a new thread. I've searched around a bit and found a few threads that touch on the subject, but not enough information is provided. It seems that running a dual-monitor setup is either very difficult or near-impossible (or just not popular).

I noticed that Kilgaroz mentions that he is able to run a dual monitor setup, but he does not list his system specs. I'm pretty computer literate, but not advanced by any means - I'm unaware of any limitations that running two simultaneous EQ instances involves beyond the need for a beefy graphics card and a good amount of ram.

Would this build be able to handle running two instances of EQ on a dual monitor setup? I would like to able to run one instance at max or almost-maxed settings (no Luclin/newer models), while the second can be low-to-minimal settings.

- 3.0ghz Core2Duo
- 4gb ram
- 512mb 8800GT SLI

If not, why? As a side issue, would using 2 video cards (one per monitor) help - or are there still other limiting factors?

It seems that if dual-boxing, running a dual-monitor setup is ideal...especially considering how cheap monitors are these days. I have a feeling this an "obvious answer" question, but would like to hear it straight from the experts. Hopefully this information will be useful to other hardware newbies like me.

[Tanot]

It should be fine if you use WinEQ2 - might work with vanilla EQ but never tried it without WinEQ2. I've got an identical setup to you and I'm sat here at the moment with one char in the GL and one in the baz on two different screens and they run perfectly. One thing to point out though is that I run Vista 64 so if you are running a 32-bit operating system you won't be able to use the full 4Gb which may mean worse performance. One of the instances of EQ is running around 900Mb and the other around 850Mb

BTW, this is with all models on and all Advanced effects on as well.

[Adamx]

[Kumudil]

The light version doesnt allow to choose primary/secondary - screen if you need to run in full screen.
My old system was 2Gig RAM, 3GHz pentium HT and an not so up-todate grafic-card.
Worked well with both sessions in full screen mode, but almost unplayable in windowed mode.
(which would have allowed to stay with WinEQ light, just pulling the window to the right position).

Your setup is better than my old system, so light version may do.

Easiest to find out: download the light version and try with the windowed mode. If its sufficient your done.
The update to the full version is just a matter of some ors, so easy to be done if you fiend out the light version doesnt fit.

[Tanot]

Hi mate, this is with the lite mode running windowed mode on both monitors. Both monitors are running at 1280x1024 with the EQ windows also at 1280x1024. One thing I had to do (may be a Vista thing or might happen in XP as well) is put the task bar/start bar in Classic mode or it seemed to sit in front of the WinEQ windows, as soon as I put it in Classic mode it works as I would expect it to i.e. the WinEQ2 covers the entire monitor. It was a right pain before as I have my chat windows at the bottom of the screen and I couldn't see what I was typing.

*EDIT* Sorry I realised I have a different graphics card from you. I have an 8800GTS 320Mb so a pair of 8800GT is going to blow that into the weeds. TBH though, any modern card is going to manage EQ without even breaking a sweat, the textures etc are pathetic compared to modern FPS games. The limiting factor is going to be (as you rightly pointed out) memory and CPU speed/architecture. Any Core2 Duo 3Ghz setup with 4Gb of RAM should be able to easily handle 2 EQ sessions because the split of the resources is way above the min specs of a single EQ client. Even accounting for the scalability limitations of having two DirectX "sessions" running, it is so far above what is actually needed that it should be able to power through anything thrown at it. I have had four EQ sessions running on my PC, two foreground and two background, it wasn't very happy in the GL but a normal XP zone (which at my level normally means my chars only in the zone!) it was workable.

On the SLi side of things, that is going to depend on how Nvidia's drivers work - I have never felt the need for SLi so not very familar with them. SLi works by interleaving every line on the screen between the two cards so that GPU1 processes line one, GPU2 processes line two etc. This obviously (probably) won't work for two monitors but you might have an option in the driver somewhere when you can tell GPU1 to handle screen 1 and GPU2 to handle screen 2.

Finally this might all be moot in newer zones, I have heard a lot of bad things about lag in newer zones (LP HoS IG etc) but unfortunately my chars are all below 71 so not really had reason to go to any yet. The memory usage etc might be much worse in these zones.

Have fun I enjoy tweaking around with my setup almost as much as I enjoy playing the games sometimes

[Adamx]