Section 1 - The Basics
What is a multiple display system? What is it used for?
A multiple display system is simply a PC with two or more monitor connected to the same tower. Multiple displays can be used to increase desktop space, and thus increase productivity. Each screen can have a maximized window, or a window can be stretched across an array of monitors.
Other ways of naming multiple displays are: Multi-display, multimon, dual-display or dual-screen (usually used for a system with two screen, but it is nonetheless a multiple display system), multi-monitor, etc.
Example:
How does it work?
Windows 2000 and above have native support for multi-display systems. Working from screen to screen is as simple as dragging your mouse across the screens and dragging windows across the screens.
How do I get a multiple display system?
Most computers already have capability for two screens, it simply requires another monitor. Most graphics card have what’s called “dual-head”, which means it has two (2) monitor outputs, this also allows for Span Mode (see
section 2). However if you want more monitors, you simply need to add more graphics card (see
section 3). You can also purchase other products to achieve multi-display capability (
See Matrox Products Here).
Will this work with a SLI (or Crossfire) System?
SLI (or Crossfire) is designed to use two or three cards (tri-SLI) and
optimize them for one display. You cannot use the graphics cards for a multiple display system in SLI mode. However, with SLI disabled, your graphics cards will act as independent cards, and therefore will be able to run multiple monitors. If you have cards in SLI, plus an extra card, then you can use the extra card to add more monitors while keeping the first two in SLI to run a single display.
*Please note that newer driver version of SLI and CF can actually support multiple monitors. Update on this coming soon. See this thread.
What about gaming?
Quite simply, the graphical power you get depend on which screen your run the full-screen program. Games running on a certain screen will be processed by the graphics cards to which that monitor is connected to. (See
section 6 for more information).
