The XMEN Clan Forums

Ok, I have a question. I recently got two new monitiers for Christmas/ Birthday and they are great looking.

2 x 21inch LCD's

They installed funny but worked. I looked at their properties and it only shows them up as being Plug and Play moniters. I begin to play a game, BF2, or X3 and it looks like a slide show. At first I had thought it was my internet going bonkers but playing X3 it looks the same way.

Before I switched to the new moniters I was running great in X3 and BF2 on my 15" LCD. I had no skipping or anything so I know it isn't the PC. The new moniters, even if I use one, are slideshow heaven. What can I do or what do I need to fix it?

I had thought that because it is showing up as plug and play and thats why Im not getting the response time out of it I should be. I called gateway and they are saying nothing is wrong with it. They are idiots. Any help?

Ok, two questions:

1. What is the response time on the monitors first. That would NOT produce the slideshow effect but would induce blurring.

2. What video card(s) are you using with them and how are they connected to them? Are you running both off of one card?

D

Also, what refresh rate do you have set for the monitors?

I don't know that refresh rate really matters as much with LCDs, (Everything I've read has recommended using 0Hz, because there's really no difference...) But are you running the monitors at their native resolutions in your games? My 17" Viewsonic plays like a slideshow if I don't have it set to 1280x1024. Also, check for and update your monitor drivers. There are some games that really require that you have the "real" drivers for your monitors...

Radeaon 9800 Pro 256Megs, using one on VGA input and one on DVI input. I could use the S-Video slot but S-Video sucks in comparison.

8mg response time on moniters, lowest I have seen for any LCD moniter.

The refresh rate is at 60 default and I haven't messed with it.

The native resolution for it is 1680 x 1050, or at least it is it's default resolution. I have tried setting it different in display settings and in game to a lower resolution but it al ldoes the same. It isn't ghosting it is skipping. Like playing Tribes 2 on crappy dialup.

I have updated my video card drivers to the most recent after I noticed this problem. The moniters have no updates that I can find. I called gateway and they that there is nothing wrong with them and it is my computer. Well I had two 19" CRT attached to the same video card the day before I hooked them up and they didn't do that. I have even tried using only one moniter, thinking it is trying to force both screens to play the game even though I have it set for only one.

Plays fine on a CRT monitor??? Just trying to isolate whether it is the card or the monitors.

Dual monitors with one card will bring down a card's performance, but not sure how much for gaming.

How much RAM and what CPU do you have?

2Gigs of DDR ram, CPU dont know model but it is a 3.2

I have used dual moniters for a long time for my TsN stuff and never had an issue like this.

When you say even if you only use one... does that mean its disabled/unplugged or on, but only rendering to the primary display?

Roll back the video driver and see what happens. Or see if there is a new one available. Just curious.

Yes, did you try unplugging one, rebooting, and playing the game? If my thinking is correct, that will work properly. Not sure how to actually fix the problem, but that little test will confirm a lot.

I tried doing that with X3 just a minute ago and my moniter shut off. I am going to try it again after a reboot and try BF2 as well.

I took off the second moniter and am just going with one. reduced the screen size down one notch and it works ok. but it looks like crap.

Looks like crap how? You're not using a wide screen resoltion? Maybe your system can't handle 2 monitors at 1680x1050... heck I still run all my games at 1024x768... w/ AA on I can't tell the difference.

but otherwise, I don't know

LCD monitors have a "native" resolution. One they are best at displaying. You have to look at the manual to determine what it is.

Rule of thumb:
17" Monitors - 1280 x 1024
19" Monitors - can be higher.

Same is true of refresh rates, check the manual for recommended best performance for that model.

Yes, my laptop had a native res of 1400x1050 but it still looked good at 1024x768 or any other res for that matter... maybe my eyes are just that bad. :\