Matrox Triplehead2Go and texture tearing

[Shawn]

I recently installed a Matrox Triplehead2Go and three 19" monitors for my forward visuals, I also have a 4th monitor displaying the 90 degree right view and two more monitors displaying guages. After installing the Triplehead I have noticed that terrain textures are now loading much slower/popping. With the fps set to unlimited I am staying steady at over 100 fps so it doesn't seem to be an issue of things just running slowly (this also happens when I have only the monitor attached to the Triplehead running). Has anyone else experienced this slow down of texture loading? I quite familiar with tweaking Fs9 and have all the usual tweaks installed on this computer. I am also experiencing some texture tearing when I am turning close to buildings or very close to terrain. When I enable VerticalSinc my right hand view (which shows the engine nacelle and wing tip) gets distorted, I think I can fix that though by using a 2D cockpit view instead of the 3D.

[AndyT]

A TH2Go WILL slow down your sim. Its making it create a screen 3 times what it was. That takes more compute power and so I advise reducing your frames and locking them at 25. Your eye will never know the difference and that will give the machine time to catch up and get everything drawn faster.

[Shawn]

Thanks Andy, I tried locking my frames at 20 to see if it would help but all it did was give me the sutters :roll: Normally I have my frames locked at 55. Personally, I can see a difference when my frames are locked at 25. It's a bit of a myth that the eye can't recognize frame rates faster than 25, this only applies to images that have been blurred to trick the eye, like what's done in motion pictures. Flight simulator displays each individual frame without any motion blur which is why screenshots turn out so crisp. This explains it better than I can...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_blur

[AndyT]

Then try locking them at 30 or 35. The fewer screens you need the faster they draw.

[XOrionFE]

I didnt have the same experience as Andy as I have the TripleHead2Go and it didnt slow mine down a bit. The TH2Go does take more to draw everything but it has its own GPU and resources to bring to bear to make up for it. My experience was that adding the other monitors on my extra DVI outputs of the graphics cards are what slows everything down. I think you would find that the performance would be similiar if you remove the TH2Go and just connect one of your 19" monitors. But take some monitors off the Graphics cards and you will see improvement. I tried using an 8800gt and a 7900gt in the same box and then attaching monitors to each of the 4 outputs. After I added the 3rd monitor things when south. I ended up sticking with just the 8800gt then hookiing TH2GO on one output with 3 22" monitors and put a 17" monitor oon the other 8800gt output. Performance is great.

[AndyT]

The TH2Go does take more to draw everything but it has its own GPU and resources to bring to bear to make up for it.

Where did you get that information? I never heard that. Does it apply to the analog version as well? Do you have the digital version?

[Shawn]

Thanks again for the replies gentlemen, I managed to fix my issue by enabling VSinc and setting my fps to 60 which is the max refresh rate of my monitors while using the triplehead. My textures still aren't loading as fast as I like but I'll keep adjusting my settings and I'm sure it will get worked out. I have to say the triplehead is a great bit of kit and having the 4th outside view is really nice.:D

[XOrionFE]

Where did you get that information? I never heard that. Does it apply to the analog version as well? Do you have the digital version?

I am sure I read that it does somewhere but cant remember where. I have the digitial version.

[AndyT]

As far as I know it does not have its own GPU. I sure wish it did!

[XOrionFE]

As far as I know it does not have its own GPU. I sure wish it did!

I will have to find it. It has some type of processor for sure. It is not a $300 fancy Y connector. It has to have processing power.

I will locate

[XOrionFE]

Looks like you are right Andy. No GPU.

Here is from there sight how it works. I do remember reading that it does not cause a performance impact however and my own system experience supports this. I think the key when reading this is it says it does not add anything to the output signal but rather converts it. This would suggest that it makes no difference to the computer or graphics processor.

---------------------------------------
How it Works—A Look Inside the Box
The "magic" of making one display into three happens inside the TripleHead2Go box. The TripleHead2Go takes advantage of the existing graphics processor unit (GPU) within your computer.


Your system GPU renders an ultra-wide image into its frame buffer.
TripleHead2Go uses Matrox patent-pending technology to divide the display information into three display outputs.
These signals are then passed through the three monitor connectors (either standard digital (DVI) or analog (VGA), depending on the version of the product) and to the TripleHead2Go box.
No pixels are added, dropped, scaled, or otherwise changed in this process. TripleHead2Go "magic" preserves all the on-screen information provided by the original monitor signal.
In TripleHead2Go Digital Edition, when an analog input is used, the monitor signal from the computer is first converted to digital data using various techniques to ensure the best possible conversion. These techniques include gain compensation to normalize the signal and phase adjustment to properly interpret either the dual-link input signal or the analog input signal. With the dual-link digital input this conversation is not necessary as you are already in a digital domain.

[AndyT]

Right. So the key here is that your graphics card does all the work. If you have an ancient video card (which I do) the TH2Go is going to stress it out.

That means, its time for me to get a new video card.

[Kennair]

I know when I first got my analogue TH2GO I did some testing to compare the performance between the TH2GO running 3 screens or using 3 outputs on 2 video cards. There was noticeably less hit when using the TH2GO to run the 3 screens. Don't know why but it does, and this was on a 6600 AGP nvidia card plus a 6200 PCI.

I now run the same TH2GO off a 8800GT card in a new Quad core system along with a second 8500GT. The TH2GO runs 3 x 22" LCD's off the 8800 and the 8500 runs 2 x 17" LCD's for instruments. In FSX at heavy airports I get mid to high teens on the ground and quickly raising to 25's on takeoff. No stuttering and only slight blurries.

I agree with Andy to lock frame rates (mine is set to 25), big frame rates mean nothing really as there's tons of other stuff that FS has to generate such as smooth texture and scenery loads. Stuttering and blurries are one of the first signs of struggling CPU power (along with memory amount and timings etc. etc. etc.) and this is often tied to too high frame rate settings. Not saying that this is so in your case, but experiment till your happy.

My latest revelation is to run FS in Full Screen mode as I've scratched out an extra 5 or so frames by doing this instead of windowed. Also a good tip I got from Trevor (Hale), run your TH2GO off your powerful video card and all others off the second.

Cheers,

Ken.

[BHawthorne]

Where did you get that information? I never heard that. Does it apply to the analog version as well? Do you have the digital version?

The TH2G is nothing more than a video splitter. Don't let anyone confuse you about it having a GPU in it. It does have a chip in the TH2G, but it's limited to splitting a single set of video data into 3 subsets. That chip processing the data isn't going to offset ANY limitations that initially occur in the rendering video card. It'll only be as detailed and as fast as it is when the signal enters the TH2G. No magic in the TH2G is going to speed up anything.

[fweinrebe]

The TH2G is nothing more than a video splitter.

Additionally it probably emulates a high resolution monitor as well. So that you computer sees it as such.

[XOrionFE]

The TH2G is nothing more than a video splitter. Don't let anyone confuse you about it having a GPU in it. It does have a chip in the TH2G, but it's limited to splitting a single set of video data into 3 subsets. That chip processing the data isn't going to offset ANY limitations that initially occur in the rendering video card. It'll only be as detailed and as fast as it is when the signal enters the TH2G. No magic in the TH2G is going to speed up anything.

I dont think I ever said it will speed anything up but I did say that I dont think it will slow anything down as originally stated by Andy. I also said I was mistaken about the GPU. Where did you get your info from on how it works? Did you take one apart?

[BHawthorne]

I've used one for years. If you're interested in technical info: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[XOrionFE]

I've used one for years. If you're interested in technical info: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thanks,

That is a good site. It goes into some good explainations and the particularly valid one is about the surround gaming impact on performance. It does say that increasing Aspect Ratio causes a pretty big drop in performance but it also says that if your video card can handle it then using the TH2GO does not show any increased impact on performance. So the key is making sure your video card can handle the FOV you choose and really has nothing to do with the TH2GO.

So the way I read this then is that the TH2GO is not a performance killer at all. It is the use of a larger FOV and Aspect Ration on the host video card that impacts performance.

Good articles

[Trevor Hale]

I didnt have the same experience as Andy as I have the TripleHead2Go and it didnt slow mine down a bit.

I have to agree, the TripleHead2Go Made no Frame Rate hit on my machine either.

Trev

[BHawthorne]

IMHO, like everything else with the TH2G milage may vary depending upon what game you use. Games aren't designed with those odd aspect ratios in mind so some 3d engines can act wierd. I've not had any real issues that are game stopping in the games I play though.

[AndyT]

The major issue I have with the TH2Go is not its fault, but that of my video card. The TH2Go uses every pixel the card will put out and arranges it into a resolution that your card can handle. So even though my card can actually do 1440 x 900, when I activate the TH2Go I only get 2400 x 600, and that with a performance drop. I've scaled back my settings to accomodate, but....

It's way past time for a new video card. I'm running an old ATI Radeon 1300XT/AGP If it wasn't AGP, I hate to think of how slow I'd be running.

[BHawthorne]

EVGA sells their b-stock on ebay for cheap. I've picked up 4 8800GS for $49 each.