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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Two, maybe three clients.. Have some questions about hardware stress.
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Traceart
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#1 - 2011-12-09 17:50:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Traceart
I am currently running two clients and thinking of moving to a third. I am semi worried about burrning anything out because of this so I came here with a few questions.

(Specs at bottom!)

1.) Is it better to run fullscreen and alt tab the clients, Fixed-fullresolution, or windowed with smaller resolution?

2.) Is it better to keep clients on separate screens or the same screen?

3.) Any easier way of "alt-tabbing" when I have other windows open? I have a window selection button on my mouse but it takes longer than tabbing through the windows.

5.) Shoul I tone down the settings on both clients? Should I leave one high as possible and one on lowest? Both on medium?

My Specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 955
8GB Ram
Nvidia 450 GTS @ 1024MB
750 Watt PSU
Dual screens, 42 inch HDTV @ 1920x1080 and a 19inch LCD @ 1440x900.
hard drives, cd drives , yadadadada

I know it isn't the worst PC, but I am still semi worried about burning my card. I am upgrading to a 570/580 soon but handing down the 450 and would rather it be working.

Also, Bonus points if you noticed I skipped #4 and thanks for the help!
Fidelium Mortis
Minor Major Miners LLC
#2 - 2011-12-09 18:26:59 UTC
Everyone's thresholds are different, so adjust your settings to the point where it's smoothest for you. Personally I tab between clients that are in fullscreen mode, and have EVE set up on 2 computers with multiple monitors.

As far as killing hardware is concerned, the main issue will be checking to make sure that you are getting proper cooling to your equipment. A lot of aftermarket "gaming" PCs really don't have adequate airflow which is further complicated once dust starts accumulating in the fans and heatsinks. Try using some temp monitoring program like MSI afterburner to see how hot your graphics card is getting. If things are inching toward 90C then you probably have some cooling issues and could do some long-term damage to your video card. A quick solution would be to clean out your cooling with some compressed air, and leave the side of your computer case open. Eventually you may want to invest in a case with better airflow and dust filters on the intakes.

ICRS - Intergalactic Certified Rocket Surgeon
mxzf
Shovel Bros
#3 - 2011-12-09 18:43:23 UTC
Personally, I prefer Fixed Window mode when running multiple clients. It gives the same fullscreen layout as Fullscreen, but without the flicker that Alt+Tab causes when it leaves fullscreen mode. I find it makes it much easier to change between clients since there's not pause while it switches from one to the other.

And, as the previous poster said, the upper limits of your machine are unique to each machine (and change depending on what other stuff you have running at the same time too). Just do some rough testing on your own and try it out.
Traceart
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#4 - 2011-12-09 18:48:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Traceart
Fidelium Mortis wrote:
Everyone's thresholds are different, so adjust your settings to the point where it's smoothest for you. Personally I tab between clients that are in fullscreen mode, and have EVE set up on 2 computers with multiple monitors.

As far as killing hardware is concerned, the main issue will be checking to make sure that you are getting proper cooling to your equipment. A lot of aftermarket "gaming" PCs really don't have adequate airflow which is further complicated once dust starts accumulating in the fans and heatsinks. Try using some temp monitoring program like MSI afterburner to see how hot your graphics card is getting. If things are inching toward 90C then you probably have some cooling issues and could do some long-term damage to your video card. A quick solution would be to clean out your cooling with some compressed air, and leave the side of your computer case open. Eventually you may want to invest in a case with better airflow and dust filters on the intakes.



Thanks for the response! I put this setup together myself and have pretty decent fans + heat sink in it. My video sits between 60-65c With both clients and youtube going on the other screen. The fps doesn't drop more than normal for eve @ some switch overs and my CPU's are sitting at 38-45c. Temps are good so far, I am just worried about long term damage running two games could do. I have heard windowed mode is more stressful because it is rendering both games at the same time? Eve doesn't exactly require amazing hardware but I was clueless when running 2x clients. I have dual boxxed but on multiple pc's so this way is new to me.

I was going to do full screen but that disables the use of my second monitor as it takes me to windows everytime I click on it or alt-tab to see the other client(Game 1 , click 2nd screen browser, screen 1 goes to desktop + Game1 , alt- tab, shows desktop, select Game 2, loads.)

I have been using fixxed but I cannot seem to keep my Start bar on top.. This would solve my problem 100% since I could just one click between clients. I am on windows 7 and it seems they removed the "always on top" option. The only thing that is there is "lock" and I have just read that it seems it is supposed to be always on top by default. o.O
Zanzbar
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2011-12-09 22:34:37 UTC
Just set one of the side buttons on your mouse ( as many seem to have them now) to be your windows key.

Now you just use fixed window mode, click the side mouse button to get the taskbar to show and select which client too veiw. Setanother side button as ptt for your favoite voice program and you hardly have to touch the keyboardCool

I ws able to run 1 client at 1920x1080 as well as 2 additional clients at 1300x900 all high settings with decent framerates on a somwhat lower build then what your running. If you turn off HDR and uncheck load staion envirnment you should be able to runn both clients full resolution on high without worry of damaging the card provided your cooling is up to par as mentioned above.

Also keep in mind that when it comes to epic large scale fleet battles with hundred of pilots eve can suddenly become a very demanding game on your graphics card.