(DX10) Devices, Displays, Adapaters, etc. Clarification Needed.

[jbizzler]

The DirectX SDK isn't very clear how developers are supposed to handle multiple graphics cards, multiple monitors, etc, and it's been bugging me for a while.

I know a device is made from an "adapter," but what exactly is an adapter? Is an adapter every graphics card? Is an adapter every monitor. Say I have 2 graphics cards, 2 monitos on each, totalling 4. Is an adapter each monitor, or each card?

If it were each card, that would be the easiest. But is it each monitor? If that's the case, what about moving windows between monitors? If I have a swap chain hooked to a window on one monitor, what happens when I drag it to another monitor on the same card? What about another monitor on a different card?

Thos eare the big questions, but I'm sure their answers will spawn more questions. Thanks in advance.

 

[Demirug]

D3D10 use DXGI for this part.

DXGI will enumerate every card in your system as adapter. (There are special rules when it comes to SLI/Crossfire or cards with more than one GPU.

Each monitor that is connected to an adapter is enumerated as Output for this adapter.

A window can be moved between displays that are connected to the same adapter without problems. As I don’t have a multi adapter system am not sure what happens if you try to move it to a display on a different adapter. But even if it works the content need to be copied from one adapter to another and this will slow down things.

 

[jbizzler]

Okay; that's good for now. It's nice to know to monitors can share resources and stuff on the same graphics card.

I'm still curious, though. Does anyone out there know what would happend if you tried to move a window between monitors on a multiple-adapter system?

 

[Davros]

it works fine (gf4200ti + gf4mx) cant tell you much more

asrock mboards (the ones with agp + pci-e) support what they call Surround Display (4 monitors) i have'nt tried it though

 

[Rys]

Okay; that's good for now. It's nice to know to monitors can share resources and stuff on the same graphics card.

I'm still curious, though. Does anyone out there know what would happend if you tried to move a window between monitors on a multiple-adapter system?

You get a memory copy between devices, so that the window area that needs to be on the 2nd output gets there. It's a bit more complex that just a blit when it comes to Vista and the DWM, but essentially that's what happens.