Will windows 7 have span mode... vista let me down... =/My WHS build: Processor = AMD 3600 X2 ~ 1.9GHz

Thanks for the reply.That is not what im talking about unfortinatly. What i am talking about is having all one resolution instead of having two monitors with two resolutions. It is called span mode, not extending.My WHS build: Processor = AMD 3600 X2 ~ 1.9GHz

I'm looking for the same thing.I've got 3x 1600x1200 monitors, and I want to have the option to maximize an application to 4800x1200.

The ATi Catalyst Drivers allow me to maximize Firefox to a (completely useless) 4800x1200, true. However, I want 3D applications to do that very same thing (a panoramic World of Warcraft would be an interesting novelty, but I'm really referring to using Microsoft Flight Simulator in 4800x1200 spanning resolution, in Virtual Cockpit mode, with a head-tracker like TrackIR, where "novelty" is replaced by *fully immersive*.I cannot find a way to get a 3D App to launch at any resolution higher (or wider) than the native resolution of one single monitor. Under XP, it was a snap - Select "Span Mode" in the drivers, and the WDDM allowed the drivers to "merge" the monitors into one monitor that was the size of all three combined (i.e. 4800x1200, or 1600x3600 for vertically stacked monitors, etc.)

And how you expect your video card(s) to process screen with such resolution?Even it is possible have to4800x1200 or 3360 x 1050for 3D, you will not see even slideshow, because one frame will take minutes

ROLF You have seen my specs.. In X3 Reunion and similar games am pulling over 120 frames a sec. on one monitor, I can actually run the game twice @ the same time once on each monitor and still make 40+ frames a sec on each for a total of 80 frames a sec..... so no it looks really good..You definitiely are not a gamer... since movies are less than 40 frames a sec i don't see this as an issue. & regualr TV is closer to 25Have another excuse?There are Thousands of us with systems capable of doing this... other wise intell and amd would go bankrupt and so would nvivia and ATI We push the envelope. I know you don't, not my your answer you probably don't even have a gpu in your computer, let alone one with more than 10 times the cores of your cpu.

Ventislav - At 1600x1200, I'm currently pulling 60-90 FPS in Lord of the Rings Online, with *every* detail in a gorgeous game turned to High with an ATi 4850X2 with crossfire mode OFF. When I turn Crossfire mode on, I jump up to the 150 FPS range, which is in the land of "downright silly" when my LCD is only 60 hz/FPS...Surely I could keep playable (30+) FPS at 4800x1200, with some level of reduced detail, don't you think?...Nevermind that I have an ASUS motherboard with room to put in another identical card... *twists handlebar moustache*However, if 7 continues the braindead WDDM model of Vista, then I'll be looking for a copy of XP64 that I'll keep until they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

I agree with you completly Jonathan,Any game is completly playable @ 40 fps & the 60Hz of the LCD monitors makes that easy on the gpu's Unlike my old 21" crt's that typically ran at 120Hz ...I also agree with you on the XP if windos 7 continues on the path of no span mode there will be a lot of people keeping their Xp boxes, we just have to.Also AutoCad and other high end apps need the span mode for 2 or more monitors it makes working on large 3D project modles much much easier.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102809This is not a really expensive card. it is well within reach of most people. Model Brand SAPPHIRE Model 100270SR Interface Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16 Chipset Chipset Manufacturer ATI GPU Radeon HD 4850 X2 Core clock 650MHz Stream Processors 1600 (800 x 2) Stream Processing Units Memory Memory Clock 1986MHz Memory Size 2GB Memory Interface 512-bit (256-bit x 2) Memory Type GDDR3 3D API DirectX DirectX 10.1 OpenGL OpenGL 2.1 Ports HDMI 1 via Adapter DVI 4 TV-Out HDTV / S-Video Out General RAMDAC 400 MHz Max Resolution 2560 x 1600 CrossFire Supported YesActually Jonathan's card would handle the load by itself for both monitors. and the the 4800x1200 or 3360 x 1050 is using both dvi ports, so the gpu's don't have a problem handleing this. since this card will do 5120x1600 in span mode. for 2 monitors or 7680X1600 for 3 monitors

ventislavJust so everyone know who this guy is he likes causing problems on line. and Generally insiteing people in forums,the following is an example.http://www.lavalys.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t1905.htmlhttp://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t21100.htmlalso the last link contains the answer as to how he doesn't understand these resolutions...--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ventsislav Alexandriyski----------TEMPLATE EXAMPLE-------------****Hardware-MB: Intel p965 / AMD nForce 2 / AMD nForce 570 / Intel nForce 590 SLI---MB BIOS Version: 1007 AWARD---MB brand: ASUS / EPOX -Video: GeForce 6600 AGP / GF 6600GT PCI-E / GF 7600GT AGP---Board: p277h1 / p295h1 / p229h4---Video BIOS Version: 05.43.02.69.68 / 05.43.02.41.00---Video BIOS brand: Leadtek / Aopen---Video brand: MSI / ASUS / No name-CPU: Athlon XP / Athlon 64 / Pentium D 840 / Pentium Core 2 Duo---CPU type: 32bit / 64bit---CPU real clock: 2400Mhz / 2,1Ghz-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nforce 2 couldn't hope to touch what we are doing. nor could a 6600

Disappointing to see that no Microsoft official can answer or at least have the slightest idea of what we are talking about. Windows XP had span mode in the nvidia drivers working perfectly and under Vista they say it's impossible to do. This is a reason why some people don't want to upgrade to new OS. Microsoft introduced this problem in Vista and should plan to fix it in the next product release, or else they simply fail.I actually need to reboot under XP every time I want to play a splitscreen cooperative game to have both monitors working, then get back on Vista for work and stuff, it takes some time.

This is really unbelievable, I just got another Samsung 940BF (now I have two identical) and immediately I find out that nView is not avaible in Vista "due to architectural changes". I have no words...

Wow, It has been a while sense I last checked this thread. It has been about 3 months now and still only the users (non moderators) know what were talking about here. I thought this would be a very simple to answer question either yes or no. I am fully aware of why Vista does not support this. SoVentsislav Alexandriyski, could you please stop telling us that it is a driver issue because it is not. Clearly everyone here knows that it was an architectural change. Therefore I would really apreaciate an MVP that knows what they are talking about to help me out on this subject. I would really like to upgrade to Windows 7 seeing as it is suppose to improve on Vista which as far as performance goes, the beta results are all saying it even out performs xp.... =P we'll see. thanks again for all the others that are expressing there intrest and knowlage towards this issue. =)My WHS build: Processor = AMD 3600 X2 ~ 1.9GHz

You can add your feature request to the Comments thread to have it passed on to the developement team. You had better hurry, since the 'release candidate', to be released soon, will be 'feature complete' and no more additions to features will be available in Win 7.Comments about Windows 7 Beta (Part 2):Rating posts helps other users Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP

Wow, It has been a while sense I last checked this thread. It has been about 3 months now and still only the users (non moderators) know what were talking about here. I thought this would be a very simple to answer question either yes or no. I am fully aware of why Vista does not support this. SoVentsislav Alexandriyski, could you please stop telling us that it is a driver issue because it is not. Clearly everyone here knows that it was an architectural change. Therefore I would really apreaciate an MVP that knows what they are talking about to help me out on this subject. I would really like to upgrade to Windows 7 seeing as it is suppose to improve on Vista which as far as performance goes, the beta results are all saying it even out performs xp.... =P we'll see. thanks again for all the others that are expressing there intrest and knowlage towards this issue. =) My WHS build: Processor = AMD 3600 X2 ~ 1.9GHz Hi Eibach Sorry you feel that way, this just isn't a feature that we see requested very often. It seems to be a favorite of Gamers and those people are always teaching us new things. :) The bottom line is that it doesn't do a lot of good just discussing this with other users here. You need to follow Mark's advice and let the Windows 7 Devs know what you want. Regards, Thank You for testing Windows 7 Beta Ronnie VernonForum Moderator

No. Apart from calling everyone stupid, I don't see any argumented sense in your post. You don't even seem to understand what are we talking about.

This is NOT a driver issue..., we want true multi-monitor support! Multiple taskbars Span AND Extedended for at LEAST 3 monitors as a basic option! These are driven by the OS, and the 3rd party programs like UltraMon don't even work with Win7. I have a video card that is being completely inhibited by the OS structure, not driver incompatibility. Unfortunately Mr. Alexandriyski, you don't even address what most of the common multi-monitor users are talking about.... "Is this clear enough for you?"

This is NOT a driver issue..., we want true multi-monitor support! Multiple taskbars Span AND Extedended for at LEAST 3 monitors as a basic option! These are driven by the OS, and the 3rd party programs like UltraMon don't even work with Win7. I have a video card that is being completely inhibited by the OS structure, not driver incompatibility. Unfortunately Mr. Alexandriyski, you don't even address what most of the common multi-monitor users are talking about.... "Is this clear enough for you?" Wast line of my previous message must be: "I hope now it is clear" insted of "Is this clear enough for you?!"Why it is not be as it must to beask MS forum programers, that changed forum interface to cover leads of bad moderators, that clear posts without a reason and set and remove answer marks in unacceptable maner

The Beta is already feature complete Mark!The CTP was API complete.Too late for changes now I think!Mark Wilson (MVP Virtual Machine) - http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/

Firstly, the moderators are working to a set of guidelines; however it is generally accepted that the user who opened the thread will be asked before the question is finally marked as answered by setting it to a proposed answer (unless they fail to respond).Secondly, you asked "Will windows 7 have span mode..." and the answer was given that it is a driver support issue - not an operating system function. As far as I can tell, that is true. It is also an answer, just not the one that you would like to hear I guess.So, the answer is either:"no"or "it depends on your driver"depending on whether you believe this is a driver issue or not!Mark Wilson (MVP Virtual Machine) - http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/

As far I can tell, however, nVidia at least made an official statement about it. From that point on it is just people giving their opinion who is to "blame". Though the fact remains that a "soft-enforced" spanned resolution, something available 10 years ago, remains just a myth in 2009. Seeing how two monitors behave in Vista (secondary is black until logging in, no taskbar on the other and similar basic functions that you have to buy a special 50 hi-tech application for), I somehow believe nVidia. =)

Why is this marked as an answer though it doesn't have anything to do with the topic issue? :S I do not need to understand what you think, and I doubt you understand what you want Why is this man still allowed to write in here? To keep with his offensive attitude against the rest of us? Please, go away. Offtopic: and why do the regular users even have the option to propose their own posts as answers?

Hi, today I installed ubuntu for my development machine and I noticed that the TwinView (virtualized resolution aka spanning) is still available in the official nVidia driver package, although I am having some problems with it (linux newb). My point being that nVidia did not forget or discard this feature from their driver bundles. What I know about the issue for sure so far is that the WDDM changed. Now, did the MS devs really "screw" things up so bad, or is nVidia being sloppy, not willing to invest time/energy into fixing the matter for us to be able to run the Spanning feature on the new driver model (which is probably better than the old one)?

Well, me too.Just for a bit of background- Iown a software company and have an MSDN subscription and about 35 years programming experience.I just installed Windows 7. Looks nice. I want to use it to get to know it so I can support clients and test my software on it.However, without span mode it is just unusable for me. I have 2 1600 by 1200 monitors and I need span mode for too many things.So its back toXP for me.

I'm saddened that feature appears to be missing from Win7 as I enjoyed it a lot for WoW in XP. Without it I'm definately going back to XP.

I read this on another Microsoft Forum, I hope it helps you out.<<<<Start of Message>>>>>"Hello Andrew, Thank you for using Microsoft Answers forums. Due to architectural changes in the Windows Vista Window Display Driver Model (WDDM), span mode cannot be supported in NVIDIA graphics drivers. This model is similar in Windows 7. Thank you for your time and efforts in evaluating Windows 7. Thanks for using the Answers Forum. Please let us know how this works out. Joseph Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think. Marked As Answer byJoseph - Support Engineer Sunday, May 31, 2009 5:27 AM"<<<<<End Of Message>>>>>

I read this on another Microsoft Forum, I hope it helps you out. <<<<Start of Message>>>>> "Hello Andrew, Thank you for using Microsoft Answers forums. Due to architectural changes in the Windows Vista Window Display Driver Model (WDDM), span mode cannot be supported in NVIDIA graphics drivers. This model is similar in Windows 7. Thank you for your time and efforts in evaluating Windows 7. Thanks for using the Answers Forum. Please let us know how this works out. Joseph Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think. Marked As Answer by Joseph - Support Engineer Sunday, May 31, 2009 5:27 AM" <<<<<End Of Message>>>>> That is essentially just a cop-out answer by Microsoft. They design the Windows Display Driver Model and choose not to support span modes in it. That answer is as though they have no choice, which of course they do have a choice in how they design WDDM to work. Microsoft is deliberately choosing not to support span modes in WDDM because they don't want to budget to put it back into their new driver design. That's unfortunate and a very lazy business decision on their part.Brad Hawthorne * EVGA Community Forum Moderator * www.evga.com/forums

I, too am another user who is sorely disappointed by the lack of horizontal span in Vista and now, Windows 7. I'll describe another critical use of horizontal span (for me) that no one has mentioned so far. I use two of the legendary IBM T221 DG5 displays, which have 3840 x 2400 resolution (each). No current monitor has yet to exceed this resolution, so for desktop space there is no parallel (an exception is the 4k/8k projectors, but if you have $100,000 lying around you're in a different league).Problem with these 3840 x 2400 monitors is, they require TWO dual link DVI connectors each to push that many pixels (even Displayport doesn't have a single connector bandwidth to do this). So in effect, each T221 becomes two 1920 x 2400 stripes side by side. In Vista (and I assume Windows 7) these two stripes act as totally different monitors even though they are in the same LCD panel!! Total deal breaker. With XP, horizontal span combines the two stripes and I have a 9 megapixel single monitor as it should be. XP even allows me to have two of these 9 Megapixel monitors over two video cards with four heads. Again, count me as another person who will be buying 4 less Windows 7 licences. Microsoft has disappointed me time and again by omitting this feature, though I am sure Nvidia shares some of the blame too.Yeang

I think there is a solution to No Bloody Span mode in Windows 7: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/surroundgaming/en/home/It's called TripleHead2Go... I'm going to buy it in a couple of weeks and try it out. Matrox guarantees it will work on Windows 7.Hope this helps...Left4Dead hear I come...

Hi Joseph, After having read through this forum I have to say I'm pretty damn disgusted at the MS attitude to this issue. I am currently developing SOE's for our organisation (Government), we use horizontal spanning. I Disovered this issue this morning when attempting to use this configuration in support of a user. MS need to solve this problem otherwise people like me are simply going to say to the heads of Depts. here forget Windows 7 its unsuitable for our use. We'll be recommending XP for this feature. This is very remiss of MS to leave such an important feature out. The fact that its an architectural problem is no excuse. This is simply not good enough! Its NOT just the gaming community that make use of horizontal spanning, and from my organisations perspective alone this question should remain open until MS come out with a workable solution. Last time I checked, we are the customers asking/expecting a product we pay for to live up to the expectations and precendents already set by manufacturers, not the other way around! I really dont think MS is taking this issue seriously enough! Cheers, Dave

Hi Dave This issue has always been driven by technological advances in the Graphics industry. The operating system just provides the extensibility that supports advances in the graphics technology. Both of the major graphics hardware makers have solved this problem with newer hardware drivers that provide span mode in Windows 7. ATI Calls it EyeFinity, which is available in most of their latest cards and I believe nVidia calls it SLI or 3D Vision configuration which is available in most cards that use their graphic chips. ATI Eyefinity Technology Information and Answer from nVidia Hope this helps. Thank You for using Windows 7 Ronnie Vernon MVP

Why is SPANNING MODE NOT in Windows 7??? We've been using XP with multi monitor and multi video cards with SPANNING MODE ACTIVE! WHY REMOVING THIS FEATURE??? We've built customer sulutions using these mode, why in the ... removing something that was there??? Anyway, we're just killing the Windows 7 projet, so many copies that will NOT but purchased! Unless we get some explanations... and no, this is not a video card driver problems... WDDM was modified to remove this... WHY?? Anyway, I DONT CARE about the why... we're CUSTOMERS and care about what we used to have... and an UPGRADE is not LESS but MORE, not in the case of WINDOWS 7 for sure. This is BUSINESS users talking here, not just GAMING boys!! By my tone,... yes... we're not happy. good luck

No it really doesn't help. Not trying to be rude, just factual. Your NVidia link does not answer the question of how to enable spanning on Windows 7. It's merely an explanation of which cards support dual monitors. I have one already, and don't really need a new one. It's a GeForce 8800 GS card. I've had it for a couple of years. Sure, there are newer cards, but it works the way I want it to under XP, and it doesn't under 7. This is what I like to call negative value. Unless Microsoft's objectives have changed to sell less of their product and not more I would think they might want to fix this issue. Even for "gaming boys" who happen to need an OS every now and again. I really don't care. Don't fix it. I won't upgrade. But pretending like it's not an issue doesn't make the problem go away, and it's not going to help you sell more copies of Windoze. Oh, by the way, some of us gaming boys actually work in positions where decisions are made regarding software purchasing. I might suggest our whole company just skips Windows 7 (we're not there yet and really don't need to be). Better yet, maybe we'll see if we can get by with Linux and avoid the MS tax altogether. We're already considering it for other reasons, but they mostly tie back to arogant vendors who want to force feed their customers what they don't want.

As a gamer I am totally downed that I can't play across all my screens. As an Imaging Informatics engineer I am appalled. Recently, I designed some high end systems for our Radiologists. Win 7 is completely useless to us since the diagnostic imaging controllers for our 3 and 5 megapixel screens will not work due to the changes from XPDM to WDDM. We had to put old XP 64 on these $9000 medical workstations to be able to use them at all. Bad move M$. Even xp-mode would not work to solve the issue. Please fix this. What happened to backwards compatibility?? Wasn't win 7 supposed to be better at it than Vista, doesn't look like it. Thank goodness I didnt invest more money in high res IPS panels that require Dual-Link DVI. Would have just wasted my money as they appear to not work with win7s new graphics architecture either.

Upgrade to the Windows 8 abomination. It adds back horizontal span (besides ruining everything else) due to Metro.