Quick Facts
- SLI and Crossfire only work when gaming in Full Screen mode. You do not need these technologies for multiboxing, and they may hamper performance and stability. The best performance gains will be had by using each video card to render its own game instances; disable SLI or Crossfire and use multiple monitors for best results!
- Selecting a GPU for rendering does not work like CPU Affinity; it is controlled by the monitor assigned to the game, and your video drivers. ISBoxer 38 will automatically render the game with the appropriate GPU.
- There is a performance hit any time a Direct3D window (such as a game) is moved from a monitor on one video card, to a monitor on another video card
- With Windows XP, there is a performance hit any time a Direct3D window is moved from one monitor to another, regardless of whether they are on the same video card
Selecting an appropriate Window Layout
The Quick Setup Wizard and the Window Layout Wizard in ISBoxer 38 both include a variety of new Window Layout styles and related options that are helpful for multiple video cards. Most importantly, if your monitors are powered by different video cards, or you are using Windows XP or earlier, you should disable the Cross-monitor swapping option when selecting a Window Layout; this will help you avoid the performance hit described in the above section.
The information below is outdated information from ISBoxer 37 and prior, and will be removed. The above information should be all you need for ISBoxer 38!
Getting the most out of multiple video cards
To multibox any game with ISBoxer, using multiple video cards, first be sure that they are not in SLI or Crossfire mode. Using SLI or Crossfire will hamper multiboxing performance instead of improve it (these technologies only operate in Full Screen mode), and usually results in instability. The best performance gains will be had by using each video card to render its own game instances. This is a limitation of the design of SLI and Crossfire technologies, not a limitation of our software.
Next, it is important to note that support for multiple video cards (or monitors) has improved from Windows XP to Windows Vista and Windows 7. With Windows XP, there is a performance hit any time a Direct3D window (such as a game) is moved from one monitor to another, unless you use special desktop spanning software provided for your video card by nVIDIA or ATI (AMD). With Windows Vista and Windows 7, there is a performance hit any time a Direct3D window is moved from one monitor to another, but only if the monitors are powered by different video cards. This information will be important for your Window Layout options, including window swapping behavior.
And finally before we move on to the instructions, it will benefit you to understand that using multiple video cards is not the same as multiple CPUs. It is a common misconception that "GPU Affinity" can be configured similar to "CPU Affinity." This is not the case. Direct3D windows are tied to a monitor, not to a GPU. This unfortunately means that you cannot have a window rendered by a GPU that is not powering a monitor. As of ISBoxer 38, ISBoxer automatically selects the monitor for your game instances, based on your Window Layout.
Configuring the display selection through World of Warcraft
As of ISBoxer 38, ISBoxer automatically selects the monitor for your game instances, based on your Window Layout. This section is no longer necessary and will be removed.
If you're not playing World of Warcraft, skip to "through Inner Space" below.
As of WoW 4.0.1, there is now an option to select the monitor in the game's video options panel, in the upper right corner, directly above the Multisampling drop-down box. This option is the easiest way to select the display for World of Warcraft. Select the desired monitor for each character, and then close and re-start the game windows. If your Character Set was created by the Quick Setup Wizard, these settings are automatically kept separate per Character for you.
Configuring the display selection through Inner Space
As of ISBoxer 38, ISBoxer automatically selects the monitor for your game instances, based on your Window Layout. This section is no longer necessary and will be removed.
- Right click the Inner Space icon in the system tray and select Configuration
- Click the Game Configuration tab
- Select the Game to configure from the drop-down box
- Select the Game Profile to configure from the next drop-down box
- Select the monitor from the "Display selection" drop-down box. By default, this option is set to "Application defined," meaning it's up to the game to decide. 4 monitors are always listed, regardless of the number of monitors actually attached to your PC. The order of the monitors is the same as shown in ISBoxer
Since this option is configured per Game Profile, you will need a Game Profile for each monitor. The easiest way to do this is to use the Add Game button from the Inner Space menu, and repeat the above instructions for the new profile.
