dual monitor setup

[3fingersalute]

Ouch! I stand corrected! Very interesting info on dual card support. In the past, I guess I've just done things the easy way.

Right. Unfortunately for me, I usually do it the cheap way (using old spare parts, etc.)

[Shard92]

The reason I'm asking is, if you need to buy a new video card already, why not just grab something like this or something similar.

There are a lot of nice 256MB dual-display cards out there to be picked up for under $75. That one is $54, with a $15 mail-in rebate, taking you down to $39 (plus shipping), and I bet you're paying close to that for the new pci card.

Well he ordered and tried that card


Now he has decided he didn't like the performance of the card.... and is either going back to the 9200 or maybe order something different....

[3fingersalute]

Well he ordered and tried that card


Now he has decided he didn't like the performance of the card.... and is either going back to the 9200 or maybe order something different....

Sorry, I wasn't reccomending that exact card, just something along those lines.

[Shard92]

Sorry, I wasn't reccomending that exact card, just something along those lines.

Yeah I know but he jumped at it and it was ordered ( because it was cheap and he'd only have to use one card ) but then he decides he needs better performance.... don't worry he's like that all the time.....

[Poseidon]

A great Multi-Monitor utility that works well with multiple video cards: Ultramon. I have used it in the past to configure dual video cards that were different brands even.
nVidia - agp, and ATI - pci, on a windows 2000 machine.

[ShadowWynd]

Your chances of sucess are markedly better on 2k/XP than on Win9x. Yes, I have seen Win9x systems running double video cards - but there is usually a host of errors bus conflicts and configuration nightmares to get them working.

The easiest way I have found is to get one of the Hydra (ATI) cards or one of the multiheaded Nvidia cards - some of those allow for multiple desktops. Barring that, try and get cards from the same manufacturer. A lot of the older PCI cards play nicely at ALL with cards from other brands.

[arch0nmyc0n]

at the risk of sounding like I'm hijacking the thread

I remember back in the days of 98 and 2000 just coming out that you couldn't use directx games on one monitor and have a windows desktop on the other, or at least I couldn't get it to work with my hardware, is this possible now?

[Poseidon]

at the risk of sounding like I'm hijacking the thread

I remember back in the days of 98 and 2000 just coming out that you couldn't use directx games on one monitor and have a windows desktop on the other, or at least I couldn't get it to work with my hardware, is this possible now?

Yes, you can create a custom script with-in Ultramon to automatically disable the secondary monitor when you launch a specific application. As for support for multimontior gaming it works great with Matrox cards; however, I have found dual monitor gaming works best with the dual-head cards and personally I am a little biased towards nVidia, using nVidia's desktop/profile software.
But that is just my 2¢

[arch0nmyc0n]

well I was actually hoping for having one screen running the game and the other with a web browser and maybe a IM program running in it....

[Poseidon]

well I was actually hoping for having one screen running the game and the other with a web browser and maybe a IM program running in it....

To accomplish that, I found the only practical way is to run game in "windowed mode" versus full screen. Depending on the game, you may run into some key mapping issues.

[3fingersalute]

Here's an easy, 2 step process:

1. Get a laptop.
2. Set laptop on desk beside LCD.

[Fubarian]

Here's an easy, 2 step process:

1. Get a laptop.
2. Set laptop on desk beside LCD.

DING! tell the man what he's won!

[Poseidon]

Here's an easy, 2 step process:

1. Get a laptop.
2. Set laptop on desk beside LCD.

DING! tell the man what he's won!