how to get dual monitors working

[aj2003]

ive just bought a nice big new 22" monitor but i was wondering what i needed to set my old 15" one as a secondery monitor. i know il need a new graphics card but which one is the best for around £120-£140 or would it be better to buy 2 seperate ones? like a cheap pci low end one for the small monitor? both monitors have the 15 pin d-sub which i think is the standard and all the cards ive seen only have 1 port for these? how would i go about setting it up and would i be able to use the 22" for say playin a game and havin msn on the smaller one?

thanks

 

[ShoobieRat]

You can't run two independant graphics cards like that.

You'll have to buy a card that supports dual monitors (has two monitor outputs).

You're going to probably have some problems, though, if you aren't careful. Most cards only support dual-monitor modes if BOTH monitors are set at the SAME resolution and frequency. Usually, only high-end cards can support seperate resolution desktops.

 

[Spartan 1394]

What you should do is buy a card like the 9800 Pro and a get a DVI to D-sub connector, which may come with the Radeon if you buy it from ATi. Connect your 22'' to the D-sub connector and attach the old monitor to the DVI converter.

You're going to probably have some problems, though, if you aren't careful. Most cards only support dual-monitor modes if BOTH monitors are set at the SAME resolution and frequency. Usually, only high-end cards can support seperate resolution desktops.

I don't know about all that, unless a Radeon 9800 Pro is considered High-End.

You can't run two independant graphics cards like that.

Actually you can. I have a Radeon 9800 Pro and a PCI Radeon 7000 running three monitors. At two different resolutions. One is running 1600x1200 and the other two are running at 1024x768.

 

[madmonk888]

i know this is not really relevant .. but im dying of curiousity.. why would you want 3 monitors? i mean .. wouldnt they all display the same thing ?

 

[Ankush09]

you dont need to buy a graphics cards with dual crt outputs...you can buy onewhich has dvi, crt, svideo like the nvidia geforce fx5200 which is like $50US, and get a dvi to crt converter and you will have 2 crt outputs

 

[eipeks]

I have had a little experience with dual monitors. First, I am going to assume you do not want to spend alot of money, and you dont have to....

Yes, you can run 2 monitors on 2 seperate video cards. You can get a cheap one for 80 bux or less these days. It works alot better, however, if one was AGP and one was PCI. Just seems to go smoother.

I had dual monitors running on an old Voodoo 3 PCI 16 MB card and a GF2 MX400 32 MB. Worked ok actually.

Remember, you cannot have 2 AGP's!

If you have AGP and PCI, remember to also set your primary card as default in your BIOS.


Both Radeon and Nvidia cards have software to tweak your dual screens.

 

[Spartan 1394]

i know this is not really relevant .. but im dying of curiousity.. why would you want 3 monitors? i mean .. wouldnt they all display the same thing ?

For me it's about having multiple things going on. I will will have firefox running on the main monitor, winamp and MSN messenger on the one on the right, and AIM windows on the left monitor. And it also helps when using 3D modeling programs (blender). Example: I want to make a model of a particular car, say the Mitsubishi 3000GT. Well instead if switching back and forth between blender and the picture of the car, I can have a picture of the front of the car running on the monitor on the right and I side view of the car on the left monitor. Instead of having to try to "memorize" how the car looks, I just glance to my right or left. It's just more efficient for multi-tasking.

 

[aj2003]

ok so would it work better to have a

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9200 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/9200_Series.html

and a

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/9700_to_9800_Series.html

or just to buy one 9800pro and run both off that one?

i dont mind spending around £200 (GBP)
I would only use the old monitor to msn and foobar2000. it can only handle 1024 by 768 at 60htz so i need to knwo itf they can work at different resolutions. thanks

 

[ZËÐ]

Most Ati Cards allow dual monitor output, i gots an old Ati Radeon 7000 and It supports dual monitors.

 

[ShoobieRat]

I got a pair of these: http://www.alienware.com/GearShop_Pages/Gear_Shop_Detail.aspx?ItemId=12875

in October, and let me tell ya, they make managing multiple monitors slick! Now, I can have multiple things going on, as usual, but I hardly have to move my chair at all!