Dual monitor video card


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Old 10-29-03, 05:45 AM
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Question Dual monitor video card

1.3 gig Athalon on a Asus A7V8X board, 256 meg ram,40 & 20 gig hd's, 64 meg video.


My digital photograpy habit would make it very convenient to have a second monitor for a couple of people to view pics without having to crowd around my 19" crt.
Bigger crt's are really coming down in price and I have an idea to run dual monitors.
The techs in our rural area don't have much experience with this. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to go about this.
 
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Old 10-29-03, 06:15 AM
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I run dual video monitors. I love it so much I will never go back to a single monitor. I use it for an expanded desktop, not using two monitors with identical views. you can drag windows from one monitor to the other. Great for multi-tasking. But you can also configure it so that both monitors are showing the exact same thing.

I personally do it using WindowsXP and two video cards, because I had the second one sitting in a box. However, There are several single-video-cards that will drive two monitors at once. Radeon VE is supposed to. NVidia makes ones with "twinview". Don't expect to get good video viewing or games out of the second monitor though (there is no hardware acceleration).
 
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Old 10-29-03, 08:08 AM
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I've been doing this with the ATI Radeon VE for about 2 years now - it's great for web development, research, editing pics, etc.

The Radeon VE (and a few of the other cards out) have the DVI output for LCD monitors on them, in addition to a VGA out - the DVI can be converted to a VGA with a simple adapter (it was included with my card.) This allows you to connect 2 monitors to one card (IMO, better than using separate cards.)

Good luck!
 
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Old 10-29-03, 09:14 AM
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I had a 3rd party Radeon VE card with two VGA outputs (no DVI). the secondary display was much darker/dull than the primary display. I suspect it was because of the connector/ribbon cable required for the second display.

If you can get one that has both VGA outputs ON the actual card I would recommend it. I think these Radeon VE cards are only about $40 now. Don't even try to use one for gaming though.

The darker display problem is what moved me towards two seperate video cards, mostly because I had the spare one around.
 
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Old 11-01-03, 06:39 AM
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Took the plunge.

Thank you all for your input.

My dealer has Matrox cards available and I ordered the G-550


Image credit:matrox.com

It will be in at the end of next week and I'll let you know how I make out.
(I now have to somehow convince my better half I will need a new 19" crt.)
 
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Old 11-04-03, 05:45 PM
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Wink Matrox dual head 450's

I have two systems running Matrox 450's. On one system I go to a Switchman 4 port with 3 other systems connected and the other vga port of the maxtro attached to a Flatscreen. This way I can monitor the activity of Jobs running and flip back to the controls and view of the application when needed. Several utilities are packed - one provides a virtual desktop...
 
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Old 11-11-03, 05:37 PM
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Got the card installed and tried it on my son's 15" crt.
Looks like it will do what I want.

Now that my wife has discovered the digital camera she will be a pushover for a second 19", .20 dot pitch flat crt.
 
 

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