Advice on dual-display configuration with CRT + LCD

[mfeller2]

I am looking to add a second display. My current monitor is a 19" CRT. I am looking to add an LCD display. Having not worked with dual displays before, I have a few questions...

If I prefer to play a full-screen game on the CRT, do I have any limitations on doing so--will Windows lock me into one display? What happens on the LCD? Is there a performance impact that I need to be aware of? Are there other things I should think about?

(Some background--I am buying the LCD for work I do from home. My PC has an older graphics card--Radeon 8500, which should support a 1680x1050 display for 2D, but would have problems running any semi-modern game at that resolution. I have read that LCD displays do not look so good when running at non-native resolutions. If true, I would want to run any lower-resolution game on the CRT. I do plan to upgrade the PC at some point, but not soon, and the second display has higher priority because I don't do a lot of gaming. The PC is fine performance-wise for everything else)

Thanks.

 

[Peter]

Your best match for a 19" CRT is a 20" widescreen TFT - physical screen height will be about the same, and if you run the CRT at 1400x1050 you'll even have matching pixel sizes.

When running games on either screen, you will find that most games kidnap the input focus (keyboard, mouse) such that you can't do anything on the other monitor.