AIW 8500 128MB

[SH3200]

Hi i just got my AIW 8500 128MB from commie USA an was wondering if there was some way to dual monitor it. Currently i cant think of any other way and am thinking of buying a DVI to dual VGA from someone at school who has a matrox parhelia and only uses 1 monitor. Will this work with the AIW 8500 or are there any easier ways to do it ? thxs in advance

 

[AnAndAustin]

Unless someone knows otherwise no AIW inc Rad9700 allow dual monitor support, that is the one of biggest downside to the wonderful AIW cards, others being the price and the fact you have to 'throw away' the great AIW functionality when your card's 3D gets too long in the tooth. You could add a PCI card, many people have had great success using that method for dual display. If only ATI used a seperate break-out type box for the AIW functionality then users wouldn't have to keep forking out for the same AIW stuff every time they upgrade their card.

 

[Agamar]

Yeah, I had 2 AIW (the 128 16M and the 128 Pro 32M). I finally got wise and bought a TV Wonder PCI. Now I can just upgrade my graphics card and it is all good.

 

[alkemyst]

anyone know what TV tuner is the one of choice for XP?

 

[rbV5]

If only ATI used a seperate break-out type box for the AIW functionality then users wouldn't have to keep forking out for the same AIW stuff every time they upgrade their card.

Or you can be smart and unload your old AIW cards for a premium. I've never had any trouble getting rid of my older AIW cards for a good price, and most people could care less about playing the latest and greatest games, especially folks that look to the functionality of an AIW type card. You can also offset a fair amount by getting a bare card and reusing the cables and adapters, the AIW cards are always the exact same "built by" ATI cards whether it is OEM or Retail, and all the AIW cards including the AIW 9700 pro (except the 8500dv uses a different breakout box), use the same connectors/adapters, remote ect.

The Rage Theater, and new Theater Chip use the GPU/VPU for a great deal of thier functionality, which is why the TV Wonder (or any other addon PCI/usb TV card) mated with another AGP 3D card will always be a trade-off from the AIW when you consider the multimedia feature set, the AIW 9700 will only widen that gap.

On topic now
I don't believe the DVI X dual VGA adaptor will work. You'll need to add a PCI card for dual monitor support. I used to use a V3 2000 PCI with my old AIW Radeon for dual monitors and had to disable the V3 when I was capturing video, or watching TV on the PC...newer drivers, or some workaround may enable that functionality currently, I don't know. It wasn't that big a deal, and the dual monitors worked well and were easy to setup in Win XP.

 

[SH3200]

lol i got my AIW 8500 128MB for $144 after rebates so im not complaining about paying a premium thxs anyways guyz