Best vid card to hook up 2 monitors at once?

[sekser]

can anyone recommend a video card for me to hook up 2 monitors at once to one PC... i am willing to spend up to $175.00 for the card?

Thanks

 

[sparkyclarky]

Almost anything from nVidia or ATI in the $75-$175 bracket that has dual VGA (or DVI) will work for you. We need to know if you plan on gaming, what sort of monitors you're using, and other general things about your usage. I'll throw in a general comment (which may or may not get flamed) - I've heard that nVidia has a more robust dual monitor configuration than ATI (e.g. the control center is better and has more features). I personally have a 6800GT running dual flat panels over DVI and the multi monitor setup works quite well. However, in the lower price bracket you're looking at, ATI may very well have a better image quality then the nVidia based cards.

 

[sekser]

hi, i want to do photoshop on one screen and dreamweaver on the other machine.. and website work. that's about it.... gaming will be limited

Thanks

 

[Tiamat]

If you are doing high resolution 2D, then Matrox is the make of the card you want. Probably get Matrox's card that you can afford. They usually have superior 2D than ATI or nVidea for resolutions greater than 1600x1200

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
If you are doing high resolution 2D, then Matrox is the make of the card you want. Probably get Matrox's card that you can afford. They usually have superior 2D than ATI or nVidea for resolutions greater than 1600x1200

Matrox is good, but their gaming performance is horrible (last time I checked, the Parahelia was 30% slower than a Ti4600). However, they do have the best 2d in the business. And triple head is cool. However, their cards which tend to have more modern feature sets cost quite a bit (last time I checked).

 

[dderolph]

One option for adding a second monitor is to install a separate video card for it, a PCI card. That's what I did. My primary card is, of course, in an AGP slot. About 2 months ago, I bought an inexpensive PCI card (GeForce2 MX400) for the second monitor. Of course, you can get a higher powered PCI card if you want.

Since my primary card is a nVidia based card, Win XP did not even seek a new driver. The PCI card uses the same driver as the AGP card.