Dual Display Questions

[NoStateofMind]

Hey guys. I'm currently using an LG 226WTQ and was thinking of using my old CRT for dual display. I have a few questions:

1. Can you run two separate desktops?

2. Can you run a game/movie on one and surf on the other?

3. How would I set this up with my ATi X1900XT?

4. Would it be a problem if one is 16:10 (1680x1050) and one 4:3 (1280x1024)?

Any other suggestions, concerns or information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[xtknight]

1. I know you can do this with NVIDIA (DualView) but it is a Windows feature as well.
2. Yes, if you have adequate graphics power.
3. Just plug in the second monitor and run Catalyst Control Center to enable it.
4. No, they should be able to run either with one scaling or both at native resolution.

 

[betasub]

2. 3D games will steal the focus of your keyboard/mouse, unless in windowed mode. This makes it difficult to navigate on the "surfing" desktop/monitor.

 

[aka1nas]

1) Yes, this is called Dualview on Nvidia cards and is also an option on ATI's CCC.

2) As mentioned above, full screen games will still reserve focus on the gaming monitor. You might actually have an issue with a few games that don't do this where the mouse will keep going past the gaming monitor onto the surfing monitor if you move it too much.

4) If you set it up as in answer 1 the two displays can have completely independent resolutions and aspect ratios.

 

[najames]

I am using dual monitors as I type, Dell PC at work with 2 cheap Dell 19" E193FP monitors. It uses Intel 915G onboad video for one and a ATI 7000 PCI card for the other monitor. One has the desktop (left), the other is standard wallpaper. The primary monitor can be switched in WinXP control panel too.

The mouse goes across both screens and they can independelty display anything you would normally see on one monitor. It works very nice except the PCI video card needs to be reseated about ever 6 months for some odd reason.

Now you can find 2 x 20-22" monitors for me and let me know what video card I should use or add another to my 690G onboard video at home!!! So far it looks like HP monitors, I think I should get HDCP, not totally sure though since they don't do 1920x1080. This is driving me nucking futs.