Dual display

[BongoDave]

I'm building a computer for a friend for little video editing and little gaming. I got everything execpt the video card that i'm getting tomorow. I got Asus A7N8X delux, XP2500, 512, 2x80gig WD, 2x19" monitor, but for the video card, i'm still in the dark. I would have put a Matrox G550 in that machine but it's king of an old card and game perf. are king of poor (I know....not a gamers card.....but 1 of the best dual display). The guy cannot wait for the new P650 or P750 (matrox). So i came up with 2 solution that i'm exposing to you: 2 video card from ATI (ATI Radeon 9100 128Mb DDR [TV Out] + PowerColor ATI Radeon 7000 32Mb [TV Out] PCI) or a MSI GeF4 Ti4200 8X 128MB Dual DVI TV (or the 4800SE model) that do dual display.

Now, is the dual display on the MSI real or is it sh***t? will i lose performance with the MSI in gaming with dual display enable or will i have to disable dual display when playing a game? And finaly....what should i go for.

PS: i'm realy looking forward on the 2 ATI solution!!!

Bongo

 

[Viper96720]

You can do dual display with one 9100. Otherwise go for a 9500pro or 9600pro.
http://mirror.ati.com/companyinfo/glossary/hydravision/index.html

 

[Confused]

I've got the MSI Ti4200, and I'm running dual displays, and it's nice

Games won't use the dual displays, but I don't find any performance drop from having the 2nd monitor enabled and just diaplaying the desktop, it's just a little distracting at times!

The 4200 will have slightly better gaming performance than the 9100 i think, from what I can remember, unless you want to play with AA/AF enabled, in which case the 9100 won't take as much as a hit with them enabled as the GF4 will

Confused

 

[ProviaFan]

Since he can't wait for the Matrox card, but he needs good 2D IQ, I would definitely suggest one of the ATI cards (especially a built-by-ATI card), for a good mix of 2D IQ and 3D perf.