Dual displays and video cards

[lokiju]

*moved from OT*

Well I have a secondary 19" LCD on its way thanks to Hot Deals, I realized however today that since I have a 9700 All In Wonder that I only have the choice of one video out to a monitor (not counting a TV).

My whole intend for using this second LCD is to have an expanded desktop that goes from one to the other.

So for those of you out there in my shoes that already have done this, what did you find being the best situation?

I've heard of issues with mixing brands of video cards (ATI with Nvida).

I'd guess that the best solution would be to get another ATI chipset video card thats PCI since I'm not really ready to fork out the couple hundred needed to get what I'd really want.


Any input would be appreicated.


EDIT: both Monitors have support for either VGA or DVI.

 

[cbehnken]

The 9700 AIW should have a DVI and a VGA output as well as any TV stuff. You use the DVI output and the VGA one for your monitors. If your monitors are both VGA then use the DVI-VGA adapter that came with your card.

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: cbehnken
The 9700 AIW should have a DVI and a VGA output as well as any TV stuff. You use the DVI output and the VGA one for your monitors. If your monitors are both VGA then use the DVI-VGA adapter that came with your card.

Wish it did, but its DVI on the card and comes with the adapter to convert it to VGA.

 

[ZobarStyl]

Rather than get a cheap-o PCI card for the second monitor, you'd probably be better off selling the 9700 AIW (which would still fetch a decent price) then grab a decent dual output card (6600GT with Dual DVI comes to mind). The only problem comes if you really liked the AIW functions of the old card, but then again I'd probably opt for a separate solution like a Hauppage tuner if I were you. I just think the idea of using a low-end PCI with a mid-range AGP card is unneccessary when most AGP cards will do dual monitor no problem...hell I did it on my old Ti4200 before I upgraded.