dual monitor setup.

[blazingoat]

Right now I have an ATI AIW 7500 vid card in my AGP slot. I have two 17" LCD monitors that I want to setup in dual monitor. (I'm using windows 2000)
I was thinking of getting a cheap PCI videocard (maybe a radeon 32mb) and using that to power the second monitor. I'm told that windows 2000 can handle this. My AIW 7500 doesn't support dual monitor, and I really want to keep this card, because I use the TV and analagoue inputs alot.

Does anyone have experience using two seperate video cards for dual-monitor? Is this even going to work, or am I better off just to get a dual-monitor capable card (like the radeon VE)... It's just that I don't want to loose my "AIW" features.

 

[blazingoat]

bump

 

[JDub02]

Yep, you can do dual vid cards for dual monitors, either 2 PCI's or AGP/PCI setup. I used to use a setup like that when building CAD workstations.

 

[propellerhead]

I have a GeForce3/AGP, ATI Xpert 128/PCI and ATI Xpert32/PCI. I like it a lot.

At work, we have a dual head video card in one of our test stations. It sucks because when you maximize an application, it expands across both monitors. Using multiple video cards like I have, the applications maximize on one monitor only.

 

[tenoc]

Yeah, an ATI PCI card is your best bet for "playing nice" with what you have.

 

[blazingoat]

propellerhead:

That sounds good, but is it POSSIBlE to maximize one program over both monitors?
The only program i might want to do this with is Adobe Premeire.

Also, anyone know if the TV display from my AIW card will be viewable on both monitors, or just on the monitor that is hooked up to that card. (ie, it won't be viewable on the monitor that's hooked up to the PCI card.)

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: blazingoat
propellerhead:

That sounds good, but is it POSSIBlE to maximize one program over both monitors?
The only program i might want to do this with is Adobe Premeire.

Also, anyone know if the TV display from my AIW card will be viewable on both monitors, or just on the monitor that is hooked up to that card. (ie, it won't be viewable on the monitor that's hooked up to the PCI card.)

I have heard rumors of two ATI Radeons not working well together, but an ATI Radeon plus an Xpert something-or-other have been, in my personal experience, a good combo. ATI's HydraVision software affords quite a bit of flexibility in application maximization settings, as well as many other options for enhancing dual monitor setups. Your TV display most likely uses a video overlay, so it will only work on your primary card (the 7500 AIW).

 

[propellerhead]

Originally posted by: blazingoat
propellerhead:

That sounds good, but is it POSSIBlE to maximize one program over both monitors?
The only program i might want to do this with is Adobe Premeire.

Also, anyone know if the TV display from my AIW card will be viewable on both monitors, or just on the monitor that is hooked up to that card. (ie, it won't be viewable on the monitor that's hooked up to the PCI card.)

Windowed applications can be stretched across multiple monitors. No problem at all, but it looks funny if you have different resolutions. It will work best with identical monitors.

The TV display bypasses the Windows GUI handler and talks directly to the primary video card -- the one that your BIOS initializes first. The TV picture is limited to the primary display.