Dual monitor/ video card question.....nview?

[bonanz3000]

Hello all,

I want to set up a dual monitor scheme, but for as little as possible. I have an older 15 lcd monitor that has a max resolution of 1024x768. I want to add a larger crt for the dual display at a resolution of 1600x1200. my questions are:

is it possible to set up 2 monitors at different resolutions?

I've seen a set up with what i believe is nview on an nvidia card and really liked a lot of the features for a 2 monitor setup. what would be a basic card that supports all of this and includes the nview software.

No gaming will be done on this machine. I would ideally like to use the lcd screen for multitasking such as surfing around and doing various things at the lower resolution while on the crt is a project that takes up the whole screen and would benefit from the higher resolution.

If it is not possible for the 2 resolutions i would still appreciate suggestions for an inexpensive card that includes the nview features for office applications and such and some slight multimedia (no gaming)

Thanks
bonanz

 

[bonanz3000]

no help? is this really that dumb of a question? Searching around i found something that says separate resolutions and refresh rates are possbile. But can anyone still suggest a card or possibly identify any problems with the setup I am trying to configure?

thanks
bonanz

 

[ZobarStyl]

yeah there are programs like MultiRes that allow you to have 2 different resolutions for the two monitors (I just tried it out to make sure, it works). The problem is, one of the coolest things about dual screening, dragging around multiple objects to each side of the screen (I moved this reply window to the left screen while the post was on the right), won't work as well because the objects moving between resolutions will mutate to bigger/smaller as they traverse the monitors, which to be honest is kinda confusing/annoying. However, once again, it DOES work, and that's just my personal preference. I think you'll find that with 2 monitors at 1024x768 (what I use, my eyes are too blind to enjoy higher res) you'll have plenty of desktop real estate and it may not be necessary.

But yeah, do a search for Multi-Res, you can change individual refresh rates and resolutions for each monitor on the fly, a must have for dualling.

Edit: You can also change these settings with XP's built in multi-mon support, but you can't change refresh rates for each mon, just FYI. That's what multi-res is for.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Both ATI's and Nvidia's drivers allow for asynchronous resolutions set on multi-screen displays. You don't need any third party software - just get recent drivers for a dual-display capable card (pretty much anything you can buy these days that's newer than a GeForce 3 or Radeon 7200) and away you go!

1600X1200 and 1024X768 on two monitors would not be a problem at all with even a GeForce4 MX or Radeon 7500 card, as long as they had dual video outputs.