Dual monitors with AGP & PCI Video card query.

[gimlids]

I'm planning on buying a pci video card and monitor in addition to my GF3 and monitor in order to use two monitors. I'd like to know anything you have to say about how this would work, experience you've had, whatever. To spark your imaginations!: can video spread over the two monitors? can dvd? does windows (2k) offer good window management? is there a 3rd party item of software for this? will nVidia nView work with an nvidia card + non-nvidia card? with nvidia card and nvidia card? (or just for dual-display cards...) can i stretch the taskbar across both screens?

after you spill your guts, any suggestiongs for a pci video card to go along with my MSI GeForce3 Ti200 VIVO?

or maybe you'd just prefer to skip all that and give me a link to something.

thanks!

 

[Chipster]

I use a voodoo 3 pci for my the secondary monitor under XP and have no problems at all with it.You cannot stretch video or dvd onto both monitors at the same time but you can drag window over to which ever monitor you feel like watching,well at least with the video clips,i never tried with DVD. I can't stretch taskbar onto two monitors either.

I'll put a link below for you gimlids to a multimonitor info. web site....The site actually sells some software for multimonitor setups,I don't use it myself but the site may help you out anyways.I'll direct you to there FAQ section.
Once you go to dual monitors,you'll never want to use just 1...It makes things alot easier in my opinion and is great for multi-tasking. Good Luck.

Link

 

[mangled]

Originally posted by: gimlids
I'm planning on buying a pci video card and monitor in addition to my GF3 and monitor in order to use two monitors. I'd like to know anything you have to say about how this would work, experience you've had, whatever. To spark your imaginations!: can video spread over the two monitors? can dvd? does windows (2k) offer good window management? is there a 3rd party item of software for this? will nVidia nView work with an nvidia card + non-nvidia card? with nvidia card and nvidia card? (or just for dual-display cards...) can i stretch the taskbar across both screens?

after you spill your guts, any suggestiongs for a pci video card to go along with my MSI GeForce3 Ti200 VIVO?

or maybe you'd just prefer to skip all that and give me a link to something.

thanks!

I've used dual cards with Win2k and now WinXP. I had a Geforce 3 and cheap Savage 3D (8mb) pci card for the second monitor. The GF3 has now been replace with a GF4.

You don't need any additional software for this to work. nview will work too. Just put the second card in, install the drivers, and that's it. You can't, and wouldn't want, to stretch video across the two. You really don't want to drag the taskbar across both either. You can set the resolution and bit depth for each indivudually. And in System Properties, settings tab you can drag the 2nd monitor to line up however you want with the other monitor. You can drag and drop windows into either of the two, and windows will automatically remember where you dragged a window and open it in that monitor. For example I leave IE open in the main monitor and have Outlook open automatically into the 2nd monitor to the left. It's even better when you're doing something like webdesign and you can have Dreamweaver and Photoshop open in both monitors and drag and drop. My favorite is having IM chat windows open on the second monitor while I'm surfing or working on the main monitor. Those pesky windows don't get in the way! Just make sure AGP is set at the priority startup in your bios so your games don't launch on the second monitor.

Any other questions feel free to ask. I've been using dual monitors with two video cards for about two years now and will never go back to one!

 

[powerMarkymark]

I'm using an ATI Radeon 7000 PCI for my secondary display with my GF3 Ti200 primary AGP card. After updating my ATI drivers everything works like a charm.

You can sometimes stretch Divx video accross your two monitors, depends on which player you are using.

HTH.

Mark

 

[01AccordV6Coupe]

Speaking of dual setups, I just got an aopen gf3 ti200 w/ tv out (s-video) where can a get an dvi-to-analog adapter to run my 2 analog monitors? (OEM model didn't come w/ the dongle)

 

[Twinhead]

What about if I have a onboard VGA and AGP video card? Will this work for dual monitor setup?

 

[gimlids]

Yup, my friend does that. You should probably do something like set the AGP card to initialize first.

 

[Twinhead]

Thanks gimlids.

But I still thinking to get another cheapo PCI video card because I think onboard VGA will still eat up pretty much of resources.
Do you think so?

 

[Twinhead]

Well, just tested the onboard VGA to setup dual monitor. It seems like doesn't work at all.
When I enabled the onboard VGA, my ASUS mobo was just ignored the external AGP.

Anyone has any clue?

 

[gimlids]

Most newer on-board graphics cards do use system RAM, so it would be beneficial to use a PCI video card with its own memory. You can only use 3D acceleration on the primary adapter (so make sure it's the AGP card) so you need only consider 2D on the secondary card.

That said, someone built a panoramic display with three LCD's across and one on the bottom with 1 AGP and 3 PCI graphics adapters and hacked Flight Simulator to use all 4 screens, but that is beyond me and you, as well as the subject of this thread.

To recap: buy a nice PCI card; shouldn't have to pay more than 40.

 

[gimlids]

Check out ASUS's website and look around in the BIOS to make sure both adapters are enabled, and that AGP is initialized first.

 

[Twinhead]

Thanks for the info gimlids.

a little question here...
I have a Visiontek Geforce3 Ti 500 with DVI-OUT. I couldn't do dual monitor setup using this card with DVI-VGA converter.
Do you know if this video card supports dual CRT monitor?

 

[Twinhead]

I tried to check its spec but no clue.

 

[gimlids]

I doubt it supports dual monitors if that was not specifically advertised. You could start a new post to get some help getting the dual monitor setup to work. Also, make sure Windows is aware of both adapters (maybe need to reinstall on-board drivers?) and that they are configured with Windows (in the Display Properties).

 

[zsouthboy]

Twinhead, on most mobo's with onboard video, when you stick an agp card in, it disables the onboard, and then you try to re enable the onboard, it disables the AGP.... its because the onboard graphics has to use the AGP bus(so they don't have to build any video memory into the chipset)..... only one can be in use at once, sorry.... however if your primary vid card is PCI it will work just fine.


got it?

any other questions just ask..

zs

 

[MournSanity]

Would a Nvidia TNT card work for this? I cna get one for like $5 so...Dunno if it is TNT2 or whatnot.

 

[Twinhead]

thanks zsouthboy...someone was telling something about UltraMon program...

do u know anything about that program?

 

[zsouthboy]

Originally posted by: Twinhead
thanks zsouthboy...someone was telling something about UltraMon program...

do u know anything about that program?

No, haven't even heard of it, but I am gonna go research it now.

zs

 

[zsouthboy]

just checked out UltraMon...... seems fine.....it does have a fully functional trial period.....

My personal comp. isn;t working right now, or i'd try it myself.

zs

 

[Twinhead]

Is that a program that help setup dual monitor

or

it does just like what nView does, with just more functions?

 

[gimlids]

UltraMon does not help with monitor setup, it does what nView does, although I think it has some features that disable a certain adapter when it is encessary or appropriate, although I'm not sure.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Ultramon is the best program to use for Dual Monitors.

You can disbale the second monitor with one click, and also select different wallaper for each different monitor, or span across both monitors

Download it