dual VGA display and other issues

[DJFuji]

I currently have two VGA Monitors running from an AGP 32mb GF2 GTS2 and a PCI GF4 MX440 w/ TV Out. This runs from a 1.2G Athlon "C" (133fsb) and 768 PC133 SDRAM.

1. Well first thing is that UT2004 runs at BARELY 30fps at 640x480. Is this normal with this kind of setup?

2. Assuming this is normal, i'd like to upgrade my video card along with CPU and mobo. Haven't decided what particular cpu/mobo yet, but leaning towards an A64/2800 or 3000+ setup. As far as video is concerned, I'd like to continue using the two monitors i already have. I'm definitely learning towards the R9800 Pro.

So I can do one of two things:

a) Try to find a Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb with dual VGA heads and TV Out. (if anyone has seen this, let me know. Couldn't find anything on it)

b) Buy a standard R9800 Pro and use my existing GF4 MX440 w/ TV OUT and pray to god that the NVidia and ATi drivers don't cause problems.

So far my current setup is great, except the second display runs horribly slow. I don't know exactly why. I can't run any emulator games from it (using kawaks), or even standard Divx/MPEG Video. Video runs ok for the most part, but tends to "freeze" every few minutes while audio continues. And of course, since this is my TV Out card, it freezes on the TV, too.

If anyone has any ideas on this, shoot them my way. I'd love to be able to actually USE my TVOUT.

And while i'm rambling on about tvout, how good is tvout quality on the radeons? Good enough for DVD output on a TV? Because I use my computer's DVD drive as a DVD player...

 

[HardWarrior]

1. You need a new CPU\mb\RAM if you want to play 2k4 with reasonable FPS. Your selection for a proposed system will give you that, no problem.

2. A new vid (with your current setup) will help, but not that much.

3. I think most ATI and nVidia cards come with dual monitor support and TV out of some sort.

 

[DJFuji]

3. Most cards come with DVI and VGA Out support. The problem is that i have two CRTs using VGA ports. So i need a dual head VGA card, and i can't seem to find any of those. I'm thinking i'll probably just have to bite the bullet and hope that i can use my existing PCI Card with a R9800 Pro.

 

[HardWarrior]

I've got two VGA monitors attached to my 9800P right now. One uses a dongle to make it compatible with the DVI out. It came with my card.

 

[Matthias99]

One thing to note is that most "dual head" cards, even if they have TV-out, only have two RAMDACs. So if you have two monitors hooked up, the TV-out has to "mirror" one of the monitors, rather than being a separate third display. If you want an independent display on the TV, you'll need to use a PCI card with TV-out. The good news is that apparently running ATI and NVIDIA cards at the same time works fine, since the drivers are totally separate.

All 9800Pros that I've seen have VGA, DVI-I (can be converted to VGA with an adaptor), and TV-out.

 

[DJFuji]

ok that's what i was looking for. I didnt know the DVI could be converted over to VGA. How's the quality look? About the same?

I don't want a TV as a third display-- i just want to be able to watch dvds and videos on my tv instead of my monitor. Mirrored displays are ok.

Anyone seen the DVI-VGA converters sold separately? The only ones i've seen are really expensive...

 

[Matthias99]

Quality looks fine on my 9800Pro.

here's the one I got.. $8.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: DJFuji
ok that's what i was looking for. I didnt know the DVI could be converted over to VGA. How's the quality look? About the same?

I don't want a TV as a third display-- i just want to be able to watch dvds and videos on my tv instead of my monitor. Mirrored displays are ok.

Anyone seen the DVI-VGA converters sold separately? The only ones i've seen are really expensive...

I can't tell any difference.

You should be able to get one from ATI or maybe RS as long as you know what you're looking for.

 

[Lonyo]

I had a DVI->VGA adapter come with my 9800np as stock (Sapphire "lite" box version).
Not sure about other mfr's though, they might supply one as standard too though.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: DJFuji
3. Most cards come with DVI and VGA Out support. The problem is that i have two CRTs using VGA ports. So i need a dual head VGA card, and i can't seem to find any of those. I'm thinking i'll probably just have to bite the bullet and hope that i can use my existing PCI Card with a R9800 Pro.

Like others said, DVI- VGA adapter...

Fairly cheap, 10-15 dollars should do.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
I had a DVI->VGA adapter come with my 9800np as stock (Sapphire "lite" box version).
Not sure about other mfr's though, they might supply one as standard too though.

I'd be amazed if it wasn't standard with all current cards.