indep. resolutions - yes or no?

[clayman]

Hi all

Does anyone out there know if any of the nvidia or ati cards are capable of running indpeendent resolutions on multiple monitors under windows 2000? I found two main stumbling blocks when looking at this:

1)
The ATI site says some of their cards do this but NOT under Win2k. I didnt see a mention of this being remedied in the new features of the lastest catalyst/hydravision version so I assume it's still an issue. Is it likely that ATI will address this in the near future or not? (or is my guess as good as yours?)


2)
The nvidia site says in relation to their nView software (2.0 users guide pdf):
"nView does not support different resolutions per desktop. All desktops are automatically set at the same resolution."

but then it also says on the site:
"Industry's best multiple desktop management - Allows users to create up to 32 desktops with unique names, background wallpaper, and display settings, including resolution, color depth, and refresh rate"


So I am confused. I want to be able to run a 17" LCD and a 15" CRT in dual monitor mode so I can display a seperate application on each screen at different resolutions.

Can I even do this? or will i need 2 seperate video cards? The nvidia stuff mentioned about really lost me. I dont have experience in this area so some help would be appreciated from someone more in the know.

Thanks

 

[MustangSVT]

I wonder if this will help.. but since this is on winXP you can disregard..

I have Ti4200 and 2 CRT monitors, 1 is a 19" and other a 17"

19" is hooked up to VGA port and runs @ 1600x1200
17" is hooked up to DVI using an adaptor and runs @ 1152x864 (but its a $50 monitor )

and 19" is setup as my main..
it works fine and I am able to set refresh rates and color settings for each monitor independantly.

 

[Peter]

Problem is there's a design flaw in W2K that doesn't let you run different resolutions on two heads that come from the same graphics chips.
Matrox drivers work around this with a huge effort, but otherwise, NT4 and W2K no can do this. Other Windows flavors can.

 

[warmonger]

That's strange, because my Radeon 9000 Pro has no trouble driving my 21" and 19" at different resolutions on Win2k. I even had one running 2048*1536 @75hz and the other at 1600*1200 @75hz, all on Windows 2000, with Catalyst 2.something drivers.

 

[kawboy68]

This quotes Lonyo, and he runs a 2000 box:

"This works for me, and I can have TV at 800x600, 16 bit, 60Hz, monitor 1600x1200 @ 32bit, 85Hz "

And one of them is even a TV!

 

[clayman]

Thanks for the responses all

Does it depend on the card and software then? Is it possible that this is overcoming the Win2K limitation?

I forget where i got this from so unfortunately i can't credit the author, but but I copied this recently:

"Nvidia cards used to suffer the same fate as ATI until later Detonator Relases, where Nvidia added a "Enable True Dual Display in Windows 2000" into their driverset. This installs a "dummy" videocard that tricks Windows 2000 into thinking that the second head on the videocard is in fact, a whole other card itself. "


The Win2K documentation says "To use the multiple monitor support feature, you need a PCI or AGP video adapter for each monitor." and that "The operating system always needs a VGA device".

So if this "Enable True Dual Display in Windows 2000" does what its supposed to then a card with 1 VGA and 1 DVI connector should enable a dual monitor set up under Win2K? or have i misunderstood?