Question for ATI Pros

[JD121449]

First time for using ATI products. Radeon 9500 128MB. After installation in the device manager section it shows 2 display adapters. First is listed as 9700/9500 Radeon , second one says 9700/9500 Radeon secondary. Everything is working properly, good frame rates smooth game action. Just wondering is this normal having 2 adapters shown? OS is Win 98 SE. Asus A7v333 XP2100 512MB PC2700 60GB 7200 HD. Cat3.0 driver Via 4.43 driver. Thanks for any help.

 

[Serp86]

it is normal - don't let it bother you.

don't know exactly why - something to do with video card hardware - maybe some of the more experienced guys can comment more?

 

[rbV5]

Its the second RAMDAC of your dual head card.

 

[blcjr]

Originally posted by: rbV5
Its the second RAMDAC of your dual head card.

Does this mean the card supports a second monitor natively? And if so, does adding a second monitor have any negative impact on video card performance (e.g. is that second RAMDAC used with a single monitor)? Sorry if the questions seem basic. But this inquiring mind wants to know.

-Baz

 

[rbV5]

If it has 2 Monitor connections (VGA + DVI) on a Radeon 9xxx board, it is a dual head card, both RAMDAC are in the Core and supports dual monitors natively, 1 CRT + 1 VGA or 2 VGA using ATI's DVI>VGA adaptor. It should not have any impact on performance. You'll just may have to pay attention to issues such as acceleration in the secondary monitor, and Video Overlay in the Primary monitor for viewing video files, or maybe using DVI + TV-out simultaneously issues. Questions are the basis for forums like this😉

 

[JD121449]

Thanks for the replys. I did not even think of that since I've never seen it with Nvidia products. "A day spent without learning something is a spent day"

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: blcjr

Originally posted by: rbV5
Its the second RAMDAC of your dual head card.

Does this mean the card supports a second monitor natively? And if so, does adding a second monitor have any negative impact on video card performance (e.g. is that second RAMDAC used with a single monitor)? Sorry if the questions seem basic. But this inquiring mind wants to know.

-Baz

Yes, it has 2 RAMDACs and they support two monitors. One supports DVI or VGA (with a DVI to VGA adaptor) and the other supports VGA for dual display. Also, you can combine one of the above (DVI or VGA) with TV-out in a dual display environment as well.

This has no performance hit on gaming whatsoever, as it's the second RAMDAC driving the other monitor. Perhaps it does take a few MB of video memory to keep the other screen running, but there is no tangible performance delta whatsoever.