The whole two monitor thing

[dazftw]

Ok I need to know a few things I asked before and just want to learn

another few things from ye guys ok..

 

I have the monitor... got it for free out school :)

 

Now I need a video card and I'm reading that I need one that is

compatiable with my motherboard now I dont know how to find that out

any suggestions ?

 

Also suggestions on video cards should I go for one of those dual

ones or can I buy a seperate one and just install it beneath the one

I have now ?

 

I might have more questions as I get replys but any help would be

great thanks..

[kelly_flanigan1]

dual monitors go back over a decade and more. it use to be that folks used/is the second monitor is the dummer one; use for photoshop tools; etc. More recently folks are creating "one big view/monitor" and use two monitors that are alike. Here with retouching work the 2nd monitor is often a free 14" CRT; with a 5 dollar Ebay 2 meg PCI card.

[jimstrutz]

Some systems seem to choke when using two dissimilar video cards. I suppose it depends on the particular cards. It generally works though, and I haven't had much trouble with this for several years so maybe it's an old, dead issue. A two-headed video card elliminates this possible frustration, but at a higher cost. And like Kelly says even a very cheap video card usually works well for this. Photo editing doesn't really benifit much from faster cards, or those with more memory in them.

[gluteal cleft]

The one killer to using dual monitors is when you add a PCI video card for the second monitor - the PCI bus just doesn't have the bandwidth, and any work on the second monitor will suck.

 

The alternatives are an AGP card with two outputs, a PCI-E card with two outputs, or two PCI-E cards on a board with two x16 connectors. Some boards have two x16 slots which each run at x8, that's still fine - PCI-E has boatloads of bandwidth (in addition to better memory access), so there aren't any performance degredations until you get down to x4 or x2.

 

These days, tons of cards have two outputs - even if one is DVI and the other analog. However, there are cards (even relatively inexpensive ones) with two of the same type of outputs. At the office, I've equipped a few dozen computers with cheap ($45) Jaton cards with an MX4000, 64 megs of memory, and two analog connectors, and have never heard any complaints on the second monitor - and haven't been able to see any degredation myself.

 

One thing that SHOULD be noted is that at higher resolutions and refresh rates, the monitor cable itself plays a large part in the image quality, and I've seen the quality of some monitors improved GREATLY by just using a higher-quality cable.

 

steve

[roger.a]

A cheap used Matrox 400 or 550 card will do two monitors very nicely;

a new Matrox P650 would be even better.