dual monitor setup
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Posted on Nov 17, 2004 04:59 pm
drake
Member Since: Apr 13, 2004
i'm wanting to go to a dual monitor setup for recording but i dont wanna spend the big bucks.... whats new ;)
i'm not to familiar with video cards and their capabilities. Is it possible to simply buy a cheap PCI video card, thus giving me two monitor outputs (1 built in to motherboard 1 pci). would this give me dual monitor capabilites or would they both display the same picture?
if not, what are my other options?
thanks!!
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Nov 17, 2004 05:59 pm short answer, no.
You need to have a video card that will support two monitors on it, some are quite cheap right now. I run duals on my old ATI Radeon 7500, which you can probably get a better card than that now for under $100...
oh, and then you need the second monitor...
cooloFrisco's Most UnderratedMember
Since: Jan 28, 2003
Nov 17, 2004 06:12 pm Are you sure db. If I remember, before I got my dual output video card, I was able to use one output of my dual, and the output of my old (single output) video card to have one monitor display the normal desktop, and the other was an extended desktop. This is different from what happened when I put both monitors on the dual output video card where the regular desktop took up the whole of both screens. I am using WinXP on that system, if that matters.
An extended desktop is just blank (black), but you can drag any window over to it.
Does that make sense?
Also, I think I got my dual display video card used off ebay for less than $25, and I have no complaints. Can't remember what kind it is off the top of my head, though.
Nov 17, 2004 06:20 pm Well, I didn't want to get into it too deeply, because PCI based video cards just don't do a good job anymore, and few, if any, PC come with dual AGP slots, but yes, it is possible to get a card that will allow you to use a second, but you need to make sure both card work with another...
Nov 17, 2004 07:12 pm I run dual monitors with a new PCI Express video card (faster than AGP). Its a really easy setup if you use Windows XP. The benifits are amazing too. I run live VST instruments a lot and the double amount of space is a life saver! Instruments on one screen, effects and mixers on the other. Worth the money.
LokiCone PokerMember
Since: Apr 07, 2002
Nov 17, 2004 07:17 pm db you are incorrect. Using windows XP I have two seperate video cards in my box, and windows was more than happy to recognize both of them allowing me to run dual monitors.
Nov 17, 2004 07:59 pm No, I am not incorrect, my first post I blew over the "two individual cards" issue on purpose, the second post I more fully explained. Not all video cards will work in such a situation regardless of operating system. The OS you are running is only part of the equation.
LokiCone PokerMember
Since: Apr 07, 2002
Nov 17, 2004 08:44 pm oh, sorry, my bad. Meant no offense was just trying to clear it up. Again I apologize
Nov 17, 2004 09:16 pm no offense taken, my response perhaps read like it, but it was not intentional.
LokiCone PokerMember
Since: Apr 07, 2002
Nov 17, 2004 10:10 pm Grr, someone installed Service Pack 2 on my machine, and now it only sees one video card, anyone know how to get i to see the second one aside from taking it out and putting it back in?
drakeMember
Since: Apr 13, 2004
Nov 18, 2004 12:18 am wow. so much anger here! just kidding ;)
thanks for the help guys. i'm gonna try to avoid the possibility of incompatibility and buy a dual mon vid card. now to find a second cheap lcd!
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Nov 18, 2004 10:25 am I use a matrox g450 in mine:
- cheap on ebay ( 28$us shipped )
- easy to install on w2k (should be on xp as well)
- no fan
- 16meg vid memory, g550 has 32meg
I don't believe I've the need for huge memory or super processing as it's only doing small amounts of data transfer, no 3d texture maps, or the like. I don't do anything other than music on this PC.
cooloFrisco's Most UnderratedMember
Since: Jan 28, 2003
Nov 18, 2004 03:24 pm yes, yes, matrox was the brand name of the video card I got. I will reiterate that it works very well (I only do music on this machine as well).
