Need info on dual monitors setup on Windows XP

[Wanderer]

In theory, a video card can support any resolution as long at his has enough memory to support it?

Ummm... never heard that theory. A video card can support any resolution that the video drivers for the card have been written to support at a given refresh rate.

hehe, misquote! I agree with you here, lenf...the memory of a card doesn't really have anything to do with how much resolution it'll support. Granted, higher resolution takes up more video memory, but mostly video memory is used to hold textures and stuff, because it's faster for the card to swap in and out of of it's own memory than it is for it to run out to the motherboard and fetch them from RAM.

[Azalin]

hehe, misquote! I agree with you here, lenf...the memory of a card doesn't really have anything to do with how much resolution it'll support. Granted, higher resolution takes up more video memory, but mostly video memory is used to hold textures and stuff, because it's faster for the card to swap in and out of of it's own memory than it is for it to run out to the motherboard and fetch them from RAM.

I think that's because I'm old school. I remember my video card, it had like 512K ram. You could easily find out how much a resolution would use by multiplying the number of pixels, so 1024x768 x the number of color bytes. So at 16 bits, 1024x768 would take 1024x768x2 bits which is 1500k, which was more than what most cards had in 1992 So I agree that now it's not a problem anymore.

[Lambchop]

thank God I don't have a girlfriend at the moment

What woman could resist dual 24" LCD screens? Stick with us. We'll turn you into a babe-magnet yet.

djm

Hehe thanks, I just changed my Avatar so that I can get more chicks.

Ooooh! Did I hear someone calling me?

[Tony]

Azalin,
I have interest in running dual video monitors in XP... but I'm not there yet. Hopefully, I can learn from your experience.

Currently, I have a GeForce diablotek 6200V+ AGP 256mb/ddr2 video card. My monitor is a ViewSonic 20" widescreen running in the DVI digital mode.
This monitor is very clear in the 1680x1050 high resolution mode. If you run in less than maximum mode you have the choice of actual resolution (less than full screen) or allow the card to resize (stretch) the screen to fit the monitor. Doing the second choice gets moire patterns on certain shaded colors and circles look like ovals. 1024x768 is really big, but stretched in width to fit the widescreen. That doesn't look very good to me.

I Like the nVidia software features that come with the card and had to change the contrast/brightness curve to make the contrast on the monitor look good. This may have an effect if I mix different types of monitors. I don't know if there are separate adjustments to change this.

There is an analog output on my video card. I'm not sure if it will drive a DVI monitor and an analog monitor at the same time. If I need another card it would have to be PCI. The motherboard doesn't have onboard video and the GeForce card is plugged into the AGP slot.

I've seen 'dual-monitor' video cards and they weren't expensive, but they only supported analog monitors.

[Azalin]

From what I heard, most cards with more than one output support dual monitors with the correct driver. I will have the DVI output feed my 20.1" monitor, and have the VGA output feed the second monitor.

When I think of it, I got a second video card, which is on-board, so I'm not sure which is simpler to do, use the SAME card for dual-view or two different cards.

[Tony]

Two video cards from different manufacturers may complicate things with drivers... Try to see if the same card supports dual monitors.

[LadyDi]

Heya,

I am thinking of having two monitors on my home PC running Windows XP. My video card is a ATI 9600 with 128RAM. There's one VGA output and one DVI output.

I use two monitors at work. They hit off the same video card, so you can drag windows back and forth between the two. It's extremely handy, and lots of people are jealous

No idea on the resolution issue, though...

[Azalin]

Heya,

I am thinking of having two monitors on my home PC running Windows XP. My video card is a ATI 9600 with 128RAM. There's one VGA output and one DVI output.

I use two monitors at work. They hit off the same video card, so you can drag windows back and forth between the two. It's extremely handy, and lots of people are jealous

No idea on the resolution issue, though...

I purchased and ordered my new monitor yesterday so it's matter of days before I can actually try it myself What type of work are you doing on your dual monitors?

[LadyDi]

We do a lot of work that starts in one program and then we run a scheme in another program and then refresh something in the first one, so having two monitors is really great to keep from having to minimize and maximize windows.

And it looks kicka$$!!

[Azalin]

And it looks kicka$$!!

You mean it looks KickAz?

I'm also very happy to get a LCD, it takes way less depth space than a tube monitor, that's definitely KickAz

[Wanderer]

Here's a pic of my workstation...

[djm]

I don't know. I just can't see me getting used to watching DVDs spread over two screens like that ....

djm

[Wanderer]

I don't know. I just can't see me getting used to watching DVDs spread over two screens like that ....

djm

Nah, you watch DVD's (like Dr. Who!) on one screen, and surf the internet on the other. Not that I've ever done that at work...

[Tony]

Are you running both monitors from the same video card?

[Azalin]

I have another question related to my new widescreen LCD. Is there any way I will be able to watch DVDs in native HD widescreen format? You know, this new high definition TV resolution. I'm not into televisions that much and I'm a little behind in those technologies. Do DVDs support the new HD format? Let's say I get some HD tv channels, what would I need to be able to watch TV in high res on my widescreen monitor? Since my new monitor doesnt have a TV tuner, I would need a video card with TV tuner right? I'm totally clueless.