Need info on dual monitors setup on Windows XP

[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 do lots of web development at home and what I would ideally need is my main monitor (thinking about a 20.1" LCD 1600x1050) to develop and use my tools, and a secondary monitor (around 15") in 1024x768 just to display a web page and to refresh once in a while.

The main idea is the average resolution on the web right now is 1024x768, but I don't want to be using that resolution myself. That's why I would like to have a secondary monitor which is always full screen at 1024x768 so that I'm testing on the most comonly used setup.

Does any of you have experience with dual monitors? Can you have two monitors with two different screen resolutions? Do you need two video cards to achieve this?

Thanks for any info.

[djm]

None, but I'd be interested in what LCD you are thinking of getting. Everyone I have talked to keeps saying that the LCDs can't handle colours with too close similarity, e.g. multiple shades of red, so that they are no use for photos or graphics work. If you have found something that is exemplary I'd be interested in hearing about it. I am looking in the 21" size.

djm

[bradhurley]

Before you shell out $ for another monitor, you might also want to try some of the software tools that allow you to quickly view how a page will look at different resolutions, such as:

http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html

There are other ones out there...I remember a really good online one that would show how your page would look on a wide variety of monitors and even cellphones -- I can't remember what that site is called now but maybe someone else can.

[Azalin]

The monitor I'm interested in buying is this monitor

Thanks Brad, I was already aware of some emulation software, but with my experience I know that the only way to really, really know what's happening on a device with a piece of software is to actually try it on the device itself. There are always minor differences if you try to emulate, and actually having a web page on full screen mode (top right full screen icon being a square) sometimes lead to different results than same size web page without being full screen.

[lenf]

None, but I'd be interested in what LCD you are thinking of getting. Everyone I have talked to keeps saying that the LCDs can't handle colours with too close similarity, e.g. multiple shades of red, so that they are no use for photos or graphics work. If you have found something that is exemplary I'd be interested in hearing about it. I am looking in the 21" size.

When my last 21" CRT was dying, given that I do a lot of graphic/print/photo work, I dived into learning more about LCDs. There's a lot of junk out there, but also some great screens, even for graphic work. Without going to very high-end dedicated screens, I found Dell's top-range screens in 20" and 24" inch (I went with the latter) to have great qualities. Paired with an inexpensive monitor profile tool (Gretag's Eye-One, or a like), you can really set up a good monitor very nicely.
The better Dells aren't expensive, and every week or two either the 20 or 24 inch goes on sale for 30% off or so. I paid $650 for my 24" on one of the sale days.
(Of course, being a Mac user, having something saying Dell on it is a real stretch, but in this case, a worthwhile one...).

[Azalin]

Well, I just bought the 20.1" monitor. It has 5s "refresh rate" and 2000:1 contrast ratio. Hopefully it will work with my ATI Radeon 9600 which is somewhat outdated. I will also have to buy a 50$ DVI cable to get the most out of the monitor. Oh well, I'm broke again.

[Scott McCallister]

Yes.

You can have two monitors setup on XP with different resolutions, sizes and orientation. This allows you to float your mouse from one screen to the other as if it is one giant desktop

Good luck!

[Azalin]

Yes.

You can have two monitors setup on XP with different resolutions, sizes and orientation. This allows you to float your mouse from one screen to the other as if it is one giant desktop

Good luck!

Thanks, with my new desktop experiments, plus my future broadband phone experiments, thank God I don't have a girlfriend at the moment

[djm]

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

[Azalin]

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.

[Wanderer]

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 do lots of web development at home and what I would ideally need is my main monitor (thinking about a 20.1" LCD 1600x1050) to develop and use my tools, and a secondary monitor (around 15") in 1024x768 just to display a web page and to refresh once in a while.

The main idea is the average resolution on the web right now is 1024x768, but I don't want to be using that resolution myself. That's why I would like to have a secondary monitor which is always full screen at 1024x768 so that I'm testing on the most comonly used setup.

Does any of you have experience with dual monitors? Can you have two monitors with two different screen resolutions? Do you need two video cards to achieve this?

Thanks for any info.

Two video cards would work..you can also get single video cards made for use with two montors. At work, all of the IT guys have dual flatscreen monitors running into PNY Geforce 5200 cards with dual outputs. Only about $80.00. Not top-of-the-line for gaming, but still pretty good cards.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/control ... sku=429846

In XP, you can run each monitor with a different resolution, and also extend the desktop to cover both monitors. I find it handy to have my developement environment open full-screen on one monitor, while the software I'm writing/debugging is running on the other monitor, so I can iinstantly tweak out changes without having to flip back and forth to see what's going on.

[Azalin]

In XP, you can run each monitor with a different resolution, and also extend the desktop to cover both monitors. I find it handy to have my developement environment open full-screen on one monitor, while the software I'm writing/debugging is running on the other monitor, so I can iinstantly tweak out changes without having to flip back and forth to see what's going on.

Yeah thanks, this is exactly what I have in mind. I'm just not certain if it will be easily possible to support 1600x1050 resolution with my ATI Radeon 9600, I'll cross my fingers. In theory, a video card can support any resolution as long at his has enough memory to support it?

[djm]

I have always found the ATI folks very helpful. If you already have the specifics about the monitors you are going to use, why not go to them directly? You may just need a patch for your existing card, or an upgrade, or a whole new card. They would know best.

djm

[lenf]

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.

One note here: LCD screens aren't like CRTs that can display different resolutions at equal clarity. LCDs have a "native" resolution that is nice and clear (to the limits of the screen's quality, anyway) and other resolutions that are usually very clunky.

[Azalin]

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.

Yeah, let me rephrase my theory: "A video card does not have any hardware limitations on resolutions beside the amount of memory available?".

I mean, it's not like a monitor (or TV) where no matter what you do, if the resolution isnt supported by the monitor, it's not going to work. You won't be able to change it by updating the Monitor's firmware for example (well, I never heard of a monitor firmware but you get my point).