dual monitor solution

[barneygumble742]

hi,

i currently have a ati 9600 xt on a non pci-e board. i'm adding a second monitor to my current board and i'm guessing i'm going to need a pci card.

can someone recommend any good pci video cards for gaming?

also, i looked at matrox's dualhead2go and it doesn't support my chipset. are there any other products like that? my current resolution is 1280x1024. any way i can get a 2560x1024 resolution?

if i get a pci card, i'm guessing that windows will manage everything, which makes gaming tricky or impossible. to be honest, i have 0 experience with 2 monitors at the same time.

barneygumble742

[Favu]

I used to run two monitors from my 6600gt, I found that when gaming the game would only run on one monitor, I don't know if there are any settings to change that, but either way you would need something of around equal speed to your 9600 to play games, which wouldn't be worth it, IMO.

[Got EpOx]

I used to run dual monitors also but on my ATI Radeon 9550 it used to be great for everyday use but games were difficult because the card couldn't handle a large resolution anyway i'd pick up a faster card if you want to game.

[barneygumble742]

if i get a faster card with dual outputs, then can i play games using both screens?

thanks

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by barneygumble742

if i get a faster card with dual outputs, then can i play games using both screens?

thanks

TBH, I think the game needs to explicitly support the resolutions, and I have yet to hear of any.

[Favu]

Originally Posted by SteveI

TBH, I think the game needs to explicitly support the resolutions, and I have yet to hear of any.

Most flight sims do, AIUI, so that they can be run together with complex joysticks/switches/multiple monitors and such - meaning they can give a more realistic experience.

[SteveI]

I stand corrected...
But, I think sims are the exception, not the rule.

[Favu]

Yeah that is probably true

[Got EpOx]

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is awesome on a triple monitor setup, simulates me being able to look out the window with the turn of my head

[barneygumble742]

what about something like this:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offho...tech_brief.cfm

matrox's dual and triple head2go devices aren't compatible with my current chipset. are there similar products by different companies?

[chrisbard]

I have played games on my dual setup. The way you look to set up the monitors is SPAN and you set it twice the width res and normal heigh res for ex. instead of 1024*768 the new resolution will be 2048*768. Most of the games detect the span right and they will have a new option in graphics settings that will be exactly 2048*748. The problem with this setup when I tried playing quake and other games is just this. Where do you think the middle of the screen falls into place? So actually everything is so nice but you have your cursor in the middle I heard that are games that will span across in a different manner. You will have a normal window where action takes place on one monitor and the second one will be the menu/map display making it much easier to handle the game ! However in span mode the card will work twice the normal load so you may want to reduce the details since the same game in span is twice as hard on the vcard ! Good luck !

[barneygumble742]

do y'all recommend mixing cards? like an ati chip on the agp and a nvidia chip on the pci?

i've been lucky to get a second 19" lcd panel. and i want to use it. right now my options are to get a pci card or built a new box. if i go with the new box, then it will have to be another gaming machine and convert my current box as a file server.

[Favu]

Well, if you have the nVidia chip handy, you might as well try it, I see no reason as to why it shouldn't work

Give it a go and let us know how it turns out