steveyblack

im not sure if this belongs here or not...if not im sry...are there any dual moniter cards(like 6600 ect)...if it is dual...can i still play games? is it better to have it on both screens or 1...if 1 is there a switch i can clikc and it will make it only one?

musclecars&computers

Most newer cards support dual moniters if you buy the adapter. I know my FX5500 does anyway. But i have never had them so i can't ask the rest.

Jager

of you are asking if you can play games while running both moniters, you can but your frames per sec suffer a bit , and you may run into issues where your mouse wanders over too far and onto the other screen resulting in the game minimizing .

I run 3 moniters right now and use a program called ultramon to hanlde them. it uses key combinations to turn on and off the extra moniters and i play games on one.
i use ctrl+ alt+ z

however the nividia nview setup has the ability to easily support two moniters and prolly has the shortcut turn offs as well, just im a fan of ultra mon for its ease of use and for the windows expoler replacement i use for most things.

Cyno01

I've got dual monitors, and gaming works fine. Your mouse cant go onto the other screen durring a full screen ap, but it will go over if your in a menu or something. And the resolution on the second screen might get screwed up while your playing the game.

Virtual]{26

Best thing to have is a video card that supports 2 DVI, and then have two of the same monitors. The last thing you want while playing a game is one monitor lagging behind the other, or different contrast ratios....

z0mbi3

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyno01 I've got dual monitors, and gaming works fine. Your mouse cant go onto the other screen during a full screen ap, but it will go over if your in a menu or something.

Depends,quite a few games (RTS's in paticular from my experience) suffer from wandering mouse syndrome during play. I've never suffered in an FPS though.

Quote: Originally Posted by Virtual {26]The last thing you want while playing a game is one monitor lagging behind the other, or different contrast ratios....

Contrast variations can be unavoidable regardless of paired monitors. It's been raised before, I'll dig out the thread if anyones really interested.

What's not been said so far is that the majority of games only support single screens. There isn't really much point in cloning displays for gaming.

Having a second display is very handy if you have teamspeak, stats, web pages or anything you want to look at on the other screen while you play.

Cyno01

Quote: Originally Posted by z0mbi3 Depends,quite a few games (RTS's in paticular from my experience) suffer from wandering mouse syndrome during play. I've never suffered in an FPS though. Contrast variations can be unavoidable regardless of paired monitors. It's been raised before, I'll dig out the thread if anyones really interested. What's not been said so far is that the majority of games only support single screens. There isn't really much point in cloning displays for gaming. Having a second display is very handy if you have teamspeak, stats, web pages or anything you want to look at on the other screen while you play.

Yeah, i dont use dual screens for gaming at all, but its absolutly amazing with IM, web browsing, my TV tuner and all that...

z0mbi3

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyno01 Yeah, i dont use dual screens for gaming at all, but its absolutly amazing with IM, web browsing, my TV tuner and all that...

Agreed, although I find 2 screens is enough. I dont really use my third display that much.

NeCrOmAnCeRoFsIn

I run three, will go to four later!

Ator

Dual monitors won't ruin performance at all. As far fas I know, you can't run "cloned" outputs while playing 3D games. However, it's very useful for benchmarking and stability testing since you can run, say, 3DMark, or a game, then watch the temperatures on the other screen. I just like it for the extra desktop real estate, really.

BigMacZach

Yea we have dual monitor running right here in my classroom right now. Its quite convenient for scripting routers and such. Scripting 2 routers at once through console ports etc. Im not too far into that stuff yet i'm only in semester 2. There is a switch in the display properties. pretty neat stuff

Cyno01

Oh, and to ensure that dual monitors wont hamper performance, you can always buy a second PCI video card. It doesnt matter how crappy it is, since all your gaming will be done on your main monitor anyway. My AIW9800Pro only has one (monitor) output, and i had some old 15"ers laying around, so i picked up a PCI 9200 and run my second monitor through that.

steveyblack

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyno01 Oh, and to ensure that dual monitors wont hamper performance, you can always buy a second PCI video card. It doesnt matter how crappy it is, since all your gaming will be done on your main monitor anyway. My AIW9800Pro only has one (monitor) output, and i had some old 15"ers laying around, so i picked up a PCI 9200 and run my second monitor through that.

You can do that?

z0mbi3

Yeah, it's as easy as installing any pci device.

Many of us have old pci video cards about so it's just logical to put them to good use.

That said it's not a way of saving money on a new build as any half descent edit: new card (no offense to anyone here) will have two outputs.

The only things I can say against using a seperate card is that it's only needed for three displays (and so on), will put extra heat in your case and some applications don't like going from screen to screen (e.g. some tv tuner applications).

Oh also, older cards can be a pain if you go up to a 64 bit OS.

BigMacZach

does that work the same for agp cards too? as in putting in 2 video cards?

AltoNova1

Quote: Originally Posted by BigMacZach does that work the same for agp cards too? as in putting in 2 video cards?

I don't recall any motherboards ever having 2 AGP ports, but if you mean using an AGP card in addition to a PCI card then yes you can do that.

As was mentioned earlier it's as easy as just installing a PCI card into your system. I do recommend however that you keep both cards ATi or nVidia. If you don't then you could run into problems should you want to play with drivers.

I had run a system with an AGP ATi card and an nVidia PCI card and it worked fine. System was warmer overall but everything worked. When I went to install drivers for the PCI card it conflicted with my ATi card. Another time I went to install a more recent Catalyst driver the nVidia card didn't send a signal to my monitor.

I never found a fix for either problem so all I did was remove the PCI card for a few days and then reinstall and somehow everything went back to normal. It was a pain in the end over all though.

Ator

I think he means mixing AGP and PCI, which yes you can do.