OT: 2nd video card

Randy Brown wrote on 12/17/2002, 5:56 PM

Okay, I'm really going to sound ignortant hear and it's embarrasing to ask (even as patient as you all are) but here goes: under device manager/display adaptors I'm showing a Radeon FSC, made by ATI Technologies using PCI bus 1. This is my video card right?! I want to get an additional card (to enable dual monitoring) and I know nothing about this. I don't know what the cheaper AGP cards are so I'm guessing I should just get another PCI card and stick it in the slot below the existing one ane move everything else down a slot to make room. If you can find it in your heart (sniff sniff) to let me know if I'm on the right track and maybe a suggestion as to where to buy it, I would very much appreciate it!

BTW, there's a 17" monitor for $60 and 21" for $200 after rebate
here if anyone is in the market for one.
TIA,
Randy

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/17/2002, 7:07 PM

Looks like you're on the right track. One thing i strongly suggest is that you have both cards be from the same manufacturer. A lot of the dual display software is supplied by the card manufacturer, not by Microsoft, and quite obviously, the manufacturers don't go out of their way to help other cards work with their own. I've used dual displays from both ATI and from Matrox. In both cases it was just about as painless as could be imagined. Install the second card, let Windows install the drivers which include the manufacturer's software, then go to advanced display settings in the control panel and enable the second display, choosing "extend my desktop onto both monitors". That's about all there is to it.

There's probably no need to rearrange the cards in your tower unless you get awful IRQ problems. Windows can find and use the video cards no matter which slots they're in. If you do get an AGP card, it will become the second display while the PCI card remains the first. If you have two PCI cards then the one higher up in the slots should be the first display. If it doesn't work out right, then the software usually has a hot key you can press to swap them. The Matrox G400 card even seems to be smart enough to select the monitor that's on as the first display if the other one is off or disconnected. I haven't tried this experiment with ATI cards yet.

Side note: cheap monitors aren't always worth the savings. They're often a bit blurry and usually don't last very long.

zemote wrote on 12/17/2002, 8:11 PM

No need for the card to be from the same manufacturer. Should work out of the box. Windows XP is great for dual head. I know many people that use cards from 2 different manufacturers. I use a Matrox g450 at home and at work I use onboard video + an Nvidia tnt2 card works great. Dual head is the way to go.
zemote

Randy Brown wrote on 12/17/2002, 9:45 PM

Thanks Kelly and zemote; can you tell me the difference in a PCI and an AGP card? Also, is 32 mb enough?
Thanks again,
Randy

zemote wrote on 12/17/2002, 10:02 PM

First off agp stands for Accelerated Graphics Port and allows for faster bandwidth than a pci port. Most motherboards only have one agp slot. For your second video card any old pci video card should do just fine unless your using some wacky 3d intensive programs. Most of us work in 2d anyway. 32mb pci card will be just fine. I have been using the same cards for the last 3 years and have had no problems. Unless your a gamer you don't need the latest and greatest in video card technology. If you want to read more indepth about the agp specs you can get some good info here: http://www.intel.com/technology/agp/info.htm

rextilleon wrote on 12/17/2002, 10:06 PM

I concur---you really dont need a high end 3D card to do video editing---My Matrox duel head 550 performs flawlessly.

shaunn wrote on 12/17/2002, 11:17 PM

[Most motherboards only have one agp slot]

Do you mean there are "some" Mobo with two AGP slots? Who makes them? I have never come accross any before...

Randy Brown wrote on 12/18/2002, 9:07 AM

That's good news and means I'll only have to spend 25 to 30 dollars. Thanks very much guys!
Randy

zemote wrote on 12/18/2002, 3:35 PM

I said "most motherboards motherboards have only one agp slot" because even though i've never seen one of these it is theoretically possible. I'm sure someone has done it but i have yet to find one as you have also. I would hate to limit all motherboards by stating all and be proven wrong by some saying "not all" here is one. So I guess I could say "all mother boards i have seen/used" would probably be a more accurate statement. :)
zemote