Dual monitor cards

Ashton · Post by **Ashton** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 1:47 pm

I just want to get all of your suggestions: what video card do you think I should buy if I want one that has dual monitor support and still has some heft in the gaming arena, but isn't ungodly expensive?

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 4:34 pm

ATI:
$60 Radeon 9100
$120 Radeon 9500
$175 Radeon 9500 Pro

nVidia:
$90 nVidia Geforce4 ti 4200 64MB

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 4:36 pm

If you get a Geforce4 make sure it includes a DVI, DVI interfaces can be converted to analog VGA with a adapter and that's how most cards handle "dual-monitors".

Ashton · Post by **Ashton** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 7:50 pm

klinky wrote:If you get a Geforce4 make sure it includes a DVI, DVI interfaces can be converted to analog VGA with a adapter and that's how most cards handle "dual-monitors".

Does that mean that, in order to run dual monitors I'm going to need some kind of an adapter? Do you think you could go ahead and link me to a page that tells me about that for the GeForce? Thanks

NicholasDWolfwood · Post by **NicholasDWolfwood** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 8:37 pm

IIRC, you don't need the adapter per-say if you have a DVI flat panel and a CRT VGA monitor, but if you just want two CRTs you'd need an adapter to do the DVI-I -> CRT conversion so you can fit the plug on.

Ashton · Post by **Ashton** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 8:43 pm

NicholasDWolfwood wrote:IIRC, you don't need the adapter per-say if you have a DVI flat panel and a CRT VGA monitor, but if you just want two CRTs you'd need an adapter to do the DVI-I -> CRT conversion so you can fit the plug on.

By CRT, you mean normal CRT monitor style plug (don't know what that's called) as apposed to, say, RCA or Coaxial?

NicholasDWolfwood · Post by **NicholasDWolfwood** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 8:45 pm

...monitors don't use RCA or Coaxial, do they?

Ashton · Post by **Ashton** » Sun Jun 29, 2003 9:01 pm

NicholasDWolfwood wrote:...monitors don't use RCA or Coaxial, do they?

Some do.
Besides, it would be much appreciated if you would stop beating up on the poor ignorant members here.

Smartass.

So, you didn't answer my question, what do you mean by CRT in terms of the adapter? If you don't know the name, do you think you might describe it's looks?

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 1:19 am

CRT(Cathode Ray Tube) could mean any kind of connector really. But in the consumer computer sector CRT = VGA = 15pin DB connector. It's a standard monitor connector.

Your video card converts the digital bitmap of your screen into analog signals a CRT monitor can understand.

Now that LCD(Liquid Crystal Displays) are coming out they can do pure digital image transfer. LCDs have a fixed grid of pixels and they look best with a pure digital stream. There are LCDs that hook up via a standard analog VGA connector. However, most use the pure digital DVI(Digital Video Interface) connector.

Video card makers try to please both crowds and being able to sport the "dual-monitor support". Most new cards have a analog VGA connector & a DVI connector. So you can have a LCD and a CRT hooked up at the same time or you could hook up two CRTs so long as you got a DVI -> VGA adapter. You could also probably hook up two LCDs using a VGA -> DVI adapter. That however is like bad idea since your video card is converting you signal to analog and you're converting it back to digital. Totally un-needed. If you want two LCDs you're better off getting a dual-DVI card.

madmallard · Post by **madmallard** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 9:28 pm

dont forget BNC connections!

Pwolf · Post by **Pwolf** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:46 am

Ashton here's what i have setup. I have a radeon 9700 pro running dual monitors (one CTR and one LCD, both VGA and the LCD looks damn good ^_^). I bought my card OEM so it only came with the manual and some cables, but most retail will include a DVI -> VGA adapter or they will send you one for free. and if not they are pretty cheap.

Pwolf

PS: makes editing so much enjoyable ^_^

mckeed · Post by **mckeed** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:19 am

The ultimate in dual monitor card....errrr....tripple monitor card.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/parhelia/128mb.cfm
It can do dual dual dvi monitors or thre normal ones. Check out the surround gaming. Its crazy silly over the top nonsense. I must own it at some point. Matrox makes other dual monitor cards. Have been for a long time and their software/drivers are top notch as far as features. I have an old school matrox g400 which has done me no wrong. It has many options for the second monitor besides just extending your desktop. For instance it has a mode to output any video to the other monitor fullscreen as long as one pixel was visible on the other monitor. That came in handy when doing a amv dance party. Plus the listing of games that support surround gaming is long and many more compaies are adding support for it in their games. Just need some of those thin bezel samsung tft's

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:33 am

It's also possible, depending on what you're running in the way of OS and existing hardware, to just get a cheap 2nd card and add it in and run two monitors that way. That's how I do it- I picked up a cheap (>$10) PCI video card to run the second monitor, and it works quite nicely. If you already have a sufficient primary card for what you want to do gaming-wise and such, this might be a good budget option for getting the sweetness that is a dual-monitor editing setup...

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 4:41 pm

Parhelia is the biggest piece of shit card ever made. If you're into overpriced 2D toys go for it. For people who want to play games it's a big fat no no.

Parhelia was hyped by Matrox, sporting a 512bit memory interface and some awesome sounding specs. People were really thinking Matrox was going to hit hard. But the benchmarks were amazingly lackluster thanks in part to the stupid chip not having any HIDDEN SURFACE REMOVAL. They basically made a POS expensive chip.

Multimonitor gaming is not going to be the wave of the future. It's fucking annoying to have bezel in between your display. Maybe for flight sims it's cool, but for FPS or many other games it's a waste. Not to mention the Parhelia can barely produce good frame rates on a single monitor much less three at once.

It's a bad, overpriced card.

King_Cold · Post by **King_Cold** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 5:57 pm

I would tell you to get the newest pharphelia. But that's if you want to use both your monitors while playing games. And their is not a lot of games wish support this. So I'll say you'd better go with buying another PCI graphic card and using it for your seconfd monitor. This way, while playing game it'll use your powerfull card for the game, but you'll just have 1 monitor. And you'll have your dual view for everything else.