about multiple monitor

Eek-1 · Post by **Eek-1** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:33 am

From what I know, newer O/S like WinXP support multiple monitors, so my question:

Is it possible to stretch the desktop area to 2 monitors, using just a VGA splitter cable & a common (non Dual-View) VGA card ?

1 AGP Card ---> VGA Splitter Cable ---> 2 monitors

thanks.

Pwolf · Post by **Pwolf** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 7:48 am

dual monitors can be done with just about any OS. i don't know about win95 and i'm 99% sure win98 and higher can do it (not to mention unix based OS's). if you want to utilize dial monitors you'll have to get another video card or buy one with two or more outputs. a lot of the newer video cards come with DVI outputs which can be converted to VGA with a small cheap adapter. so to answer your question. no you can't.

Pwolf

ErMaC · Post by **ErMaC** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:58 am

No, splitting a signal would do just that... split the signal. You'd get 2 monitors with the same thing (but they'd look like crap since you're splitting an electrical signal and thus the current in the signal is halved between the two monitors giving you a weaker signal).

mckeed · Post by **mckeed** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:25 pm

ErMaC is right, you can't just use a splitter. You need a video card that supports multiple monitors. You could do multiple monitors since win98. Albeit painfully in win98, i know cause i did it for awhile. Its pretty much brainless in winXP if you have a card with good driver support. Matrox makes the best dual head/tripple head cards. I don't play many games am i am still using the same dual head matrox G400. Not great for gaming, but their drivers got cool features. Other companies are starting to get their acts togeather for multimonitor support and putting out decent stuff. Probally fork some money over for the parehellia card at some point. Need to get the cash for the LCD's i want first though.

ZeroSSJ999 · Post by **ZeroSSJ999** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 4:15 pm

yeah, splitter = bad

just go out and buy some cehap ass pci card like i did for a second monitor i went to Fry's and bought a 30 dollar Kaser SiS-305 32mb pci card just for my second monitor so that way i dont really have to spend big money and somethingi wont use for gaming or anything, i just use my primary card for gaming and disable my secondary Kaser card when i game by using UltraMon and i made my * key on the num pad a hotkey for instantly disable my secondary monitor, and my kaser card still works good enough for premiere to handle at times in need, so cheap is the way to go...when you have no job and no car

Eek-1 · Post by **Eek-1** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 5:52 am

I have an extra pci card.. s3 virge gx 2mb.
think i can use that with geforce256 32mb? coz i'm afraid doing so might break my comp.

ZeroSSJ999 · Post by **ZeroSSJ999** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:38 am

hrmm, it shouldnt harm your computer all at, by adding an extra video card, because..no, it wont just put it in and enjoy your dual pleasures

2mb? damn..
now that i think about it, its like, why put a 2mb card in there |:
whats it get 640*480 in 16 colors?

ZeroSSJ999 · Post by **ZeroSSJ999** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 6:42 am

*sorry for double post but felt like saying it*

my kaser card that i bought for like 30 bucks, really blows ass at things, it cant play various video files, like xvid, which is why i dont use it much for anything but chatting, and surfing |: and when i try to game with it, in half life i get like a 5 fps, so i dont really need it for a whole lot, just go find some really really really cheap pci card like i did

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:23 pm

I beleive ErMaC posted awhile back that the hardware overlay acceleration is disabled on the 2nd desktop. That may be why you can't play xvid files on the other monitor.. >_> <_<. Just a thought...

ErMaC · Post by **ErMaC** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 12:48 pm

If you have 2 separate video, then yes the secondary monitor has no directX capabilities. It differs with 2 monitors running off the same card, but it's still better to do everything from the primary display device.