Dual display

[gibbs]

Two quick questions...

1) For a PC, in CDN dollars, what are we roughly talking for a half-decent, new, video card that could run 2 monitors?

2) I've recently been falling in love with MAC's....is it possible to run 2 monitors for more display area?

Thanks!

God Bless,

Eric

 

[rdale]

1) For a PC, in CDN dollars, what are we roughly talking for a half-decent, new, video card that could run 2 monitors?

Don't know about Canadian perse... have you looked at http://www.newegg.com ? They usually have about the best prices on things. As to what card in particular... how is the PC used, i.e. just online browsing and such, games, editors or Word...

 

[gibbs]

It would be primarily for work/web/etc....not gaming.

I'd just like the double area to be able to have email open on one window, my wordperfect in another, a web browser in another, etc.

Eric

 

[rdale]

You really do get spoiled to the extra screen real estate, have to agree. My card is a little old by todays specs, but for how I use it (2D and just a little games)... it works great. It's an ATI 9600. I'd check here to get you going in your search:

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=48

You can sort your search by price, popularity, brand, etc. Once you're in the neighborhood price-wise, check what others that have purchased it are reporting.

 

[Grunt]

Newegg doesn't ship outside of the US, IIRC.

What video card do you have currently? Most made within the last couple of years (the nvidia GF6x00 and ATI x8xx and newer, at least) already have dual DVI outputs and can handle two monitors with ease. Some older cards though have both a DVI and VGA connections (to support both CRTs and LCDs) but aren't capable of handling dual monitors. You'll just have to look yours up to be sure.

It doesn't take any real graphics horsepower at all to run multi-monitor just on the windows desktop. I know several people who use old, crappy PCI video cards to run dual monitors. Of course, that won't be the case in Vista, if you're worried about planning ahead for it.

 

[AceHero]

2) I've recently been falling in love with MAC's....is it possible to run 2 monitors for more display area?

Thanks!

God Bless,

Eric

Yep. I've seen it at the Apple Store with a G5, so the new Mac Pro would probably be the best one to use. By the way, we spell it "Mac," just so you know. No acronym.

 

[MrJim]

I looked for mine-Everest lists under "multimedia"

Field Value
Graphics Processor Properties
Video Adapter Intel 82845G/GL/GV Graphics Controller
GPU Code Name Brookdale-G
PCI Device 8086 / 2562
Bus Type Integrated
GPU Clock 200 MHz
RAMDAC Clock 350 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 1
TMU Per Pipeline 2
Vertex Shaders Not Supported
Pixel Shaders Not Supported
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v6.0
Pixel Fillrate 200 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 400 MTexel/s

Graphics Processor Manufacturer
Company Name Intel Corporation
Product Information http://www.intel.com/products/browse/chipsets.htm
Driver Download http://support.intel.com/support/graphics

Is this the video card

<<still the novice>>

 

[rdale]

Is this the video card

menno, I didn't look it up, but it looks like you may have and onboard graphics card... meaning that the graphics processor is part of your motherboard. You can look visually... trace back the cable as it comes from your monitor to where it's connected to your computer. Open your case, is it hooked up to a separate card in one of your PCI slots/AGP slot, or does it look like the cable connects to part of your motherboard?

 

[MrJim]

menno, I didn't look it up, but it looks like you may have and onboard graphics card... meaning that the graphics processor is part of your motherboard. You can look visually... trace back the cable as it comes from your monitor to where it's connected to your computer. Open your case, is it hooked up to a separate card in one of your PCI slots/AGP slot, or does it look like the cable connects to part of your motherboard?

I'll check

If it is integrated does that mean I'm just stuck with it or can a video card be installed as an upgrade?

 

[MrJim]

bump

 

[rdale]

If it is integrated does that mean I'm just stuck with it or can a video card be installed as an upgrade?

If it's integrated, you should be able to disable it in BIOS. First, make sure that you have an available AGP or PCI slot to recieve a new video card. If you do have an available (empty) slot, you're good to go for the upgrade, if not, you'll need to remove something that you don't need/want to make room, or get another motherboard.

 

[MrJim]

If it's integrated, you should be able to disable it in BIOS. First, make sure that you have an available AGP or PCI slot to recieve a new video card. If you do have an available (empty) slot, you're good to go for the upgrade, if not, you'll need to remove something that you don't need/want to make room, or get another motherboard.

Thanks, when I open her up for a clean out I will investigate. Dual monitors sound pretty neat. I've always got a few things going at once.