dual monitor help!

[Terrorism101]

i was wondering how to set up dual monitors cause im holding my friends monitor for the summer...
which os supports it? im running win2k...can someone help me please? thanks

 

[Vegito]

buy dual monitor card is easiest, matrox g400/400max/450/550 or appian video cards.

Or use 1 AGP and 1 PCI card and pray theres no incompatibility

 

[SUOrangeman]

Win2K, Win98, WinME

Throw in the second video card and fire it up.

May have to swap primary & secondary displays (in BIOS and/or in Win2K -- as it can override BIOS).

No gaurantee that it will work (some video cards/drivers just suck).

www.realtimesoft.com links to a multi-display database from their UltraMon product page.

-SUO

 

[sohcrates]

i've had GREAT results with dual monitors from g400/ 450's

i've had BAD luck (i.e. lack of stability) with using two different video cards...although i know people who claim it works great. just gotta throw together what ya got and see how stable it is..no "sure way" to tell if it's gonna work well..but it WILL work..you just need win98 or 2k

 

[jobberd]

if you DO purchase a twinview video card, make sure both of your monitors are going to be running at the same resolution.Win2k deals with monitors in a weird way, so both monitors have to be the same resolution to work. I have to buy another pci vid card since i have a 20" and a 15" monitor. However, Matrox has drivers that get past this and allow you to run both monitors at different resolutions. So your options are: buying a twinview video card, or buying a secondary pci video card. A friend of mine has the secondary pci video card and it runs just fine for him.
oh, and go here for a good pci card

edit: err, yeah thats what i meant when i said "buying a twinview video card". sorry

 

[sohcrates]

<< So your options are: buying a twinview video card, or buying a secondary pci video card. >>



this is true, but don't forget the third option! a matrox dualhead card!

 

[SUOrangeman]

I just jumped from a two card multi-head setup to a single-card nVidia TwinView config. WinME works just like it did with two cards, but Win2K will take some getting used to. Previously in Win2K, each display was treated differently, whereas now Win2k acts as if there is only one monitor. Hopefully, nVidia will make an effort to match Matrox in this department soon.

-SUO, nVidia newbie

 

[BlueHeelers]

I hate to keep sounding like a Matrox advocate, but I am using a Matrox G400 in a dual monitor setup now and its nice. The Matrox allows for different resolutions and its nice. Below are a few cool things specific to the Matrox (I believe... correct me if I am wrong)
- It doesnt try to stretch the task bar/start menu bar all the way across the screen.
- You can maximize a program on just one monitor instead of having a program take up both monitors
- eDualHead supposedly allows you to have a browser in each monitor, with the second monitor having what is further down the page. I have NOT been able to get this to work though.

I am using a 21&quot; IBM Trinitron 1600x1200 @85hz and 20&quot; IBM Trinitron 1200x1024 @75hz. I have IE and whatever else I am working on in my main monitor. I have Outlook, WinAMP, and Excel in my 2nd monitor.

REL

 

[Vegito]

Yeah, I have both twinview and g400, the twinview is still a baby, it crashes a lot on my second dvd out and etc, the g400 is what 2.5 years old ? almost all the bugs are gone... the appian is good too but very sluggish

 

[Psssycho]

I've been running dual-head for years under NT and, now, 2000. I, too have had the best luck with the Matrox cards, although the early Appian cards worked pretty well, too (I don't know what their current line looks like).

My Matrox G400 MAX has (in the latest drivers) stability and great functionality, something you just won't find in the other dual-head solutions out there. The Matrox PowerDesk utility allows you great control over the placement and sizing of windows across the monitors: choice of pop-up dialog placement, maximization control (one monitor or across both), window opening placement, and lots of other things. For 2D and DVD playback, I've loved it, and, as a software developer, the extra desktop space affords me lots of interesting uses for editing and debugging. Unfortunately, the G400 is NOT the solution for you if you intend to play the latest crop of 3D games.

About 6 months ago, I replaced my G400 MAX with a Leadtek GeForce2 MX DH Pro. It's been nothing but heartache, too. Sure, the dual-head features are there, but the card has been flaky, flaky, flaky. When it works, the 3D performance has been good; Tribes 2 runs like a dream. Unfortunately, the drivers have made my machine quite prone to lock-ups in games. ALL 3D games have done it, both OpenGL and DirectX 8a. I've been hard pressed to find a solution to it, unloading most everything from Win2K (including the Leadtek WinFox program, which I just don't trust), and changing drivers frequently (both LeadTek and the Nvidia Detonator drivers). Nothing has been particularly helpful. Unfortunately, LeadTek is not the most responsive company in the world, and has not provided many clues to resolving this issue, so I am forced to think of a better solution or return to my G400 MAX.

I've considered trying the Radeon VE Dual-display, but reviews have, thus far, discouraged me. Similar problems with a single-head Radeon DDR (bad Win2k drivers and problems with them on Athlon Motherboards) haven't helped ATI win me over, either. Anyone else have one on Win2k?

You may have better results with the Leadtek card under ME or 98; it appears that most people have. Otherwise, don't waste your time and money with anything but a mature dual-head card. At this point, it looks like I may go to a game-specific machine ALONGSIDE my development box, with dedicated, single-out hardware. I just HAVE to have my games, AND my dual-monitor support, too.

 

[Raspewtin]

<< My Matrox G400 MAX has (in the latest drivers) stability and great functionality >>



ya i tried many dual display solns (aGP/PCI, twinview, etc) and found Matrox had the best soln so i also got a g400 max. if dual display is important to you (and you don't play many games) get a matrox. if you do play a lot of 3d games, you should look elsewhere

 

[SUOrangeman]

Oh, that really helps me, Psssycho. I just installed that *EXACT* card in my system. I am pleased to report that I am using TwinView in Win2K, WinME, and Linux (not bad after 3 hours of tinkering). Because of MS's stubbornness in Win2K and nVidia's newbieness in the realm of multiple displays, my Win2K experience has been the weakest of the three OSes (I have BeOS installed, but am having other problems with that). Since Matrox seems to have worked around the 1:1 video chip-to-display issue, I sincerely hope that nVidia is taking notes. I think WinME and Linux function identically with this card as it did with my former two-card setup.

BTW, I've been using a Savage4 PCI + ATi Rage128 solution at home for over a year. I specifically sought an nVidia-based multi-display-in-one-card adapter to give me a little 3D horsepower.

-SUO

 

[T2T III]

<< I've considered trying the Radeon VE Dual-display, but reviews have, thus far, discouraged me. Similar problems with a single-head Radeon DDR (bad Win2k drivers and problems with them on Athlon Motherboards) haven't helped ATI win me over, either. Anyone else have one on Win2k? >>


I'd recommend staying away from this solution for dual display. The capabilities when using Hydraview are quite good. I'm currently using this card to drive (2) 15&quot; LCD displays of the same make / model. I don't like the image that is produced by the 2nd channel on this video card - the one where you use an adapter to convert the plug from DVI back over to D-Sub. My text is too muddied on the 2nd screen. I'm heading out to look for an nVidia-based 'twinview' card today to see if some of my display ills can be cured.

[EDIT]: I have a correction to make. It appears the Radeon VE isn't that bad after all with dual displays. While I reported that the output on my 2nd LCD was kind of muddy when it came to text, I essentially assumed that the DVI -> D-Sub plug adapter was creating some form of interference. However, I adjusted the phase setting on my 2nd LCD monitor and the picture is just a smooth as the first one at this point.

However, there appears to be an issue wih playing DVD movies. I'm using WinDVD and when I play it at the same time as performing other activities, the picture pauses and jerks whenever I move my mouse. I need to resolve this issue and I'll be a 'happy camper'.

 

[desine]

I'm also looking into adding a second monitor/video card in Windows 2000. I currently have an AGP Diamond Multimedia Viper V770 Ultra, Nvidia RIVA TNT2 and would like to add a fairly inexpensive PCI card to control the second display. I have a few concerns:

1) I've heard that ATI cards don't generally work well in this configuration. Can anyone suggest a good, inexpensive card to power the second display? I don't want super-powerful for the second display - 8-16mb would be more than adequate to handle it, I think. I'd like to run the display at 1024x768 or 1152x864 and millions of colors if possible.
2) Will adding a second display affect DVD playback or OpenGL? (I like to play the occasional game to unwind after a long day )
3) I've read that in Windows 2000 and with certain cards, you need to set the PCI card to primary in the BIOS and then switch that in win2k. Is there a list of what cards that is necessary for available somewhere? (I don't mind going through that, but I don't want to work at getting a second card to work for a while and then find out that's what I need to do )
4) I also have a KVM switch which I'd like to run to the secondary display so I can switch the second monitor between secondary display for win2k and primary display for my linux box.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Nevo]

W2K does not require that the monitors be at the same resolution! (TwinView card drivers may, however.)

Be careful buying video cards for multimon. The list of supported cards for W2K is very different that the cards supported by Win9x. They use totally different architectures.

Now, for the record, multimon under w2K WORKS! I'm running **four** monitors on my W2K system, with **four** video cards made by **four** different vendors running **four** different chipsets.

It works like a dream.

Note that S3 cards won't work as the secondary monitor under W2K, because these chipsets don't allow VGA mode to be disabled.

-Nevo