Dual monitors - appropriate card?

[IS300]

I have 2 LCDs both running native resolutions, a 19" (primary) running 1280x1024 and a 20" Dell WS running 1680x1050 (under display properties, I enabled "extend Windows desktop onto this monitor"). When I run Firefox on the 19" and a movie on the 20", every time I load a new webpage, the movie lags until the page has loaded (approx. 3 sec). Of course, this is a Geforce FX5200 in a P4 2.66.

Someone told me I need a 256MB video card, but do I really? Would a BFG 6600 GT OC 128MB in a new C2D system be fast enough to handle internet on one LCD, while playing a movie on the other? If not, what would be sufficient?

I should mention that I would like run some games. The new C2D system will be OC'd to maybe 3GHz. I understand that Flight Simulator X needs a high-end system, but that it is much more CPU hungry than GPU-intensive. Anyone running FSX with a similar setup care to comment about their card and level of performance?


For now, with the FX5200, is it better to NVidia control panel handle the dual monitor configuration (seems to only allow resolutions much lower than native res.)? Does extending Windows desktop" slow things down further?

 

[secretanchitman]

if you're going to be running FSX....you should go for a 7900 series GPU (7900GS/GT/7950GT can be had for cheap as well as the ati equivalents).

 

[IS300]

Thanks secretanchitman.

What about if I forget about the gaming aspect. What's an appropriate card just to run dual LCDs for movies/internet as mentioned above?

 

[IS300]

Can anyone else comment/advise? Thanks.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

for best performance you need to run the video on the "primary" monitor.