Dual Monitors(?)

JLV2k5

JLV2k5

Active Member
How exactly do dual monitors work? Is it just one card that enables this feature, a GPU with two S video cable slots and the monitors each just plug into the I/O? Enlighten me. Thanks.
 
i have 2 monitiors running off my 8800GT.

it was 2 dvi ports. and i have one monitor plugged into each. thats all i know.
 
For enabling dual monitor feature, you need tow cards. i think one must be onboard in you pc and for another one you will have to purchase another vga card for pci or agp (if u have agp slot).......
 
are you asking two of the exact screens duplicated on two monitors or two monitors act as one huge screen (each monitor gets half the image)?
 
oh because i never knew which the term "dual monitor" referred to.

for someone that wants a huge resolution, half the image on the left and half the image on the right monitor is a different setup than two monitors with the exact same desktop display right? so which setup would a video card with two DVI ports support?
 
WhiteFireDragon said:
are you asking two of the exact screens duplicated on two monitors or two monitors act as one huge screen (each monitor gets half the image)?
Click to expand...

it's so easy to switch between two condition you said with nvidia "nView" tec.

no more questions! make sure your card have 2 output interface and then open nView.you'll find everything is cool already.
 
WhiteFireDragon said:
oh because i never knew which the term "dual monitor" referred to.

for someone that wants a huge resolution, half the image on the left and half the image on the right monitor is a different setup than two monitors with the exact same desktop display right? so which setup would a video card with two DVI ports support?
Click to expand...

well i know for me i can do both. like set it up however... but yeah.
 
WhiteFireDragon said:
are you asking two of the exact screens duplicated on two monitors or two monitors act as one huge screen (each monitor gets half the image)?
Click to expand...

Two, each doing separate things. One could be playing a gaming the second could be a webpage or any combination of things. I think two separate monitors doing the same thing is senseless.


addy999 said:
For enabling dual monitor feature, you need tow cards. i think one must be onboard in you pc and for another one you will have to purchase another vga card for pci or agp (if u have agp slot).......
Click to expand...

I guess you don't need two cards, as seen above. Thanks all.
 
addy999 said:
For enabling dual monitor feature, you need tow cards. i think one must be onboard in you pc and for another one you will have to purchase another vga card for pci or agp (if u have agp slot).......
Click to expand...

i guess i have a question for this. instead of having an onboard and another PCI video, would dual monitor still work if i had an old PCI and PCI-express both on the mobo and a monitor plugged into each card?
 
Yes but it's risky since not all old PCI cards will be compatible. For exemple: I ordered a ATI 9000 to use as a secondary graphics card, but it would install properly. I contacted Nvidia, they said a 6200 would be compatible, with no driver issues, and (as you can see in sig) it work very well. So if you get some old PCI card along side your PCI-E card, be sure that it will be compatible.

Also note, that most modern cards support dual-display, so you would only need one card for two screens. (Infact I could connect four monitors now because both the 7950GT and 6200 both have dual-heads).

EDIT: I love to share my knowledge of multi-monitoring, if you have more questions, refer to this thread first.
 
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All you have to do is read the box or specs and it will say "Dual monitor support"
Then right click desktop and go to display settings and enable the other monitor.
Pretty much any GPU on the market over the last 6 months and all the new ones coming out will be able to do that.

Don't use S-vid to connect monitors because the refresh rate is different in those cables. I would go with DVI to connect.
 
here are some questions that wasn't answered in the other thread:

1) i only have 2 flats screen monitors with VGA connectors. i will buy two DVI to VGA adapter to connect both monitors to the two lots on my 7900gt. will having adapters like that lower the picture quality of the displays at all?

2) also, i noticed that UltraMon software is a trial version. is there a free version somewhere? will the trial version be expired after a certain amount of days, or trail version only means that it limits of the features? i don't want to install it and have stuff written in my registry if it's the trial where you get a certain amount of days

i saw some screen shots of dual/triple monitors in the other thread and i'm excited to set this up :D
 
Dual monitors are the best, i use triple, i cant go back to single after working with more. You have every right to be excited. It makes desktop space so much easier to use when running multiple programs/games, etc......
 
WhiteFireDragon said:
here are some questions that wasn't answered in the other thread:

1) i only have 2 flats screen monitors with VGA connectors. i will buy two DVI to VGA adapter to connect both monitors to the two lots on my 7900gt. will having adapters like that lower the picture quality of the displays at all?
Click to expand...

Although that doesn't have to do much with dual-display, for most people, there's hardly a difference. Here's a passage from tweakguides in a guide describing the processes of graphics in gaming called The Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide:

TweakGuides.com said:
The prepared image is now ready to be displayed, sent from the Frame Buffer through a RAMDAC (Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Convertor), up the video cable to your monitor. The RAMDAC is necessary to convert digital information (i.e. information in 0's and 1's) in your VRAM to an analog format (i.e. video signal voltages) displayable by most monitors. A RAMDAC constantly converts frames to viewable images many times a second.

The RAMDAC is important because it affects both the maximum possible refresh rate at particular resolutions (in conjunction with the monitor's capabilities), and the image quality on the screen. Fortunately most recent graphics cards have good quality fast RAMDACs, so this is not a major concern - the monitor's refresh rate is usually the limitation, not the RAMDAC's.

Importantly, while a traditional CRT monitor is dependent on a RAMDAC, an LCD monitor is not reliant on them if you use a pure digital connection such as DVI (Digital Video Interface) between your graphics card and monitor. Using the DVI input on an LCD monitor results in the RAMDAC being bypassed, since the original digital signal travels unaltered to be displayed on your LCD screen, whereas using a standard VGA connection on an LCD requires that the digital signal be converted to analog (by the RAMDAC) and then converted back again to digital by the LCD monitor before being displayed, which is not as efficient. Note that using a DVI to VGA converter for a CRT monitor also effectively bypasses the RAMDAC, as the output is digital, but the digital to analog conversion still occurs in the cable itself. (Source, Step 9 - The Image is Sent to the Screen)
Click to expand...



WhiteFireDragon said:
2) also, i noticed that UltraMon software is a trial version. is there a free version somewhere? will the trial version be expired after a certain amount of days, or trail version only means that it limits of the features? i don't want to install it and have stuff written in my registry if it's the trial where you get a certain amount of days

i saw some screen shots of dual/triple monitors in the other thread and i'm excited to set this up :D
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly, Ultramon isn't free. The trial is 30-day, with all features. However, if you do get a multi-monitor setup, I certainly recommend it. In a way, it adds what windows forgot to do! One of the features I like is the two extra buttons it adds to windows so that you can click to send the window to another screen, here's the best part, you can assign hotkeys to it. So I have a button on my mouse that I use to send windows to other screens (without having to minimize and click and drag the monitor to the other screen, then maximize again.) Lots more of useful feature are described on the website.
 
Instead of using Ultramon, you can get Multimon. Same idea, but free with few less features. The main feature i think of Ultramon is having the bottun to switch screens. Multimon has this also. It lacks things like options to assign a place to open to each shortcut (but with the trial I used, this didnt really work either. I set a page to open on my TV and it kept opening on my computer monitor, so I dont really care about losing this feature.) Also, Multimon doesnt support having different backgrounds for each monitor like Ultramon. But again, i wouldnt pay $50 to get this, because the other features i can get for free.

One this i forgot. It also has the extended taskbar. And on each monitor, It only has the programs open on that one monitor, exactly like Ultramon
 
shortymet55 said:
Instead of using Ultramon, you can get Multimon. Same idea, but free with few less features.
Click to expand...

Good call.

Also, you can do different backround in standard windows with a image editor. Simply put the two images side-by-side, make the image the size of your desktop in the editor. Make the image file "tile". Since the image is the size of the desktop you wont see the repeating of tile.

Also you can do this with HTML, see this page

So you might be just as well off with Multimon as shortmet55 said.
 
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