Dual Screen

Computer Forum Video Cards, Displays and TV Tuners
1

I’m looking to get a dual screen system in place, however, I have a question or two.

  1. At the moment I have an ATI 9200, which only has one output, Would I be able to just buy a second PCI GFX Card from e-bay or something, and plug in a second monitor?

  2. Would this second card need to be ATI aswell?

Thanks

2

No, I think that you’ll need a VGA splitter cable to connect 2 screens on 1 VGA card, if it only has 1 VGA output.

3

But, will this allow me to have a different output on each screen?

4

No, if you want to do that, you’ll need to replace your graphics card with one that has 2 VGA outputs. You can only use multiple graphics cards with SLI motherboards.

5

Would you be able to recommend a good model? I’m running on a AGP port.

6

Not true at all.

You can add another PCI graphics card for the 2nd monitor. Or you can buy an AGP card with 2 outputs.

SLI uses two graphics cards to run one monitor.

7

Thanks Matt D:

Does it need to be another ATI model?

8

I’m not sure, I’ve never tried.

I’d honestly suggest getting a new card with dual headers, it’ll be easier and probably won’t cost much more. You can get cheap dual-screen capable cards.

9

For the sake of drivers, it’d be in your best intrests to go with another ATi-based card. From what I’ve seen, using video cards with different GPU companies in the mix seems to cause some bad mojo.

10

Instead of buying a new GFX card, I bought a VGI to DVI adapater, which is working sweet :smiley: