shniggens Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 I would like to configure a dual monitor setup on my XP machine for use with Cubase SX. I currently have a decent AGP video card installed in my machine, and an older PCI video card stashed away in a drawer somewhere. Can I just add the PCI card, and voile???? Or do I need to buy a new card ready for dual monitors? I don't mind buying a new card, but I prefer not spend over $100. I noticed that most new cards have a regular monitor out connection, and some other funky adapter (what is this for?). Any suggestions on cards, configs, etc? Amateur Hack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by shniggens: Can I just add the PCI card, and voile????Nope. You need a Dual Monitor Card...and you should be able to find one for around $100. Matrox Nvidia Others too... miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 i dont see why he cant just add the card. i run dual monitors in XP with two cards. p.s. the other connecter is probably DVI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by Mr. Nice Crass Coaster Guy: i dont see why he cant just add the card. i run dual monitors in XP with two cards.Don't know what you mean by this..."two cards" exactly? In order to have dual monitors that display one large desktop across both monitors...you need a single, dual monitor card...that is specifically designed for that purpose. Just running two video cards...will give you the same display on each monitor (two desktops)... ...and not one large desktop across both monitors. Though I guess you could launch separate apps on each desktop...but, I don't know who runs two monitors in this fashion...? miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 NOPE. two cards, one big desktop. you set it that way in monitor control panel. pretty easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 OK...so which cards are they? There is must be more to this than you are stating... ...'cuz two single monitor cards...by themselvs... ...can NOT display one desktop across both monitors...only the SAME desktop...twice. Is this something new? miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 might be something new for all i know. example a: mac - 4mb ati card, 8mb ixmicro card. example b: mac - 4mb ati card, 4 mb ixmicro card. example c: pc with XP - 64mb nvidia gforce mx440, and some intel crap card. also tried a 16mb ati Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by Mr. Nice Crass Coaster Guy: you set it that way in monitor control panel. pretty easy.OK...I don't want to completely doubt you...maybe there's more to the equation you are referring to. But...I've been dealing with dual monitors for about 7 years now...and I currently have three, 21" dual monitor setups. They ALL...required a dual monitor card in order to output one large desktop across both monitors. With single monitor cards...where exactly in the monitor control panel to you tell the OS/app software to display half (left side) of your desktop on one monitor running off of a single monitor card...and tell it to display the rest of the desktop on the second monitor ALSO running on a single monitor card. I have never seen this before...and as I said...have been running dual monitors for quite some time now. They ALWAYS required a dual monitor card...AND...desktop management software to tell the OS how to split the video signal "down the middle". So...tell us more please...'cuz you PC example as you stated it just won't work... ...not sure if the Mac's do it differently. Maybe someone else can chime in. I would really like to know more specificsbecause if what you claimwas possible then why the hell do they make dual monitor cards for this purpose??? miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 i did a google search on this and i found out that ONE card has to have a chipset to support two monitors. this does not mean that card has two monitor outputs; only tht the chipset on the card supports sharing the info with the other card. apparently the cards in my pc do this. i say try it. what the hell-its free and it wont hurt anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 and PS, my example DOES work. come over and verify it yourself. with the cards running i have three SEPARATE monitors (one is a tv, 2 are VGA) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Ahhhwell then...it's a dual-monitor card if it has a dual-monitor chipset. Which would mean that if it has only a single output...you would need two of these dual-monitor chipset cards in order to achieve a true dual-monitor desktop. At that point...I think one card...one that is a dual monitor card...with two outputs...is the best way to go. Most PC's have only a single AGP slot. And...why even take up two PCI slots...when you can get a single, dual-monitor PCI card...using up just one slot. Also...multiple video card...MAY(?) open the door to greater IRQ/buss conflicts with your audio cards...where as using just one AGP. and leaving your PCI slots for audio...is a safer way to go I think. But hey...if your rig is working for you...then leave it alone! I only suggest a single, dual-monitor card for someone that is just getting their rig set up. miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henchman Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Sorry miroslav, you are wrong. I was able to do a dual monitor thing even in win98. XP is easier. An agp card and a PCI card, and away you go. It really is that simple. IMDB Credit list President George Washington: "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." President Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 what i read about the chipset in the cards is that the chipset only has to SUPPORT dual monitors, but does not have to be a dual monitor card. and yes, a true dual monitor agp card would be better, no arguement there. i say throw the sucker in, load the drivers, and see what happens. it may work or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJDM Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 I have heard of it being done this way as well. DJDM.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 I STRONGLY recommend getting a dual monitor AGP card. In general, you don't want a PCI video card in an audio computer anyway, because the PCI bus has enough to do without throwing video into the mix (particularly with those high-performance gaming cards that treat the PCI bus as their own private domain). I'm using a Matrox G450 and it has been a piece of cake...running two 17" LCDs (one of the best investments I ever made) makes programs like Vegas and Cakewalk a joy. Yes, with the right chipset you can do two monitors with AGP+PCI, but there is a performance hit involved. Macs are even easier...they've been doing the dual monitor thing forever. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schmoron13 Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 got my 128mb radeon 8500dvi a year and a half ago for a ton but it's probably dirt cheap by now...and even though it's a gaming card (didn't know it at the time), it's still robust enough to run 3ds max 5 and all my other open gl progs with ease. If all it takes to add a 3rd monitor is another card, I'm only using a single pci slot (for my Aardvark Q10), so I've got 4 free slots. I'm saving one for the eventual additino of a Mackie UAD-1 card, and another for a firewire controller, so it leaves me two for a 2nd video card to get a 3rd monitor. Aside from the "cooooooool" factor, it'd come in handy for web stuff (not porn ), my graphics projects and especially for audio progs (sonar across 3 monitors OH YEAH)!!! How do you even find a 128mb pci card? do I need that high or can I get something smaller? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shniggens Posted March 3, 2004 Author Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by Anderton: Matrox G450 and it has been a piece of cake...running two 17" LCDs (one of the best investments I ever made) makes programs like Vegas and Cakewalk a joy.Where did you get it, and how much? Amateur Hack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Using a dual-head AGP card will give you much better performance and will eat up less resources. PCI video cards are notorious for eating up PCI bandwidth and causing conflicts with PCI soundcards. Any dual-head Nvidia or ATI card should do the trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seclusion Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Yep I use a matrox g450 as well, they've been out for 4-5 years.. Rock solid. I noticed that I didn't like the one setting where the 2 monitors are one big desktop, where the taskbar goes right across the 2 montiors... Cause then it treats the center of the screen as the center of the 2 monitors.. Hard to read things when they pop up center screen between the 2 monitors. So I have it set the other way, the only difference is the task bar doesn't go across and center screen is center of the main monitor.. Everything else works great!... Accept last week one of my crap 17" monitors died and having only one monitor running seems like only having one cahoney(-1sp) hangin.. Workflow is so much simpler even burning cd's etc. cause you can see all the pages nero has while you copy!! I run Xp now but 98 did it as well with SP2. Love it man.. A matrox you could find for $50 and a 2nd 17"er for maybe $100 and away you go! Later Bri Smile if you're not wearin panties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shniggens Posted March 3, 2004 Author Share Posted March 3, 2004 OK, here's another question - Is it possible to use dual monitor setup with monitors of different size? Because I was hoping to do this with a 19" and 15" flat screen. Amateur Hack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by shniggens: OK, here's another question - Is it possible to use dual monitor setup with monitors of different size? Because I was hoping to do this with a 19" and 15" flat screen.Yes miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by Henchman: Sorry miroslav, you are wrong. I was able to do a dual monitor thing even in win98. XP is easier. An agp card and a PCI card, and away you go. It really is that simple.OK...I believe you guys...I just always went with a true dual monitor cardseemed like the right/best thing to do. But I'm curious now...so OK...you throw one single monitor card in one slot...and another single monitor card in the other slot... ...now, where/what is the software the tells the OS to split the video signal "right down the middle", and send it to the respective left/right monitors...??? I've only seen dual monitor desktop management available with dual-monitor cards...otherwise with two single monitors in two slots...how's that being done? Are you saying that the Disply Options under Control Panel actually change...and the minute you add the second single monitor, you get some new Display interface that allows you to treat the two single monitrs like one large desktop...??? miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 miroslav - yes, when you add the second card and either go with the windows drivers or the cards drivers, the monitor control panel shows two monitors. you can choose either monitor to be the main monitor. i choose one to be main with the taskbar and icons, the other is blank but i can put windows over there when apps are open. your right about the agp dual setup being the best - no doubt there. i have no agp slot in my pc so i have to use pci cards. in terms of a pc performance hit, i dont notice on my pc because it only does video, no audio. audio just plays through and doesnt get mixed in realtime on the pc. i unfortunately use the onboard audio which i hate; still looking for that oppertune soundcard. in terms of macintosh performance hit, i purposefully selected low-performance accelerator cards so they would not gobble up pci bandwidth. they are accelerated enough so that pro tools meter's are smooth and screen redraws are faster-than-spit but thats all. also photoshop is quite a bit fast with the low-perf cards. the video cards live on a seperate pci buss than the scsi card and audio interface, although placing any combo together on one pci buss makes no hit unless you put a digi001 card on the same buss as a firewire card and run a session off of it - that does not work. placing the firewire card on the other buss works fine. the scsi card doesnt seem to care what buss its on as long as it is bussmaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Originally posted by Mr. Nice Crass Coaster Guy: miroslav - yes, when you add the second card and either go with the windows drivers or the cards drivers, the monitor control panel shows two monitors. you can choose either monitor to be the main monitor. i choose one to be main with the taskbar and icons, the other is blank but i can put windows over there when apps are open.Hey...old dogs & new tricks! Having always just gone for the true dual monitor cards with my rigs... ...the thought never occurred to me to try two singles! miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Here's a follow up question. Are you able to open an app full-screen on your main monitor... ...and then drag the apps window so that it straddles BOTH monitorsshowing half the window on the left monitor and half on the right monitor? miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 yes. also depending on the app you could size the main window to take up both monitors full screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TB-AV Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Though I guess you could launch separate apps on each desktop...but, I don't know who runs two monitors in this fashion...?I run that way all the time. different apps on different monitors as well as stretch an app across the two. All at the same time. Plus I have dual inputs on the monitors so I run multiple PC's off the same monitor. Again, all this goes on at the same time. Also if you want a nice quiet adapter the new Matrox 3 head is fanless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Yes, you can configure a PCI and AGP card for dual monitor use, but as Craig said, there's a performance hit. I'd much rather have a dual head AGP card and be done with it. But the other way WILL work - it's just not all that great of an idea IMO - keep the PCI bus unfettered by a graphics card. I had a Matrox G550, which worked well with a couple of mobos, but was incompatable with my current board's (Asus A7N8X) nForce2 chipset, so I went with an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128 MB dual head card, which has worked great for me. Once it;'s installed, just right click on the desktop and select "Properties", then the "Settings" tab to configure the desktop. I don't bother too much with the config apps that come with most video cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 <> Amen, bro. And I'm glad that with your spiffy new forum, you still have time to go slumming here in SSS! Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip OKeefe Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 I'll always love SSS... and I'd hardly call it slumming. But the new forum IS pretty cool, and I appreciate everyoen who has participated already and / or offered their well wishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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