dkirk opened this issue on Aug 04, 2000 ยท 6 posts
dkirk posted Fri, 04 August 2000 at 11:29 PM
Just bought a Dell P3 800 with 128mb RDRAM and a GeForce 32mb video card. I want to be able to use two monitors (one for the canvas and the other for the menu bars) and was wondering if anyone knew how I could setup the computer to handle dual monitors. I obviously need another video card, but do I have to buy the same one as what's already installed, and how does windows have to be setup to handle this? Thanks for any helpful replies.
dethblud posted Sat, 05 August 2000 at 7:13 AM
My room mate just recently upgraded to a GeForce and had been previously running with 2 monitors. When he tried it with the GeForce it didn't work. To quote him "the GeForce doesn't like a second monitor". He didn't give me any other details at the time though.
hoborg posted Sat, 05 August 2000 at 1:42 PM
I was able to do it with the stock card that came in my Compaq- ATI I think, and a Diamond Stealth 2d accelerator. But it wasn't very reliable. It was cool while it lasted though. :D Hoborg
brenthomer posted Sat, 05 August 2000 at 1:49 PM
I've been under the impression that anything other than NT should be considered unrealible. The thing that sucks about window NT with 2 monitors is that all your boxes show up inbetween the two monitors...the mac see 2 monitors as 2 monitors...NT sees 2 monitors as 1 monitor (makes it hard to find a background :)
Wasabi posted Mon, 07 August 2000 at 10:50 AM
I used a NVidia TNT2 and Savage 4 card on windows 98. Its pretty slick when it works, however, the stability of the system is pretty poor when running dual monitors. But, boy, it sure makes modelling nice (and web page developemnt!). The only app I had stability problems with on dual monitors was Carrara. But is annoying enough that I have disabled dual monitors. The other thing to watch for is your system will have only a single AGP slot. The second video card MUST be PCI, which is good becasue PCI cards are usually cheaper. The second thing is that only your primary adapter will support 3D acceleration un Direct 3D (if I have read Microsoft's docs right).
Wasabi posted Mon, 07 August 2000 at 10:51 AM
I used a NVidia TNT2 and Savage 4 card on windows 98. Its pretty slick when it works, however, the stability of the system is pretty poor when running dual monitors. But, boy, it sure makes modelling nice (and web page developemnt!). The only app I had stability problems with on dual monitors was Carrara. But is annoying enough that I have disabled dual monitors. The other thing to watch for is your system will have only a single AGP slot. The second video card MUST be PCI, which is good becasue PCI cards are usually cheaper. The second thing is that only your primary adapter will support 3D acceleration un Direct 3D (if I have read Microsoft's docs right).