Dual Display Question

[Xerties]

Hey everyone, I was just wondering about setting up dual displays. I know that if you have two displays running off of one video card you get a pretty big frame hit when you're trying to play a game or something. I was wondering, if I got another video card, say a cheapo PCI one, would I still see the same performace hit, or would I be able to use two displays without too much problem? I have an Athlon XP 2800+ CPU and Radeon 9600 Pro 256 AGP videocard. Thanks!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

IMO, a cheapo PCI card would cause more of a hit, and the best card you could get would be a relatively terrible card. Of course I could be wrong, but I'd think for gaming this isn't going to help you and could cause you slow downs and even problems if you have other things on PCI like Audio where you could get IRQ conflicts, etc.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com/" target="_new"><font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[RichPLS]

You can disable second display when gaming, enable it right after. I luv dual display with X800XT PE card.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

Ape, I think he was wanting to use AGP for gaming, and PCI card for second display to not take a frame hit.


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Vapor]

I do the disable > game > quit > enable method as well with my 9800XT.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

 

[Xerties]

RichPLS says, "Ape, I think he was wanting to use AGP for gaming, and PCI card for second display to not take a frame hit."

That's exactly what I'm wondering. I know I can disable the second display while playing and then re-enable it, but that completely defeats the purpose of the dual displays. I want to be able to shuffle songs, browse webpages, IM, whatever while I'm playing a game. Can I do this using a PCI card for all that while using the AGP for games without taking a huge frame hit?

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well if you're not dual monitor gamin I think the impact will still be negligeable.

My recommendation would be either save the money you would spend buying a PCI card, and sell your current card and get a better AGP card or get a very cheap PCI card. If you want to test it out, try using the cheapo 4-16mb PCI card from a surplus/used store and see what it's effects are (and then you can always say it doesn't work and return it [well with Best Buy or something you could do it with a good PCI card too]), considering what you want to do that may be all you need.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com/" target="_new"><font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[RichPLS]

I agree with Ape, I game occaisionally, and do not disable second display, and Doom3 and Americas Army run fine at 1024x768 high quality.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Clob]

Ahh... Another Americas Army player. look me up on tracker and we can play a few Rich... Clobster is the name man... [/off topic subject]

"If youre paddling upstream in a canoe and a
wheel falls off, how many pancakes fit in a doghouse? None! Icecream doesn't have bones!!!"

"Battling Gimps and Dimbulbs HERE at THGC"