Secondary monitor concerns

GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
edited May 2004 in Hardware
I plan on adding a secondary monitor to my primary PC in the mid-distant (maybe after-Thanksgiving sale LCD-at-BestBuy deals) future. I have my primary monitor (a 17" LCD) running off of the DVI output on my Radeon 9800 Pro.

Would it be better for overall system performance/video performance to run the secondary monitor off of the CRT output on the 9800 pro, or to stick the Radeon 7500 PCI card that's in my spare parts bin in there and run the second monitor off of that?

My intuition tells me that running the monitor off of the second card is the better solution, but I really have no idea if some factor I'm not considering might make me very, very wrong.

Comments

  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited May 2004
    as in two monitors at once? i don't think you could coordinate the cards ... i'm probably wrong though
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    Ya, two monitors at once. It's problems like maybe can't-coordinate-the-two-cards that I'm wondering about. Thanks. ;)
  • dodododo Landisville, PA
    edited May 2004
    I'm gonna guess that the performance difference wont be all that much, so just use your other Radeon 9800 output. you dont need to install drivers again and its much simpler. What do you plan on doing that is going to be graphically intensive on this machine?

    ~dodo
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    On the secondary monitor, nothing should be graphically intensive.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited May 2004
    I've heard of games that can span over more than one monitor. Can't remember any now though...

    I wish I could help, but I'm in the same situation, except the secondary card is a 3D Rage II + DVD. And The primary monitor isn't an LCD.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    I have a 9700 Pro and I use the second output on it. It doesn't seem to effect performance too much.

    If you can get the second card to work, then go for it. I always have trouble when it comes to getting multiple cards working.
  • dodododo Landisville, PA
    edited May 2004
    From my experience (Radeon 9500) the second monitor will most likely need to be disabled when playing most games anyway, and i have no troubles with basic windows apps using the second output off my card. I would just use that for simplicity.

    ~dodo
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    I tried to run an older ATI All In Wonder PCI with my AGP 9500 and was vastly unsuccessful in getting the two to do anything right together. When I need the AIW I simply remove the 9500. They sort of maybe worked in XP (I run 2000). Generally though it was a heap of failure. I would think you might do better with the newer secondary card, but really my suggestion is stay on one card. My 9500 works great with 2 outputs.
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