Hi guys,
I want to use a couple of screens on my setup and was wondering what I would need.
A new graphics card? Can anyone recommend a good cheap one?
TIA
Tom :) :)
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Hi guys,
I want to use a couple of screens on my setup and was wondering what I would need.
A new graphics card? Can anyone recommend a good cheap one?
TIA
Tom :) :)
What graphics card have you got now? If it has 2 x DVI or DVI + VGA port then you can do it with your current card.
no I only have 1 VGA slot
My XFX 6600 manages 2 screens with no problem.
My GF4 TI4200 does too! :D
Just set it back up for my mum.
Be careful with dual-display. Once you adopt it, you'll find all uni-display PCs to be vastly inferior.
Any graphics card with two D-Sub/DVI outputs can do dual display, so get one that delivers the performance you want.
If you have two LCDs, maybe go for dual DVI on the card.
A new graphics card with two outputs is defintely the best way to go about this - or you can just put in two cards and windows will be perfectly happy with that, only it can be a little more fiddly to set up properly.
When it comes to reccomending which card..that is more difficult without knowing your budget, what your current card is and what you want to do with it.
It is definitely worth doing though - as Steve says once you have used a machine with two displays you will never ever want to go back to a single display machine - the difference is immense. Working is easier thanks to the ability to have two maximised windows open at once (great for having say code on one screen and Firefox on the other), and an increasing number of games are now supporting dual display (SupCom for example - the difference dual display makes to that game is more than you would think..changes the way you play it).
Let us know your budget and what you do with your PC though and i'm sure we can suggest a card for you :)
Don't really use my comp for gaming....Just for work, web design and DVDs.
Can't even remember what graphics card I put in there when I built it. Cost me about £40 4 years ago.
Budget is about the same now £40-50.
Do I even need to spend that much for what I do?
TIA
Tom :)
for that sort of usage, I would reccomend an Nvidia 6200..most people on here will probably disagree on that, but if you don't game then you won't notice a blind bit of difference between this card and a higher end one.
PCI-E
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http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=370153
AGP
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http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=555355
those are about £35 and should suit you fine..you can get a cheaper one too if you like but I would advise against it in case you ever want to run vista..as without aero its just not the same :)
I only disagree with you because it steals system memory.
This 6600 would be a far better bet :)
hmm out of stock at the mo :(
Just been looking at these cards (I'll have a dual-DVI spare in a couple of weeks or so, but sorry, can't let you have it as my organisation owns it) and looked on e-bay to see how much it was worth.Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicFreebiesUK
It's a Matrox Millenium P650, passively cooled, 64MB and on e-bay was £25. Should be enought for your use.
Peter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MagicFreebiesUK
Ive got the same card as DavidM and it does the job fine :). Although i do things a little different :PQuote:
Originally Posted by DavidM
It has 2 DVI connections. I use one to connect dvi to dvi on the monitor the other connects dvi to vga, to a kvm switch which connects to the vga port on the monitor. Then i set my dual display to clone :) so if i need a direct link to a comp, i can use the kvm and still get on with things with changing the monitor ro vga or dvi :D. Its mostly used for installing a new OS etc... or if i wanna mess about with the network stuff.