Gail Shaw wrote:
> If I need 2 cards (or 1 add-on card and one built-in), does the motherboard
> need anything special?

Depends on the card you get.  I believe all current AMD and NVidia 
chipsets provide multimonitor support; it is up to the card 
manufacturers themselves to enable it, however.

In other words, it's perfectly possible to buy an 8800 (good choice, 
btw, the 512MB version is a great card for the money) that supports two 
monitors, but just because it's an 8800 doesn't mean that it has to.

As far as the motherboard goes, nothing needs to be added above what's 
necessary to run the card itself (some cards have higher power 
requirements, for instance, or need more space in the case).

One thing to keep in mind: both NVidia and AMD have recently introduced 
technology to do a type of multicard setup using an onboard graphics 
chip combined with a discrete card.  You get a boost compared to a 
single graphics card, though not as much as using two discrete cards. 
Also, when you're not playing games, the discrete card can be 
deactivated, and the system will use only the onboard graphics, saving a 
*lot* of electricity.  You might consider holding off a month or two for 
this (although that's a slippery slope, as there is always something new 
about to be released...)

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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