I'm still busy specing my new machine.

I'm planning to have dual monitors. One 20" or 22" widescreen and one 19"
4:3 monitor. Most likely the widescreen will be the primary monitor used for
all games.

I'm looking at getting a GeForce 8800 GT graphics card. Can that run 2
monitors, or do I need to have 2 cards? If the latter, are there any
reasonably priced grahics cards that can handle dual monitors and are still
good for modern gaming?

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

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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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Gail Shaw wrote:
> I'm planning to have dual monitors. One 20" or 22" widescreen and one 19"
> 4:3 monitor. Most likely the widescreen will be the primary monitor used for
> all games.

Keep in mind that many games use vsync, and if you plan on using an LCD 
monitor (you didn't mention e/o) it might not support vsync, as it will 
not have a normal refresh rate. I think LCDs are mostly 60hz, but it 

which require vsync to look good don't always perform very well on it 
(zsnes for one).

Sam

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"stbenge" <stb### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:47e5f394@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
> > I'm planning to have dual monitors. One 20" or 22" widescreen and one
19"
> > 4:3 monitor. Most likely the widescreen will be the primary monitor used
for
> > all games.
>
> Keep in mind that many games use vsync, and if you plan on using an LCD
> monitor (you didn't mention e/o)

New monitor will be LCD, but current monitor (the 4:3 one) is a LCD. Been
using that for a couple years already. Haven't noticed any issues.

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"Chambers" <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote in message
news:47e5ae65@news.povray.org...
> 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.

Good to know

> 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.

Is there any way to tell which ones support 2 monitors and which don't?
Either there's nothing that says that in the short summary, or I can't read
hardware descriptions any more.
Is Dual DVI the key? Or do I need to go and read through the maunfacturer
website and read through the details

Based on what the suppliers have, these are my options: (currently
preference is for the 2nd one)

Gigabyte NVIDIAr GeForce 8800GT, 512MB 256Bit GDDR3, PCI-E 2.0, Dual DVI,
HDTV, DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.0, SLI Ready, Vista Premium

xfx geforce 8800 gt: XFX T80F-SHE , Pci-E 16x , geforce 8800GTX Extreme
edition , SLi support , Pci-E 16x , 768mb 384bit DDR3 , support DirectX 10.0
+ shader model 4.0 +FP32 HDR + 16x AA ; , max resolution 2560x1600 , HDCP
Compliant , RoPs : 24 , 36.8 billion/sec texture fill rate , 86Gb/sec memory
transfer , 128 stream processors @ 1.35Ghz ( pixel shader engine + vertex
pipelines ) , core/memory : 600/1900mhz , 2 x dvi , HDTV tvout

XFX T88P-YSF , geforce 8800GT Zalman edition , SLi support , Pci-E 2.0 16x ,
512mb 256bit DDR3 , support DirectX 10.0 + shader model 4.0 +FP32 HDR + 16x
AA ; max resolution 2560x1600 , HDCP Compliant , RoPs : 16 , 57.6Gb/sec
memory transfer , 112 stream processors @ 1.5Ghz ( pixel shader engine +
vertex pipelines ) , core/memory : 600/1800mhz , 2 x dvi , HDTV tvout

asus 8800gt 512mb ddr3 en8800gt/g/htdp/512m: geforce 8800GT , SLi support ,
Pci-E 2.0 16x , 512mb 256bit DDR3 , support DirectX 10.0 + shader model 4.0
+FP32 HDR + 16x AA ; max resolution 2560x1600 , HDCP Compliant , 57.6Gb/sec
memory transfer , 112 stream processors @ 1.5Ghz ( pixel shader engine +
vertex pipelines ) , core/memory : 600/1800mhz , 2 x dvi , HDTV tvout


I looked briefly at crossfire/SLI, but it looks a little overkill at the
moment.

Thanks for the help.

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On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:01:48 +0100, Gail Shaw sa dot com>  
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> wrote:
> Is there any way to tell which ones support 2 monitors and which don't?

They all do.


> Is Dual DVI the key? Or do I need to go and read through the maunfacturer
> website and read through the details

Any new non-low-profile consumer card will support dual monitors. The only  
thing that may differ is the type of connectors (i.e. DVI/D-SUB or dual  
DVI).


> I looked briefly at crossfire/SLI, but it looks a little overkill at the  
> moment.

In my experience, Crossfire/SLI is never worth it. Also, keep in mind that  
only nForce chipsets (and only some of those) support SLI on  
Intel-compatible motherboards.


-- 
FE

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Chambers wrote:
> 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.

What he said.

Although, an 8800 is a damn expensive GPU, and it's therefore *highly* 
likely that any card featuring this chip will have every connector 
option going.

(Now, if you were considering something like a 7100, you'd want to check 
before you buy. But a high-end 8800? I would think it'll be there.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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> Although, an 8800 is a damn expensive GPU, and it's therefore *highly* 
> likely that any card featuring this chip will have every connector 
> option going.

I have an nVidia 8600GT. It has two DVI ports.

But: I have a Samsung 932N LCD screen. It has one VGA port. So I have to 
use a freaking adapter.
(it has two stuck pixels too, and according to their dead pixel policy, 
that's still in the "normal" category)

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Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> 
> But: I have a Samsung 932N LCD screen. It has one VGA port. So I have to 
> use a freaking adapter.
> (it has two stuck pixels too, and according to their dead pixel policy, 
> that's still in the "normal" category)

It's evil practice nowadays to mention the most usual faults as normal. 
Eg. Audi's manual says it can draw 1l of oil (the damn-expensive 
long-life stuff) on 1000km - it makes maximum of 30l between two oil 
changes - just to clear out of possible fault responsibility. Sameways 
LCD panel makers mention that n dead pixels is "normal", so they don't 
need to seriously jump up the quality. For software one crash/week can 
be "normal" and for DVB-receiver it can be "normal" to loose subtitles.

We're living in a "normal" world.
</rant>

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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> I have an nVidia 8600GT. It has two DVI ports.
> 
> But: I have a Samsung 932N LCD screen. It has one VGA port. So I have to 
> use a freaking adapter.

My GeForce 7900GT came *with* such an adaptor in the box. (And an 
assortment of other adaptors for that matter...)

> (it has two stuck pixels too, and according to their dead pixel policy, 
> that's still in the "normal" category)

As far as I'm aware, CTX have a "zero dead pixels within 101 days" policy.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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