Hello everyone! I have a question... I have recently built my own computer, but I am still new to all this computer hardware stuff :/ My question is whether or not I can do dual monitors with my system in a specific way. Right now, I mainly use my computer for gaming; but at the same time I am always running programs like Yahoo Instant Messenger, AIM and MSN, as well as Mozilla as I need to frequently look stuff up for my game. I was wondering if there was a way that I could dual monitor with two different graphics cards in my machine. The primary one that I use now would be the one that I use for my games; the secondary graphics card and monitor is what I would be using for the other programs. Is there any way for me to get a lower quality graphics card for that second monitor as to not slow down the one for gaming at all? If this is not possible, is it going to slow down my primary graphics card at all if i am to plug in a second monitor in it for the other programs (assuming my graphics card even allows this)?

Here is the current graphics card that I have:

Graphics:
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062

Any help would be much appreciated =) If you need any more information on my system, just ask. I normally would have posted all my specs, but I am not at home at the moment, sorry :/

Thanks,
Kalminfyn

Unless you get a motherboard with SLI support and is designed for 2 video cards, I don't think you can do what you want with what you have. You can try hitting the windows key on your keyboard to pause your game and return to your desktop

Ah yes. Well I guess I will have to check if my motherboard is capable of that. I am hoping it is, because right now the windows key or alt+tab are what I use to switch. There's no problem doing that; it's just whenever I am running too many other apps, it make's my game really laggy =P I was hoping that dual monitors might lessen the lag of my computer. Oh well. Since I just upgraded my computer, if my monitor doesnt have this capability I will just stick with what I currently do, and just limit how much stuff I run in the background during my gaming. =) Thank you for your help Tmagic650, it is much appreciated.