Cheap dual monitor support

[onesmartidiot]

okay, i want to set my system up for dual monitor support. i have an amd64 3000+ and 1.5 gb ram blah blah blah. i know i could buy a new card with 2 outputs. can i keep my current geforce4 agp and buy a pci videocard for the second monitor? this setup will have me running 2 videocards for each monitor. is there some conflict issue with this or would it be easier to pony up for a new card?

 

[SOcRatEs]

Hello! Welcome to TechSpot!

Yes you can run 2 video cards...
What ver. of windows?

 

[onesmartidiot]

i have windows xp pro sp2 (build 2600 if that matters)

i have avail pci slots, but i forgot to mention that i had a pci tv tuner- will this affect anything?

 

[Jimbo420]

If you are going to be buying a new card anyway. Intead of trying to find a decent PCI video card I would just upgrage that old Geforce 4 card to something with dual heads and just run off one video card. That way you get an updrade on your main monitor as well with some better looking graphics.

 

[onesmartidiot]

any cards you would recommend?

im trying to stay under the 75 dollar level, but i want at least 128memory, but i should get 256 just to be done. should i get dual dvi and but adaptors (for my 2 vga monitors) or just get whatevers cheapest?

 

[Jimbo420]

What AGP does your motherboar support?

 

[onesmartidiot]

agp 8x

i was looking at newegg and i can get a radeon 9800se for 70 bucks.
what is more important- core speed or memory type (ex 64 bit- 128 bit)

 

[Jimbo420]

Looks pretty good to me.

 

[thebeez85]

Hey guys. Im new to techspot.com. You guys look like you know what;s going on so can someone tell me this: My built in videoport on my motherboard is being overridden by my new AGP single vga card. (im going for dual monitors). Could I buy a single vga port PCI card and run it along with the AGP at the same time? Or is there a way to force the AGP to work with the built in vga port?

 

[onesmartidiot]

my buddys system had options in the bios to select the onboard video, external pci express (agp in your case) and auto. so i think they set these things up for you to use one or the other. but i would buy a new agp card with dual monitor support before id buy a pci video card. its just an extra hassle with drivers. while on that subject, stay as far away from ati as possible. theyre drivers are so glitchy and very unreliable. i think i answered your question, let me know if i didnt

 

[onesmartidiot]

i re read this fourum and wanted to say that the sapphire 9800 se i bought sucked. also my buddys x800 was horrible, and now just dosent work. i will never buy ati again.

 

[HPCE_Larry]

Its not necessarily ati's fault. a $70 card is pretty cheap, and you get what you pay for.

 

[onesmartidiot]

maybe thats why nvidia was more expensive.... lol but for real though, nvidia has one driver for all the geforce cards. ati has a certain driver for every single card and for the most part they dont work right. maybe i can blame my el cheapo 70 dollar card for my troubles, but my buddies 180 dollar radeon dosent work to well either. but ive heard 3 or 4 geeks who have recently bought geforce 6 and 7 series cards and say they are flawless. i guess they are up to geforce 8 so now us normal people can buy 6 and 7 series cards lol.

 

[captaincranky]

Would you spring for a $100.00?

maybe thats why nvidia was more expensive.... lol but for real though, nvidia has one driver for all the geforce cards. ati has a certain driver for every single card and for the most part they dont work right. maybe i can blame my el cheapo 70 dollar card for my troubles, but my buddies 180 dollar radeon dosent work to well either. but ive heard 3 or 4 geeks who have recently bought geforce 6 and 7 series cards and say they are flawless. i guess they are up to geforce 8 so now us normal people can buy 6 and 7 series cards lol.

Newegg is selling EVGA GT7600 cards in the $100 to $120 range. The EVGA GS7600s are below $100. My Intel G965WM board has auto-detect in the BIOS for external graphics. Intel has gone that extra mile past foolproof to imbecile proof, perhaps even computer expert proof. Newegg E-mailed me for a review on my GT7600 saying they were giving these cards a monthly customers' choice award.