Dual Head or Two Cards

[Hershel]

I am on the cusp of a new hardware purchase. I presently use an ATI dual head card on my Windows 2000-based Athlon XP system. A friend of mine suggested to me that for me, I might do better with two single-head cards than one dual. I plan to again get an Athlon system and continue with Windows 2K or maybe XP.

I do absolutely zero gaming and my general graphics needs are quite simple. I am a programmer so I generally am looking at text or still images.

Is there an advantage to two simple cards over one dual?

Thank you,
Hershel Robinson

 

[Hershel]

PS: The time on my post seems to be a bit after everyone else. Not sure why that is...

 

[gothitbycar]

I'm not sure how well Windows handles two video cards for dual display. Though I am sure using one dual head video card would be easier. I think it is just too much of a hassle to have two video cards for that because one will be AGP and the other will have to be PCI (or both PCI).

Other problems may stem from the drivers of both the cards. Also with one card it generate less heat than the two, requires less power and takes up one less slot as long as it isn't a high performance one. A single dual head card is cheaper than two single output ones (unless you get 2 super ultra cheap ones.)

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[mind went blank]

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Windows will see them both fine and will actually see one of the outputs on your card as a seperate PCI entity anyways. There is little advantage to using two seperate cards with the power these cards have. The most important thing will be the RAMDACs on your cards, make sure there are two, make sure that they are 400mhz. With that you should be as fast/clean/clear as you can get, and then you don't have the PCI card sapping resources. In gaming you'd see differences, but even then the current cards are so powerful that the difference would be minor.

Stick with something like an R9200 or an FX5200, and you should be fine. You could go with a Matrox card, which does multi-monitor best, and has the best 2D iage quality, but really unless it's for imaging work or some future monitor array, there's no point in spending the extra money, the ATI and nV cards should do you fine. If you are doing any 3D work, then an upgrade to a more powerful card would be benificial, but for 2D, the differences would be minor and you'd likely get more boost from spending the money on more memory or better CPU if those are possibilities.

As for the time of your posts, you need to go into your profile on THGC's toolbar/menu on the left and set your regional preferences.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Perfect solution!

<A HREF="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40158&item=5104688618&rd=1" target="_new">PCI r' US</A>

And not favouring any one maker, you have your choice ATI, DIAMOND, MATROX (DUAL HEAD),SIS; and like 7 monitors in total! :lol:

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Hershel]

Thanks for the advice on the cards.

Thanks for the tip about eBay. Too bad I didn't get it in time. Might also present an issue the fact that I actually live in Israel.

Regarding the time, however, my PC is (always has been) set to EST (-5 GMT) and in my profile the time listed there is the same as what appears on my PC. Odd.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

You're welome about the intial post, but jsut wanted to clear this up a bit so you don't look for something similar...

Thanks for the tip about eBay.

That ebay link was actually a joke, sorry, probably should have put more smileys on it or something. It's not really the perfect solution for many reasons, it's a bad solution as the cards themselves are terrible image quality compared to todays solutions, and no combination of the cards listed would match any of the low end single solution cards. Sorry it was really directed at Gothitbycar as a tongue in cheek thing.

Really, just stick with my first reply, and forget what was essentially a joke post in the second. Probably your would be best served by the ATI or nVidia entry level cards as a single card solution, and if you need more power go for higher end models (look at the buyers guide to get some idea), and if you need the best 2D image quality (only if you're doing serious image editing) then maybe get a Matrox P series card (650,750, Parhelia), but likely you'll be fine with the R9200 or FX5200 cards.

With regards to the clock, if that's not it, then I don't know, most people forget to set their profiles here, but since yours is correct, I don't know what it could be.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Hershel]

LOL.

Mustn't try to tell a joke to an ignoramus.

Thanks for your help.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Mustn't try to tell a joke to an ignoramus.

We were all there once, and with a few beers in me I occasionaly go back now and again.

Glad to help, I hope it works out for you. Let us know once you've decided it'll be interesting to see what you get and what you think of your newer setup.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Hershel]

The 9200s available to me are these:

<A HREF="http://www.pandas.co.il/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=9200" target="_new">http://www.pandas.co.il/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=9200</A>

and GIGACUBE Radeon 9200LV 128MB 64BIT seems to have a good price.