devoshi47

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Jun 23, 2002
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Help you guys...I am thinking about adding a graphics acclerator and second monitor for MS Flight Sim 2002, but am getting a bunch of conflicting information from the sim guys and even from HP.

Some guys say I can just add a second monitor. Some say I should add a graphics card such as the GEFORCE4 MX440 to an available slot and some guys say my MOBO won't accept it and I should replace it. Some say that I can a graphics card to a sim slot, but I won't get 3D output from the second monitor.

If you were me, with my system and the ability to spend a couple of hundred bucks, what would you do?

Any thoughts ??? (and please remember I'm new at this stuff)MANY THANKS

Listed below are my current system components:
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HP Pavilion 7935
WinXP Home
Processor: AMD Athlon
Speed: 1.3 GHz PC133 (runs @ PC100)
Type: SDRAM 640 MB
Display Adapter: S2 GraphisProSavage (Device Mgr indicates it can be disabled)
DIMM slots (2)
Hard drive 40 GB
CD-RW 8x4x32
“video graphics Integrated in chipset, no AGP slot”
Sound/audio AC97 Audio
 

nexus_alpha

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Jun 17, 2001
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If you stick with the your current motherboard you will need a pci graphics card limiting your choose but if you can get a new motherboard (one that supports your current cpu and memory would be nice). Geforce's do come in pci flavours so who ever said your mobo does not accept it is not entirely right. ATI and nvidia have some great twin monitor solutions ATI solutions tend to have a more robust multi-monitor support in the form of hydra-vision. An ATI r8500 can be had for just above a hundred and will out perform a geforce 4 mx,a ti 4200 will also do. Pros of the r8500 cheaper better multi-monitor support decent 3d performance. Pros of the marginally better 3d performance. Honestly I would wait until around the end of july because cheaper/better solutions are to be released by both companies.

Anymore suggestions requires a more accurate estimate of your budget and when is the next time you can upgrade after this upgrade also what time of performace do you want from your computer. Since you are new to alot of this I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND ASK QUESTIONS.
 

cakecake

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Apr 29, 2002
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Someone else with an HP system kind of like yours (athlon with integrated video chip on mobo) had with problems w/ getting his new GF4 mx 440 to work (do a search and you'll find it, it was recent, in the past 2 weeks). He had a lot of trouble with tech support and had spent at least a month trying to figure it out.

Let me cut to the chase; I think that dealing with tech support sucks. I think that dealing with buggy onboard hardware sucks too. I think you should take that few hundred bucks you have and buy yourself a new mainboard. You could get one of the new mobos with backwards compatibility for SDRAM and your CPU (if you can even remove it that is). Or you could get a KT133/KX133 chipset mobo, although these seem to have a high frustration factor.

The problem is, few people with hardware like yours try and use multimonitor support, and that's why you won't get much help. For one thing if you use retail mobos, you will probably get better support from online forums as more power users have used these mobos and tested them for compatibility. If I were in your position I would search message boards on different sites looking for "dual monitor" or "twinview". Look for mobos and gfx card configs that people say work and actually looks good, and then of those mobos mentioned, look for ones that support your processor and PC100/PC133 SDRAM so that you can reuse your components from your HP system. That would be my advice.

Addendum: Actually I wholeheartedly agree with Nexus. You don't have to listen to my advice, but I will say that what I posted above is exactly what I would do if I were in your situation. What I don't mention is that if you take that route, you must do a ton of research, research you may not want to do or may not have time for.
 

MisterMaya

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Jun 17, 2002
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The "not getting 3D from the second screen" I think is a limitation of Windows. I've run across this because I have a similar configuration, one AGP card with a PCI card stuck in so that I could have dual screen. Anything that uses normal Windows GUI stuff will work fine, but you can't have openGL running on both screens at the same time (meaning same boot, you gotta restart to switch). I'm pretty sure this is true for directx as well, but I'm not certain about it.

I think the only way to get games running on more than one screen at once is to buy a graphics card that supports multiple-screens, which if you don't have an AGP slot probably means a new motherboard, although you might get lucky and find a pci dualie somewhere.

(btw I know nothing about motherboard incompatibilities with hardware - I generally assume that any device should work with any motherboard supporting the standard it uses, long as they were released within like 3 years of each other.)

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