two vidcards at once

[chaotictech]

can i use two different cards without two moniters and without having to move my moniter cable around

 

[Ncogneto]

yes

 

[Ncogneto]

smirk

 

[Guest]

can i use two different cards without two moniters and without having to move my moniter cable around

Unlike the losers that posted before me, i will give you a solid answer.

Situation A) Two video cards, each in a separate computer, one monitor.

Yes you can do this. Simply purchase one of two things.
1) a monitor with selectable inputs (input 1 is generally HD15 cable type, and input 2 is BNC connector style). Connect the two cables to the monitors and away you go.

2) purchase a switch box that can switch between two or more inputs (including mouse and keyboard) and control it with the one monitor and one set of HID's.

Situation B) Two video cards, one computer, one monitor.

Again you can use the single monitor with multiple input scenerio (i believe many panasonic monitors have multiple inputs).

Again you could also purchase a switch box which switches vga channels.

The problem with Situation B is that with two video cards in the one computer, you get the multi monitor effect. One large desktop spanning two displays. I guess that could be handy if you wanted to "hide" what you are working on with one channel, and then swap between them, similar to a virtual desktop under X Windows.

This would be difficult to maintain.

Read up on how multimonitor works with cards designed for it, like the Matrox G200MMS and G400(Max). Also the NVidia GeForce2 MX, and the newly announced ATi RADEON VE.

I hope this response could be of more use.

=================
Ian McGinley
parawolf

 

[chaotictech]

Thanks for the very helpful info.

 

[Ncogneto]

Ok ok, sorry about the earlier post, but really you have to give a little more info so an accurate answer can be provided. Answer the following Questions and I will tell you exactly how to set it up doing what you would like to do.

1) Why do you wish to have such a configuration? What is your ultimate goal here?
2)What operating system are you presently running, not all os support multiple monitor's.
3) What are the video cards you plan to use, again not all video cards are compatable with multiple monitors as well.
4) Which of the two video cards do you wish to be your primary display adapter? This would be the one that windows boots up to?
5) Is a second monitor a possibility? It would be extemly helpfull in at least the setup phaze of this project. After you had it configured you could remove the second monitor. although it is not completly neccesary it would be a huge help in the setup process.
When asking questions of this nature you need to supply as much data as you possibly can, to much is always better than not enough. Otherwise you may get an answer like the last post that assumes certain conditions when in effect they may not exist at all. Although the above post is completely correct it makes the assumption that
A) you are running an os that supports dual monitors
b) the two video cards are compatable with multimonitor support

p.s I know you mentioned that you want to do this with one monitor and I make several references to "multimonitor", bear in mind that when I say "multimonitor" I am refering to a dual display config. the first thing that comes to mind here is that you are running a free internet service provider that puts one of those irrating banners on your screen. By extending your windows desktop ( if you are indeed running windows) you could effectably drag and drop the banner to the other screen, Although it does not exixt, effectably eliminating it. Is this what you are trying to accomplish?

 

[chaotictech]

I want to use a geforce2 gts card but it says i need a dvd decoder card.can i use my ati card since it has a dvd decoder built in. I will be using my geforce2 as my primary display adapter and the ati as secondary also as my dvd decoder if it will work that way. Also im using Win ME.

 

[Ncogneto]

Ok now, there you go! A little more info sure sheds more light on this situation. First off, you are heading in the totally wrong direction, two video cards is definatly not your best solution here. Now myself, I do not personally own a gforce gts yet ( gasp!) I do have a leadtech winfast gforce 64 meg ddr and have not found it worth my while to go out and get one ( gts) just yet. Unless I am wrong, you should still be able to use a software decoder for your new gforce card that wil work just fine. However, if, for some reason this is not the case you would be much better off getting yourself a hardware decoder card rather than struggling with switches and cables and what not. It, the decoder card, would be cheaper as well as easier as well. after a quick browse on ebay you should have no problems what-so-ever picking one up for 20 bucks. What speed processor are you running and how much RAM?

 

[chaotictech]

Im still waiting on my new p3 to come in so i can try it out. I maybe can use the decoder in win me. But it ( the win me decoder) was skippy with a 433 celery so maybe the 800 p3 will do better.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by chaotictech on 11/23/00 07:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Ncogneto]

A hardware decoder card was skippy or were you using a software decoder? In the case of a software decoder yes with a 433 celeron it probably would be a little skippy and the p3 would help that emmensly.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!