Dual monitor video cards
 

I use a dual monitor setup with my NLE which uses 2 video cards, one PCI and one AGP. One of the cards heats up and locks the system (I have a fan blowing on the open case to keep it running). The cards are different manuf., one older one newer etc.

So, time to get a new card.

My question is, is there any benefit from using a matched set of cards (again, one PCI and one AGP) same manufacturer, same model series, memory, chipset etc. or does it simply not matter. Should I buy 2 and replace both is there no difference.

Maybe it's actually better to use differenct cards so they don't reference the same drivers etc.

Don't know. I know it works now (aside from the bad card).

Any comments or ideas?

Tom
BTW: P4-1.8G, Win2K, Adobe Prem. Canon GL2

You *may* want to consider buying ONE card to replace BOTH cards. There are many dual-head cards available such as the Matrox G550. Look into a single dual-head card to replace both of the cards.

Hey, check out the 128mb DDR ATI Radeon 9700 TX Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI. It's made for dual outs, if you want one monitor and one TV attached. If you are looking for two TV outs, then you need to buy a 10 dollar adapter, but this card could put a smaller load on your cpu in terms of heat and space. I won't actually own one for another month so I can't give any reviews, etc.

Thanks for the feedback.

When I first investigated dual-head cards, the res. on the secondary display was lacking and couldn't handle the load for NLE. It seems some of the has been resolved with the newer cards.

I may go single card/dual head and see what happens. At least I'll be able to get rid of the fan, put the shell back on my case and avoid the 'fire hazard' look that my wife gives me. :)

Tom

I've got the Matrox G550...

Works for me!

Mate,

I've got a Matrox G400 Dual Head card and have been using it for the last couple of years. It is only a 16MB card and easily runs 2 19" monitors at their standard res. I tried two cards and it was nothing but trouble, since switching to the Matrox i have never had a problem. You don't need fat performing cards for NLE work. Any current deal head card will be more than enough.

Went to try to find a Matrox in the brick and mortar world. Apparently, they are sold primarily online, through catalogs or VARS. I didn't want to wait, so I got the ATI Radeon9000 Pro for about $150. Seems to work fine so far and got the extended Desktop to work which was my primary goal.

One thing I noticed and I had this same problem with my two cards; when I drag any DVD player window to my secondary monitor on the extended Desktop, I get no picture. I get sound etc. When I drag it back to primary, the picture is back. The monitors are identical (Viewsonic 17FS) and are running same res. etc.

When I'm using any NLE, I have no problem seeing video on the secondary, just DVD Players.

Any ideas?

Tom

One thing to keep in mind is that most (or all??) dual-head cards
cannot have video-overlay on any other monitor than the
primary one. What this means is that you cannot watch video
with something like mediaplayer on anything other than your
primary monitor (or stretch it to more than one monitor). Premiere
might not work with showing video on another monitor as well?

Caution might be in order here!

Hi,

Firstly I would check the following. On many mobo's the AGP Slot and Slot 1 share the same resource. If yours is set up like this it may well be causing the conflicts, change the PCI card to a different slot that does not share resource with the AGP Card.

If you do go for two cards again try not have them the same. This tends to confuse the system. Have two different manufacturers cards.

Cheers
Andrew

I'm running an AGP ATI VE together with a PCI PNY GeForce 4. It's normal for overlays to run only on the primary monitor. It's a directdraw thing.

Actually, regarding the video on primary monitor only, that is eliminated in some drivers if you use the same type of card on both places. I run a Geforce 3 as my primary (AGP) and a Geforce 2 as my secondary (PCI) and it worked flawlessly with moving Mediaplayer back and forth even with the video moving.

There are some other players however who cannot move from one card to another. So i guess caution is still in order :)

Henrik,

I was talking about a dual-head card (one card with two monitor
outputs). Two (or more) actual video cards in your system should
not have this problem. Some dual-head cards might not also have
that problem (not sure).

Ah. sorry m8. missed that one. Though even two separate cards have this problems in some applications.

/Henrik

Thanks for the responses. I'll just have to live with it then.

On a seperate note, has anyone hooked up a PC/Mac to a plasma TV. Would make a nice workstation albeit pricey :)

Tom