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I am wanting multiple monitors, i have an old Diamond Stealth PCI, How can i combine it with my Geforce 2 mx 400? I tried putting it in my comp and i get a single long beep...

To my knowledge, you can't have both an AGP and PCI graphics card working in conjunction at the same time. Just get a single AGP card that supports dual monitors. ATI Radeons are good for this, just read the product description carefully before buying to make sure it supports dual monitors.

>To my knowledge, you can't have both an AGP and PCI graphics card

nothing could be further from the truth. plenty of systems using both agp & pci cards for dual or triple-display output. however, w/some older mobo/hardware (esp. using onboard video) it can be tricky getting multi-display correctly configured ...

How do you do it then, PresterJohn?

well, if it's an agp and pci setup...you should install/config the agp card first. then install the pci. the os should pick up both cards...if not, then you are pprobably seeing some device contention.

win98 can natively support multi-display, but it's a bit more ad-hoc than using w2k or xp.

see the link below for many examples of people using agp/pci and even, all pci configs...

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/ga ... c&mon=desc

i wonder how the system handles varying cards and chipsets. I mean, let's say you want to play a new 3D game, or any game for that matter, how can you run it properly when you are using an AGP Radeon 9700 and a PCI Riva TNT card? The 9700 can handle it not problem, but the TNT card can't. Even if the TNT card can handle it, there will be large differences in gameplay compared to the 9700. So my question is, how does the system decipher between the two? I've never heard of a system combining the forces of two graphics cards in order to play a game. My assumption is it would use one or the other.

My guess is that the 9700 Pro will "dumb down" to the TNT speed during displays on that monitor with the TNT card. I don't know for sure though.

I believe that MS Flight Sim can display in multimonitor format, but I don't know about "combining" the power of 2 viddy cards.

But then again the 9700 Pro can have dual monitor outputs and independent refresh rates so no need to have a separate viddy card.

hmmm, i don't game so i can't tell you for certain.

for dual-display...in cases of using 2 separate cards, you are pretty much reliant on whatever support the OS provides for dual output. in most cases, this means either a stretched desktop arosss both displays (ie. 2048x768) or merely using the secondary display as an "extra window".

so for gaming to work on both displays when using different VC's, the game software itself would have to take over much of the overhead. i'm inclined to think that such support is not common.

most games (that support true dual-display) require you to purchase a VC that has dual outputs. if you're using two VC's each only w/only 1 output, you'll only be able run the game to just one display.

It sounds like the Diamond Stealth is the problem to me. You might want to try finding a different PCI card. Maybe another GF2 MX.

I want to pickup a PCI Geforce w/ DVI out so I can run two flatpanels. But that's only if I can't find an NV35 card with dual DVI.

Derek

Diamond Stealth? Are you referring to my inquiry, Derek? I was giving a hypothetical scenario, I haven't tried using two video cards in conjunction with one another, and if I did, I wouldn't use a Diamond Stealth based on the Riva TNT chipset as my PCI card. Definitely a GeForce2 MX should do the trick, but again, it pales in comparison to a Radeon 9700. How can these two cards work together to play a 3D game? I lean toward what PresterJohn said, the game will be displayed on one monitor using one card, or displayed on two monitors using one card with dual-output support.

I guess it depends on what you want to do. If you don't want to get a $300 9700 or a high end Nvidia and still want dual monitors, get the GF2 MX PCI w/ DVI. It will be good for having the enlarged desktop, which is where dual monitor really shines. Wide desktop is why I want the second monitor. I just don't have any real estate left when I multitask.

In games, it's probably less helpful. I know when the Matrox 512 card came out, it had 3 monitor support for "widescreen gaming". Any Q3 based game *could* do it, it was just a shame the 512 couldn't really drive good FPS on 3 monitors.

I would definatley match and nvidia card with an nvidia card or ATI w/ ATI if you needed two cards.

If I ramble I'm sorry.

Derek

Thanks...the Diamond Stealth was free and i suspected that it would not work, I was just thinking something like multiple Internet explorer windows or word or something like that for dual i would just go back to the MX400 for single monitor in gaming. I am getting an asus TI 4200 for $125 (already coming). It has DVI and VGA. I dont know if it comes with adaptor. I would just be getting a cheap crt monitor at Goodwill or something like that.