two monitors/video card

[donnie]

i want to hook up another monitor OR a large screen tv monitor to my computer. I have a nVida 32mb range video card that came w/my Gateway. Do I need another video card to hook up either another monitor or a tv type monitor? I think I remember reading somewhere that you can hook up a tv monitor with an adapter box w/out another video card. Is this true?
Thanks,
dc

[Bill]

Don’t know about using a TV. Win98 supports multi monitors. Unfortunately mixing an AGP and a PCI video card is a no no. That means getting 2 PCIs or a special AGP card that supports 2 monitors. I’ve seen them for about $250. I have a web link at work, and can post it on Monday if you like.

[holger]

the new matrox G400 has an dual screenport option - uses just 1 AGP slot, no PCI! additional digitalports for LCD and videomonitor. Great card for MM workstations!

[Mattias]

Win98 supports both AGP and PCI at the same time. So you can add a PCI card to your current AGP card setup. The card dont have to be either AGP or PCI, you can mix.

[holger]

be shure to use cards of the same manufacturer - e.g. ATI wont work with matrox well (color problems, crashes)

[PaPa Chalk]

Desound has great success with the New Matrox G400 it has dual head display on the one video card. It works amazing.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/home.htm (\"http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g400/home.htm\")

http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[holger]

but be careful with the G400 card if you want to run logic, some users reportet driver problems - matrox uses busmastering at a very \"agressive\"level to max performance, but this seems to be problematic and affects the audiostreams. If anyone has experiences with this card, please report!

[PaPa Chalk]

I forgot tell everyone the setup he\'s using with the matrox.


cubase vst 24 version 3.7
gigaSampler version 1.6

celeron 300a clocked to 450


He has giga on one screen and cubase on the other. runs great.


http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
Papa Chalk
http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif
Papa Chalk


[This message has been edited by PaPa Chalk (edited 09-11-1999).]

[Laurence]

On the Matrox card, is there a jumper to disable the IRQ? A lot of old graphics cards have this jumper, whereas a lot of newer ones don\'t. Unfortunately, on my system, any card that can\'t disable its IRQ usage will only work at the expense of the IRQ of the PCI slot next to the AGP slot.
I just bought a 32 meg Ati graphics card to replace my old 8 meg one. Unfortunately, since the new card doesn\'t have this jumper, my system will lock up from time to time if I use it. For now I\'ve gone back to my old graphics card, but I would like a card with more memory. Apparently many motherboards have the ability to disable this IRQ requirement in their CMOS setup, but my Asus two processor board with built in SCSI isn\'t one of them. In any case, if the Matrox has this jumper I\'d love to buy one, if it doesn\'t I wouldn\'t be able to use it.

[Laurence]

I just found the answer to my own question on the Matrox web site. The G400 does need an IRQ. Anyone have an idea of what the best Graphics card is that can run without an IRQ. I don\'t need accelerator functions, I just need a decent amount of video memory.

[killerbobjr]

Turn off bus mastering in the Matrox Power Desk utility to prevent the IRQ from being used. It will still be allocated but won\'t signal the Interrupt Service Routine in the driver.

[This message has been edited by killerbobjr (edited 01-22-2000).]

[Laurence]

How good is the performance in this mode? Will the G400 play back DVDs in this mode? Can you switch between the IRQ and non IRQ modes without rebooting? Will it still power two monitors and make use of the 32 meg video memory? Is the non-busmastering mode performance good enough to justify upgrading to this card if your shortage if IRQs won\'t let you use the other mode?

[Laurence]

I\'ve been thinking, maybe the ATI card just isn\'t nice about sharing it\'s IRQ with the adjoining PCI slot card. Has anyone had experience running the Matrox G400 (or any other high end graphics card for that matter) with an Emu APS, Frontier Dakota, or Yamaha DSP Factory in the adjoining PCI slot? I have four PCI slots and a sound card in each. Of these, only the DSP Factory will share an IRQ smoothly, but even that won\'t share with the ATI.

[killerbobjr]

>>>>
How good is the performance in this mode?
<<<<

The performance of your entire system improves. Games will actually play faster.

>>>>
Will the G400 play back DVDs in this mode?
<<<<

Dunno. I don\'t have a DVD so I can\'t tell you.

>>>>
Can you switch between the IRQ and non IRQ modes without rebooting?
<<<<

Nope. You must reboot between changes.

>>>>
Will it still power two monitors and make use of the 32 meg video memory?
<<<<

Yes, you can still use two monitors and all of the memory will still be used.

>>>>
Is the non-busmastering mode performance good enough to justify upgrading to this card if your shortage if IRQs won\'t let you use the other mode?
<<<<

If you need sheer video performance (digital video editing for example), then busmastering must be enabled. Otherwise, if your system is primarily a DAW, turn it off so that it won\'t hog the bus bandwidth.