[brewer37]

Well let me just say that I got back from a friends who has dual monitors and I absolutely loved it. You can do so much and it looks so good...Heres a few question Im sorry its so long and hope no one gets annoyed but its just nice to have all of this cleared up so i know.1.) and once i get my computer fixed I deffinately plan on doing this.the monitor i want has a max resolution of 1280 x 1024 my video card supports dual monitors and has a max resoltuin output of 2560 x 1600will I be able to use this card to run two of these monitors?2.) Also does having dual monitors really affect the video card for example if my card barely plays fear on high resolution on a 17" crt monitor is it still going to be able to run it on high wil dual 19" lcd or will the performance really go down?3.)If you have two identical computers and monitors and one is hooked up via dvi and the other via vga is there a huge difference?4.) say you have two video cards one pci and one pci express can you hook one monitor up through the pci card and one monitor up through the pci express card?5.) and lastly if your playing a video game lets use oblivion for example and you have dual monitors will the game only be displayed on one and on the other will just be your background or can you get it so the game is displayed on both monitorsthanxs so much brewer-

[mphenterprises]

[quote name='brewer37']1.) the monitor i want has a max resolution of 1280 x 1024 > > my video card supports dual monitors and has a max resoltuin output of 2560 x 1600> > will I be able to use this card to run two of these monitors?You pretty much answered this question on your own. As long as your video card specifically says that it supports dual monitors, it will support dual monitors.> {quote:title=brewer37 wrote:}{quote}2.) Also does having dual monitors really affect the video card for example if my card barely plays fear on high resolution on a 17" crt monitor is it still going to be able to run it on high wil dual 19" lcd or will the performance really go down?Will the performance go down? Not if you have the hardware to back it up. If your Power Supply, Processor, and memory are high enough, you will not see a performance difference. The difference you may see is in picture quality. Obviously LCDs will give you a "sharper" picture but some people believe that CRTs still out class LCDs in overall picture quality. As with anything, experimentation is key.> {quote:title=brewer37 wrote:}{quote}3.)If you have two identical computers and monitors and one is hooked up via dvi and the other via vga is there a huge difference?Not that I have seen. Some may say that DVI is much better than VGA and vice versa. It is all about preference. The best way to tell is to see for yourself. I may have mentioned this to you in one of my other posts but experimentation is the best way to learn.> {quote:title=brewer37 wrote:}{quote}4.) say you have two video cards one pci and one pci express can you hook one monitor up through the pci card and one monitor up through the pci express card?:-) I am sure of it. I would highly advise you to make sure your Power Supply and your RAM are high enough so that you can support a dual video card setup. If you have one video card that can support a dual monitor setup, there is no need to get two video cards to support two monitors.> {quote:title=brewer37 wrote:}{quote}5.) and lastly if your playing a video game lets use oblivion for example and you have dual monitors will the game only be displayed on one and on the other will just be your background or can you get it so the game is displayed on both monitorsNo, the game will more than likely load on the primary screen. I have three monitors and when I play games, the games always load onto the primary monitor. You may have an option to configure your game to play on the second monitor but the settings may need to be adjusted.

[brewer37]

thanxs mphenterprises as for my first question i just read some where that the monitors combined resolution had to be equal or less of that of your video cards resolution in order to run? so i was just checkingand im still kind of confused for me second question so let me rephrase it say i have all the exact same specs will me frames go down if i switch to a bigger monitor so say you have the exact same computer and you hook it up to a 17" monitor and run a test and you get 40 frames a second if you unhook that monitor and hook it up to a 19" monitor should you still get 40 frames a second or will they go down since your card has to put the picture onto a bigger layout? you know lolalso here is the video card Iam looking at ..http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143081 i would really appreciate it if you could let me know what you think about it i have everything to run it once i get my computer back its just some one told me that that card would be overkill on my pentium 4 cpu > what exacly does that mean will it still run or will it damage the cpu?

[mphenterprises]

Hi Brewer. The three monitors I have are two 15" monitors and a 22" monitor. The only criteria that I HAVE to meet is that I set the resolution of all three monitors the same. Other than that, I have never had to worry about the resolution of the video card.Now, your situation may be different depending on your specific video card and monitor but, as always, the best thing to do is experiment. What works for me may not necessarily work for you.The frame rate may go fluctuate from monitor to monitor. The best thing I can say is that if you notice a significant difference in the frame rate, make the necessary adjustments to the resolution until you get the frame rate that best suits you. To be honest, I am not the strongest when it comes to frame rates so if any part of this paragraph is incorrect, hopefully our fellow forum members can correct me. In relation to your specific video card, I really do not give out product suggestions unless it relates to some type of hardware failure. If someone told you that the processor you have may not be able to handle that particular video card, I would speak directly to the manufacturer. They are the one who is best able to give you a definitive answer. Here are the minimum system requirements for your video card:- 1GB of system memory- Microsoft Windows Vista -or- Windows XP- CD or DVD-ROM drive- 50MB of available hard disk drive space for basic driver installation- A 425W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current rating of 28A or more *Minimum system power requirement based on a typical PC configured with an Intel Core2 Extreme X6800 processor- A PCI Express-compliant motherboard with an available PCI Express x16 slot. A vacant slot below the PCI Express x16 slot. The graphics card physically occupies two slots- One 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector -or- Two 4-pin Molex power connectors- NVIDIA SLI Requirements: Combine multiple BFG NVIDIA GeForce-based graphics cards with an NVIDIA nForce SLI-based motherboard. IMPORTANT: Graphics cards MUST be from the same manufacturer and contain identical GPUs. For example, a BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS PCIe can only be paired with another BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS PCIe graphics cardNo where in there does it say that a Pentium 4 can not handle this card. If you have any specific questions about this card, I would direct them to NVIDIA.

[spike]

Also , Remember this, the power requirements listed there , is for ONE card, if you plan on 2 cards, in an SLI, set up, you need to research further, beacuse of the MASSIVE power requirements, and number of 6 prong connectors neeeded to do so with that ( those ) cards!!Minimum System Requirements1GB of system memory CD-ROM drive 50MB of available hard disk drive space for basic driver installation A PCI Express-compliant motherboard with an available PCI Express x16 slot A vacant slot below the PCI Express x16 slot. The graphics card physically occupies two slots A 475W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current rating of 32A or more Two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors per-card-or- Four 4-pin Molex power connectors Minimum system power requirement based on a typical PC configured with an Intel Core2 Extreme X6800 processor NVIDIA SLI RequirementsCombine multiple BFG NVIDIA GeForce-based graphics cards with an NVIDIA nForce SLI-based motherboard. IMPORTANT: Graphics cards MUST be from the same manufacturer and contain identical GPUs. For example, a BFG GeForce 8800 GTX PCIe can only be paired with another BFG GeForce 8800 GTX PCIe graphics card. Plug Your BFG Tech SLI-ready graphics card into an SLI-ready PCI Express motherboard. IMPORTANT: The motherboard MUST support two physical connectors that are capable of having two NVIDIA SLI-based PCI Express graphics cards plugged into them. Connect both graphics cards using the NVIDIA SLI connector.These are the MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS*.So , if you need 475 watts and 32 amps and 2, 6 prong connectorsfor one card, how much are you going to need for 2 cards?