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Thread: Dual Monitors for Dummies

  1. Dual Monitors for Dummies

    Once I recieve my new motherboard, my setup will be this-

    Windows XP Professional Edition
    DFI LanParty NFII Ultra
    AMD 2700+XP
    ATI Radeon 9800Pro
    512MB Ram

    My knowledge of having a dual monitor setup is next to zilch. Aside from fiddling with a friends setup every once in a great while, I've never really had any experience with the subject. Within a month or two I'm planning on upgrading from my crappy, 15in CRT monitor (GO GATEWAY!) to a 19in, flat screen CRT monitor. Yeah, I love the huge things. Anyways, my dream is to have one monitor (The 19in) dedicated to Unreal 2004 and other random games, then have the second one dedicated to light browsing, mIRC and the occassional Photoshop here and there. My basic questons are this..

    What are the basics of a dual monitor setup? As in, what in the Hell am I getting myself into?
    Is it possible with my setup above?
    Are there any major downsides to having dual monitors?

    For the record, I really plan on just using one keyboard and one mouse. If thats an issue I can always setup my mini-usb keyboard that I used for online PS2 games (It's awesome!) and dig around for my old opti-mouse. I'm also planning on tossing in another 512mb stick of ram sometime soon.

    Damn you Unreal. You see what you've done to me?
    Play Guitar Hero //

  2. I'll give a shot at answering your questions... I'm currently running a dual monitor setup. It's pretty damned sweet. CRT 17" and LCD 17".

    If you're running XP, dual monitor setup is hella easy, as long as your vid card supports it (I'm assuming you have an actual 9800 Pro and not the All In Wonder). It auto detects your monitors' presence and then you can use the vid properties to "Extend desktop" to a 2nd monitor.

    You don't need a new keyboard or mouse. The new monitor works exactly like an extension of the desktop. Instead of a 1024x768 desktop, just imagine you have a 2048x768 desktop now (with a gap in the middle )... it's absolutely the biggest benefit of a dual monitor... there's so much more space and freedom of movement (I run a 2560x1024)... you can have a dozen windows open without ever being lost.

    With the setup you have listed above, it's definitely a possiblity. Most games run purely on one monitor anyway. All the games I run, pop the secondary monitor into a semi-inactive state when the games running anyway... so as long as you define your 19" monitor to your primary monitor, your Unreal should run just fine. You won't be able to use other programs while Unreal is on anyway... unless you find some way of running it in a window.

    Actually, to be honest, there's no reason to limit the new monitor to just Unreal and games... I can assure you that you'll be using the 19" a lot more often than you think you will. Having a new, expensive, LARGE, FLAT monitor next to the old small one really provides a huge contrast that you may not have noticed before ... for me, it was interesting... I thought my old crappy 17" CRT was ok until I set it up dual with my new LCD. The new LCD is so much better it's not even funny... and it's made more evident by being able to drag stuff back and forth. Now, I work on my LCD and my CRT holds all my email, AIM, Winamp etc to minimize clutter on the LCD desktop. Unless I work in actual dual... like spanning Photoshop over both or the 3D/Photoshop texturing combination.

    The biggest problem I can see with your setup above is that your monitors are really different sizes... theoretically, dual monitors work a lot better when both monitors are set to the same resolution. With the dual monitors, moving stuff between them can be really weird.

    Apart from that, the biggest cons to a dual monitor are compatability problems in some cases... for instance, there are still games that won't run in dual monitor or have trouble with the presence of a 2nd monitor... examples I run into are like Starcraft and GTA3 (really mostly the older games)... both which don't recognize the edge bordering the second display... so you can accidentally move the cursor over to the next screen and click, forcing the game to kick you back into the desktop. Other older games might just refuse to run or have glitchy video problems...

    Unreal shouldn't have a problem with it though... unless they've regressed since Unreal 2 since I played that just fine on my machine.

    Apart from that, dual monitors use up more CPU and RAM resources... especially if you have anything that spans monitors. Like it's possible to run Photoshop with a superwide window (and it's awesome to do so... imagine having a full painting window and a second screen to store working windows and palettes and all the toolbars... clutterfree!) but doing so sometimes makes it chug along mysteriously.

    It's also possible for the computer to crash progs if they don't play nice with dual setup (I've had video editing windows that crash when I tried to move them across displays) but it doesn't happen very often.

  3. #3
    lithium Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Sl1p
    What are the basics of a dual monitor setup? As in, what in the Hell am I getting myself into?
    Under Windows (win98 and up), there's nothing to it. Easy as can be. Under Linux it's a fair amount of work, but not too bad.

    Get a second video card (or not if that Radeon can handle two monitors), and install it. Plug in a monitor, go into setup (where you specify your resolution), and that's it. As long as Windows can recognize both cards (which it will with 99.999% of all cards out there), you're fine.

    If you need a second card, make sure it has at least 8MB of video ram, that way your second monitor can always go up to whatever resolution the first one is at (maybe 16MB if you like really high res). Your second card can pretty much be a piece of crap, just use your real card for gaming and such.

    You'll soon find yourself hating single monitor machines (like my damn machine at work. grrrr!!)

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Sl1p
    a 19in, flat screen CRT monitor. Yeah, I love the huge things.
    CRT4LIFEBABY!
    HA! HA! I AM USING THE INTERNET!!1
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