Shoutbox

hey guys, just a quick question, i have a nVidia GeForce 6200 currently, am just wondering, do you need 1 or 2 graphics cards to have multi-display??

....how many ports does it have on it?

it has 1, but i also have a monitor thing actually on the box but it wont allow it to work

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie
it has 1

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then you can use one monitor.

Then why is their a monitor plug elsewhere on my box? -.- useless.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie
Then why is their a monitor plug elsewhere on my box? -.- useless.

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for when you dont have a graphic card ;o

if you have another free pci/agp slot then buy a cheapo graphic card and then you can hook up another screen


* -dt- is currently running three screens on two graphic cards

lol im buying a new graphix card over the next month anyway, i just dont understand y u cant have graphics card one and a normal one, oh well, thx guys.

Often with a motherboard that has onboard video, the onboard video is disabled when a graphics card is plugged in in order to dedicate the bandwidth to the graphics card. I have seen motherboards where both can be used, but you'd have to check the motherboard documentation.

Edit: after reading adeptus' post i realized that the only systems I've seen using  both a graphics card and the onboard were using a PCI graphics card.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie
i just dont understand y u cant have graphics card one and a normal one, oh well, thx guys.

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The reason is that the AGP bus, which is what most older computers use for graphics, wasn't designed for supporting more than one device.  This is also why there haven't been motherboards made with more than one AGP slot.  Your onboard graphics chipset, even though not physically occupying the slot, is connected to the AGP bus.  That's why it needs to be disabled to use a card in the slot. 

On the other hand, a dual head card is still only one device on the AGP bus.  It is also fine to add a PCI card, because that's a different bus entirely (and can handle multiple devices just fine).

The PCI Express bus, different from the "old" PCI and used in place of AGP in newer computers, also doesn't have such a limitation.