Dual Screen Card

[ukJAG]

Dear all,

I have previously asked a question about upgrading my nVidia Geforce4 MX 440 with AGP 8x (64mb). Well, looks like a slight change of plan perhaps. My wife is a graphic designer and to be honest I could really make use also of a second monitor, so what I'm looking to do if possible, is replace my current card with a dual screen so that I can buy another monitor. I've been umming and arring about building a separate purely gaming machine and think this will now be done once the christmas bonuses are announced! I have a couple of questions that if you could advise on I would be very grateful.

1. Are there dual screen cards out there of a similar spec to my current Geforce4 so that I can at least continue to play the games I currently do?

2. Looking for a cheap 17" (Black preferably - aesthetics you know.. LCD. I currently use an IIYAMA Prolite E430 but don't want to pay over £150 if at all possible. Any recommendations or links to good sites?

Many thanks,

Ian

 

[Ian]

Working on the assumption that you want a AGP card and quite cheap cheap (around the same performance as the GeForce 4MX) I'd go for:

Leadtek Winfast A340 TD256 Fx5200

Its about £45, but is no gaming beast - beats your current card slightly though. I'll have a look at some monitors a bit later, as I'm just about to pop out

 

[Me__2001]

there are alot of cards that are dual screen capable and are waay better than your old MX440 , i think this is a reasonable upgrade and it supports dual displays

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/FX5200_Series.html (top one)

if you play games like HL2 and counterstrike??, then you may want something with a bit more power

Edit: looks like ians beat me to it

 

[ukJAG]

Cheers guys! I play HL2, Counter Strike and Call of Duty just fine on my current card, so long as it will at least let me continue to play these as I currently do then I'm happy.

Ian

 

[ChristopherP]

If your upgrading, why dont you get something quite a bit better so you dont need to upgrade again when a new game you like comes out - why not an ATI X800 AGP for around £100 - is about 30 times better than a FX5200

Heres my suggestions:

XFX GeForce 6800 LE Limited Gamers Edition 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - £105
XFX GeForce 6600 256MB DDR TV-Out/Dual DVI (AGP) - £117
Connect3D ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - £82.19

Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XL 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - £200 (Awesome piece of hardware)

They are all worth the extra money over the FX5200 - and its what... £50 to increase performance twenty fold?

You can get a 17" TFT for about £120 inc. VAT now... But get DVI if you want quality (ensure the graphics card has at least one DVI port)

 

[ukJAG]

If your upgrading,

I won't be upgrading this particular machine now, just enabling it to use 2 screens. My wife spends more and more time on it for her work so rather than upgrade this one to the hilt, we will just sort it out for dual screen purposes, but with a dual card equal to the card I currently use so that I can still use it (when I'm allowed!) as I currently do. Come Christmas time, when the bonuses are allocated I will build a gaming machine and she can have this one.

Thanks for the info on the graphics cards though and the monitor. Much appreciated.

All the best,

Ian

 

[ChristopherP]

just stick a 9000pro in there then- WELL worth it. Hardly any more than the FX5200 and urinates all over it. I paid £209 for my 9800pro - theyre now less than £100. Sucks!

 

[ukJAG]

there are alot of cards that are dual screen capable and are waay better than your old MX440 , i think this is a reasonable upgrade and it supports dual displays

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/FX5200_Series.html (top one)

if you play games like HL2 and counterstrike??, then you may want something with a bit more power

Edit: looks like ians beat me to it

Hi,

Just about to place an order but wanted to check with them that it comes with a dongle/vga adaptor. I presume it does, but I've been on the phone for 20 mins and its' just ringing. It should come with one shouldn't it?

Cheers,

Ian

 

[Me__2001]

you should get a VGA/DVI adapter with it, trying to ring them is pointless, use the online message thing, its the only way i could ask them anything

 

[ukJAG]

Booooo! No VGA/DVI adaptor! I can't believe this, I've got to go and hand money over to <gulp>PC World!</gulp>

 

[PotGuy]

they're about £40 arent they unlucky

 

[Me__2001]

they're about £40 arent they unlucky

they should only be about £5

 

[ukJAG]

14 bloody squid from Maplins. After the guy in PC World was trying to convince me I needed a VGA cable aswell I walked out.

 

[PotGuy]

they should only be about £5

Sorry my mistake - the review said £4

 

[ukJAG]

Ok, went for the WinFast A340, 256mb.

The idea was to replace my GeForce4, 64mb and have dual screen capability but to be able to still play the games I currently do such as HL2, CS:Source, Far Cry, COD and Freelancer. After spending numerous hours over the last few days testing I have come to the following conclusion:

Dual Screen part works great, exactly what I wanted. (Multi table Online Poker is great!)
Game wise everything works fine except for HL2, it's quite jerky, which I never experienced before. Have changed settings and have tried most combinations and it's definately not good. HL2 online is fine though. Not sure what it could be. I will go through it all again over the next couple of days. If anyones got any suggestions I'm all ears.

Overall it does the job I want it to do, but to be smoother with HL2 would be great.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[PotGuy]

https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2174100.php

Sorted?

 

[ukJAG]

Still in the process of testing. Have tried DirectX 7.0 an 8.1, getting varying results. Even though the in game recommendations suggest High* on numerous video settings it's still very jerky. Even setting the options to Medium I'm still getting the jerkiness. The best combination so far has been DirectX 7.0, Medium settings (despite recommendations being High) and 800x600, but still not as good as previous card.