Need to set up more than 2 monitors on single XP config.

[Farhad Fatakia]

Hi there,
I currently have two monitors connected to my
ASUS FX5600 256MB graphics card. The card has two monitor
ports on the back of it and dual view allows me to extend
my desktop onto the second monitor and i can move windows
between the two. I want to be able to attach a third
monitor to my system and extend the desktop again.
However my VGA card only supports two ports. If i buy a
new video card, can i simply plug it into the PCI port,
attach another monitor and have Windows XP detect it? Or
do i need a special graphics card? I really want more
than two monitors connected to my system and i really
need help. PLease someone. Anyone.

Thanks

Farhad Fatakia

btw i have XP Professional.

 

[Guest]

You can have a dual-monitor setup where one is driven by an AGP card and the
other is driven by a PCI card, so I assume that you MAY be able to run two
from an AGP card and a third from a PCI card. I have run two monitors, using
two cards, or using a dual-head card, but I have never needed to go to three
monitors. I have found that some PCI cards will not work in a dual-monitor
setup (usually older ones that have less than 8MB of memory - I don't know if
the amount of memory is an issue, or just the chipset on the card). I also
found that you sometimes have to switch the computer's BIOS so that the PCI
card is initialized before the AGP card (or vice-versa).

If you use a dual-head card, you can usually set both to the same refresh
rate, and it looks good. If you use two separate cards, the frequency never
seems to be exactly the same, and you get "flicker" caused by the difference
in frequency between the cards. I found that if you set one of the cards at a
rate like 72 or 75 Hz and the other card as high as possible, usually around
90 Hz or so, depending on the card and the resolution, you will get the
flicker happening at the difference, which is high enough to not be as
noticeable. If you set a refresh too close to 60 Hz, you get flicker caused
by the difference between the lights in the room and the monitor.

|Hi there,
| I currently have two monitors connected to my
|ASUS FX5600 256MB graphics card. The card has two monitor
|ports on the back of it and dual view allows me to extend
|my desktop onto the second monitor and i can move windows
|between the two. I want to be able to attach a third
|monitor to my system and extend the desktop again.
|However my VGA card only supports two ports. If i buy a
|new video card, can i simply plug it into the PCI port,
|attach another monitor and have Windows XP detect it? Or
|do i need a special graphics card? I really want more
|than two monitors connected to my system and i really
|need help. PLease someone. Anyone.
|
|Thanks
|
|Farhad Fatakia
|
|btw i have XP Professional.