K
Ken Fox
Hi,
I've got some simple questions that I hope people here can answer. I'm not
a gamer but I like to tinker with equipment. Right now I'm running an
8500LE 128MB Radeon ATI AGP 4x card; this was the one that Micron-Crucial
was selling 15 or 18 months ago. Using Rage 3D, the card is overclocked
about 20% and stable. A Dell 20" LCD Monitor is hooked up to the DVI
output.
I've ordered a 2nd Dell 20" LCD monitor which will be used sometimes for TV
viewing and sometimes as part of a dual monitor setup. I don't want to run
it off the analog port on the 8500LE due to poor analog image quality on
this LCD. Possibly I could use the S-Video out on the 8500LE for the 2nd
monitor but I doubt this would have the same quality as a DVI port. My
computer has a spare PCI slot, so I was thinking about buying a PCI Radeon
card to power the 2nd LCD. It appears that there are several iterations of
the 9200 card available for sale at under $100, in 64 and 128MB
configurations. I don't know if this is the optimal card to get for my
usage, but it seems like it might work.
I'm concerned about software and hardware incompatibilities that could
result from having 2 ATI Radeon video cards in the same box. My operating
system is W2K, and my mainboard is an Asus P4P800 Deluxe. Presumably, with
2 video cards in place, there would be no need to use "Hydravision," rather
the native ability of W2K to run 2 monitors would be preferable (don't know
this, just guessing). Also, I'm concerned about other unforeseen software
incompatibilities I might be leaving myself open to, without knowing exactly
what those are. Is the ATI software smart enough to know how to deal with 2
Radeons, 1 an AGP and the other a PCI, in the same box? What if I try to
overclock the PCI card also, will that cause Rage 3D to become "confused?"
Another option would be some sort of video card/tv tuner PCI card combined
into 1; I don't see any such animal available, at least from ATI, with a DVI
output. I do have other sources of TV input in my office so I could just
use those to the monitor, though.
Any suggestions/opinions/reactions would be most welcome!
Thanks in advance,
Ken
I've got some simple questions that I hope people here can answer. I'm not
a gamer but I like to tinker with equipment. Right now I'm running an
8500LE 128MB Radeon ATI AGP 4x card; this was the one that Micron-Crucial
was selling 15 or 18 months ago. Using Rage 3D, the card is overclocked
about 20% and stable. A Dell 20" LCD Monitor is hooked up to the DVI
output.
I've ordered a 2nd Dell 20" LCD monitor which will be used sometimes for TV
viewing and sometimes as part of a dual monitor setup. I don't want to run
it off the analog port on the 8500LE due to poor analog image quality on
this LCD. Possibly I could use the S-Video out on the 8500LE for the 2nd
monitor but I doubt this would have the same quality as a DVI port. My
computer has a spare PCI slot, so I was thinking about buying a PCI Radeon
card to power the 2nd LCD. It appears that there are several iterations of
the 9200 card available for sale at under $100, in 64 and 128MB
configurations. I don't know if this is the optimal card to get for my
usage, but it seems like it might work.
I'm concerned about software and hardware incompatibilities that could
result from having 2 ATI Radeon video cards in the same box. My operating
system is W2K, and my mainboard is an Asus P4P800 Deluxe. Presumably, with
2 video cards in place, there would be no need to use "Hydravision," rather
the native ability of W2K to run 2 monitors would be preferable (don't know
this, just guessing). Also, I'm concerned about other unforeseen software
incompatibilities I might be leaving myself open to, without knowing exactly
what those are. Is the ATI software smart enough to know how to deal with 2
Radeons, 1 an AGP and the other a PCI, in the same box? What if I try to
overclock the PCI card also, will that cause Rage 3D to become "confused?"
Another option would be some sort of video card/tv tuner PCI card combined
into 1; I don't see any such animal available, at least from ATI, with a DVI
output. I do have other sources of TV input in my office so I could just
use those to the monitor, though.
Any suggestions/opinions/reactions would be most welcome!
Thanks in advance,
Ken