dual monitors with dual GF cards

[alex666]

Hi all, long time, no post. Now living in Utah. Gotta question. I used to run two monitors in my XP Home system using two graphics cards. One was on a GeForce4 Ti4400 (AGP) and the other a 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 card (PCI). No real problems setting it up, it ran great, dual monitors are simply awesome. Well, the 3dfx died sometime back (a moment of silence, please). Now I've got a geForce2 200/400 MX PCI card that I'd like to install for my second monitor. All of the GeForce cards can use the same drivers, the so-called unified drivers. Question: do I need to install to a separate location on my hdd a second set of the same Nvidia drivers for the second monitor? Or will the second monitor somehow use or access the same drivers as the first monitor? I know that sounds like a dumb question, but I'm not really sure. My concern is having two sets of Nvidia drivers running at the same time, and the confusion that might cause to one or both monitors. Thanks all.

marty
River Heights, UT

[alex666]

Hmm, I just realized something as I was perusing sites re. this question. I will need PCI drivers for the pci card, and continue with the agp drivers for my agp card. So, I guess i'll install the pci card and monitor, let windowsXP detect, and then install the drivers from either the cd or any download I might get. I'll be back.

marty

[Whyzman]

I suspect that you're on the right track...;)

[alex666]

Whyzman, thanks for the feedback.

Well, here's how it turned out. I simply installed the pci video card, a GeForce2 MX 100/200, into a pci slot, plugged in the monotor, and booted up. WinXP booted on my main monitor, and it noted the new vga card as indicated by that little box in the lower right-hand corner. First it notes a new video card, then it reported the specific model. Suddenly, the second monitor came on, registered, or whatever the term is, but just with the screen on and sort of a big colored block. No "add new hardware wizard" came up, just that little message in the corner. So, I went into device manager, display adapters, left-clicked the new adapter, and clicked update driver. It told me that the best driver already was installed. Now, keep in mind that I'm running my agp GeForce4 Ti 4400 with the 52.16 drivers (the second most recent). I was uncertain exactly what to do, and so I just went ahead and clicked Finish. Then, on my main monitor, I right clicked on desktop, clicked properties, then the settings tab, and there were the two monitors shown side by side, #2 off to the right as I wanted it. I clicked on #2, and there's a little box that asks if you want to extend your desktop onto this monitor, which I wanted, so I clicked the box, and voila. Then I set the monitor to 1024 by 768, and also set the monitor refresh rate, and that was it. Working perfectly.

In summary, I did not have to add any drivers. The nvidia drivers that I was using for my agp card work with the pci card, and the same set of drivers are accessed simultaneously, or so it appears.

In short, incredibly easy.

marty

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Now if you're like Marty Feldman (http://www.humorlinks.com/humornet/files/images/feldman.jpg), you can work with both simultaneously! :)

Dual monitors is awesome, just don't go cross-eyed, you might go blind... :D

[alex666]

FTT, you're right. I had this setup back in Virginia for a while, and it really is amazing. Somewhere along the line, I read that having dual monitors is the single most significant hardware upgrade for improving productivity, or something like that. I believe it, for right now, I'm typing this on one monitor while my work project is opened completely on the other, no shifting back and forth. I must admit that having two nvidia cards and sharing the same drivers, it just seems to be even a smoother operation that my prior setup. A greater sense of continuity between the two monitors. Plus, I'm using a 19" Trinitron and a 17" Compaq, so I can run both at decent resolutions and refresh rates.

I'm surprised that both run from the same set of drivers, and maybe that's the key, the same "set", but different individual drivers? Whatever, it works. Nvidia and Microsoft really got this right. BTW, I picked up the Geforce2 100/200 pci card for 40 bucks or so and had used it in another computer which I no longer am using, so it was just gathering dust. And I already had the compaq monitor sitting around. I hate to waste this stuff when they still work so well and can significantly enhance my setup.

Take care.

marty