Win XP, multiple vid cards, and 2 different monitors

Printable View

08-19-2008, 05:17 PM
Biz

Win XP, multiple vid cards, and 2 different monitors

So WinXP doesn't like it when you hook up 2 monitors with different resolutions to the same video card. Does this problem exist when you use 2 video cards with one monitor plugged into each one? I bought a 22" widescreen but would really like to use my old 17" 4:3 for some alts without having to switch to Vista.
08-19-2008, 05:23 PM
zanthor

RE: Win XP, multiple vid cards, and 2 different monitors

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'Biz',index.php?page=Thread&postID=106677#post1066 77

So WinXP doesn't like it when you hook up 2 monitors with different resolutions to the same video card. Does this problem exist when you use 2 video cards with one monitor plugged into each one? I bought a 22" widescreen but would really like to use my old 17" 4:3 for some alts without having to switch to Vista.

Windows XP doesn't like multiple DISPLAYS for 3d graphics period. The only way around this is to use the graphics drivers span mode which won't work across cards or with different resolutions. Vista does not suffer this limitation.
08-20-2008, 11:32 AM
-silencer-

RE: RE: Win XP, multiple vid cards, and 2 different monitors

Quote:

Originally Posted by 'zanthor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=106686#post 106686

The only way around this is to use the graphics drivers span mode which won't work across cards or with different resolutions. Vista does not suffer this limitation.

Wrong. With Win XP Pro and an 8800GTX, I successfully used span-mode across my 24" and 22" displays, which are at 1920x1200 and 1680x1050 resolutions. You basically set it to 1920x1200 span-mode, and the smaller display will only have 1680x1050 pixels of "usable" space, meaning there will be some extra "unseen" desktop around two sides (bottom or top, left or right) of the smaller display. You can adjust where this deadzone is my moving the monitor around in the desktop display settings of Windows. Performance is a HUGE upgrade over dual-view mode.

In addition, I've also used two 8800GT cards (not in SLI) in a system with WinXP with improved results than one card being split to two displays. I do agree that Vista seems to handle this better, but that doesn't mean it's not an upgrade to do so in XP.