PCI video card advice

[firephoto]

I'm thinking about adding another card to my computer or two possibly to replace my Matrox G450 dual-head. The matrox dual-head causes problems with some apps and java doesn't like it either.
I only have one AGP slot so I need a PCI card for the second display. 3-D performance on the pci card isn't critical, but 2-D performance/quality is.

Suggestions on a dual display AGP card welcomed too.

The matrox is a great card but there's too many quirks with it. It's not the easiest thing to set up with linux either.

Thanks.

:hi:

[btbrossard]

Originally posted by firephoto
Suggestions on a dual display AGP card welcomed too.
I have a ATI Radeon 9000 PRO AGP and it works great. The dual display works good. Most of the recent Radeon line of cards are built for dual display.

/Benjamin

[James_F]

I'd get a dual AGP card. I love Matrox drivers (I think their two monitor support is best), but the hardware is very weak. The G450 is a great 2d card, sounds like its not working for you...

I assume you want dual VGA and not 1 VGA abd DVI right?

[firephoto]

yes
Dual vga
I can't run sun java because any page that opens that has some java on it closes the browser when it tries to load. I don't remeber what it is but if the java code had something added or changed matrox cards wouldn't choke on it. :(

I wish I had 2 AGP slots.

[Rick_EE]

I've tried the dual head cards and was disappointed, also. The latest was a FireGL8800 at work. The second card adds a lot of flexibility that single card lacks. I just put in an old stealthIII and it works fine. The main screen has Autodesk inventor 3D cad and it works well. We usually put auxiliary windows, help screens, browsers and spreadsheets on the other. The performance is pefectally acceptable.

[btbrossard]

Originally posted by James_F
I assume you want dual VGA and not 1 VGA abd DVI right?
The Radeon line of cards have one VGA port and one DVI port. However, the cards come with a DVI to VGA adapter.

This allows you to run the following setups on a Radeon card:

2 VGA Monitors
1 VGA Monitor and 1 DVI monitor
1 VGA Monitor and TV out
1 DVI Monitor and TV out
1 DVI Monitor
or
1 VGA Monitor

You can not run:

2 DVI Monitors
or
1 VGA Monitor, 1 DVI monitor, AND TV out

/Benjamin

[James_F]

Cool, I figured someone had a card that did that.

[Rick_EE]

The Fire card did that.  We put the DVI-VGA adaptor on it and ran two monitors.

What I did not like-

It stretched you desktop across both monitors, the OS thought it was one monitor, thus all the popup dialog boxes spanned both monitors.  I did not have individual control of resolutions, or the relative placement of the two monitors.  It might have been OK if the monitors were the same size, but one was a 21inch and the other 15 inch.

Performance improved when we added the second card.

[James_F]

That is the exact reason why I like the Matrox drivers. They allow you to keep the desktops seperate and have different resolutions.

[firephoto]

That is very true about the Matrox cards. They say that the card is really two cards on one board and the computer sees it like that. I think the problem is the part that interfaces them isn't very stable under some circumstances though.
I looked and see that they have some new beta drivers for linux so maybe that will solve some problems there.

[James_F]

let me know if they work. I have a G400 card that I don't use with my Linux box...