dual monitor card

[the_kraken]

So after my wife bought her new imac, I ended up with an extra lcd monitor exactly like the one I have. I thought setting my pc up to do dual monitor would be nice, especially for illustrator and photoshop work.

My question - can anyone make recommendations about a decent dual monitor video card? I have a pci express slot open so I think I want to go that route, and I would like to get something for $100 or under if possible. Thanks in advance.

[J_RaD]

if your only requirment is 2 monitor support and under $100 just pick up any PCI express card that fits that.

i picked up this for 2 builds that fit that exact requiment.
[tigerdirect.com...]

don't need anything special to do the job. I just wish i could have found a passive cooled one so it wouldn't even have to worry about a fan.

[the_kraken]

pardon my ignorance with this. I have built a few computers but the onboard video has always been good enough until now. So with the card that you linked, because it has two ports (regardless of being a vga and a dvi vs. two dvi's) that allows dual monitor? That means that any card with 2 ports will allow that?

[kaled]

If your motherboard and bios permit it, you can add a single-output card - Windows should be able to cope in the same way that it can handle two network cards, etc. So, if you have an old video card, even if it's quite old, it might be sufficient for your needs.

Kaled.

[caribguy]

Have been using two separate cards, an ATI and an Nvidia for the past 5 years or so. When your cards have different specifications, use the best one as your primary desktop.

They're both set at the same resolution and refresh rate. I can now expand windows to fill both screens (Photoshop and Flash are great to use that way), have two different browsers open side by side to compare styling differences, or use Firefox with a full screen Firebug window.

Only problem I found is when dragging a running video from one screen to the other, this will sometimes crash the application. Ah, and my pen tablet works only in the primary screen.

[J_RaD]

I have built a few computers but the onboard video has always been good enough until now. So with the card that you linked, because it has two ports (regardless of being a vga and a dvi vs. two dvi's) that allows dual monitor? That means that any card with 2 ports will allow that?

yes it has 2 ports which allow 2 monitors, it will come with a DVI to VGA converter so you can run 2 VGA monitors. I wouldn't use your onboard + video card unless you find something laying in your closet thats old.

99% of modern cards now come with 2 display ports even the cheapy ones so its not really needed to do a onboard + add on or mix match.