Dual monitor, gamer/editing videocards help

[thing914]

I'm planning out my system upgrade, already picked the mobo/cpu/ram and now looking into videocard(s). Here is my dilemma/situation and what I'd appreciate any suggestions/comments on.

I want dual monitors (I use at work and love it, now want at home). I'm also an on again/off again gamer in addition to doing video editing. The upcoming HalfLife2 and Doom3 are driving the videocard upgrade partly. At first I was thinking about an ATI AIW Radian card so I'd also have the mpeg capture option, but I mostly do camcorder DV transfer or capture tv/DISH satellite/vcr stuff through my Canopus ADVC100 to DV. So decided to just go with an ATI Radian or nVidia higher end gaming card. Some of these can support dual monitors.

I was just reading over on the Vegas forum (I'm testing Vegas and like it and will probably buy) that the gaming cards are optimized for 3D graphics and usually the 2D stuff is an afterthought. Those on that forum doing just videoediting tend to like the dualhead Matrox G550 or PNY nVidia Quadro4 NVS280, both 2D optimized dual monitor support and they say they see a definite difference quality improvement with these, over gaming cards, when editing..

But those aren't good gaming cards, this is my home system so has to do double duty so my dilemma.

I just found the PNY card has a PCI version. I was thinking of getting the gaming card for the AGP slot and try the PNY PCI videocard for the extra monitor to use as main videoediting one. (also Vegas supports sending the preview window signal out firewire to my ADVC100 and I can hook a tv to that to use as third NTSC TV monitor.

Anyone have a system anything like this? Am I asking for trouble trying to mix these cards and the dual monitors with one off each card? Would say and ATI 9800 Pro or XT play well with the PNY PCI card? Any other videocard suggestions to research?

thanks for any help/comments.

[Piccoro]

I honestly do not know what inadequacies you would notice in editing between Radeon/FX cards or Quadro/Matrox cards (using two monitors).
The gaming cards would be acceptable I would think. The sacrifice in gaming would be much larger going with the Quadro/Matrox cards.

I have 2 Viewsonic P75f+ monitors on my Radeon 9800 pro 128MB which does great for gaming and works well for my multitasking/encoding work. UltraMon helps though.
Just don't expect dual monitor gaming from 2 monitors.

What games or type of games do you play now and in the future?

Some tips.
Plan on playing any DX9 title and you will want to stay away from Nvidia FX cards. Grab a Radeon 9500 or above. Stay away from "SE" versions and look to the "Pro" versions.
If you are going to play older or DX8.1 games then you can go for a FX card which may have a few more options for dual monitors. Ultramon will make that null though.

[thing914]

Thanks for the reply. Your Radeon 9800 Pro 128 was the one I was considering, good to know it seems ok for you with dual monitors. I'm just basing the consideration of a second vid card optimized for 2D on those Vegas forum comments. And only expect dual monitor mode for the video editing, nice having all that screen space for the various windows.

I may just go for the 9800 Pro and see how it looks, then I can decide if I want to try adding a 2nd PCI video card. Hopefully I can find one in use somewhere and actually take a look to see if I see any difference.

My two monitors won't be matched like yours, one is a 21" IBM that will be the primary/gaming one and the other a older Sylvania 19". Was setting up the dual monitors pretty easy with your card? Any problems/tricks/tips?

I'm mostly into the first person shooters, plus the mecha like MechWarrior and spaceflight sims like Starlancer. I haven't been gaming for awhile and the last one I did was an older one, Aliens vs Predator2. I use to play the Warcraft/Starcraft type but just no time to really get into them and keep the skill level up long enough to finish. Looking forward to the long delayed HalfLife2 and Doom3 now.

[808smokey]

I have an Abit Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4400 It has dual monitor on it. Works just fine. It has standard monitor plug, HDTV plug and S-Video. It has Dual Output, Clone View, Single, Horizontal span and vertical span (one desktop spread over 2 monitors). Those are pretty much the standard with the Nview setup program. It only a 4X AGP but it is 128mb. Personally I don't like ATI stuff. But that just me

[Piccoro]

Very easy to setup. Just plug both monitors into the card and install drivers.
I had a GF4 4200 just before this setup. Both worked well for a dual setup.

Nvidia has a few extra settings in display properties for their Nview tab. I use Ultramon which is a program that handles it even better than either Nvidia or ATI's options but either will work as is.

Another thing is the new cards are just a few weeks away from hitting the shelves. Good time to buy. You can either pickup a new card when they come out or buy the current cards for low low prices (The once 400$ 9800pro 128mb card is now 250$ in stores and 200$ online).

If you go with Nvidia I would grab the new generation rather than FX because of how it handles DX9 is much improved from FX.
ATI is good either way for games.
If you perfer price go with a 9800pro, if you perfer 2D options then wait for Nvidia's new card. These should be the last AGP cards btw. PCI express coming soon after.

[rallynavvie]

Werd, my PNY GeForce4 Ti4400 runs two displays just fine. However I just read on the Matrox website where there are games made to run multiple displays on the Parhelias where they wouldn't normally on any other cards. I too thought Matrox cards had no support for games but it seems they have more than that. I saw support for games like UT, NWN, etc. Most of them were set up for triple displays spanned. Also the plugins that go with the Parhelia work pretty well with Premiere and AE so preview output to a TV is easier (not as capable from cards that don't directly support dual displays). The price tag of $550 is pretty hefty for the 256MB VRAM Parhelia, but probably worth every penny.

Oddly enough the Parhelia is an AGP 4x card even with its 512-bit GPU. Just goes to show how useless 8x really is right now. A 512-bit, 256MB VRAM, triple-head display card only requires a 4x AGP bus whereas all these latest gaming cards like the GFX and ATi XTs want 8x AGP. By the time 8x AGP is utilized PCI-E will be a better option for video cards.

[Faustus]

Reguardless of which card you decide on I as a dual monitor user find the software they come with to be uhm.. kinda crapy for dualmonitors. You owe it to yourself to lookup. UltraMon, its freaking awsome.