running duel video cards

[manodivx]

does anyone know if its possible to run duel video cards. meaning two video cards on the same pc? if it is possible will it increase the quality of my display. because i already have a decent 32 meg rage 120 pro and i wanna get a geforce 4 with tv out so that i can watch my divx. but the quality of my card right now isnt that bad that i need to get rid of it. so i was just wondering if two cards at the same time can be done. if anyone knows how please lemme know
thnx


mano

[brashquido]

Yes, but you loose functionality I think.

[manodivx]

functionality of wut? the video card(s)?

[brashquido]

From memory, you loose direct draw functionality on anything bar the primary display controller.

[manodivx]

so basically ur saying its not good to run 2 at once? because i want the tv out but i dont wanna get rid of the other card? if its gonna cause a problem then ill get rid of it but if i can keep it id rather not

[avih]

if both your cards are AGP (as is probably the case) and u have one AGP slot on your mobo (which is also probably the case) then no, you can't put both of them together, strictly from hardware point of view.

[JJI666]

Windows 98 and later OS's support multiple display cards being used. However it is not generally used to output to one monitor, rather to run multiple monitors so that you can either drag and drop items or windows from one display to the other or to have one monitor be a zoomed version of the other. So the answer is that you have to have 2 monitors to make this work effectively. I suppose you could also use a KVM switchbox and one monitor but that seems pretty silly as the whole point is extra desktop real-estate unless you have a very specific need to switch between video cards.

The OS designates one card/monitor as the primary display. That's where the login window, task bar, etc., are displayed. The rest are secondary displays and you can drag applications and windows onto those displays once activated.

I have several dual display setups. It's true that certain functions don't work on secondary displays -- overlay for most TV and video playback support (although some WinTV and Avermedia drivers will work on the secondary display and I'm sure there are others; WinDVD and most DVD and MPEG players won't work on the secondary, but Zoomplayer does), and the performance is generally worse on the secondary displays. But you cannot beat the 2x real estate you get -- check e-mail on one window while writing docs on the other one!

[theReal]

For what possible reason would you want to keep a Rage 120 Pro 32MB when you buy a new Geforce 4 with tv-out ??