[WGH]

I need a new multimedia, multipurpose computer. The computer I built almost exactly 7 years ago has peacefully died in it's sleep. The Asus A8V-DX motherboard has leaking capacitors.

Time to build a new computer. I no longer have the desire or time to game so a high powered graphics card in not needed. I do need dual monitors because I run a 25' VGA cable to an Infocus projector for movies and recorded programs.

I had been using a BFG 6800 (Nvidia) with older drivers. The latest Nvidia drivers have eliminated the Dual View feature and have only Clone and Span (with XP). Using the old Dual View option the projector video was full screen while the monitor video stayed small so the desktop was available.

Is Dual View available with the latest Nvidia cards or is an AMD card a better choice. The computer will be using an Intel i5, 4GB ram, Windows 7 64 bit, etc.

I also use the computer for website development, music streaming, digital photos, and anything else that can be turned into 1's and 0's.

Wayne

[jqp]

I would go with someting this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102939

I have had good luck with Sapphire. You really get a lot for $105

Has a VGA adapter for the DVI - VGA D-Sub is all but obsolete now. This card will future proof you for a while. If you want to get a large IPS monitor you have a Displayport port.

With Win 7 will allow you to extend your desktop od clone your desktop.

You can also look at lots of other cards with reviews right on the site.

[WGH]

Thanks, that is a start. I always have to combine old and new technology. I need 2 DVI to D-Sub adapters for 2 VGA monitors. My main monitor is a beautiful 22" Cornerstone p1750, very old school but colors to die for. The projector also uses a D-Sub connector. I need to run both at the same time.

I'm looking at a SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 with Eyefinity but nothing says if the two DVI ports can run 2 adapters (many can't). The card is different than the reference design, it uses 2 dual-link dvi ports. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

More research is needed.

Wayne

[WGH]

The ASUS EAH6770 DC/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 6770 looks like a contender:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121468

Wayne

[jqp]

2 dual-link DVI ports are a real value, as they can drive 2 30" IPS monitors at a time!

I would be shocked if you can't use a D-sub on each DVI port on any card.

You may have noticed that with some of these you can actually do a 3-monitor Eyefinity setup, if you use an Active DisplayPort Adapter. This would be for gaming though in which case you would want a $250 card.

The ASUS EAH6770 DC/2DI/1GD5 Radeon HD 6770 looks like a contender:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121468

Wayne

This card will take up the space of 2 cards, even though it seems to take only 1 slot

[jqp]

From reading some of the comments on the site, I remember that there are 2 or 3 kinds of DVI plugs - black and blue and white I think, one of those has 4 extra pins which would be for dual-link. Therefore you are right there may be a problem to get both to drive a VGA unless you get appropriate adapter AND the card will support this.

Also realize these cards can be much bigger than previous generation cards. Your case/motherbord may not even fit these cards.

[WGH]

Yes, there are DVI-I and DVI-D plugs. The DVI-D cannot pass an analog signal, many cards have one of each though the plugs may look the same.

The one card that has 2 DVI-I plugs is the Sapphire Vapor-X HD6770, which is the card I ordered. I found this card using the incredible useful Radeon Specifications spreadsheet I downloaded from the Sapphire site:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/archive/matrix-vga-1_4_048.xls
The spreadsheet lists all the specifications for every Sapphire AMD card including what type of output it has and a Nvidia comparison, I wish every card manufacturer had a similar guide.

The HD6770 Vapor-X also has Eyefinity and all the other bells and whistles that come with the program.

Motherboard and case will not be a problem, I am getting a new ASUS P8H67-V Rev3 and have an ATX style Antec Sonata case. Processor will be an Intel i7 2600K.

Wayne

[WGH]

Update - The new computer build went smoothly and the Sapphire Vapor-X HD6770 works beautifully. I am using two DVI-I to D-Sub adapters so both the Cornerstone CRT and Infocus projector can be used at the same time.

Video picture quality is improved with a sharper image compared to the BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra Overclocked card. I don't know if the AMD software will allow me to run a 1600x1200 screen on the CRT and 800x600 on the projector at the same time like the older Nvidia drivers (Clone mode), so far no luck but there are a lot of settings to try. The best solution so far is to run both monitors at a lower resolution and full screen using the Duplicate Display setting in the Windows 7 Control Panel, the card has plenty of horsepower and does not stutter using VLC Media Player.



Wayne

[srb]

I don't know if the AMD software will allow me to run a 1600x1200 screen on the CRT and 800x600 on the projector at the same time like the older Nvidia drivers (Clone mode), so far no luck but there are a lot of settings to try. The best solution so far is to run both monitors at a lower resolution and full screen using the Duplicate Display setting in the Windows 7 Control Panel, the card has plenty of horsepower and does not stutter using VLC Media Player.

I am running two displays, a 50" 1080p plasma and a 23" LCD monitor with an ATI/AMD video card.  I couldn't find any way within the Catalyst Control Center software to have different resolutions in Duplicate mode, but since upgrading from Windows Vista and ATSC TV tuners to Windows 7 and Ceton InfiniTV 4 CableCARD tuner, I am now bound by copy protection which prohibits duplicate or cloned displays anyway.
 
Not sure why you would need to have both displays active simultaneously, but since there was really no reason I needed to, I set it to the single monitor display mode and used the Catalyst Control Center Hotkeys feature (upper right corner - Preferences > Hotkeys) to assign a hotkey to quickly toggle between monitors ("Switch amongst displays").
 
However, my video card does not support Eyefinity, and although it is mostly used to span an image over grouped monitors, according to AMD, "AMD Eyefinity advanced multiple-display technology supports Duplicated Mode operation (PC desktop cloned on multiple displays)".  So perhaps there is a way for you to do this within the Catalyst Control Center software ("Driver version 8.66 (ATI Catalyst ™ 9.10) or above is required to support AMD Eyefinity Technology).

Steve

[WGH]

Eyefinity has so many setting it is mind boggling and there are additional dual display programs that add options that are not included in Eyefinity. I'll be poking around for the next few months pushing buttons to find out "what happens if I do this"

The office computer and projector are in separate rooms, the home theater half is just a dumb screen with no controls except for the ATI Remote Wonder Plus (no native Win 7 support but there is a work around). When the office monitor's screen resolution changes all my logically placed icons, documents, and photos scattered around the desktop are re-arranged into nice neat columns and I can't find anything through all the order. For now I'm happy everything works.

Wayne