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pzkpfw
2nd February 2009, 12:53
My turn for a computer question:

Have a PC with Biostar U8668-D motherboard (socket 478).

Sucky on board video (max 32 MB shared RAM).

Found an AGP card to stick in the (2xMax!) AGP socket. (Diamond Stealth II 8MB).

Woo hoo will it play Crysis now? (Delta Force II runs better now...)

The real question is: is it "normal" to not be able to run two monitors on such old crap?

My on-board video seems "gone" when the AGP card is in.

Can't find BIOS settings or jumpers or anything relevant to allow both to run.

CHeers,

bungbung
2nd February 2009, 12:56
That's normal. Either one or the other. So now you need a shitty old pci vga a twinhead card.

I stand corrected.

Max Preload
2nd February 2009, 13:03
I'm surprised it ran at all without you disabling the on-board graphics chip.

To run a dual monitor setup you need a twin head card.

NOWOOL
2nd February 2009, 13:04
you can't run onboard and agp a the same time. you'll need a 64mb card to run two monitors at full colour at the same time.

Mikkel
2nd February 2009, 13:04
You can only use one graphics adapter at a time. However, you can run as many monitors as are supported by that adapter... (2 is not uncommon - more than 2 is.)

Gremlin
2nd February 2009, 13:45
I'm surprised it ran at all without you disabling the on-board graphics chip.
depends on the bios, sometimes it will prioritise the external graphics first...

Main topic has been covered... You can run multiple monitors (beyond 2) either with special hardware, or just use multiple gfx cards (the same, or at least same model, gt and gtx for example is ok)

With 478, I seriously doubt you'll run crysis. One of my 7950gt struggles to manage crysis on medium gfx.

Indiana_Jones
2nd February 2009, 13:49
Playing COD4 while having a masty to pr0n at the same time.

1337 ski11s u hax0r

-Indy

Gremlin
2nd February 2009, 13:57
Playing COD4 while having a masty to pr0n at the same time.
What should I use my third screen for o' master?

Indiana_Jones
2nd February 2009, 14:29
What should I use my third screen for o' master?

KB.:done:

-Indy

pzkpfw
2nd February 2009, 14:34
(Yeah, running Crysis was a joke.)

I guess it makes sense that a card that wants to share some system RAM won't co-exist with on-board video. - but didn't know if the 8MB Stealth was going to want to take system RAM off me.

(P.S. my BIOS does have an option for whether a PCI card or an AGP gets priority...)

I swear I'd seen a bunch of ordinary Compaqs SFF's with on-board video (at my old work) get a second monitor just by banging in a mid-range PCI based graphics card - but it was all newer stuff; and presumably those PCI cards only used their own on-board video RAM.

Oh well.

I do actually have a twinhead PCI card lying around home somewhere, so maybe could get three monitors... (but couldn't find drivers for XP, for it, last time I looked...).

Cheers dudes.

skidMark
2nd February 2009, 14:43
Playing COD4 while having a masty to pr0n at the same time.

1337 ski11s u hax0r

-Indy

COD4 fails...

First time playing it i came in as a nil star rank or some shit and creamed the best guys, i was like wtf.

CS1.6 FTW.

The Stranger
2nd February 2009, 14:44
You can only use one graphics adapter at a time.

In his case almost certainly.
Some on board Intel chipsets permit installation of a second video card and running a monitor from both.
In NT4.0 you could run 2 identical cards and run monitors from both and in later iterations of windoze you can run multiple different cards - though not normally together with the on board video.
You may for example install say 4 Matrox quad head cards and run 16 monitors, McDonalds were trailing this system for their menu boards.

Indiana_Jones
2nd February 2009, 14:48
COD4 fails...

First time playing it i came in as a nil star rank or some shit and creamed the best guys, i was like wtf.

CS1.6 FTW.

OMG you're so right.

I love bunny hopping twats who act like they sorted pure Sherbet.

My other favourite part is watching two cunts sitting in a corner for 5mins waiting for the other prick to come to him.

Pure fun....:sunny:

-Indy