Dual Monitor Setup

So, my true geek shows. I find it much faster and easier to work with a computer with 2 monitors. If it's dual core, I need to see two things happening at the same time. Either way, I tried it for a while and I like it - so I've got 2 monitors.

Right. So I have a Radeon 9550 graphics card. It's got a VGA, S-Video and DVI output. Monitor 1 is (and has always been connected to the VGA output), and I've connected the second monitor to the DVI slot (with a DVI to VGA adaptor). Both monitors are 17" IBM ThinkVision screens, but monitor 2's colour isn't anything like 1, I've tried all the settings in windows, made sure all the setting in the monitor are the same.

The only thing I can think of is either:
1) Converting from DVI to VGA is killing the quality or
2) The graphics card can't run a second monitor at full quality

I've got another built-in graphics card in the machine, but I cant get Vista to recognise it (even after installing the manufacturer drivers). I've checked it's still enabled in the BIOS settings...so now I'm lost? Preferably, hopefully someone can recommend how to fix it - otherwise can someone recommend a graphics card with 2 VGA outputs. I don't really game much, mostly internet and work - but I want something that can handle the one or two times I play Swat 4 or Call of Duty - must be AGP. My current AGP Radeon 9550 256Mb is fine for all that. I don't wanna spend 3k

Well if your question is about the lack of colour consistency on the monitors then buy a colour calibration kit like the Spyder2 Express, it'll give you as close to perfect colour on the 2 monitors and also the colour will be consistent.

If it's about Vista not recognising the onboard VGA then I can't help, haven't made the transit to Vista yet..

I wonder if one of the "All-In-Wonder" cards wouldn't do the trick?

feo said:

Well if your question is about the lack of colour consistency on the monitors then buy a colour calibration kit like the Spyder2 Express, it'll give you as close to perfect colour on the 2 monitors and also the colour will be consistent.

If it's about Vista not recognising the onboard VGA then I can't help, haven't made the transit to Vista yet..

Click to expand...

It's more like the one monitor is normal, and the other looks at though I'm on 256 colours, instead of 32bit. But both are set to 32bit in the settings.

Update: It turns out, you can't use your onboard and AGP together, it's not supposed to work - so it's not me being a NOOB with Vista.

I thought this was the problem:

"The primary disadvantage to the usage of dual monitors is that the resources of the video card are effectively halved when the second display device is connected. The decreased processing power and VRAM available to each display may lead to unacceptable performance on both devices. In this case, the second display device may be connected to an additional video adapter installed in the computer allowing the full processing and VRAM capability for each device. However, as newer and more powerful graphics cards are introduced, this problem is not so much of an issue."

but when connecting monitor 2 to the DVI port, it's still got the colour difference (it looks lower quality, like the shading doesn't work well). I've tried connecting monitor 1 to the DVI too and it looks the same. Interesting.

broken1 said:

I thought this was the problem:

"The primary disadvantage to the usage of dual monitors is that the resources of the video card are effectively halved when the second display device is connected. The decreased processing power and VRAM available to each display may lead to unacceptable performance on both devices. In this case, the second display device may be connected to an additional video adapter installed in the computer allowing the full processing and VRAM capability for each device. However, as newer and more powerful graphics cards are introduced, this problem is not so much of an issue."

but when connecting monitor 2 to the DVI port, it's still got the colour difference (it looks lower quality, like the shading doesn't work well). I've tried connecting monitor 1 to the DVI too and it looks the same. Interesting.

Click to expand...

Either your DVI port is screwed or you're not using the right DVI cable.