I have a Radeon 9100 (dual head). The problem is that I'm eying having a pci video card (Inno3d s3 8mb. cheap because I'm not using redhat 9 for games. Wine doesn't seem to support it) because I'm having trouble getting a dvi-vga adaptor.

Would I get my desktop spanned between two monitors even if I'm using a pci video card as opposed to a dual head? Would I get performance problems? I'm asking this because I have to be sure before buying a second monitor and a pci video card.

I need your opinions because I'm itching to having dual monitors as soon as possible. Thanks.

xinerama, the window spanning extension, can usually handle as many cards as you can put in a machine. Right now I have a dual-head Matrox AGP card and a TNT2 PCI card for 3 monitors. Total there's 48 Mb of video ram and I do get some window latency and some artifacting, useless for gaming, but more then useful for normal workstation work. In another box I have an old ATI 128 AGP and a PCI Voodoo3 and there's no problems, its like having one monitor (although it did take hacking out the voodoo driver some)

However, if you can get dual-head off of one card, do it. Finding a DVI adapter shouldn't be that hard... it doesn't necessarily have to be the same one that comes with an ATI 9100. I swapped in the DVI adapter from my Matrox card onto a Nvidia GeForce4 and it worked fine.

Cheers,

Finegan

Does artifacting and window latency occur when using a pci video card along with an agp?

Yes, Matrox AGP card + TNT2 Riva PCI card, but that's also with a 3 monitor combination. I've never seen any problems with my other ATI Rage 128 AGP + Voodoo3 PCI combination (2 monitors). But really, the best performance I had was just with the dual-headed Matrox and nothing else.

Cheers,

Finegan

do you recommend getting a second crt monitor? I read that interferences are a possibility. Is it more advisable to buy lcds? Would lcds placed side by side cause interferences like the crts?

Interfence did bug out the matched Samsungs, until the third was introduced, the mismatched Sony Trinitron and Generic 17-inch work fine together. Honestly, I don't understand the current fetish for flats, they're too expensive, the resolutions suck, the backlights only last a few years... I really think they're much more of a status symbol then a tool. The only upshot to them is arguably less glare, and definately less radiation, but since we're talking 1/10000th of an X-ray per hour its not like its that much, but who knows...

I don know for what you pay for a 17-inch flat you can get a 1 year old 22-inch SGI crt.

Cheers,

Finegan

How about in terms of different brands? Would a different brand of 17 inch monitor eliminate interferences? Is your Sony Trinitron 17 inch like your generic as well?

Would Linux dual monitor work with a Radeon?

Branding doesn't really matter, the interference between two monitors is usually the Horizontal/Vertical refresh ratings being at some sort of odds. I adjusted around one just by cranking up the vertrefresh of one of the monitors a little, still didn't make it perfect though.

Radeon? Theoretically it should work with any given dual-headed card or any two video cards, agp or pci. The XFree86 drivers are not that great with Radeons, and the ATI released drivers aren't that great at all... evidently, if you are in the market to purchase, Nvidia is doing much better with their Linux driver maintenance.

Cheers,

Finegan

It seems that my prospects for a dual monitor setup is going to be less likely in the near future.

How about placing each of the monitors a inch or two apart? Would it still create interferences? Would it be difficult and terrible to use with 2 monitors inches apart?

What I do about the interference between CRTs is make the refresh rates on each different and I also put a shielded sheet of metal between them. The metal is just a panel from an old case. This reduces the interference down to very subtle lines. Not a problem at all.

Dual monitor is one of the best things I ever did to my computer. It's the ultimate multi-tasking upgrade.

Good luck