Graphics card(s) for dual monitors

On my photoshop only PC I have a matrox G2 8mb pci card. I want to upgrade so I can use two monitors, which of the following would be my best course of action.
Get a second pci card
Get an agp card to use with my current pci
Get a G450 dual agp card
Would I see much difference with 16mb or 32 mb cards? Photoshop only remember.
Is there any difference in the way two monitors would work if run from two cards versus a single dual card?
When I say best course of action, my absolute top budget for this would be a G550 32mb 2nd hand so it's best course, but within my budget. TIA

Brian
(the other one)

"mono" wrote in message

On my photoshop only PC I have a matrox G2 8mb pci card. I want to upgrade so I can use two monitors, which of the following would be my best course of action.
Get a second pci card
Get an agp card to use with my current pci
Get a G450 dual agp card
Would I see much difference with 16mb or 32 mb cards? Photoshop only remember.
Is there any difference in the way two monitors would work if run from two cards versus a single dual card?
When I say best course of action, my absolute top budget for this would be a G550 32mb 2nd hand so it's best course, but within my budget. TIA

Brian
(the other one)

You might wish to take future system changes into account as well. I am just now going through a MB update and needed to go from a G400 to some 4x or 8x card. You may want to look at a dual monitor card having DVI and VGA output connections should you consider a LCD monitor at some future date. There are many older ATI and Nvidia cards that have these features and are reasonable priced.

"mono" wrote in message

On my photoshop only PC I have a matrox G2 8mb pci card. I want to upgrade so I can use two monitors, which of the following would be my best course of action.
Get a second pci card
Get an agp card to use with my current pci
Get a G450 dual agp card
Would I see much difference with 16mb or 32 mb cards? Photoshop only remember.
Is there any difference in the way two monitors would work if run from two cards versus a single dual card?
When I say best course of action, my absolute top budget for this would be a G550 32mb 2nd hand so it's best course, but within my budget. TIA

Brian
(the other one)

On board memory is vital for 2D, as more of it will allow you to run at 32bit at higher resolutions. Depending on your monitors used and the intended screen resolutions, I would look into this carefully. For example, 16mb may not be enough to drive two monitors at 1280x1024 at 32bit colour depth. You may only manage to get 16bit colour at that resolution - so you may have to work with less colours, or reduce screen resolution to 800x600 to get 32bit.. A compromise you may not want to live with.

As for output connections, just go for dual DVI - if you don't have digital LCD monitors at the moment, you can always use a DVI to VGA cable or use a converter plug. There is little point in getting a card with both dual VGA and DVI outputs.

I'm not sure about price, but I'm sure that you'll find a bargain if you check out ATi or Nvidia based cards as well as Matox...

I've no experience in using two seperate cards symultaneously, but I would imaging that it would be a headache, so its best to be avoided and go for a single AGP, dual DVI output solution from one of the three top branded chipset makers mentioned.

mono wrote:

On my photoshop only PC I have a matrox G2 8mb pci card. I want to upgrade so I can use two monitors, which of the following would be my best course of action.
Get a second pci card
Get an agp card to use with my current pci
Get a G450 dual agp card
Would I see much difference with 16mb or 32 mb cards? Photoshop only remember.
Is there any difference in the way two monitors would work if run from two cards versus a single dual card?
When I say best course of action, my absolute top budget for this would be a G550 32mb 2nd hand so it's best course, but within my budget. TIA

Brian
(the other one)

You do definately want a new (or second hand for that matter) AGP 4x or better card. Many of them come with dual outputs these days and you will notice that you do need the extra performance you get from a more recent chipset and the AGP-bus. Especially when driving two high-res displays. As far as I can recall Matrox has an excellent reputation in 2D-cards but I have used ATI's and nVidia's too and I can't say they are much worse.

--
Hans Fleischmann

PGP-KeyID: 0x676FB35B - A26E A57D C006 C19B 9A42 A688 C241 C255 676F B35B +31650525455

I use a Matrox G450 card and get on really well with it. Will take a little while playing with the settings to get the monitors to work just how you want them to, but once this is done, you just forget about it.

The only thing I have found is that some video won't play in monitor 2, but this isn't really a problem. Also, you can only set Adobe Gamma calibration for monitor 1. Again, not too much of a problem because the image I am working on is always in monitor 1, and the pallets in monitor 2.

"mono" wrote in message

On my photoshop only PC I have a matrox G2 8mb pci card. I want to upgrade so I can use two monitors, which of the following would be my best course of action.
Get a second pci card
Get an agp card to use with my current pci
Get a G450 dual agp card
Would I see much difference with 16mb or 32 mb cards? Photoshop only remember.
Is there any difference in the way two monitors would work if run from two cards versus a single dual card?
When I say best course of action, my absolute top budget for this would be a G550 32mb 2nd hand so it's best course, but within my budget. TIA

Brian
(the other one)