Dual Monitors and video cards

[randychase]

I am using two 21" Viewsonics G810s driven by the Matrox G450. I am very happy with the performance and enhanced visibility. Funny, using one 21" now seems restrictive. :)

I have not had the bug issues that some people have mentioned when using the Matrox card.

[Cadcrusher]

I need some help here. I've asked our it group for larger monitors.
right now I have two 17"(really 16") monitors. and it's just not not cutting it? Especcialy at my age 52....;o(. Any good articles or studies out there to help me win this battle?

Thanks Ed

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

Most of the studies you'll find are more about the types of monitors (CRT, flat CRT, LCD, etc...) and how they affect you, not so much the size. I run a 21" and two 17" monitors here and two 17" monitors, a 15" monitor and a 7" TFT at home. I've found refresh rates and max resolution to be far more important that size. Sure, the 21" is nice, but it runs the same resolution/refresh rate (1600x1200/85Hz) as the 17".

Ben

[randychase]

Well... size does matter. If you bump up the resolution and run a good refresh rate on the 21", it is better. Screen real estate rocks. I hate working on a single 21" now.

I recall reading an article about screen size and increased work being done, but it was 15 years ago.

[Mark Larson]

Originally posted by randychase
I am using two 21" Viewsonics G810s driven by the Matrox G450. I am very happy with the performance and enhanced visibility. Funny, using one 21" now seems restrictive. :)

I have not had the bug issues that some people have mentioned when using the Matrox card.

Randy, the bug issue you heard about occurred when using NT, people who use later OS do not have the problem, the reason is that NT was not written to support dual monitors.

I am using the 450 card with 2 19" Viewsonic monitors at home, mostly because 19" is less cost but more so because that is all I have room for, but that is better than what I have at work, two 17" monitors

but I'm not gonna complain, the other guy has one 19", what you say about real estate in terms of monitors is so true

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

Well... size does matter.
Randy,
I agree completely. 21" is better than 17". However, I still think max resolution is more important than size. 1600x1200/85Hz is still 1600x1200/85Hz no matter what size monitor you have. Desktop real estate is defined by resolution. Size is important, but resolution is king!

Ben

[Lameris]

Size is king as you get older... It's hard to see the very fine resolution some displays can produce.

It's great to have 1600x1200, but if you can't see the line because the pixels are so fine...

Anyway, I do run 1600x1200 on my 15'TFT Dell Latitude laptop. Occasionally, I have the second monitor plugged in the external VGA port too. You will find the LCD monitors are MUCH brighter and clearer than the older CRT monitors.

Our non laptop users are very happy with the Dell 18inch displays. In fact, they have almost the same screen size as the old 21" CRT's we are using as the second displays.

[randychase]

Speaking of eyes and older... I am finding myself in a new place. I was away on business and had to read some schematics for a new design. But I could barely read them and could not focus. With small text, I could not move the schematic (paper) far enough away to both focus and read it.

Reading glasses.

Soon, you will see me in restaurants complaining about the lack of light and pulling out my glasses to read the menu. Damn..

:)

[Lameris]

lol, I'm not far behind you Randy!

I noticed in the conference room today, that the left eye didn't see as clearly as the right. Time to visit the doc again...

Gary

[randychase]

Noticed that Matrox has a video card that can do three monitors.

Hmmmm

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

Randy,

For the same (or less) money you can get two (one AGP one PCI) Chaintech 128Meg cards (NVidia Chipset) and run four monitors. That's the direction I'm moving at home.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-055&depa=1
And
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-042&catalog=48&depa=1

At $71.99 and $64.00 respectively, it's hard to go wrong. I'm currently running the A-FX20 here and at home and have had no problems whatsoever with PowerLogic, PowerPCB AutoCAD or any of the video editing packages and games I run at home.

Ben