PC to Plasma TV. Two video cards or One with dual output?

I have a Gateway GT5453E computer with a Gateway ECS MCP61-P AM2
Mother Board (on board NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nforce 430 128mb
Video. I am getting tired to having to disconnect the vga wire from
my monitor to then connect to the plasma. I would like my plasma to
be permanently connected via vga cable to my computer. I was hoping
to put in a used video card I had, as a second video card to to the
trick. But for some reason, when I tried to install two different
pci video cards, my computer would not recognize them. Are the older
video not compatible, if so I would buy a new one. Or is that not
the best option either. Would disabling the on board video card, and
buying a video card with dual output be the better option? You would
think having two video cards would work better since they both have
their own processors doing the work. I am not looking for state of
the art video card, just something that will do the job and not cost
too much. What would you recommend? Thanks

"Sam" wrote in message
...
I have a Gateway GT5453E computer with a Gateway ECS MCP61-P AM2
Mother Board (on board NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nforce 430 128mb
Video. I am getting tired to having to disconnect the vga wire from
my monitor to then connect to the plasma. I would like my plasma to
be permanently connected via vga cable to my computer. I was hoping
to put in a used video card I had, as a second video card to to the
trick. But for some reason, when I tried to install two different
pci video cards, my computer would not recognize them. Are the older
video not compatible, if so I would buy a new one. Or is that not
the best option either. Would disabling the on board video card, and
buying a video card with dual output be the better option? You would
think having two video cards would work better since they both have
their own processors doing the work. I am not looking for state of
the art video card, just something that will do the job and not cost
too much. What would you recommend? Thanks


I've never used two video cards at the same time but it should work. I have
one mb that has PCI-E 16x, PCI-E 1X, AGP and PCI. In theory I should be able
to run 4 separate video cards on that mb at the same time. Matrox makes a
video card that will work on PCI-E 1X. For simplicities sake I would just
get your self a new video card with dual output. I recommend Nvidia over ATO
for this purpose too because their Nview software gives you a lot more
options for dual monitor setup than ATI does. But I have my 4870 hooked to
my HDTV because my other PC with Nvidia card is already running dual monitor
setup. You have two choices to hook up to your HDTV with one video card that
has dual DVI. Use VGA adapter on second video card DVI connection (all video
cards with dual DVI give you one of those adapters in the box) or get
yourself a DVI to HDMI cable. The latter is the method I use and a 15 ft.
DVIHDMI cable only cost me $35.00 CAD from NCIX. Try to avoid retail stores
for this cable because most do not even sell DVI to HDMI cable and do not
even carry 15 ft. I see Walmart is selling HDMIHDMI 20ft. for $100.00 CAD
but then you will need DVIHDMI adapter too and up here I see them going for
as high as $50.00 which is a big rip off. ATI 48xx series video cards give
you one of those in the box. I recommend getting a DVIHDMI cable online and
using that method.

Sam wrote:
I have a Gateway GT5453E computer with a Gateway ECS MCP61-P AM2
Mother Board (on board NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nforce 430 128mb
Video. I am getting tired to having to disconnect the vga wire from
my monitor to then connect to the plasma. I would like my plasma to
be permanently connected via vga cable to my computer. I was hoping
to put in a used video card I had, as a second video card to to the
trick. But for some reason, when I tried to install two different
pci video cards, my computer would not recognize them. Are the older
video not compatible, if so I would buy a new one. Or is that not
the best option either. Would disabling the on board video card, and
buying a video card with dual output be the better option? You would
think having two video cards would work better since they both have
their own processors doing the work. I am not looking for state of
the art video card, just something that will do the job and not cost
too much. What would you recommend? Thanks

The board should have been able to interface to a PCI video card.
But the thing is, PCI has a bandwidth of 133MB/sec, which is pretty
slow. If you had a big bitmap on the screen to update, it could be
slow. (I've tested that on a computer here. With a PCI video card,
a lot of stuff actually works pretty well. What doesn't work well,
is poorly written software that redraws its window over and over
again. The window "stutters" as it is moved across the screen.)

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERB...06157Rnv.shtml

Now, you do have a nicer slot on the motherboard. The big orange
connector is PCI Express. That will allow a modern video card
to be used. If the wiring of the slot is x16, the bandwidth
is 4000MB/sec, and is much faster than PCI. And it wouldn't
take too much of a video card, to exceed the performance of
the 6150.

PCI Express video cards can range up to a few hundred watts of
power consumption. The low end cards are under 25 watts. Your
computer power supply, must have the capacity to provide that
power. Chances are, a lower end video card will run in there
without a problem.

When a PCI Express video card has no auxiliary power connector,
and gets all its power from that orange slot, the card can draw
up to about 48 watts. (The standard allows 75W to be
drawn, but for practical reasons, the engineers seem to limit
their designs to around that number or maybe a few watts more.)

You can have a look at a site like this, to get a feeling for
some potential products to use.

http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php

9400 GT example here. Don't count on the rebate. There is no
PCI Express auxiliary 2x3 power connector on the end of the
card, so it is limited to 50W or less.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130389

Product has two DVI connectors, but comes with two DVI to VGA
adapter plugs. So you can run two VGA monitors if you want,
from the faceplate of the video card.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-130-389-S05?$S640W$

More promotional info here.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product...9400gt_us.html

HTH,
Paul

* Paul:
The board should have been able to interface to a PCI video card.
But the thing is, PCI has a bandwidth of 133MB/sec, which is pretty
slow. If you had a big bitmap on the screen to update, it could be
slow.

Not really. PCI is fast enough for 2D even on high resolutions.

(I've tested that on a computer here. With a PCI video card,
a lot of stuff actually works pretty well. What doesn't work well,
is poorly written software that redraws its window over and over

Not really. It doesn't matter how often a Window gets "redrawn".

again. The window "stutters" as it is moved across the screen.)

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERB...06157Rnv.shtml

A "stuttering" window is not a problem of the bus, it's clearly a driver
problem (i.e. DirectDraw not working properly) or a problem with the
hardware. Windows also often has problems with hardware acceleration if
multiple gfx cards using different drivers (i.e. cards with GPUs from
different manufacturers or different series).

Benjamin