FlyerTalk Forums - Running 2 monitors off a desktop computer ?

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When I put in the new video card will the video output on the motherboard still work ?

Or do I need a video card with 2 outputs ?

just a little confused......thanks for your help

Two outputs is probably easier, the answer to the question is it depends, some bios will allow for both, some won't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by soarer (Post 19526602)

When I put in the new video card will the video output on the motherboard still work ?

Or do I need a video card with 2 outputs ?

just a little confused......thanks for your help

So long as the new card plays nice with what's on the board you can use them both. It's all a matter of how well the drivers are written. It can be picky--I've seen one case where it would only work with a certain BIOS revision.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cordelli (Post 19526711)

Two outputs is probably easier, the answer to the question is it depends, some bios will allow for both, some won't.

To make your life simpler, it probably is easier to just get a video card with 2 outputs. That way, you're effectively replacing the old video port with 2 new ones. The price difference isn't that substantial, so a dual-port card might be your simplest to make sure that everything places nicely.

You mention both your monitors are only VGA, but it's less common to find video cards that have 2 VGA ports. Most often, you'll find either 2 DVI, or 1 DVI and 1 VGA. This looks to be a decent card with 1 DVI and 1 VGA (and 1 HDMI too). You can easily find a simple DVI to VGA adapter, which will effectively give you 2 VGA ports off that card.