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Best card for Office Dual Monitor

Tesla

Tesla

Tesla

Soldato
Joined
19 Jan 2003
Posts
17,599
Location
Bristol, UK
Hi guys,

Which card is best for an office user seeking dual monitor functionality. There is no graphics work, just regular MS Office work.

I guess this boils down to which manufacturer has the best dual monitor software?

The OS is Win7 Pro.

Cheers!
 
A cheap little ATI card would do well for this - anything that can output two monitors would be up to handling office work :)
 
So ATI's software is superior to Nvidia's or would just doing it through the Windows Control Panel be a better option?
 
Alternatively i put forward the idea of the palit geforce 210 512mb ddr2 pci-express graphics card, it has the advantages of being cheaper and in stock, and it uses less power than the ati equivalents as shown here.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2939/3

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-gt-220,review-31703-16.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Inno3D/GeForce_210/28.html

both companies allow the use of dual screens for simple desktop usage so that wouldn't be an issue.

yes I'm shocked too, here we have an occasion where the Nvidia card is actually a better bet than the ATI variant :D:p:D
 
Tesla said:
I think I prefer the passive card above for reliability and noise.
Click to expand...

The ATI has the advantage (massively so) when it comes to multiple monitors.

2 Screen Eyefinity will be far far better than simple extended desktop mode.
 
kylew said:
The ATI has the advantage (massively so) when it comes to multiple monitors.

2 Screen Eyefinity will be far far better than simple extended desktop mode.
Click to expand...

not wanting to start another ATI versus Nvidia thread, can you tell me what is different about eyefinity over the way nvida handle two monitors from the use in an office perspective, as i haven't used an eyefinity setup yet and i cant really see how its going to really be any different than having two monitors, i mean if i want a window on the other monitor than i drag it over to the other monitor.
 
bru said:
not wanting to start another ATI versus Nvidia thread, can you tell me what is different about eyefinity over the way nvida handle two monitors from the use in an office perspective, as i haven't used an eyefinity setup yet and i cant really see how its going to really be any different than having two monitors, i mean if i want a window on the other monitor than i drag it over to the other monitor.
Click to expand...

We use an old Nvidia Qaudro setup at work for dual monitors. It's as simple as you make out. open window, drag to 2nd monitor, maximise and it fills 2nd monitor. Perfect.
 
There's no reason to go for an eyefinity card just for desktop dual monitor use.

Standrad extended desktop mode that has been supported by both cards for ever will work perfectly well - I use it with my ATI Eyefinity-capable card, because eyefinity does not support dual monitors with different resolutions.
 
so judging by the above comments there really would seem to be no reason to go for the more expensive, more power hungry ATI variants over a nice cheap Nvidia geforce 210 for this particular users needs.
 
bru said:
so judging by the above comments there really would seem to be no reason to go for the more expensive, more power hungry ATI variants over a nice cheap Nvidia geforce 210 for this particular users needs.
Click to expand...

No, any card with 2 outputs can use two monitors we all know that.

My point has been that running two monitors with the second in extended desktop mode isn't as good as eyefinity.

You'll have to buy additional software if you want a task bar on the second screen firstly, and even then it's not a fully functional task bar like the standard windows one.

Eyefinity means your two monitors will appear to windows as one larger one, that in my opinion will be much better for dual monitor office work (from personal experience) I'd bee looking for a software solution for months and I was thinking about getting a Matrox TH2G so I could use my (then) two monitors as one in the hope that they'd support 3 24" monitors in the future.

For an extra £15 it's definitely worth it over a GTS210, as for it being in stock, OcUK isn't the only shop in England, I'm just suggesting what card to get, not where to get it from.
 
kylew said:
My point has been that running two monitors with the second in extended desktop mode isn't as good as eyefinity.

You'll have to buy additional software if you want a task bar on the second screen firstly, and even then it's not a fully functional task bar like the standard windows one.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I'd forgetten that. It's a good point with some pros and cons. With eyefinity, the system tray will appear at the very right side of the right monitor. With my dual monitor set up, my big monitor is in front of me, my smaller monitor is off to the right - so the system tray becomes very inconveniently placed. I do use it a lot, so it's not a minor point.

But if you have two equal sized, equal res monitors, eyefinity probably is better. (But if not, stretching windows over two monitors is ugly and distracting!)
 
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