Dual Monitors in Win XP with Different Resolutions, possible?

Le_Petit_Lapin · 21 Aug 2006 at 21:33

Heres the situation:

I have a CRT (1600x1200) and a TFT (1440x900 Native) that are both plugged into a 7800GS. Currently I have them doing a vertical span across both monitors.

Unfortunately, this makes either one monitor look crap. CRT's and TFT's dont mix.

So, is it possible to somehow have both the monitors plugged in, but have them running at different resolutions and place a seperate start/taskbar on each monitor?

Basically, I want to play games on the CRT, while I use the TFT to browse on at the same time. Spanning looks crap.

Freakish_05 · 21 Aug 2006 at 21:43

Ultramon will solve all of your problems.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:06

Aye, but the problem is Ultramon only thinks I have one display. Anyone know why?

fobose · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:09

Do you not have a "dual view" option? Ofcourse vertical span is going to make everything look buggered (Did you mean horizontal?). Just set each monitors resolution in the settings tab and click "extend my windows desktop on to this monitor" on your secondary monitor.

Ultramon will allow you to create a "fake" taskbar on your second monitor.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:19

Wtf is Dualview?

Where should I be looking for it?

fobose · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:29

Well for me its in the same place where vertical span is under nView display mode (if you have a nvidia card) its in Display properties -> settings -> advanced -> GeForce 6600 GT (for me) -> nview display settings -> nview display mode (above where it shows 2 pictures of monitors). I think setting the "extend my windows desktop on to this monitor" option in the Settings bit sets it to "dual view".

Le_Petit_Lapin · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:54

fobose said:
Well for me its in the same place where vertical span is under nView display mode (if you have a nvidia card) its in Display properties -> settings -> advanced -> GeForce 6600 GT (for me) -> nview display settings -> nview display mode (above where it shows 2 pictures of monitors). I think setting the "extend my windows desktop on to this monitor" option in the Settings bit sets it to "dual view".

Yeah, thats where I thought I'd set a different thing, when I was using the two monitors with a different GPU.....however, right now, its not there.

Is it an issue with the EVGA 7800CO?

fobose · 21 Aug 2006 at 22:57

Ah right, not sure. Did you try doing what I said with the extended desktop? It will do the same thing.

InvaderGIR · 21 Aug 2006 at 23:51

Strange, I run my TV as my second monitor and it runs different res on it automatically, and yes you can set any monitor that is connected to your pc as any res you want. You can do it without ultramon, Windows allows you to automatically do it.

You should have this setting, make sure you have restarted your pc after connecting the two screens.

If you right click the desktop and click properties then settings and click on the second display (the little picture of a monitor) you should be able to adjust the screen res with the slider, like below (it's a gif showing the change so watch it)

A snap of my desktop, 19" CRT on the left at 1280x960 and 21" TV on the right at 800x600.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 22 Aug 2006 at 00:17

InvaderGIR said:
...make sure you have restarted your pc after connecting the two screens.

Whoops.

Worked perfectly after reboot.

jon86 · 22 Aug 2006 at 00:27

I have a 17" TFT at 1280x1024 (60 Hz) and a 17" CRT at 1152x864 (75 Hz). I could put the CRT into 1280x1024 but it can only do that at 60 Hz and I can't stand that.

I have an nVidia 6800 with DualView enabled.

fobose · 22 Aug 2006 at 07:09

I never had these problems when using dual monitors (and I've had them with different res's too!)