I have an older LCD with just a VGA input and I'm getting a newer one that has more modern hookups are (DVI, HDMI). They are NOT the same size or resolution. I'd like to use them together, but I don't think my video card can do it. It's a Geforce 6600 GT 128mb. It has both a VGA and DVI output, but I'm not sure if they were designed to be used at the same time. Are they? I have an SLI motherboard - if I grab another geforce 6600 GT 128mb off ebay for 30-40 bucks and run them both in SLI mode, will that allow me dual monitors?

I plan on building a new PC in the next 6 months. Is there a video card that I can buy for my box now to use both monitors, that will still be decent enough in 6 months (or less) when I build my next PC?

SLI hates dual monitors. Don't do that.

You don't need SLI to do dual monitors, and indeed those VGA/DVI inputs can be used at the same time. Having different resolutions will not matter.

You mean outputs?

Awesome.

Yep. You'll have two displays listed in the display screen - you can set them independently of each other.

Yeah my card has two DVI outputs, I'm using two monitors just fine.

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THANK YOU.

Dual monitors is by far the best thing to happen to home computing since SimCity. And it was incredibly easy to set up, I hardly had to do anything beyond plugging in the cables.



How can I prevent windows from opening by default in the secondary monitor? I only want things over there if I actually move them there...

You could use Ultramon (find it, download it). Otherwise it'll always open on the monitor it was last on. Windows has a quirk though, it will only remember a different monitor if the program is closed while it is NOT maximized. So you need to un-maximize, move it to the primary monitor, close it, reopen it, and then maximize if you want it to remember it that way.

Windows will open on the monitor that you launch them from, IE if you run them from an explorer window on the second monitor, that's where they'll open.

IIRC.

It's also possible that some apps will start on "Display 0", assuming that is your primary monitor when it does not have to be (for me it's "Display 1" and is clearly indicated as such through the Windows APIs, but some apps are poorly coded). On nVidia it is impossible to change this ordering of the monitors, you're stuck with it until you reformat or figure out how to completely wipe all driver preferences and settings and start over, plugging the monitors in in the CORRECT order.