dual monitor set up for Cinema help...

[mrblifil]

Your second monitor can have a real crappy card. You don't need a lot of power just to handle tool palettes.

Kevin

[knight42]

Your setup sounds okay. I'm using a GeForce 4800 something-or-other which has dual montor support, but as long as you are getting two pictures on two monitors it's okay, as long as the card containing the viewport is fast enough.

You're probably a bit better off, as far as I know most, if not all, dual-monitor cards, don't do OpenGL accerelation on the second monitor, ony the primary, but you're two cards should do both.

J

[AdamT]

Sorry to say it, but the Geforce MX is a weak card. You'd be much better off with a Ti-4200 or any Radeon card from the 9000 on up. All of these cards support dual monitors, and I know that the nVidia cards support OGL on both monitors (not sure about the RAdeons).

[dmthurman]

thanks for the replys....Adam, am i going to notice a difference in the redraw rates if I bump up to a 4200??...Since i'm not doing animation, it's only during modeling that I really care about...
David....

[flingster]

i use a 4600 which basically has dual monitor support..however you need to remember that on some...dunno about all...one port is standard vga...the other is dvi...not both dvi or both vga....so one of the monitors will need dvi port etc...

not using a dual monitor setup though...was also planning on giving it a go?

what are peoples opinions on LCD screens? hit or miss?
cheers

[LucentDreams]

Originally posted by flingster
i use a 4600 which basically has dual monitor support..however you need to remember that on some...dunno about all...one port is standard vga...the other is dvi...not both dvi or both vga....so one of the monitors will need dvi port etc...

not using a dual monitor setup though...was also planning on giving it a go?

what are peoples opinions on LCD screens? hit or miss?
cheers

not so you should have an adapter dongle, usually for the DVI. Mine came with one, since I"m not a lucky enough guy to have a flatscreen, getting down in price though, now all I need is the money.

[twilight]

I have a nVidia Quadro 4 700GLX and not long ago i found the dvi output. It also came with a dvi/vga adapter. You can get one for about $15~$30:

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.html?redir=http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?code=CS-GC17MA15F

http://www.cablesnmor.com/dvi-vga-adapter.html

search google for "dvi vga adapter" and you'll find a lot to choose from.

So i bought an lcd screen, the cheapest i found (samsung syncmaster 151s), for about $300. It doesn't have a dvi input, but you won't need one once you get the adapter.

As for the quality, at first i was a bit disappointed. My primary monitor is a mitsubishi crt 22", so the 15" lcd felt a bit weird, to say the least. The colors are completely different and so is the brightness...
After some tweaking and after downloading the nView drivers from nVidia i came up with a "decent" setup... although i wasn't 100% happy with it.
After working with this setup for some time i got used to it. The color and brightness differences don't really bother me, since i'm only using the lcd for the paletes and tools. The workflow in C4D is really cool with a dual monitor setup. Illustrator and Indesign are a dream in this setup! Even with programs that don't take advantage of this setup you can use the second monitor to browse the web or to keep the IM windows.
There's a cool app named UltraMon that really improves the dual interface, by adding an independent taskbar to the second monitor, memorizing windows positions, etc. Check it here:

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

I'm glad i got the second monitor, although i think i would be better off with a 19" crt... but i don't regret buying the lcd. It's light, small and it looks really cool!
I think i'll have a hard time the next time i have to work in a single monitor system.

:)

[rocarpen]

I've currently got two 17" CRT monitors going, each one running off it's own video card. Radeon and GeForce, living together in harmony.

:p

Here's a screenshot of my Cinema 4D setup. The right-hand screen runs at a lower res than the main left-hand one, hence the staggering between the two in this shot:

http://vfs.com/~jcarpenter/public/screenshot.jpg

Great workflow! But I hate having to throw my mouse across all that real-estate to reach my settings and tools.

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