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Need another graphics card
Okay, so I have about $100 to get another graphics card so I can setup dual monitors. I know extremely little about hardware, so I'm going to need your help :x What's the best graphics card I can get for my budget? I have two VGA displays on the back of my computer, but one is white and needs an adapter that came with my computer. I already have a graphics card, I just need another one because the one I have only supports one monitor and I'm trying to set up dual monitors. I asked for some help from my guild, but I have no idea what they're talking about since I know so little about hardware. I don't even know where the graphics card goes into the computer. Anyway, someone mentioned a sticker on my PSU and they asked for something off it, but I had no idea what. So I took a picture of it.
I don't know if this will help any but I have a Gateway GM5474.
Couple questions too: Can I play a game on one monitor with that graphics card dedicated to that monitor in order to speed up the performance? Also will I need more than 2GB of RAM on Vista if I want the monitors to run smoothly?
Comments
what version of Vista you have? Vista 64 needs at least 4GB RAM to run smoothly, it idles at 1.5 GB. need to make sure your PSU can suport dual cards. $100 isnt much for a GPU nowadays. what kind you have currently and can it be sli'd or Xfired?
Games played:Warhammer, Atlantica, Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, DDO, City of Heroes/Villians, Aion, and Global Agenda...
Games playing: Age of Conan & EVE
Games waiting for: SWTOR
What graphics card is in there already? What you described sounds like it has a DVI out and VGA out. So it should already supports dual monitors (basically all newer cards do) you just need to use that adapter to hook up your 2nd monitor. Then go into your display settings and switch it from Clone Desktop to Extended Desktop (or whatever it's called.. I'm on a netbook right now can't check).
You actually don't want a 2nd graphics card, you just need a graphics card that supports dual displays (which it sounds like you have). If you are running a game on one monitor and just apps on the other the impact is minimal.
ok after doing some reasearch it seems you have a
AMD X2 6000+ with 2 gigs DDR2 (667) Vista HP 32bit and a 8500 vid card...
I would recommend throwing in another 2 gigs of ram... even though 32 bit OS only "sees" 3.5 gigs you will still utilize the extra ram, and ram is cheap anyway (if i am not mistaken they have a update for vista 32 to read more ram??). just MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THE EXACT SPEED OF YOU RAM and match the 2 extra gigs up with it properly.
Pretty much all vid cards ($75+) will have dual vga outputs for multiple monitors. You dont need much of a card to have just dual monitors but dont expect to play 2 windowed versions of a newer game unless you get a damn good card.
FOr the $100ish price point i would suggest a 4770, 4830 or better yet spend a tad bit more and get a 4850. The 4850 is the best bang for your buck out there ( you CAN find this for $99 too, check newegg), closely follwed by the 4770/4830.
Yes, btw you can run a "windowed" version of a game on a second monitor and do somthing else on the other one on MOST games. But you will get performances hits. That poor 6000+ will be screaming at you lol.