Post Reply

Forums -> Multiple monitors -> Compaq PP161AA dual monitor support???
niteskies   2006-12-26 07:29
Will a Compaq AMD athlon system - model # PP161AA support a dual monitor configuration? The motherboard is an ASUS A7V8X-LA with an integrated video chipset. The video chipset is a VIA/S3G Unicore IGP, as far as I can tell on some motherboards this is also listed as a VIA KM400A chipset. The motherboard has an AGP slot for an add on video card,there are also 3 pci expansion slots. I have read some comments about AGP not working with multi monitor configurations. Would a nvidia GeForce FX5200 PCI slot card work? If this will work will I need to disable the onboard video chipset? Or can I leave it enabled and possibly run three LCD monitors?

Thanks in advance..
David DeRolph   2006-12-27 01:15
AGP cards certainly do work with multiple-monitor configurations. Where did you read the absurd notion that they do not? Take a look in the database of multiple-monitor configurations right here on this website.

I have an AGP card with nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 GPU; it has both DVI and VGA ports. I can run two monitors with this card or I can combine it with PCI card to run two or more monitors.

I recall reading some forum posts by persons having problems getting an FX5200 card to support two monitors. So, I think it may not be the best choice of nVidia GPUs for a multiple-monitor configuration.
niteskies   2006-12-27 05:09
I've read some more and now understand the statement about AGP cards. Since the motherboard has an onboard graphics and an optional AGP slot, if an AGP video card is installed it will disable the onboard graphics. So if the AGP card has only 1 monitor connection it will be 1 monitor system. If I get an AGP card with 2 or more monitor connections then I'll have a multi monitor systems even with the onboard graphics disablled. Now if I want to continue to use the onboard graphics a PCI video card will work. Even if the PCI video card has 1 monitor connections and the onboard graphic is still enabled the system could support 2 monitors and if the PCI video card has 2 monitor connections the system will support 3 monitors. Hopefully I'm getting closer to understanding how this all works. Now I need to begin looking at AGP video cards that support 2 monitors.

Thanks again,
niteskies
Forums -> Multiple monitors -> Compaq PP161AA dual monitor support???

Post Reply