Multiple Monitor Setup problem

[Guest kwaka]

Hi,I have an AMD 3000 system running an ATI 9700 (AGP) card. I installed an old MAtrox Millenium 4MB (PCI) card to run a second monitor, however FS2004 gives an error upon start-up that 3D Hardware acceleration has been dissabled. FS runs, but without any 3D Hardware support or full-screen mode. Frames rates are very poor.Am I doing something wrong or must I purchase a card capable of running 3D, 8MB, DX9 (as per MS spiel on the matter). Thanks.

[tigert 0]

>Hi,>>I have an AMD 3000 system running an ATI 9700 (AGP) card. I>installed an old MAtrox Millenium 4MB (PCI) card to run a>second monitor, however FS2004 gives an error upon start-up>that 3D Hardware acceleration has been dissabled. FS runs, but>without any 3D Hardware support or full-screen mode. Frames>rates are very poor.>>Am I doing something wrong or must I purchase a card capable>of running 3D, 8MB, DX9 (as per MS spiel on the matter). >>Thanks.Try rebooting once after installing the drivers and the card. That helped it for me - it complained that the first time I booted after the stuff was installedAlso, try setting either of the cards as primary in the BIOS ("init display first: AGP" or PCI) - this might help too. And then, try running FS in windowed mode, and also see that FS is on the NVIDIa monitor - it cannot display any 3D stuff on the matrox - just panels with 2D gauges.Hope this helps a bit, maybe others have more ideas.//Tuomas

[Guest Stephan Haas]

Hi,It should work with an older card, it did so in my setup.WinXP wants you to use the PCI card as the primary video card in the bios. You'll have to change that in your bios setup.With display properties you can then "assign" the monitors in WinXP. Make sure that the screen on which FS (outside/3d) is to be displayed is set as thr primary monitor.Kind regards,Stephan Haaswww.lemont.nl/b767flightdeckhttp://www.pic767flyingclub.com/images/sas544.jpg

[Guest kwaka]

Thanks guys! Changed BIOS settings. All is well. (25+fps) Now I need to find another card to drive the engine instruments and we're all set to put it together into a SIM.Thanks for your help :)

[Guest Ceawlin BSX029]

Here's a query whilst we're on the subject...Is there a limit to the number of PCI cards one can put into a system? I was recently given 2 PCI cards, so I decided to put them into a pc alongside an AGP card. Now for some reason the two PCI cards were picked up, but according to WinXP the AGP card had an unknown error. Would this be resource conflicts, or is it something else...?

[Guest mondo]

Don't take this a gospel, but I was under the impression that you could only have one AGP and one PCI video card per machine. Again not 100% sure. Milt

[Guest Erups]

>Here's a query whilst we're on the subject...>>Is there a limit to the number of PCI cards one can put into a>system? I was recently given 2 PCI cards, so I decided to put>them into a pc alongside an AGP card. Now for some reason the>two PCI cards were picked up, but according to WinXP the AGP>card had an unknown error. Would this be resource conflicts,>or is it something else...?Older windows systems were limited to two videocard, since windows 2000 the OS should be able to accept more then 2 cards.Never tried more anyway...

[tigert 0]

> Don't take this a gospel, but I was under the impression>that you could only have one AGP and one PCI video card per>machine. Again not 100% sure.>> MiltSomeone said months ago that he had 5 monitors on one computer - 1 agp and 4 PCI matroxes.Some pci card brands dont like to work with multiple cards, but matroxes do work generally.With win2000 / XP it should be OK.Just try adding an extra one and see if it works - better to try before buying of course.//Tuomas

[Guest Stephan Haas]

For some time I had a Nvdia Gforce4400 running together with 2 SIS PCI cards without any problem. Changed the SIS for a Matrox dualhead (I needed at least one video output for the FMC).Kind regards,Stephan Haaswww.lemont.nl/b767flightdeckhttp://www.pic767flyingclub.com/images/sas544.jpg

[Guest Glenn Weston]

I have had 2 PCI Nvidia TNT II cards running with a Geforce IV MX AGP card without any problems, with this setup I can run the AGP card as the primary card setup in the BIOS, other experiments with PCI cards have shown that if you are using a fairly old PCI card such as an old run of the mill S3 Trio 3D you need to set the BIOS to Boot on the PCI card & therefore it will become the primary card, that isn't a problem with FS as you can select which card to use within the sim.If you are running one of these older PCI cards that require it to be set as the primary card in the BIOS then I think you may be limited to 2 cards, otherwise if you have the later cards such as the TNT II or better you could most certainly fill your PCI slots with video cards.Cheers Glenn.You can check out my Simpit Project here:http://www.simhardware.co.nz/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33

[Guest Ceawlin BSX029]

That might be the problem as they're not really new cards, and neither's the AGP card. Might just try putting some new ones in one box and see if it works... If it doesn't then I'll just split them across pc's :)

[Chris_CYWG 0]

I have a Radeon 9800, is it better to run the second monitor off that card, or get a seperate PCI card to run the panel??

[tigert 0]

>I have a Radeon 9800, is it better to run the second monitor>off that card, or get a seperate PCI card to run the panel??Well try it, it if works, fine.My PCI card doesnt eat any frames, actually I get a few FPS more because the panel is off the main window - most panels are quite slow because of the complex "hole mask" on the window shape - a full screen panel means FS doesnt need to mask the panel over the 3d view, so things are faster.//Tuomas