I have a newer Dell computer with the 32MB ATI Rage 128 ultra card in the AGP slot. I recently purchased the ATI 7500 Radeon 64 MB PCI card. I run XP professional. I wanted to know if others have had any issues running these cards both at the same time. After I first installed it the second monitor running on the PCI card had a jerky refresh rate when I moved a window. I updated the drivers and it seemed fine. Then I noticed on the second monitor I would get funny window action on MS explorer if I hit the refresh page button. I did some screen adjustments and it seemed to fix it. I called the ATI service number and they said this was not a support configuration, but heard a lot of companies do not support dual monitor configs. So I don't know if I should pull out the AGP card and just replace that and return the PCI card. I want my system to be stable and do not want problems in the futures. Any comments or experiences would be great.
Not familiar with your specific configuration, but I would go for a single AGP card that has dual heads on board. One card. One driver. Supported by manufacturer in dual head mode. At one time I had a dual head ATI 8500 and a PCI Nvidia GeForce card running in the same machine for a total of three monitors. No problems, not that it helps you.
Thanks for the reply. I spoke with a computer tech and he recommended the same thing with just getting the AGP dual head card. If down the road I want to add the 3rd monitor I will just add the additional card.
Rage Ultra is not an ATI card, but one made up for Dell with ATI driver. I had to discard mine and replace it with genuine ATI card to solve the compatibility issues with Win2000. The Rage Ultra is fine as a single. Apparently not, in multimonitor setups.
Thanks for the info. I am looking at the AGP format ATI Radeon 9000. Have you heard anything good or bad about that card?
Don't know about that one. Suggest you check with ATI's website or tech for "multimonitor compatible driver" before you buy cards. That they "should" work together is not a certainty that they will.
I'm running a brand new Dell with the same AGP card and the same PCI card but using XP Home. I had to raise the refresh rates on the monitors to get them to work right. I would make sure you have the newest drivers for both cards.
just did a bunch or research on video cards and bought an ati 9500 pro dual head card. got it brand new on ebay for 169.00. the 9500 is actually a slightly "crippled" 9700 card and has been reviewed as better than the 9600. the 9500 works great. i just ordered a radeon 7500 card to bump up to three monitors and will let you know how it goes.