Can ATI Card support both LCD/CRT?

I just got a GEM LCD 19" monitor, which looks great. I'm running it on a dual-monitor card, the problem is that my other monitor, a Samsung 19" SyncMaster CRT, now looks terrible. I have an "ATI Radeon VE 64mb DDR Dual Monitor AGP Video Card w/TV Out". On the box it says it "supports combinations of VGA, DVI, and TV." I assumed this meant it would support both a CRT and LCD, but the picture on the CRT is definitely screwed, dark and blurry. Is this card supposed to support both kinds of monitor at the same time, and if so, what could the problem be?

Thanks much,
Harold

 

It's supposed to.

I'm fishing here, but if I were you I'd (a) download and install the most recent Radeon driver, (b) try each monitor singly in each port. If both are OK in each port, then the card may be faulty at dual display.

The fact that one of your monitors is CRT and the other LCD should make no difference.

 

The VE will support two monitors but at only 60Hz refresh. At least that's what mine supported but it only had 32 MB. That card was sold to me as a dual monitor card, and it would run two monitors but not at a decent resolution and I was just using 17" CRTs.

Get another card.

 

I had the VE too and found that the dual display quality was quite poor.
Switched to a Matrox G550 and the difference was remarkable.

BTW, try enabling Cleartype on all your displays. That may help a bit.

 

Ok, thanks for the comments.

So I'm thinking the best solution would be to just buy a 2nd card. I can get a PCI 16mb or 32mb for around $35. Then use one card for each monitor. Whaddya think?

Thanks,
Harold

 

I'm looking at some cheap cards on Ebay. Both an nvidia 32mg and an ATI 8 mg have the following note:

"It is plug and play, might not work with another video card on the system. You need to uninstall or disable the existing video card."

Wha's up w/dat? Do I need some kind of special PCI video card in order to have it work alongside my AGP card?

Thanks,
Harold

 

I'd recommend Newegg and buy a modern card that will support both monitors.

 

I just purchased a Nvidia 6600GT ($167) from newegg also to run dual LCDs. It has Dual DVI ports so the picture is much cleaner than with a VGA connector.

 

Found a good, cheap card that'll work just fine w/my second monitor. Prob solved.

Thanks,
H

 

Ok, well, after doing some pricing of cards, I've changed my mind and decided to go w/an nVidia dual-monitor card w/D-sub and DVI connections, either the 128 mg ($40) or the 256 mg ($60), both more than adequate for my needs.

So will DVI make my LCD look even better? Or is that just for gaming and such?

Thanks,
H