Using two monitors

I've read that is a good idea to use a second monitor to keep there the palletes open so you have the entire screen to work.
I have an extra monitor, what am I supposed to do to make this work?

Depends on your video card. Some video cards are built to handle two monitors out of the box. Many of the new video cards do this. There is even one that allows you to have 3 monitors.

The other way is to buy a second video card and have both hooked up in the same machine. Then when you install it there will be a setting in Windows to allow you to configure the second monitor.

Or if you are on a Mac with a PowerBook or PowerMac, just plug in the second monitor.

If you dont have another video card, buy a cheap one for the pci slot (if on a pc.) then use the better one for graphics, and the second as a space saver.

Originally posted by Marble
If you dont have another video card, buy a cheap one for the pci slot (if on a pc.) then use the better one for graphics, and the second as a space saver.

That would work too, but wouldn't having 2 cards eat up way more system resources then just going out and getting a card that supports dual monitors? I guess for a money issue its a good way, but having my computer running as efficiently as possible is what I always try to shoot for.

Not really. Video cards have their own CPU and buses. The only resource you would be using up is the PCI slot taken and losing an IRQ.

Ah, that does make sense, thanks for clarifying :D

I think the only thing you have to worry about is your pc checks for PCI slots before AGP, so if you have one as a pci then it would use that as the master Vid card. But.... there should be a setting in BIOS that you can use to reverse that. It'd be something like this:
PCI-VGA or VGA-PCI. so just set it to VGA-PCI. But that is looking at my BIOS, which might be different for others.

I put a card in the PCI slot but it's not working. The message I get is that the video driver of my PC is not compatible with multiple screens. I guess I have to change something in the registry but I don't know what.

If your main interest is 2D graphics I would suggest a Matrox - best colors ever - also you get to use 2 monitors - AND it's a bit cheaper than Nvidia - unless you want to go for Parhelia - which is the latest Matrox video card and a power tool if I ever saw one

Originally posted by Alvaretto
the video driver of my PC is not compatible with multiple screens.

Its a driver issue. the registry is just a database for everything your OS runs.

What OS are you using, what are your two video cards? Go to the site of the card manufacturer and also the maker of the chips. Try to located a driver that works with multiple screens. If not try checking for a 3rd party driver.