I recently got a second VGA card for multiple monitor debugging, and everything seems to be fine, but I''m thinking I might be having a problem with my second card. Or it could be a problem with it''s configuration in windows, I''m not sure. Here''s my setup: Main card: S3 Savage4, 8 mb RAM, 1024x768x32 bit color (AGP) Secondary: I/O Magic MagicVideo3D EP, 640x480x32 bit color (PCI) (with an OLD monitor) There are two problems.. First of all, when I run the game on my primary display it runs at 80+ FPS (because it''s limited by the refresh rate). On the secondary monitor, it ran at about 60 FPS, and I''m assuming that was also the refresh rate. However, I just added a function to draw my level, and it took the framerate down to about 75 fps on the primary monitor, but it took it down to about 20 on the secondary one! I don''t see how it could be my code... It is unoptomized in both cases! The second problem is that on the secondary card, at the bottom of the screen, there are a few flashing lines under certain darkly colored tiles in my levels. This does NOT happen on the primary card, so I don''t think it''s my code... Could these be hardware problems, windows problems, or my code? I really don''t think it''s my code, and I''m hoping it''s a software (windows setup) problem... Does anyone know what could be wrong? ------------------------------ Jonathan Little invader@hushmail.com http://www.crosswinds.net/~uselessknowledge

Are you doign D3D/OpenGL things? It seems quite likely that your main card has much better 3D acceleration, whereas your second card might not have any.

-Brian

Hmm, sounds like two different chipsets. Basically put, you''ve got two different types of graphics cards. The Savage4 is made for gamers, thus will run games quickly [a faster chip] with a decent feature set [the set being the blending capabilities, how it handles textures, NOT flashing lines, blah, blah, blah.]
___The MagicVideo3D EP is a hybrid card [video capture, I assume, plus 3D] marketed toward multimedia [well, not really] and home users who like having a bunch of capabilities in their computer. The hitch with most of these cards is that the 3D speed of their chip is quite often lower than a card that focusses on just 3D at the same price. Also, the architecture [how it''s put together] of the card has to accomadate both the video chip and the 3D chip, which probably makes some compromises on both to get them working together.
___Now, before you start kicking yourself in the shin, just think of it this way; not only do you have dual-monitors for debugging, you also have two cards for side by side comparison: one that represents a mid-line gamer''s setup, and one that represents people that get premade machines / look for too many things in one place [er, not you, since that''s not why you bought it.]

---Sonic Silicon
P.S. I have a Matrox Marvel G400 in my system for vid capture and dual monitor, but recently added a Voodoo 2 1000 so I could play Final Fantasy VIII and Unreal Tournament at a decent clip. Nothing''s perfect.

I should have mentioned that, no, I''m not doing 3d stuff. I''m actually not using very much hardware acceleration at all, my game right now is just tile based.

Thanks for the replies though!

Well, I rewrote the code, and now there are no artifacts or anything, but the exact same code still runs at 85 fps on the primary display and at 15-16 fps on the secondary one. I have come to the conclusion that it must be something to do with how Windows writes to the second video card. Does anybody know anything I can do about this?