Hello all, It's PC upgrading time again and I'm going to buy a G80 because I want some of that sweet, sweet geometry shader goodness. Problem is, I need dual monitor support. My last videocard (Asus GeForce 6600GT) said it had dual monitor support, but it really just stretched one display to 2560x1024 and did it extremely poorly. I'm looking at the BFG 8600GT 256MB OC and the BFG 8600GTS 256MB OC. The spec sheet says it has "NVIDIA nView® Multi-Display Technology" but I don't know if that's the stretching or proper dual-head video. Does anyone have a G80 and can tell me if it supports proper dual-head video? I'd rather not buy an 8800 if I don't have to. Also, what the hell is the difference between the GT and GTS? Faster clockspeed? Thanks in advance.

You can use the 6600 to stretch or do dual monitor via the driver software. It should work exactly the same as the 8XXX series. Are you using NVidia or generic windows drivers for the 6600?

NVidia, and I've been trying for awhile. It only seems to support stretch, and there's a post on the NVidia forums to that effect.

It takes a bit of work to cajole the control panel into even giving me the stretching option.

The second post in that thread claims to have solved the problem. That doesn't work for you? I've used a 6600GT and don't remember any problems like that. Every card in the 8XXX series with dual connections (should be all of the at this point) will run dual displays just fine.

Edit: I continued reading the thread and see what you mean. That seems quite strange since I never had that problem with the 6600GT or the 7600GS I currently use.

Nothing like that option appears on my machine; the control panel is pretty barren.

I'll take another whack at it tonight when I get home, but I strongly doubt it'll work. What kind was your 6600GT? I wonder if maybe Asus cheaped out.

Were you using a DVI monitor? I'm running two VGA monitors, but one through a DVI adaptor.

I don't remember the brand. It probably would have been either MSI or Gigabyte though. I used a dual DVI card going to two DVI monitors.

I wonder if only the dual-DVI cards properly supported it. My card has a single VGA and a single DVI.

The control panel seems very unstable on my machine, so it's possible the card is dying or Asus has done something strange that needs an Asus-specific driver.

I'm not really sure what difference you're talking about. If it's that Windows is treating it as one giant screen and it's creating windows that span both, I have a 5700LE with one DVI and one VGA monitor and I've never had that kind of problem. Actually, Windows works perfectly with my configuration, and I have two different size monitors. That's with vanilla nVidia drivers, all versions I've ever used. Linux gives me far more problems with this configuration.

It worked with my 5200, but not with my 6600GT. It's quite irritating.

There's gotta be something weird with these drivers, my cables, or using a DVI-VGA adaptor on the DVI jack.

I haven't tried to see if Linux supports it yet.

I too have a Gainward 6600GT GS, with one DVI and one VGA connection, and I have had no problems at all to use dual monitors on both linux and windows with the resolution 2560x1024. It's a good card, but it's starting to show it's age now, so I'm also going to upgrade to a G80 soon.

After having read some review I'm going for a 8800GTS though, since it seems to be a lot better than the 8600GTS, and it doesn't cost that much more considering the gap in performance between them. So my advice would be to at least consider the 8800GTS, even though it might be a bit more expensive. Here's a review showing all three cards: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2975&p=4