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BeTwin 2000/XP
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ATI and NVIDIA Dual Head Graphics cards
Originally posted: 01/21/2003
Last updated: 12/07/2006
If you are using Windows XP, you "may" be able to use Dual-Head VGA cards from nVidia or ATi to support both the Host and a BeTwin Station or 2 BeTwin Stations. These Dual-Head VGA cards have two monitor connectors on the rear. You can attach a monitor to each connector.
There are advantages to these Dual-Head VGA cards. They are typically cheaper than purchasing two individual VGA cards. Fewer PCI slots are required as two users essentially share a slot. Some computers may come fitted with these Dual-Head VGA cards, allowing you to add a BeTwin Station without opening the computer.
There are also disadvantages to these Dual-Head VGA cards. Graphics performance is substantially poorer than two individual VGA cards. There are two reasons for this. First, both users must share one hardware acceleration engine. Second, both users must share the video memory. Additionally, due to the manufacturer's VGA driver limitations, hardware acceleration settings are reduced/disabled when BeTwin is running. While these Dual-Head VGA cards may work well for normal office applications, they are not recommended for applications where graphics performance is required, such as graphics design/presentation, games or full motion video, etc.
Occasionally, the Dual-Head VGA cards' manufacturers may introduce bugs in their VGA drivers that affect their ability to function properly or reliabily as two separate independent displays under the BeTwin environment.
If you are using an nVidia Dual-Head VGA card and are having trouble with system stability, you can download and install driver version 93.71, available here to check if it improves the system stability. If you are using an nVidia GeForce FX5200 VGA graphics card, you can download and install drivers version 45.23, available here to check if it improves the system stability.
If you are using an ATi Dual-Head VGA card, you can download and install driver version 8.162.0.0 available here to check if it improves the system stability. You may wish to disable the ATI "clone mode". When using driver version 8.162.0.0, this can be done before installing BeTwin or with BeTwin disabled. In Display Properties --> Settings, select the second monitor and check "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor. Be sure to click "Apply".
Instructions for configuring nVidia Dual-Head displays using the 93.71 driver can be found here.
Note: ThinSoft cannot guarantee the performance and stability of the Dual-Head VGA cards and/or its' VGA driver under the BeTwin or Buddy environment. If you are not satisfied with the performance or stability, we strongly recommend that you use a separate PCI VGA card for each BeTwin/Buddy Station instead.
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