How Many Monitors Do You Use?

[FearfullyMade 0]

I was talking to a guy at my church a couple of days ago about computers. Somehow we got on the subject of monitors and he told me that he has four monitors connected to his computer. That really surprised me, the most I had heard of someone hooking up was two. I'm not an expert on video cards, but wouldn't you need a second video card to connect more than two monitors?Anyways, I thought I'd ask you all and see how many you use. BTW, I started using two monitors about a year ago and I don't know how I survived with just one before that.

[vizskywalker 0]

I'm about to switch to two, hopefully I can easily place separate desktops on each, we shall see. But yes, two different graphics cards, one is much better than the other.~Viz

[X-Wes 0]

I'm currently using two screens. Sort of.I have an external monitor hooked up to my primary computer--a laptop. They're both running off the same modern NVidia video card, though, so lagging isn't an issue. Yet.The flat-panel LCD is actually better for gaming though. The external monitor is an old 15" whose brightness is just starting to go...

[friso 0]

on my own computer i got one screen, but the other two computers - family computer and my dads work computer share one screen keyboard and mouse, so it's the other way around there is a splitter cable and when you dio ctrl+ctrl+1 you go to the first, +2 = second.

[tcave 0]

I only have one monitor. I'm not rich enough to own another monitor.. let alone my own computer

[Umbra 0]

I am only using one monitor. How can two of them help you? If I knew what ways it could help you in, then I might use my other one.

[vizskywalker 0]

tcave, on all 8 of my computers and three of my monitors I have spent a total of $5. Ask around for people who are getting rid of computers. Frequently you can get stuff from them for free.Dmaster4, with the right utilities (and if you video card(s) can handle it) you can use the TweakUI feature to view two of four desktops at once (don't ask me for details, I don't know the details yet). Then you can simply move your mouse to the edge of one monitor to switch desktops. Or you can use larger screen resolutions, like 2048 x 768 instead of 1024 x 768 to have a larger viewing window.~Viz

[ebbinger_413 0]

i use two ...i have a laptop and it has svid out...i bout an av converter a couple months ago so that i could hook my laptop up to my tv and use my tv as a second monitor so that i can watch movies on it and junk...works great...once in a while ill use it as an extended desktop but i usually dont have a reason to do that unless im usuing vpc and feel like doin sumtin else at the same time...then ill just pop the vpc window onto my tv and into full screen and watch a movie or sumtin on the lcd display or other way round...idk...i get bored easilymost monitors i have seen used on a computer is four...but that is on a mount and the monitors act like one...so you basicly get a gigantic desktop which is two monitors tall and two monitors wide...pretty cool...but very expensive...at least for me...i wish i was rich

[scab_dog 0]

I got TWO, well they are not exactly moniters, One is a Projecter and the other a moniter.

[lesmizzie 0]

I know I am going to sound really stupid, but when there are two monitors, can you do different things on each monitor or do the monitors mirror each other? My guess would be that you would have two monitors so that you can use one for a different function that the other, but I have never heard of someone using more than one monitor on a computer. Can someone please explain? Thanks! Sorry for my ignorance!

[vizskywalker 0]

It depends, if you're video card(s) can handle multiple outputs, and you have software to manage it, then you can have different things on each monitor. Otherwise, they mirror each other.~Viz

[Caderay 0]

I see, so you need a special Video card to run different things on each monitor. I always thought you would need two computers to run two different things on the monitors. How stupid of me.

[vizskywalker 0]

None of you are stupid. I'm going to demonstrate with one example.Microsoft Power Toys lets you have 4 desktops at a time and switch between them. That is fact one.Video Cards allow for multiple pages - different sets of images to be displayed on monitor. Only one page is displayed at a time. To reduce flicker, an unused page is changed, then switched to, so the screen is not updating while being redrawn. Fact two.Some Video Cards allow for multiple outputs and allow different pages to be sent to different outputs. Fact Three.Some software utilizes facts one, two, and three to place two of the four desktops on different pages and send each page to a different monitor. the software then usually allows moving th emouse to the edge of one of the desktops to switch control to the other desktop.You can have different things displayed at the same time, and changed at the same time. But unless you are weird, only one display will receive input at a time.~viz

[Silent Soul X 0]

The only reason i'd buy two monitors is becuase i was reading in a photoshop magazine how much easier it is to work with all your palletes and toolbars on one monitor while the other one just has your graphic. I like the idea of using that since sometimes i have to view my pictures at less then 100% or have scrollbars, which doesn't really give u the feeling of the whole piece becuase there is not enough room on just the one monitor, but when first i'll have to buy my own computer

[xoashleyxo 0]

haha i only have one.. idk how to put more than that on.