[keywest]

It's funny how you don't know what to ask until you own the system, and then you start adding things on and suddenly issues become important that you didn't consider before.

I just set up a dual 867 (512mb internal) with a Studio 17" ADC CRT and a 17" VGA attached with the adapter. They seem to be running fine, and everything works for me but I am wondering what I am missing out on. I don't really understand Quartz and what it is or isn't giving me and whether I am taking full advantage of my system.

Would a second video card (?) be a big help? I am not a gamer, just doing design in photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc.

How much performance hit am I taking with the two monitors running off of one card?

If I install a second card, which one and do the two cards run the monitors independently?

Is there an optimum resolution setting for the two monitors that will give me the best performance?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[scottiB]

Firstly, a second, additional, video card wouldn't help: Quartz Extreme needs an AGP port. As well, 32MB of video memory is a minimum requirement (though not absolute because an iBook/700 as 16MB of video memory, but it's only pushing a 1024x768 screen).

In your situation, I'd bet that you're splitting the the video memory between your two screens--giving each 16MBs. If you're running the monitors at 1280x1024 or above--you might not be getting QE (this is pure guestimation--others might be more assured in their opinions).

A more powerful card, like a ATI Radeon 9000 might be a worthy upgrade. It has an ADC and DVI ports (VGA with adapter).

And max that RAM!

[CubieDubbie]

I agree. Depends on what you are doing in Photoshop. Heavy work, getting paid for it????? Then you may consider going to the top which right now is the Geforce 4 Titanium. 128 meg's of ram and a very speedy card. But, this is speculation as to whether or not you really need all that power. But, it works and nice. Trouble is it's expensive.

[Superchicken]

from what I understand QE is not INCREDIBLY intensive, but tends to require 32 megs per screen. Hence you might benifit from a card with 64 megs. But for goodness sakes he doesn't need a Geforce 4 Ti people! He's not doing 3D, and he's not gaming he's just using QE.
Anyone know of a utility that tells you how much QE is offloading to the graphics card?

[D'Espice]

There is an application, forgot how it's called but it's the one used in the "Power of X" presentation. You can enable/disable QE by the click of a button and see and feel the difference immediately and Quartz Extreme does make a huge difference.

Yet I agree with Superchicken, a GeForce4 Ti would be overkill, you don't need that. I'd suggest a nice Radeon 9000 MAC Edition.

[keywest]

Thanks for the replies.

Question: Although I still have my first Mac, a Mac Plus stored in the closet, I am completely new to video cards, or to adding any cards for that matter to my box.

Are you suggesting a second card or replacing the one I have? If it is a second card, do they run the monitors independently?

I run a graphics business, mostly print based, and working with 30-200 megabyte files I don't spend a lot of time waiting for the screen to redraw. What will be my real benefits?

Thanks again for all the help.

[scottiB]

Originally posted by keywest:
Thanks for the replies.

Question: Although I still have my first Mac, a Mac Plus stored in the closet, I am completely new to video cards, or to adding any cards for that matter to my box.

Are you suggesting a second card or replacing the one I have? If it is a second card, do they run the monitors independently?

I run a graphics business, mostly print based, and working with 30-200 megabyte files I don't spend a lot of time waiting for the screen to redraw. What will be my real benefits?

Thanks again for all the help.

Replacing the one you have. Your G4 has a slot (called an AGP slot--for Advanced Graphic Port) where your current video card resides. It is a prerequisite to use Quartz Extreme since it moves data faster than a PCI slot--the four slots next to it if you open your tower. There can only be one AGP slot, so to use multiple monitors with QE, Apple (and other vendors) offers dual-headed cards (like your current one).

As it's been stated, though, your 32MBs of video memory is being split to two monitors. Our suggestion of a Radeon 9000 is that it has 64MB of video memory, so 32MB of memory can be applied to each monitor. It is a faster card, too.

To test if having it would be worthwhile, using your current video card, perform tests with just one monitor running, then the same tests with two.

I'm not a graphic designer or in pre-press or press, so others might have firsthand experience.

[keywest]

That was very helpful. Thanks.