Dual Monitor Question

I currently have a Sony Vaio SZ and i am looking to buy a large second monitor (20-24 inch).

I am interested to know whether i can use this monitor as another seperate screen (as you would with a desktop multiple monitor setup) and have more monitor real estate or if the monitor will simply show exactly what is on my laptop screen but larger.

Apologies if that is hard to understand i tried to write it as best i could.

 

yes you can use the second monitor as your main monitor, and u shoudl be able to utilise its full resoltuion as long as it is the same as whats supported by your external port.

Be carefull some 24" have a resolution so high you will need a dual-link DVI to run then. So make sure your monitor is compatible with your graphics card's external resolution.

 

thanks for you reply, much appreciated.

How do i go about determining my graphics card's external resolution?

 

what gethin stated as "external resolution" is basically the native resolution of your screen. Right click on the desktop and go to properties. Click on the settings tab, In the resolution slide bar, make sure it is set to the highest resolution. Once you have slided the cursor all the way to the right, your resolution should come up underneath.

Since the SZ only has a 13" screen, I seriously doubt teh native resolution of around 1920 x 1200. It will be a lot less than that, so there is not much point getting a 24" Dell Screen.

If you want the image on the monitor to fill the whole screen, it is better off getting a smaller, 19" monitor such as this:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4426

 

I asked the same question of the folks at PortableOne for the same
reason. This is "extended desktop" mode, in which the desktop is expanded
to include both screens.
They said that an external monitor of higher resolution than
the laptop's primary display is certainly driveable by your video card,
but - the video card's resolution must be set to the native resolution
of the larger display to use the full display size.
When this is done, the primary display's "screen space" will become as large as the external display's, but the primary
display will show only a fraction of that "screen space" equal to the
resolution of the primary display. To view the rest of the "screen space"
on the primary display, you can pan - how, I don't know.

So for example, if your external monitor is 1200 x 1900 and your primary
display is 800 x 1200, you would set the video card to 1200 x 1900 and
your primary display would show an 800 x 1200 chunk of a 1200 x 1900 space
that would by default contain your taskbar and startup icons; the external monitor would display a separate 1200 x 1900 space.

Typically, folks who do this set up their primary display to have a couple of windows in view and their external monitor to have the application (photoshop, whatever) window.

Does this sound right to forum members?

 

this doesn't sound right..on my setup you can have discrete resoltuions in both the primary and secondary..for example the primary is running at 1280 x 768 while the secondary is 1280 x 1024..most recent gpus can drive up to 2048 x 1536..so 1900x1200 is certainly doable..the only problematic one would be apple's 30" with 2500x1600..but um most of us can't afford one of those haha

 

In my experience, I agree with jterp7. I believe the Nvidia 7400 will allow two separate resolutions on the laptop and external display. I'm pretty sure the 7400 can do higher tha 1900x1200. Not to sure about the Intel graphics. You just have to make sure the external display has a vga in(d-sub).

 

No you are wrong.

The native resolution of the laptop screen is the MAXIMUM resolution the graphics card can handle.

I know this as I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a native reolution of 1600 x 1200. My Dell 2405FPW 24" monitor has a resolution of 1920 x 1200.

I have connected the laptop up via VGA and the image on the external monitor does not fill the whole screen.

jterp, when you hook up an external monitor, the maxium reoslution for the output depends on the resolution of the monitor. For example, if you hook it up to a CRT TV then the maximum resolution of the secondary monitor will only be 640 x 480 because the MAXIMUM resolution the CRT TV can handle is 640 x 460.

Now, if you connect the laptop to a secondary monitor that has a higher resolution than the native resolution of your laptop, then the image will not fill not fill the whole screen.

if you have a monitor that has the same reoslution as your laptop's native resolution, well and good, you'll get a perfect image that fills the whole screen.

And also you wouldn't want to extend your desktop to the secondary monitor, you would want to clone it to the secondary desktop.

Mosswings, I think if you connect the laptop via DVI instead of VGA you can do that, but most laptops still do not have a DVI video output.

 

Lil Mayz, it depends on the video card. I have a 7400Go and I can tell you for certain the card runs higher than the native resolution of my notebook panel.

Here is the proof. Display 1. Note the native resolution of my LCD which is maxed at 1680x1050:


Display 2, a 24" hpf2304 with a native res of 1920x1200


And the result. BTW, the 7400 allows you to run different desktop backgrounds, and the f2304 runs as an extension of my laptop lcd, NOT as a clone

 

That's a cool setup! Now I want one like that! I just need to remember where I put that bag of money...

 

Chris, do you connect your external montior via DVi or via VGA?

 

The scenario I described was with a laptop using DVI-D outputs.
I was specifically asking questions about the Asus A8JM/F3JM,
which have a go7600 and DVI-D out. It sounds like the stumbling block
for optimized-resolution dual-screen use is the VGA port, not necessarily
the graphics card. And the Sony SZ has only a VGA port...
DrewN, are you running your dual
screen setup with a DVI-D output from your laptop?

 

it doesn't matter if its dvi-d or vga..it should work on any modern laptop..you just may have to dl some extra software specifically for your sony..i dled hydravision for example on my ati x1600..for the record im using vga..as for lil mayz..try looking for nvidia drivers that allow for discrete resolutions..it should be possible even on that gf2

 

cool...thanks jterp.

Sorry for the wrong advice I gave people. I was positive that I was correct but I was wrong.

 

No, VGA port. 7400Go does not offer that option. Would have loved a DVI port, though...

 

Didn't need anything special in terms of software for the setup. Forceware drivers offer this option by default. To the original poster -- if you're running a 7400Go with a VGA out, you should beable to run an external monitor at its native res.

 

It takes a real man to admit when he's wrong.

Aren't you happy that you were wrong tho? Now only if our GF7400 could drive any game at 1900x1200.

 

How do i go about gaining a DVI-D port for my SZ? is there a third party accessory available or must i buy the (expensive) SZ docking station?

 

yes you can:

http://www.lindy.com/us/productfolder/04/41223/index.php