Video Cards how do they work??

EKRIUQ

Hi,

I run a software package similar to Power Point to a projector, but the software package says

"The information screen appears in a separate window and will show up as a separate task in the windows task bar.
This is done to faciliate the running of both the information screen and the projector screen from a single computer with 2 video cards."

I don't know a whole lot about video cards and how they work, could anyone shed some light for me. Are video cards an extention to a laptop or are they just a card I put into the laptop. It would be really handy to have a information page a separate page for the other people looking.

Thanks in advance

angelofdeath

maybe they're talking about dual monitor setup, ie. two tasks, one on each monitor

EKRIUQ

Thats what I'm sure they are talking about, The projector will act as one monitor and the laptop screen act as another.

Tom Dunne

The video card on a laptop is internal, it looks after the output to some form of display. The laptop will usually have only one video card.

It will, however, have two outputs for the one card. The first output is the laptop screen itself. The second output is the VGA connector at the back of the laptop.

Just to confuse matters further, a lot of laptops also have TV out - a third output from the same graphics card (though I don't think you can run three displays at the one time).

So what is sounds like is that the software will have two windows - one that you can display on the laptop's own screen and the other that sounds like you can display it on the projector.

EKRIUQ

Thanks for that Tom, Thats what I was thinking, There is two cables connected to the projector from the laptop one a usb and the other one with pins, do I need another video card to get both windows to work simultaneous,

As its a laptop I'm not going to fit a video card inside it can I use a external video card?

Asok

Ok, When you have the projector connected do you see a display on both the laptop screen and the projector or are you hitting Fn and whatever key to swap the displays?

Tom Dunne

BingoBongo wrote:

There is two cables connected to the projector from the laptop one a usb and the other one with pins, do I need another video card to get both windows to work simultaneous,

No - the USB cable is used to update the software on the projector. It has nothing to do with the picture.

Essentialy, the other cable coming from the graphics card is hidden - it is inside the laptop, connected to the laptop's screen. So you have one cable you can see (to the projector) and one you can't (to the laptop screen).

As Asok said, to switch between the two, there is usually a Fn key on the laptop (bottom left). Press this with another key (look for a screen logo along the keys at the top of the keyboard). On mine (a HP) it's Fn-F4. This will also allow simultaneous display on both projector and laptop screen at the same time.

Salmon

Is it possible to buy an extermal graphics card? Something like an external HD? I have a laptop and would like to put in a better GC but i dont think this will be possible with an external GC?

Tom Dunne

Technically, it is possible. In practise, however, the results would be questionable.

The graphics data inside a computer gets it's own dedicated path (or bus, in techy terms). Whereas all other peripherals have, for the most part, to share a data path each other.

So, if you wanted to connect an external graphics card, it would have to be via firewire or USB, which means the card would have to share these with other peripherals. External hard-disks and DVD burners aren't too sensitive to delayed data, but your eyes are. It would possibly result in jerky pictures on the display.