why do i have 2 display adapters?

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white_rabbit

n00b
Joined
Oct 10, 2003
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Im fairly knowledgable in computers but every now and then ill run into something i just cant figure out. in any case... ive had this issue for a while. it might seem like a dumb question but i cant seem to solve it.

why do i have 2 display adapters in my device manager when i only have 1 video card(9800 pro) and one monitor. ive never had a dual monitor setup.

if i uninstall either of them and restart windows automatically installs it again. the secondary one makes no difference when i uninstall and reinstall. but if i do it to the primary one after the restart windows goes to the basic generic video adapter (low res, 16 colors) but it does its thing and one more restart later im back to normal. up until now i had the secondary disabled. but im wondering if this could cause decreased performance in gaming (having 2 adapters)
 
Because the card has dual DACs, so it shows up as two adapters in Device Mangler.
 
Yeah, something is wrong. A 9800pro is an AGP part, and AGP doesn't support multiple video cards anyway.

What kind of motherboard do you have? Does it have integrated video?
 
Un4given said:
Because the card has dual DACs, so it shows up as two adapters in Device Mangler.
Click to expand...

Really? I've had a 9800XT in a system before and never noticed that. Live and learn.
 
Un4given said:
Because the card has dual DACs, so it shows up as two adapters in Device Mangler.
Click to expand...

Yea what he said. Pretty much because of 2 dacs it shows up as 2 video cards. Weird but thats how it works.
 
heatlesssun said:
Yeah, something is wrong. A 9800pro is an AGP part, and AGP doesn't support multiple video cards anyway.

What kind of motherboard do you have? Does it have integrated video?
Click to expand...

Wait a minute. I had a 9600pro and used dual monitors. And I know others that have agp with dual monitors.
 
gta95 said:
Wait a minute. I had a 9600pro and used dual monitors. And I know others that have agp with dual monitors.
Click to expand...

he said agp doesnt support multiple VIDEO CARDS, not monitors. of course agp supports multiple monitors.

i have no onboard video. my mobo is a shuttle an35n ultra.

i didnt know about this "two DACs" situation. so anyone else with the same vid card will have 2 display adapters?
 
white_rabbit said:
he said agp doesnt support multiple VIDEO CARDS, not monitors. of course agp supports multiple monitors.

i have no onboard video. my mobo is a shuttle an35n ultra.

i didnt know about this "two DACs" situation. so anyone else with the same vid card will have 2 display adapters?
Click to expand...

I said dual dacs because I think that is at least one of the reasons. Other then that it is common for ati cards to show up 2 times like it is on yours.
 
white_rabbit said:
he said agp doesnt support multiple VIDEO CARDS, not monitors. of course agp supports multiple monitors.

i have no onboard video. my mobo is a shuttle an35n ultra.

i didnt know about this "two DACs" situation. so anyone else with the same vid card will have 2 display adapters?
Click to expand...


Everyoine with a dual monitopr ATi AGP card shows 2 display adapters in device manager.
It's normal.
 
heatlesssun said:
. . . and AGP doesn't support multiple video cards anyway.
Click to expand...


Not multiple video cards in the SLI/Crossfire way, but you can throw in as many PCI-based video cards as you'd like.
 
This is just how ATI handles the ability to have dual monitors, primary and secondary displays. nothing to worry about, all ATI cards do that.
 
ok, understandable. ive had this card for almost 2 years and it was always a mystery to me having been an owner of nvidia only cards in the years past

thanks
 
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