Radeon secondary...?

[BobA5835]

Hi All:

I have a Radeon 9550 in my XP SP2 AMD 2900+. I looked at System, Device Manager and under Display Adapters I see the Radeon and then a "Radeon secondary" listed. What's up with this? Does this mean anything? Should I delete the "secondary" or is it serving some function? :eek:

Thanks for any advice.

Bob
BobA5835

[ati.bob]

Leave the secondary adapter.. the secondary display adapter is where you'll be able to plug in another monitor/display panel to your graphic card and extend/clone/stretch your desktop space to that second display..

[BobA5835]

Hi ati.bob

Thanks for the info.

Bob

[C&C Freak 2K]

To elaborate:

Because your video card is a dual-head card (that is, it can drive two video sources), it is treated as two seperate devices as far as software is concerned. You'll also notice sometimes when installing new video drivers, it may install drivers for both devices seperately; you'll see it install for the video card, and then the secondary version. Also, in some 3D applications, in the combo box with the devices you can render with, you'll see the secondary.

[Jimmy 2004]

I still don't get why it splits them up like that - it makes it seem as if there are two independent graphics processors.

[BobA5835]

Hello C&C and Jimmy 2004:

Thanks for the posts and the info. As far as the "two" IGPs...maybe the second is virtual?!

Bob

[ati.bob]

It is sort of "virtual".. it is capable of driving 2 independant displays, but it uses 1 graphic processing unit to handle the graphic processing load.. as well as the RAM DACs to handle the dual (or triple in some cards) display-driving..

[BobA5835]

Hi there:

Okay, along with the info from C&C, your explanations now make sense to me. I'd say the light has finally dawned... :D Amazing what you can learn if you ask the right people.

Thanks again all for the posts.

Bob
BobA5835
The Allens of Allentown, pA

[C&C Freak 2K]

Jimmy, it makes perfect sense: Instead of needing proprietary ATi software to direct which data goes to what display, the driver splits the card into two cards. This makes a lot more sense to the software, and makes it easier on everyone (because having two cards is a lot easier to use and is more standard than having some special way of handling one card).

Also, remember that the latter Pentium 4s contain Hyper Threading technology, which makes software think there are two processors, even though there's one. Although the application for both is different, it's the same idea (you can also have different threads running through "both" processors similar to how you'd render 3D with your "two" cards). Also, because the software thinks there are two GPUs, you can switch between them, which means you can switch displays on which 3D stuff is rendered (I frequently send fullscreen 3D to my TV, which is secondary).