14 DAY TRIAL // Every once in a while, the average computer user decides that it's time of an upgrade. Adding another memory card or a second hard drive has become a real habit. Yet, few people decide that it's time to add a second display on their desktop, and even fewer are the ones that really do it.
Working with multiple displays is guaranteed to boost the user's efficiency. Why waste time switching between the online encyclopedia and your Word document when you can simply work in one display and read on the other?
To take advantage of multiple desktops, the user usually needs a second video card installed on the system, which may be the main inconvenience if using a laptop or if opening the computer case voids the producer's warranty. Luckily, the guys at IOGear have devised a small gadget to allow us to take full advantage of the second display.
IOGear's Video Card connects to the computer via USB, thanks to the DisplayLink's technology. The external card is extremely easy to install due to the USP plug-n-play principle. If the computer's USB port can supply the energy demands, there is no need to use the included 400mA 5V DC adapter.
The dark side of using a USB device is the fact that the video card has to work with maximum 60MB/s data streams, while a dedicated AGP or PCIe card enjoy the benefits of 2133 MB/s, respectively 8000 MB/s data transfer rates. Another handicap would be the limited 8 MB internal memory, as well as the lack of support for DirectDraw and Direct3D acceleration.
While the true gamers should stop reading here, the office users won't even feel these limitations in functionality. Word processing and web surfing (including flash movies) give a smooth and fluid response, very similar to the internal, dedicated card.
The maximum supported resolution is 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at 75Hz (or 1280x960 for widescreen monitors), but other screen modes depend on the connected display. Although the video card is still handicapped by the fact that it belongs to the USB family, it can handle pretty decently the office tasks. And if a second display is not necessary, working on two monitors at the same time would render you a busy person in front of your colleagues!
