Dual Display: ATI vs Nvidia

[revloc8]

OK, so Ive got two video cards: my old trusty x550 with a Zalman VF700 undervolted to 5V and a brand new 8600gt with a large fanless HS. I happily ran two 19" LCDs on the x550 and loved the way it worked most of the time. It occasionally freaked and did something weird, but I would just reset the settings to how I wanted and away I went. I loved how I could play a game on one screen while having an internet browser or movie going on the other screen.
For my birthday, my wife got me this 8600gt. She knows I love quiet, so its fanless (what a woman!) But heres the problem: Nvidia seems to do dual monitors differently. I can only get it to stretch (horz. or vert.) the two monitors into one big one (2560x1280 resolution), so my desktop picture is horribly stretched instead of displayed normally on both monitors like my old x550. OR I can get it to clone, which is useless to me. When I play a game, I have to set it to single display mode...just plain stupid. Help me please! My newborn son looks like an alien all stretched out like that!

[lm]

There's like 3 different modes you can run dual displays with NVidia. They should all be described in your gpus manual.

[HueyCobra]

I can only get it to stretch (horz. or vert.) the two monitors into one big one (2560x1280 resolution), so my desktop picture is horribly stretched instead of displayed normally on both monitors like my old x550. OR I can get it to clone, which is useless to me.

Can you find a Dualview option?

 Dualview - Allows you to have totally separate images on each display.

[DreamKiller]

The option you're looking for is "Dual View". It's in the "Display" > "Setup multiple displays" option in the driver properties.

[revloc8]

OK, so I guess I just needed to restart my comp again, because it is now giving me the option of DualView whereas before there was no option for that. Thanks for the quick replies guys...SPCR does it again: Quick, friendly responses with no "just do X and Y, you noob!"