Fixing dual-monitor problems in Solidworks

My friend Dave does some amazing machining (CNC) work in Ozark, MO.  He recently upgraded to dual monitors on hid work computer but was having the following problem, I’m posting the correspondence here in case somebody else out there has a similar problem…

PROBLEM: Dave here.  I wanted to see if you could help me out with my computer from work.  After installing the second monitor I’ve been having a couple issues.  When I have both of my programs up, Solid Works and Gibbs CAM, if I open up more than maybe 2 files in Solid Works the program gets really slow and I have to shut Gibbs down for it to return to normal.  John set me up with a program that puts the task bar on both screens and that seemed to help a little, but it still does it.  I appreciate your help.
Dave
SUGGESTION: Howdy Dave,
I did some checking online and it looks like it could be one of two issues:

#1 VIDEO CARD DRIVER – you may just need to update to a different video card driver that works better with Solid Works
+I believe your video card was an NVIDIA card, you can download NVIDIA drivers here http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
or if it was an ATI card then here http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
+along those same lines, adjusting your video card driver settings may help as well
+you could try reducing the color depth to 16 bit, making sure OpenGL is enabled…

#2 you may need a faster video card
+solidworks has a list of recommended  cards: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/videocardtesting.html

For most of the posts I read online, the driver seemed to be the issue. This would make sense, since SolidWorks was working fine with just one monitor, however, it’s also possible that the higher resolution (dual monitors) is simply beyond the capabilities of a non-workstation [high end] video card…

Best regards,

-J.D.
SOLUTION: Thanks for the quick reply.  I knew that you were the guy to talk to.  I did the video card driver download and it seems to have fixed the problem.  I opened up 7 or 8 files in solidworks with gibbs CAM running as well and nothing slowed down at all.  I thank you sir.  Enjoy your day.
Dave

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