A programmer cousin of mine often raves of the benefits of multi-monitor setups.  He stresses the importance of having one monitor for programming and one for graphical user interface.  The trouble is, until now, this had meant getting a video card that supported more than one monitor.  Not everyone has one of those, but with DisplayLink’s new technology, everyone with a USB port can have a dual monitor setup.

Crave did a test run with some DisplayLink hardware and on the whole, the results looked good.  Where the DisplayLink monitor ran into problems was with displaying high definition video.  Some stuttering was said to occur with 1080p.  The performance is dependant on your CPU.  The more powerful the CPU, the better you can expect it to perform.  This could be great news for the latest multi-core processor owners.

If you purchase a high-end video card, your needs will be better served by getting one with Dual DVI ports.  It keeps the load off the CPU and on the Video Card which is more effective at handling video output.  If, however, you just need an easy way to get an extra monitor on your system, look no further.  DisplayLink technology is cheap and does the job.  One of the cheapest ways to go is the IOData USB Graphic, which comes in at around $92.

Source: IOData via Crave