3 or more monitors with only two ports on PC?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by jamesblue, Jan 19, 2009.

  1. Tums

    Tums

    that's not true.

    the onboard graphics may share RAM, but not a graphics card. (at least not the current generation of cards)

    the card will take the memory address tho, but you don't have to have memory at those addresses.
     
    #11     Jan 19, 2009
  2. Jamesblue - I'd stick with VGA and not combine DVI & VGA but that's just my opinion. Many companies offer dual DVI or VGA outputs. You have one on your motherboard and then get a dual out video card... I reccomend staying away from DVI (you can have a DVI out, just convert down to VGA) because you may find it more trouble than its worth to mix digital and analog signals going to the monitors - especially when the motherboard VGA out is only analog.

    Also - as a rule of thumb you get what you pay for... so be careful getting any old card that'll put a picture up on three monitors.
     
    #12     Jan 19, 2009
  3. so if you use one of those devices, do they contain their own video memory, or will they be splitting the existing video memory from the card to which it is connected?

    In other words, if you have a vid card with one output and 128 video memory, if you connect it to one of those boxes so you have have dual monitors, would each monitor then only be getting 64?
     
    #13     Jan 21, 2009
  4. Specterx

    Specterx

    I use a laptop with 2 external monitors attached, one is on the built-in VGA port and the other is on a USB-to-DVI adapter:

    http://www.iogear.com/product/GUC2020DW6/

    I tried a USB-to-VGA adapter and it gave me tons of system problems, flickering, and color distortion but the DVI version works perfectly. I use the screen for charts, video etc. at max resolution with no problems or side-effects. Setup was easy. Not sure about the technicals of memory use, but I run 3d games and such on my laptop screen with both external monitors plugged in and it seems to work fine.

    I struggled with this issue for several months, I even bought a dock and a second video card to use with it, but that setup never worked properly. Maybe it's something to consider if you're on a desktop, but using multiple video cards with different sets of drivers sounds like a recipe for trouble.

    For desktops, upgrading to a quad-head video card like the Matrox posted above should work as well.
     
    #14     Jan 22, 2009