Dual monitors: DVI and VGA

[Joshua Brand]

Hello,

I have searched the internet trying to work out if it is possible to use both a DVI connection and a VGA connection to set up dual monitors but I cannot seem to find the answer anywhere.

I have a nVidia Geforce3 graphics card which has DVI, VGA and an S-Video connection and I just want to know if it is possible for me to set up dual monitors as I want both my computer monitor and my TV screen hooked up at once.

Thank you for any replies!

 

[LinkedKube]

Yes it should be possible to hook up via different connector types. I've used hdmi and dvi for tv and monitor

 

[DelJo63]

Dual Monitors is normally supported via the same video connection. The high-end stuff has two DVI connections to the card.
Using VGA or a single DVI requires a Y-cable; one connection to the PC and the monitors attach to one of the legs on the Y.

When setup in this manner, the system can support Dual Monitors in two ways:

1. mirrored (both screens identical)
2. landscape (the desktop becomes the combined width of the two monitors)

This is controlled using(in Win/7) the Control Panel->Display->Screen Resolution.
#2 is the typical motivation for D.M.s; you can run an application full screen in one and the system in the other.

Many systems, particularly Laptops where presentations are made via a projector, use two video outputs with one
VGA going to the projector. HOWEVER, that style of usage is locked into #1 above and both monitors are locked
into the same resolution.

 

[LinkedKube]

This is controlled using(in Win/7) the Control Panel->Display->Screen Resolution.

#2 is the typical motivation for D.M.s; you can run an application full screen in one and the system in the other.

Many systems, particularly Laptops where presentations are made via a projector, use two video outputs with one
VGA going to the projector. HOWEVER, that style of usage is locked into #1 above and both monitors are locked
into the same resolution.

I guess I will note that I had to plug up a monitor via dvi then plug in the tv through the hdmi. Go into nvidia control panel to change the tv to the primary display. Had to do it in that order as well or it wouldn't work. No experience with vga and dvi unfortunately.

 

[DelJo63]

Yes, that's like the Projector mode

 

[SNGX1275]

This guy has 2 outputs on his card though (well 3, but svideo is pretty useless). So there is no problems here, no weird y-cables. Just a VGA cable and a DVI cable.

One possible hiccup here is that a Geforce 3 card is ancient. If it isn't working in XP, you may need to play around with some different driver versions... Guru3d has a bunch of old video drivers, I'd start in the mid detonator 30s if necessary. If you are using Vista or 7, hopefully the default drivers provided by MS already support running 2 at once outside of 'mirroring', and allow different resolutions. Now, that brings up something too, since that card is so old, don't expect very good performance if you are driving a 1920x1080 TV and another monitor... If the TV is 720p then you should be fine, 720 is a LOT less pixels to drive.