Thread: I need help with understand dual monitors nowadays

Originally Posted by jmw_man

Well apparently, every single computer in the small and medium business section of HP allows dual monitors according to what the HP rep just told me. Even the small form factor models allow dual monitors. On the spec datasheets, they list all the ports on the front and back of the towers. VGA and DP is listed as being on the back of all of the systems I was checking out in the small form factor section.

If that's the case and they provide both vga and display port you should be good to go.. Just make sure you buy monitors with DP.

Display Port is unique in that video cards can put a whole bunch of mini-displayport slots on the video card to allow multi-monitor setups (Usually 2, up to about 6).

All variants of DVI (DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I) will work in a DVI slot. If the card has two DVI slots of different types, you shouldn't have a problem unless the monitor ALSO handles sound, in which case you need to plug the monitor that has sound into whichever slot is DVI-D. DVI-D stands for Digital Visual Interface - Digital Only, which allows sound to be transferred as well as video. DVI-A and DVI-I are both analog, and will only transfer video.

Taking a look at HP's website, it looks like they're switching a lot of computers to using the built-in Intel HD Graphics, which can only use ports from the motherboard for video. Fortunately, most Q77 chipset motherboards, which they seem to use a lot, have Display Port. However, most Q77 chipset motherboards usually have at least one DVI, but then a VGA, meaning you'd have to get adapters for the second monitor, leaving you with Display Port as the only other option.

So what that means, if the computer doesn't come with a discrete video card, you're going to need to mix display port with DVI in order to get two monitors running.

As for dual VGA, if that simply means there are two VGA slots, that's perfectly fine for dual monitors, it just means you'll need adapters for any DVI standard monitors, and you won't be able to run them well at higher resolutions like 1920x1080 (and get a clear picture, for that matter).

Originally Posted by Allane

Display Port is unique in that video cards can put a whole bunch of mini-displayport slots on the video card to allow multi-monitor setups (Usually 2, up to about 6).

All variants of DVI (DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I) will work in a DVI slot. If the card has two DVI slots of different types, you shouldn't have a problem unless the monitor ALSO handles sound, in which case you need to plug the monitor that has sound into whichever slot is DVI-D. DVI-D stands for Digital Visual Interface - Digital Only, which allows sound to be transferred as well as video. DVI-A and DVI-I are both analog, and will only transfer video.

Taking a look at HP's website, it looks like they're switching a lot of computers to using the built-in Intel HD Graphics, which can only use ports from the motherboard for video. Fortunately, most Q77 chipset motherboards, which they seem to use a lot, have Display Port. However, most Q77 chipset motherboards usually have at least one DVI, but then a VGA, meaning you'd have to get adapters for the second monitor, leaving you with Display Port as the only other option.

So what that means, if the computer doesn't come with a discrete video card, you're going to need to mix display port with DVI in order to get two monitors running.

As for dual VGA, if that simply means there are two VGA slots, that's perfectly fine for dual monitors, it just means you'll need adapters for any DVI standard monitors, and you won't be able to run them well at higher resolutions like 1920x1080 (and get a clear picture, for that matter).

The lack of clarity in the picture is one of my concerns. Even if it's only lack of clarity on one monitor when my ports are "DP" and "VGA" (I assume I will have no problems getting a clear picture with DP). Is that what's going to happen to the monitor hooked up to the VGA side?

I am a I.T. Desktop support at a large hospital. We have 3500+ PCs on site.

Almost a third of those use Dual Monitors. We are using HP Compaq 8200 Elite Series Ultra small form factors (some of our older ones are the 8000)
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/q...a/13879_na.pdf

I can say there is no issue with using these for dual display. We attach one monitor to the VGA and one to the Display port. Our monitors do not support Display ports so we by a DP -> DVI adapter to make it work.

I have 2 PC's each with 2 monitors on my desk right now. I have one with HP LE1911i and a Dell 1907. The other has a Dell 2209WAf and a HP LW2002xi.

They do NOT have to be identical monitors. We have some in our admissions area that have Wacom touch screens so patients can sign paperwork on the screen as one of their monitors.

I will suggest you do not mix 4:3 ratio monitors with wide screens monitors. THAT doesn't always work (but othertimes does) Wide with wide, 4:3 with 4:3 will make your life easier.

However this all applies to a work environment, just don't ask anything about gaming on dual monitors as THAT I know nothing about.

I tried to get the DP to DVI adapter in the shot so you can see the VGA and the DP connections

When it comes to monitors and the ports they have on them, what's more readily available nowadays at Best buy or Altex even, regarding monitors with DVI ports, or VGA ports, or DP ports, or HDMI ports, etc?

The cheapest most readily avaliable Monitors are VGA, then VGA/dvi, It gets pricey when you want DP, or HDMi.

I use a 22" dell and a 19.5" Dell, on a slim no name PC at work. At home I have a 19" on DP-VGA adapter, a 20" on VGA-DVI adapter, and a 22" on HDMI.

VGA which uses a D-Sub connnector is analog. I'd recommend NOT using that for any monitor especially anything that's high resolution (above 1280x1024)

DVI, DP (Displayport) and HDMI (and it's variants) are normally digital (although some pass analog but lets just skip that since it's highly unusual to run into that). Any mix of the three should give you nearly equivalent screens.

Displayport and HDMI can carry audio in addition to video. DVI normally will not.

Displayport is more common on the desktop or laptop than it is to find on monitors. I'm seeing many laptops with Displayport. Laptops will sometimes have HDMI instead of Displayport or DVI. Because of this, commonly, you can get an adapters to go from
Displayport to DVI
Displayport to HDMI
HDMI to DVI
(you can get adapters or converters for almost any combination)

You will see little to no difference on most PC monitors using displayport, hdmi or dvi unless you're using extremely high resolutions (over 1920x1200)

Most quality monitors will offer DVI and potentially HDMI. Some will offer Analog for backwards compatibility (again, I recommend you avoid). A few offer displayport.

I like displayport but we have very few dells monitors that have it although all our Dell computers come with it... Go figure...

If you don't have high end applications requiring a dedicated video card, if the computers you're buying offer two digital outputs whether the same type or not, you'll probably be fine. Just make sure both ports can be active at the same time. The newer intel built in graphics can usually handle this but it's best to check.
2xdvi
2xdisplayport
2xhdmi
dvi+displayport
dvi+hdmi
displayport+hdmi

What kind of "clarity" do you need it for?