Dual-monitor 1 video card: DVI & VGA

[Stolid]

Hey everyone,
I've got a rather odd question but its relatively important to me.
I got a rather nice DVI monitor for Christmas which I don't have a connector for, but it's about time my GeForce 3 classic was updated a stage or 2. Unfortunatly, I have a Hauppauge HDTV TV tuner which ties into a VGA connector for your monitor (Y style cable, one plugs into the video card's AGP, the other into the HDTV card, the last is where you plug your VGA monitor into the cable linker)
Naturally, this is an expensive little accessory and one that I'm not about to give up. Considering I still have my CRT monitor I figured a simple solution would be to get a 'dual head' setup going and just watch TV on the CRT (as well as maybe toss an application or two on it) and do most of my work on the LCD. I'm wondering what video cards will allow this? I prefer nVidia over ATI if that makes any difference in suggestions.
Also, this would also fix the problem but it will add too many signal-degrading transforms in my monitor path but does a DVI monitor->VGA video card module exist? I'd also like to be able to plug my Dell laptop into the flatscreen but its connector is VGA. :(

And for the curious; the monitor is the Apple Cinema HD 23" ^_^ wheeeeee!

Stolid

[MadSkillzMan]

well....i have a Sis Xabre 400 (ebay, 55$) its 128mb with a GPU that runs about 223MHZ...i like it ..only problem is, i hafta sell it because it does not support dual CPU rigs, so the agp only runs at 2x opposed to 8x. it suports dual monitors. im running dual CRTs on it right now. it has DVI out, VGA out, and S-video out. U can use only 2 of the heads however, i have to have a DVI-VGA adaptor on the one head. As for your tv tuner, for some reason when running dual monitor setups, your TV is limited to your primary monitor. I have an ATI tv tuner and i love it but the tv picture is only on one screen however.
the other drawback is, if u suddently have to switch monitor configuratons, IE go from VGA/VGA to VGA/S-video, it requires a reboot. This need not apply to most people tho, i use the S-video every so often to output edited videos and movies to VCR. i hope this helps you some. ive heard of hauppage cards, and i understand not wanting to give up expensive hardware over somehting minor.

[RangerJoe]

running dual monitors (as long as you plan on having one big desktop, or whatever else, instead of a mirrored image) requires a video card with a dual ramdac. your gf3 does not have this. nvidia didnt put this in their cards until the GF4. i have a gf4 ti4200, and have been running dual 17s for quite some time with no problems.

generally to run dual monitors, at least on newer video cards, you have to get a DVI > VGA connector (comes with almost all GF4's) but since your apple display uses DVI, you should not have to get anything extra. i really cant visualize how your setup is though. is there a Y coming off of the hauppage or what? if you can explain that a little bit better, than that would be stellar.

then of course, you can always just get a PCI video card, and run a separate monitor off of that. (i am getting a 3rd 17 pretty soon, and plan on testing this out) you will probably need to get some sort of program though to run dual monitors on two different video cards. i use ultramon (very sweet program). it allows you to have tons of screens (14 or 28 or something is the max it supports)

let me know if that explains your question.

[Stolid]

Sure thing.
Here's my setup as it stands:

GeForce 3: Output only 1 VGA
DVD Decoder: Input 1 VGA, Output 1 VGA
Hauppauge HD: Output only TVSig
Hauppauge Cable: Input: TVSig, VGA, RCA Output: VGA

Cable can be seen here: http://registration.hauppauge.com/webstore/images/hd_cable.jpg

I go from GF3->DVD on one cable chain,
then that goes into a 'fork' on the Hauppauge Cable, the other input ends being wired to the Hauppauge card (the RCA normally gets the Playstation or whatever else I need on that style TV input).

With the Apple Cinema HD coming if I were to chain it into VGA the chain would look like this:
HD->(ADC->DVI)->(DVI->VGA)->DVD-Decoder->HauppaugeHD
Frankly, that would kill the quality more than I think I could stand.
So I'd much rather replace the GF3 with something new that has a DVI and VGA output that can be used simultainiously:

New Video card output 1 (DVI): DVI->ADC->Apple Cinema
New Video card output 2 (VGA): VGA->DVD->Hauppauge->19"Crt

Part 2 is this: I've got an Inspiron 8200 laptop I'd like to connect the Cinema to but it's output is standard VGA - is there a way to turn this into a DVI for a reasonable price (I saw a $300 one but it's not worth that much to me)

[ajrettke]

basicly ANY card you buy that is gf4/fx or 8500/9xxx will have VGA and DVI out. Depending on your budget and whether or not your game, this would be my list:
if you don't game, goto enwegg.com refurbs and look for cheap ti4200's or 8500le's/9100's....basicly click on the link and see if it has the blue and white adapter. the radeon 7500's, and gf4mx are supposed to be dual monitor output as well.

You said you have a gf3 though so i assume you game, i would recomend getting a 9700 or 9800 non pro card. these are around 200 US and are great cards.

for part 2....you want to use your laptop as a monitor screen? or you want to plug your laptop into this so it uses monitors (big oens) as it's screen?

[Stolid]

I code games :P So yeah - I need some relatively serious power (at the very least pixel shaders as thats what I'm currently working on for my CS masters)
I want to use the 23" display as the second display for the laptop. The laptop's 2nd display output (it's an Inspiron 8200 from dell with an ATI Radeon 9k mobile) is a HD-15 (aka VGA) output so I want to know if I can transform this into the digital output coming out of the Apple (or rather, the apple ADC->HDI converter) for relatively cheap.
As for the 9700/9800 -- I've had a REALLY bad experience with the R9000 mobile in the 8200 so I was looking at nVidia. I get blue screens from the ATI driver (it says right on the blue screen that the ATI .dlls are the crash location) about once a day -- and while that isn't too bad it does have that annoying tendency to be at the worst time possible. Are the desktop reference drivers (I can't install them on the ATI mobile like I could on my GF Go) much better?

[BmanG17]

9600xt 'built by ATi' [can get @ BestBuy for 200, and you get HL2 coupon]for the times when you want to take a break from programming and kill some things ;)

has DVI, and S-video connector thing, and your normal VGA. It runs ALOT better than a ti4200, the drivers are just as stable as nvidias[ better considering i dont lose image quality to get performance]. I've already run 3dmark03 VS my friends comp[he has ti4200]. I had over double his score.

the 9600xt operates at a bit above 9500pro speeds, if you need SERIOUS POWER then just jump into the 9700 or 9800 series cards. Dont EVER bother with Nvidia if your using shaders, those cards are so unbelieveably bad at anything DX9[except 5950ultra, but the 9800xt is better] . the radeon 9600XT gets about 3 times better shader performance than the 5700ultra. it[9600xt] is by far the best mid range video card out now.

I know all shaders aren't DX9, but with all the new DX 9 shader features and the capabilities of them compared to older DX shaders, there'd be no reason to use older ones ;)

my .02$, take it with a grain of salt.

[BmanG17]

I wouldn't let your one bad 'fluke' expierence with ATi turn you away, i hav ebeen using Nvidia since i've had a computer, and just this X-mas i went with ATi, couldn't be happier, this card runs so much better than Nvidia cards, and has 0 problems with any programs. Your mobile video problems, could be due to overheating in laptop, as blue screens can be a result. Also it is probably just a one tiem fluke, i seriously doubt you'd have problems gonig with a radeon 9600/9700/9800 as thier drivers are as rock stable as nvidias, if not better.

[schismspeak]

If you code games etc, I would get nvidia, though I like ATI's performance better, Nvidia seems to be more stable.(Lets not start a war, even some ati enthusiasts admit it.) Get a Ti4200 or FX5600U or better(I dont recommend the non ultra it has less power than a ti4200) Ti4200 will be cheaper, but it doesnt support DX9. Just make sure it DVI connector on it and says it has Dual ramdacs And you should be set.

[Stolid]

The bluescreens I can almost definatly promise are not due to overheating - I've actually very rarely gotten them during a bought of 'heavy processor' use but more in terms of weirder things (for the longest time closing a webbrowser while on a page with Shockwave Flash would bluescreen it) but I suppose I can give ATI another shot.
My budget is pretty decently sized for this (this is my first upgrade to the system in 3 years +, I tend to do nothing to a system for that long then suddenly make it a 'top of the line' machine) so the "super" cards are definatly being eyed. Thanks for the advice.

[BmanG17]

was just looking at some old threads?! you get a new card yet? buy another ATi? yes or no, what card you get, and how has it been working? any new wierd random blue screens?!

[Stolid]

Yes. I got a Radeon 9600XT as a 'good but waiting for PCI-XPress' type upgrade.
Now I don't get blue screens; it just crashes randomly! Yay! *rolls eyes* I'm not getting another ATI if I can at all help it.

[Jpantoga]

wow, you have bad luck when it comes to ATI, my ATI's work great

[TheGhengisKhan]

Only problem I've ever had with an ATI card (and I've been through 4 of them) is when we got hit with a Hurricane, and a power surge took out my old ATI 9000 card.