Dual Monitor How-to

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

I'm planning on upgrading to the GTX 970/980. I use 2 monitors and plan to some day add in 1 or 2 more, but for now all I need is 2.

Currently I'm using a GTX 560 Ti and it has 2 DVI ports, so it's pretty straight forward, but as I read about the 970/980 I discover they will come with a Dual Link DVI port...

Does that mean I'll have to purchase some sort of adapter or splitter to connect both monitors to DVI? My monitors both have DVI, VGA, and HDMI inputs, so given the card I plan on getting, what would be the cheapest and easiest way to get these 2 monitors connected?

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

1 DVI to DVI cable
And 1 display port to DVI, or Display port to HDMI.

I think the 980s have 3 display ports, 1DVI, and 1 HDMI
Edit
Brain freeze, and of course HDMI to HDMI

nukemaster · Sep 28, 2014

HDMI will readily adapt to DVI with a passive adapter, but you will have to be using a screen that has a resolution no greater than 1920 x 1200.

Seeing as the screens already have HDMI you may be just as well to use that. You can get higher resolutions(than single link dvi on supported cards/monitors) because the link speed on HDMI has been increased to compensate for the lack of a second link like DVI has in many cases. Image quality should be the same with either connection.

some of the 970s may still have dual DVI because some are based on the older or custom boards.

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

millwright :

So, you're saying I will only use one output of the card and just link the monitors together? I'm not sure what a DVI to DVI cable is...

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

nukemaster :

My monitors are ACER H236HL, max resolution is 1920x1080. So, all I'd need is a HDMI to DVI adapter? Do you have any links for a good one of these?

hunter315 · Sep 28, 2014

The outputs on your current GPU are likely Dual Link DVI, almost all GPUs have that on them, single link DVI is missing a bunch of pins in the middle.

And a DVI to DVI cable is just a cable with a DVI connector on both ends as opposed to a DVI to HDMI cable that has DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. You can pick up DVI to HDMI cables for ~$4 from monoprice

edit - that image was wayyyy larger than expected

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

After my brain freeze, I relished all you need is the DVI cable you have now, and an HDMI cable.

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

I must be completely stupid...How can I use the existing DVI cables I already have to connect 2 monitors (each with separate inputs) to a GPU that only has 1 output? How is that physically possible?

This is what I have now

...and yes it does look like those are Dual Link DVI-I

but I'm using 2 cables. One for each monitor. Is that wrong?

hunter315 · Sep 28, 2014

It should be one port per monitor and one cable per monitor, you shouldn't be doubling up on anything.

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

You asked about a 980, that only has 1 DVI.

If we are talking about the 560Ti in your pic, you need 2 DVI cables for dual monitors.

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

hunter315 :

Yes I am. 1 DVI to monitor 1, 1 DVI to monitor 2. That is 2 cables. If the 970/980 has only 1 output for DVI, how can I connect 2 monitors? This is my original question, still unanswered in terms I am able to follow.

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

I answered it twice with 3 options.

edit

4 options.

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

So I can run one monitor via DVI and the other via HDMI? Won't I see a difference in quality between the 2 screens that way?

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

If you set the DVI screen higher than 1080p, I think

If you want to be sure the resolution is the same, get a Display Port to DVI cable for your second monitor, instead of the HDMI cable.

That's the 4th option, I forgot to post.

ETEl2NAL407 · Sep 28, 2014

Yes, thank you. That makes sense, but I still will feel a bit uneasy using 2 different video cables for the same signal...Something just seems off about that, but I guess that's my only option if I want the 970/980.

Another question though...Some have told me with the 560 Ti I don't need to upgrade and have suggested I just upgrade my processor. I'm venturing into some pretty graphic intensive games recently and noticing that these games could run much better. According to windows rating, my only system drawback is my slow drive (7200 rpm). So, I know I want a better drive and aiming for SSD that's affordable and gives me >500GB, but is there validity to the argument that the only other thing I'd need to upgrade would be my CPU? Currently I'm using i7 dual core 2.33 and it was suggested I either A) overclock that to 3 or better, or B) purchase a new processor. What to do?

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

Not a gamer, but some obvious things are the 560 Ti is entry level high performance gaming.
The 980 is the most powerful mainstream card you can buy. Brand new, and it sips power.

A 2.33 GHz i7 is probably pretty slow, for a 980.
I would guess an i5 3.5 would blow it out of the water.

millwright · Sep 28, 2014

Forget the SSD for gaming performance.

It will load windows faster, and will load the game faster, but won't improve the performance of the game.

There are slight exceptions, like flight simulator, that loads scenery all the time.

Not a gamer, so I don't know what games an SSD will help, if any.

I waited to buy my Samsung SSD, and now there is a slow down problem with most Samsungs.

They say it is fixable with firmware, though.

nukemaster · Sep 29, 2014

I know you may well be done with this thread, but I will drop some more info for you.

I can ensure you that the video transition of HDMI and DVI are the same. The image quality should also be the same because of this.

HDMI started life as a way to bring digital HD video to TV sets(and they also wanted a nice way to intro DHCP). To make it easy they used DVI(single link because 1920 x 1080 does not need 2 links. this reduces the number of contacts in the plug) as the base and added audio. Over the years new features have been added and the link speed has been increased to allow things like 4k.

The image should look the same, but you may have to adjust an option called overscan/under on your video card. In some rare cases a monitors HDMI will just never look good(over/underscan adjustments just do not help.), but to be honest this is almost exclusively limited to monitors that are also TV's. It is also not a problem for most modern screens. This is so rare I do not think I will ever see a user effected.

In the case of HDMI not working the HDMI to DVI cables solve this issue because the screen thinks it is getting DVI(because that is what HDMI was based on) and this no overscan/underscan issues happen.

The cpu clock speed and even core count seems low for a desktop i7, but they release so many cpus, I can see that.

Overclocking is only an option with the cooling required as well as a board/cpu combo that will handle it.

The video card is still older for sure and mid level for sure. Do not worry about what Windows says about hard drives. They ALL score that low. SSD's are great but do nothing for actual game performance one loaded. MMO games load lots of stuff on the fly, so pauses may be reduced, but still not removed.

Dual Monitor How-to

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