Dual Monitors

James[UH] · 4th April 2007

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<div id="po88697" style="display: none;text-align:left;padding:6px;background:#c0c0c0;color:#4 40000;">I've got a basic dual monitor setup, nVidia's "Dual View". The primary monitor is connected via DVI the secondary via VGA. There is a noticeable drop in quality on the secondary monitor when connected via VGA. I don't know if this is the norm or if its just my graphics card (GeForce FX 5800 Ultra).

Does anyone else running dual monitors see this? May be worth while upgrading to a card with two DVI ports.</div>

midnightsoftwar · 4th April 2007

I would have thought that its down to the lack of dvi for the second monitor - what with digital>analogue>digital conversions going on.

JSamuel · 4th April 2007

Are the monitors the same models?
Same resolutions?

I'm running dual screen, but using a 15.0" XGA TFT LCD on my laptop, and a Packard Bell A726 (http://www.ciao.co.uk/Packard_Bell_A726__5099001) and can handle 1280 x 1024, although, I have it on 1024 x 768.

samb · 4th April 2007

I used to have a dual-head setup using Xinerama, but have recently swapped it for this beauty:

a Benq FP241WZ 24", running at 1920x1200.

To answer the question - yes, DVI does make a huge difference over VGA, particularly with an LCD monitor.

James[UH] · 4th April 2007

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JSamuel

Are the monitors the same models?
Same resolutions?

I'm running dual screen, but using a 15.0" XGA TFT LCD on my laptop, and a Packard Bell A726 (http://www.ciao.co.uk/Packard_Bell_A726__5099001) and can handle 1280 x 1024, although, I have it on 1024 x 768.

Same model. I'll look for a card with two DVI ports I think.</div>

AdamC · 4th April 2007

I've run a similar setup before and noticed no difference at all.

James[UH] · 4th April 2007

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Quote:

Originally Posted by aTech

I've run a similar setup before and noticed no difference at all.

I'm seeing a huge difference. The secondary monitor when on the VGA cable is at least 30% worst than the primary on the DVI cable. Maybe I should try a new cable.</div>

AdamC · 4th April 2007

If the screens are then same then yeh, try a new cable as the difference when I used it (although its been a while - now both my outputs are DVI but the screens are analog (needing a DVI converter)) wasn't noticeable.

danfoster · 4th April 2007

All our office machines have a dual-screen config, some with nvidia and some with ati card, and there is definitely a small difference between the DVI and non-DVI monitor's contrast/brightness on all of them. For office apps etc which is all we use it for, it's not a problem, I suppose if you were doing anything else it might be noticeable.

Dual DVI would be the way to go if whatever you're doing is going to be sensitive to this...

monaghan · 4th April 2007

I noticed a difference in my setup but put it down to cheap ebuyer LCD's, however when hooking up a new PC to the same monitor the monitor performed much better, so it could be your graphics card. Mine's an ATI Radion 9200 based card.

netserve · 5th April 2007

I'm on the new Geforce8800 but I've got the issue the other way round. One DVI at 19" and one VGA at 19"

For graphics the DVI is fantastic but for text it really makes it hard work to read.
The VGA is much clearer for text work so web/email is on the VGA and Nagios/RRD etc on the DVI (As well as UT2004, FSX etc :-))

JonWitte · 5th April 2007

Slightly OT - has anyone tried this http://www.maxivista.com/ ? THinking of having a go this weekend with some old MiniITX boards we have lying around...

Karl · 5th April 2007

If you're running Dual Displays, then you really need a calibrator to get the best from them if yuo want them the same. I have two identical monitors (19" TFT) purchased at the same time (March 2003) and with brightness/contrast set the same, there is quite a bit of difference, so I have ot use a hardware calibrator to get them nearer to each other - That's with both using DVI.

You're always going to get a drop off in quality with VGA as it's a difference devices DAC doing the conversion (Video card vs. monitor).

VGA clearer for text? I think you need a better graphics card, I find DVI is much better on an LCD as it removes the need to tweak the various alignments - which means you get crisp text all over the screen instead of in patches as can happen.

Been running Dual Monitors for about 6 years now, wouldn't be without them, keep meaning to get around to adding a 3rd.

netserve · 5th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karl

VGA clearer for text? I think you need a better graphics card

What would you suggest thats better than a GeForce 8800GTS with 640Mb of ram then?

Karl · 5th April 2007

Nvidia are known to have dodgy text rendering on certain cards, not sure if the 8800 is one of them or not. I remember going from a TNT2 to a GeForce2 and the text was far worse