3rd monitor

DJ_Hughesy · 12 Aug 2011 at 01:20

ill be buying a new graphics card shortly n a 3rd monitor and need to run an older vga monitor on a mini display port, which adapter will i need as ive heard you need expensive ones or something? or will the one for sale on ocuk do the job?

this one
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-047-OK&groupid=1929&catid=1756&subcat=

will i be able to plug a vga to dvi adapter into this to plug into a mini display port? or will it not work

cmndr_andi · 12 Aug 2011 at 01:24

Hi there, unfortunately that passive adapter won't work (not only is it passive - so it won't work- but also it is DVI-D which will not work with a DVI-I to VGA adapter).

What you need is an active Displayport (or mini displayport) to VGA adapter. If you shop around then one of these should cost you about £22.

DJ_Hughesy · 12 Aug 2011 at 01:27

ah ty yea its a bit all confusing lol would try to get a minidp monitor or something but only have about £115 for monitor &the adapter needed n would like a 1920*1080 monitor.. suppose i could stick with the one i have n buy a 3rd smaller monitor

lol

cmndr_andi · 12 Aug 2011 at 01:37

You could go for a £100 1080p 22in monitor like this (or something similar like the BenQ or Iiyama) and an active DP to DVI-D adapter (like the "Sapphire 44000-02-40R Active Display Port DVI Cable" which costs £17) and you are pretty much on budget.

May I ask what graphics card you will be upgrading to?

DJ_Hughesy · 12 Aug 2011 at 01:43

im gunna get the xfx 6870 black edition as at 134 its a brgain with dirt3+shogun 2 (2new games to play on high graphiocs

)

but yea leaves me with around 115 ish for monitor+adapter n would rather get from ocuk(free delivery helps) as not many pc hardware stores local to me other than a certain rip of chain begining with pc...

::edit::
also you provided no link for monitor

should probably mention the new monitor will become my main monitor (1080 is better than 1050) and the other 2 are vga or does it not matter which port there plugged into?

cmndr_andi · 12 Aug 2011 at 02:00

Sorry, meant to link to this monitor.

If you are using a 6870 then a mini DP to DVI active adapter is a must. Have a google for "StarTech.com Mini DisplayPort to DVI Active Adapter" and you should see some for ~£25 delivered. Unfortunately OCUK does not seem to stock these active adapters any more, so you need to look elsewhere.

That said, if you go for a 6870 and you are using two VGA monitor then you are likely to run into the issue that only one of the DVI ports is DVI-I (analogue and digital - so a VGA adapter will work), while the other DVI adapter is DVI-D (purely digital, so the DVI to VGA adapter will not work). Therefore you would be better off to run one of the existing monitors off the display port (via an active mini-DP to VGA adapter) and run the new monitor off the DVI-D port.

DJ_Hughesy · 12 Aug 2011 at 02:24

yea thats the monitor i was thinking of

is that so with the dvi ports? maybe ocuk n amd should be a bit more specific, product description says 2 dvi-i ports

n so id run 1 vga monitor of th etop dvi port, the 2nd vga off a miniDP and my new monitor off the bottom dvi?

cmndr_andi · 12 Aug 2011 at 02:28

Yea, if you look here at the markings on the I/O plate only the bottom DVI port mentions "VGA", the top one only has the square wave (digital) signal beside it - indicating it is DVI-D only.

Also, many sites list the connectivity of the xfx BE 6870 card as: "1 x Dual Link DVI-I 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI 2 x mini DisplayPort"

DJ_Hughesy · 12 Aug 2011 at 02:42

ah thanks cmndr andi

but well found out budgets a little lower so the adapter will have to wait for a couple weeks, but sure i can live with only 2 screens for a while.

till then 1 new graphics card n 2 22inch monitors for me