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- Joined
- 11 Feb 2006
- Posts
- 118
- Location
- London
Hi all,
I used to run two monitors (1920x1080, 1680x1050), Win7 x64. Recently moved to a new place, and am trying to split my primary monitor to a TV (1920x1080), so I can head over to the sofa for games, TV, film and the like.
At first, I used an HDMI Splitter I got off Amazon, which did the job perfectly, but required an awkward boot-up sequence and regular plugging/unplugging of wires as to not confuse the HDCP. It also can't handle being on for more than 14 hours or so and died a few times from hot usage: it's just not suitable for regular computer use.
Here's where I am at the moment: I've now got both 1920x1080 displays attached directly to the GPU's two DVI ports in duplicate display mode, but my secondary monitor (which is never used for anything strenuous, just IM, file browsing, email, music playlist, control panels, etc.) cannot be attached without buying new components. I couldn't find help for this specific problem online anywhere, but I'm wondering if either of these two options would be suitable:
1) Get a cheap secondary PCI-E card to not run in SLI, like and nVidia GT 520. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does running two separate models of graphics cards on one system even work? If so, how does Windows 7 handle this?
2) Try one of those USB to DVI adapters. Again, does anyone have experience with these? Reviews on other sites, say they work great for this kind of thing.
If anyone has any other suggestions which they know would solve my issue I'm open to them, so long as they're not too costly. Obviously I could solve this by throwing money at it and getting a new ATI card which can handle three displays, but I'm already a bit of cash down from this HDMI splitter, and I'd prefer not to spend over £50 if necessary. Cheers guys.
I used to run two monitors (1920x1080, 1680x1050), Win7 x64. Recently moved to a new place, and am trying to split my primary monitor to a TV (1920x1080), so I can head over to the sofa for games, TV, film and the like.
At first, I used an HDMI Splitter I got off Amazon, which did the job perfectly, but required an awkward boot-up sequence and regular plugging/unplugging of wires as to not confuse the HDCP. It also can't handle being on for more than 14 hours or so and died a few times from hot usage: it's just not suitable for regular computer use.
Here's where I am at the moment: I've now got both 1920x1080 displays attached directly to the GPU's two DVI ports in duplicate display mode, but my secondary monitor (which is never used for anything strenuous, just IM, file browsing, email, music playlist, control panels, etc.) cannot be attached without buying new components. I couldn't find help for this specific problem online anywhere, but I'm wondering if either of these two options would be suitable:
1) Get a cheap secondary PCI-E card to not run in SLI, like and nVidia GT 520. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does running two separate models of graphics cards on one system even work? If so, how does Windows 7 handle this?
2) Try one of those USB to DVI adapters. Again, does anyone have experience with these? Reviews on other sites, say they work great for this kind of thing.
If anyone has any other suggestions which they know would solve my issue I'm open to them, so long as they're not too costly. Obviously I could solve this by throwing money at it and getting a new ATI card which can handle three displays, but I'm already a bit of cash down from this HDMI splitter, and I'd prefer not to spend over £50 if necessary. Cheers guys.
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