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71853
September 13th, 2008 04:00
Could ATI Radeon HD 3650 support dual monitors?
I recently bought a Inspiron Desktop 530 Mini-tower. It came with a 256 mb ATI radeon mobility HD 3650 card (or that's what it says on the receipt). Now I'm not entirely sure if this is JUST ATI radeon HD 3650 or radeon mobility HD 3650 (since I thought mobility series was for laptops? Am I wrong?)
Anyway, There are 3 ports, I'm just not exactly sure about the last port. it seems to have a DVI-I output, HDMI output, and I'm guessing the 3rd one's a displayport output.
I have a VGA monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 940N) connected to the DVI output at the moment with a converter attached to it. That's working fine, but recently I got another monitor (HP 1530) for free.
2nd monitor has a DVI-D output, so I was wondering if I got another cable that's DVI-D to HDMI, would the monitor work with computer? Most importantly, could I use both of them as a dual monitor? I'm an graphic art student so I wanted dual screens for awhile now.
I was also wondering if I could use the ATI card and the integrated video card at the same time through the VGA port on the computer (not on the card). that would work out perfectly for me, but I heard you can't use both of them at the same time. I've tried, but it only picks up VGA and ignores the card altogether if you connect both of the monitors (one through the ATI video card and one through the VGA output on the computer). Is this possible or should I just go and buy the DVI-D to HDMI cable?
Thanks
JMICHAEL
1.7K Posts
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September 13th, 2008 17:00
The HD 3650 does support dual monitors if you have the dual DVI connectors on the card. The one you got from Dell does not have the 2 DVI connectors. It has just one DVI, one HDMI and probably an S-Video connector. You cannot hook up the 2nd monitor (HP1530) since it only supports VGA or DVI. The S-Video and HDMI would be for connecting to TV's. This one here has the dual DVI connectors: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102767
The one you have may look like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161233
A DVI to HDMI cable would be for a connection to an HDTV not a computer monitor.
AlanKS
241 Posts
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September 13th, 2008 22:00
cielle
10 Posts
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September 13th, 2008 23:00
It looks similar but it has a displayport connection rather than a s-video connection.
Since I got VGA to DVI convertor working on the video card, I thought I could make DVI to HDMI convertor to work on this video card as well. Why wouldn't it work exactly?
I mean this video card essentially CAN support dual monitors right? Even if I can get it connected its pointless if it can't do it in the irst place.
If all else fails, If i had a DVI splitter like this
Splitter
work perhaps? (One vga/dvi splitter) it's a shame to put my 2nd monitor to waste :/
JMICHAEL
1.7K Posts
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September 14th, 2008 00:00
If you used the splitter, then both monitors would only display the same thing. AlanKS mentioned the HDMI to DVI adapter so perhaps that would work. Here is what that would look like: http://www.amazon.com/HDMI-Adapter-Plated-Connector-Female/dp/B000FUVNX8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221356008&sr=1-5
AlanKS
241 Posts
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September 14th, 2008 20:00
Well spotted, that may be the way you access the second monitor port, feeling a bit dumb that I didn't twig that one myself. That is not to say you could not connect to the HDMI as an alternative, I don't know.
For info...
If you look at a DVI cable and compare it to the DVI port on the back of your PC you should see that the cable has some pins missing either side of the flat blade. These holes are on the DVI port of the PC and are the contacts for Analogue VGA signals that the DVI to VGA adapter connect to. This means that PC outputs both the Analogue and Digital signals at the same time on the same port. Some of the Dell Ultra Small Form Factor PCs only have DVI ports now and include a splitter with them.
This means however one monitor must be Analogue and the other must be Digital, you cannot fit a DVI to analogue adapter on the Split DVI port as the analogue signal have been used on the VGA port
cielle
10 Posts
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September 14th, 2008 23:00
AH, I bought a cord that's DVI-D to HDMI like I thought and now I'm typing on the 2nd monitor as I speak.
Why buy the convertor when a single cord will take care of it? I do have a converter for my other monitor so either way :)
I bought one on amazon but also bought one from my university bookstore to check it out and its working :D
Thanks for the hlp guys