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April 4th, 2015 11:00
hooking up 2 monitors
I am running an alienware pc that has dual GeForce GTX 770's and I am trying to figure out how to properly hook up two monitors. I keep finding tutorials on how to set up everything but no one is saying how I am supposed to plug them in on my graphics cards. I currently have a 23" dell touchscreen monitor and an Acer 21" monitor that is around 3 years old. I have the dell plugged in with an hdmi cord and the acer plugged in with an hdmi cord. I have them both plugged in to the same video card. They both work but I am not sure if I have this set up right because the acer which is currently configured to be my second monitor looks like absolute. The desktop background in completely pixelated even tho the resolution is set to 1920x1080. The display itself looks really off because it is really bright and anytime I play with the controls in the nvidia control panel it just makes it worse. Can anyone offer any suggestions?
Azalin76
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April 6th, 2015 14:00
Alienware model: Alienware Aurora R4
GTX Ports: One Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPortStandard Display Connectors
Dell Monitor: Dell 23 Touch Monitor - S2340T
Dell monitor ports: DisplayPort, HDMI, USB3.0 Ports, G/Ethernet, Headphone & Microphone
Acer monitor: HDMI, DVI-D, VGA
DELL-Chris M
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April 6th, 2015 14:00
What specific Alienware desktop model? List all of the GTX 770 video out ports. What specific Dell monitor model? List all of the video inputs on the Dell monitor and Acer monitor.
DELL-Chris M
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April 6th, 2015 20:00
* Turn the R4 and both monitors off
* Disconnect the acer monitor from the GTX 770
* Connect the S2340T to the R4 in this way =
R4 GTX 770 DP out --> S2340T DP to DP cable --> S2340T DP in
Connect the S2340T USB upstream cable from the S2340T to a USB port on the rear of the R4
* Turn the S2340T on, then the R4
* The desktop resolution should be 1920x1080 60Hz
* Connect the Acer to the R4 in this way =
R4 GTX 770 HDMI out --> HDMI to HDMI cable --> Acer HDMI in
* Turn the Acer monitor on
* Open Displays settings, extend the Acer, set the resolution to 1920x1080 60Hz
Azalin76
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April 7th, 2015 07:00
Thank you for this info, I assume that I have to plug in each monitor to the same video card? Also I was wondering if I will still be able to have SLI enabled with running 2 monitors?
I have to wait until april 9th to get the DP cable because no local businesses sell them in store so I had to purchase one online. I will let you know if there are any further problems.
DELL-Chris M
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April 7th, 2015 17:00
I assume that I have to plug in each monitor to the same video card?
* Yes.
R4 GTX 770 DP out --> S2340T DP to DP cable --> S2340T DP in
R4 GTX 770 HDMI out --> HDMI to HDMI cable --> Acer HDMI in
Also I was wondering if I will still be able to have SLI enabled with running 2 monitors?
* I would first test with SLI off, then test with on.
Azalin76
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April 8th, 2015 12:00
I got my DP cable today and hooked up everything as you instructed. I don't see any difference on my second screen. I am adding in a screen shot and an actual photo because they are both very different.
When I take a screenshot from the PC the 2nd monitor(on the right) look very similar.
However when you actually look at the screen (taken with my camera) the screen actually looks washed out and really bright. I have tried to play around with the gamma settings and other various settings in the nvidia control panel but I can't seem to get it to look like a normal screen.
Any ideas as to why this is doing this? The monitor is only a few years old and when I had it hooked up to my computer a few weeks ago by itself it looked fine.
kirkd
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April 8th, 2015 13:00
The screen shots depict what the video card is outputting, which are OK. What you see on the screen is different because the monitor is NOT presenting it correctly. You will not be able to correct a bad monitor using the Nvidia controls. Have you tried switching the primary monitor to the second screen in the Nvidia Control Panel? Can you change display properties on the monitor itself?
Azalin76
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April 9th, 2015 07:00
I tried switching the primary monitor to the second one and nothing changes, I also tried to change the display on the monitor itself and had no luck. I just don't understand why it looks so terrible on this computer and looks fine on my other computer.
kirkd
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April 9th, 2015 08:00
The good quality screen shot indicates that at least the GPU processing is OK. There may be a problem with the video card output circuitry. Did you switch monitors by switching the cables or switching in the video control panel? This is a head scratcher!!! I would also try to borrow a second monitor and see if the problem is fixed or not. It's possible the monitor is just not compatible with the system. Also possible the video card has a problem. Did you try the "bad" monitor alone as primary? I don't remember. Perhaps you need to connect the second monitor to the second video card. I don't know a lot about SLI dual card systems. Are the cards properly set up in the video control panel? Arte they properly connected together? What happens if you remove one of the cards? Is your power supply sufficient for the two cards? Have you tried NOT running in SLI mode?
Did a little Googling (my bad for not doing it first!). Found that the 4GB version of the 770 is best for dual monitors. I'll do some more thinking.