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Hey guys, thanks for looking. I have an ATI FirePro™ V3700 in my desktop machine, and I have been running a dual-monitor setup quite effortlessly, thanks to the two DVI ports on the card. I came upon a third monitor, and wanted to extend my desktop to 3 screens, so I purchased a DVI splitter from Amazon. Now, I can only duplicate the second monitor onto the third, not extend it. I've tried all possible combinations of input to no avail. Here's the setup:

  • The ATI FirePro™ V3700 has two Dual-Link DVI-I outputs
  • The splitter splits a single Dual-Link DVI-I port into two Dual-Link DVI-I outputs
  • Two of the monitors are NEC E222W, and the third monitor is a Dell 2001FP. Each monitor has one D-Sub and one Dual-Link DVI-D input.
  • Cables going from the video card to the monitors are two Dual-Link DVI-D to the NECs and one Single-Link DVI-D to the Dell.

Is the problem likely with the DVI-D/DVI-I mismatch? Or is it with the cable on the Dell that is only a Single-Link? The cables are easily replaceable, the monitors not so much. Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it.

Apologies for the fudged links, I'm new here and they won't let me post more than two :P

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  • This is the wrong site to be asking this on, but how do you expect a splitter to do anything but split? Splitters don't have anything specially to allow for extending. The splitter you linked to even says "Splits your video signal providing simultaneous display of the same picture".
    – Kellenjb
    Apr 25, 2011 at 23:11
  • Please note a video splitter just replicates the same image on all the outputs. It does not support extended desktop applications. A DVI Splitter is not the correct product for your application.
    – user135813
    Sep 12, 2012 at 13:29

3 Answers 3

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That is not a desktop extender product! The splitter merely sends the same video signals to both monitors. There is no signal processing going on. For $12, what you get are three connectors that are connected with wires.

What you are looking for is probably the Matrox TripleHead or DuoHead or similar product, where an intermediate frame buffer will take in a large display image (a large virtual display) and then outputs each actual monitor's portion with a separate video signal. Some of them can be seen here.

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Please note a video splitter only enables you to display the same video input on all monitors. It does not support any extended desktop applications. If you are looking to display the same image on all monitor I would recommend checking Google as there you can find quite a few DVI Splitter solutions for DVI-I and DVI-D.

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The difference between DVI-I and DVI-D should not cause any pain in this situation.

  • DVI-I provides both digital and analog video signals.
  • DVI-D provides digital-only signals.
  • All your monitors are using digital inputs.

The card specs state that two independent desktops are supported. DualLink means that there are extra clock and data lines to support bitrates / higher resolutions - not multiple independent displays.

The only way to get multiple DVI outputs from a single connector, AFAIK, is if the card uses a DMS-59 cable with an appropriate splitter.

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