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I have a computer with two DVI outputs in which i have plugged one 24" and one 20" monitors. I'd like to plug one more monitor to my computer. What do I have to do?

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5 Answers

up vote 9 down vote accepted

Easiest solution - If you have any other output such as VGA, get an adapter and use it.

If not, get a second graphics card and use that - you can just get the cheapest one that will fit - it should do the job.

Edit - As Shoeless said, you must use same manufacturer for Windows Vista, but I do not think there is such limitation in either Windows XP or Windows 7. If you are using *nix or anything else, I do not know in advance if it will work.

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Just FYI, VGA is an analog video interface standard. Using an adapter is still a good idea, though. – Jim Fell Dec 17 '09 at 14:55
+1 @ Jim, not sure why I wrote that :S I basically meant any output apart from S-video / tv-out or anything else resolution limited... I will get rid of the word digital! – William Hilsum Dec 17 '09 at 14:58
up vote 9 down vote

NOTE: Depending on your OS, when using a second display card, it might be necessary to use an identical chipset- so if your curent card is an nVidia, make sure your second card is an nVidia... or ATI, etc.

I learned this the hard way. Theoretically you could get them to cooperate using XP drivers, but really, not a good idea.

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Important hint to prevent head aches! +1 – EricSchaefer Dec 17 '09 at 14:27
up vote 3 down vote

There is also Matrox DualHead2Go and Matrox TripleHead2Go they divides one monitor output into two(or three) so you can easily add multiple monitors.

And also external USB graphics cards

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My experience with external USB graphics cards is universally bad for anything other than basic "office" type work. Never try to use a USB plugged monitor for video, games, or anything else graphically intensive. – BBlake Dec 17 '09 at 19:17
up vote 2 down vote

The newer ATI HD5xxx series supports a larger number of displays. Normally three on the usual cards (check the connectors, some single-slot cards won't have enough digital connectors).

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+1 ATI's new Radeon HD 5xxx is the way to go, multiple cards may only cause unwanted lagging. – Molly7244 Dec 17 '09 at 19:22
up vote 1 down vote

Depending on what you want to use it for, I haven't tried any USB adapters, but I imagine they would not be amazing quality compared to another graphics card, so if you are only going to be using it for something like web browsing or emails, then a USB adapter may be perfect for you, however if you plan to do anything which requires a lot of data to be processed, for example if you were playing a game or watching a video then a 2nd graphics card is the way to go. However your motherboard will need to support dual graphics card, and support SLI (NVidia) or CrossFire (AMD) to allow you to use 2 graphics cards simulataneously, and obviously the cards would have to support this aswell. Which is why you can see, a USB adapter would be easiest for something small.

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