Monitor/Display question

Hi everyone,

got a fairly basic question which, the more I research it, the more complicated it seems to get.
Im looking to buy a new desktop and want to run two monitors. The desktop has on-board integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics with two ports, a DVI-D and a VGA. Will this support the two monitors? They are both DVI connectors, so will they run from the one DVI-D port?

There's nothing in the sales blurb to help and the info on the graphics card doesnt really confirm it either.

thanks in advance.

F.

 

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-031040.htm

Intel states that they do support multiple monitors but only as extended or clone.
They support up to 3 displays, but you need connectors on your pc/laptop.

If you have 2 display ports, the dvi will cover one display.
To get the other DVI, you will need:
a VGA to DVI converter
or a DVI to 2 DVI
or VGA to 2 DVI

VGA to DVI and sometimes VGA to 2 DVI are obtained free with any video card purchase (nVidia Card, I can't say for ATI). So you may happen to have one laying about.
That should cover your 2 displays.

Note that intel didn't say that they supported multiple independent displays.

 

You need to define your objective. Yes, you can get a DVI splitter to connect the two monitors to the DVI port on the computer but that will, of course, display the same thing on both monitors; this is called cloning. I suspect you want to be able to extend the Windows desktop to the two monitors, not clone. Extending, unlike cloning, allows displaying different programs on the two monitors. For example, you could have your web browser maximized on one monitor and have a Word or Excel window open on the other monitor.

The adapter Blujay mentioned might not work in this case. It depends on whether the DVI port on the computer is DVI-D or DVI-I. See http://www.techspot.com/community/t...monitor-with-a-dvi-d-port-on-computer.172534/ for some info. The point here is that the type of DVI port that sends out a digital signal will not work with a monitor designed for analog input, i.e. VGA. An adapter will not resolve that. Again, this depends on the specific type of DVI output. As the referenced link says, "DVI-I which is much more common can output both digital and analogue so it will work with adaptors."

In any case, to have an extend desktop, you need to have monitor connected to both the DVI and the VGA port so that the computer can output two separate displays.