Multiple Displays?

[Slix]

Hey guys!

I might be purchasing a 17" Apple Studio Display in the next week or so, so I had a few questions.

I know eyoungren has 6 displays on his Quicksilver, and I don't have 6 displays (or really want that many haha), but since I have no idea how any of these graphics card dealios work, I figured I'd ask here. I have 3 Power Mac G4s (2x 450 MHz DPs graphites, and a 1.25 GHz MDD) with ADC ports on the back, and I have another ADC 17" CRT display, as well as some VGA monitors I could use. How easy is it to swap the cards from any of my G4s to allow me to use 2 (or 3 or more) displays on one of them? Can I use more than one ADC or VGA monitor attached to one computer this way?

Thanks for the help in advance, I know this is probably a simple question, but I don't want to blow anything up, so I asked first.

 

[eyoungren]

Hey guys!

I might be purchasing a 17" Apple Studio Display in the next week or so, so I had a few questions.

I know eyoungren has 6 displays on his Quicksilver, and I don't have 6 displays (or really want that many haha), but since I have no idea how any of these graphics card dealios work, I figured I'd ask here. I have 3 Power Mac G4s (2x 450 MHz DPs graphites, and a 1.25 GHz MDD) with ADC ports on the back, and I have another ADC 17" CRT display, as well as some VGA monitors I could use. How easy is it to swap the cards from any of my G4s to allow me to use 2 (or 3 or more) displays on one of them? Can I use more than one ADC or VGA monitor attached to one computer this way?

Thanks for the help in advance, I know this is probably a simple question, but I don't want to blow anything up, so I asked first.

It really depends on the card.

For instance, there is one card I have. It's an AGP version of the Rage 128. It has both an ADC port and a VGA port but it can only use ONE port at a time - it cannot drive dual displays.

If you stick with a card that has ADC ports then your new display will fit right in.

IF, however, like me you want to connect ADC displays to more powerful AGP cards that do NOT have ADC ports then you are going to need this:

This is the A1006 and it's an ADC to DVI converter. You plug the ADC connector of the Studio/Cinema Display into the port on the box and the DVI connector into a DVI port on the video card.

Most later video cards can drive both DVI and VGA and that is the typical arrangment for G4 era cards.

There are some later dual DVI cards but they generally need to be flashed to work in a G4.

With your G4s (as with mine) you get one AGP port and the rest are PCI. That means if you want more than two displays you'll need a dual display PCI video card. Radeon 9200, 9000 and 7000's are good for this. I have a 9200 and a 7000 and they've been great cards.

You just have to get a little creative about how you connect things. For instance, my three display cards are DVI/VGA. So, it means I can only connect three Studio/Cinema Displays and three VGA displays. The A1006, of which I need three, converts to DVI only.

This conversion is active link DVI, so you cannot attach a DVI to VGA adapter on the DVI end, connect the cable to a VGA port and expect video signal - because those adapters are generally passive link.

Hope some of that helps!

 

[Slix]

Thanks for the detailed reply!

I looked up the adapters and video cards you mentioned, and I think I understand what's going on here now.

Looks like if I want to use two ADC monitors, I'll need the A1006 adapter, and a Radeon 9200/9000/7000 to get it to work.

Here's another question. I have a Power Mac G3 B&W, which I believe uses a PCI graphics card. Would putting that in one of my G4s allow me to use both an ADC and a VGA monitor as dual displays?

Thanks again!

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks for the detailed reply!

I looked up the adapters and video cards you mentioned, and I think I understand what's going on here now.

Looks like if I want to use two ADC monitors, I'll need the A1006 adapter, and a Radeon 9200/9000/7000 to get it to work.

Here's another question. I have a Power Mac G3 B&W, which I believe uses a PCI graphics card. Would putting that in one of my G4s allow me to use both an ADC and a VGA monitor as dual displays?

Thanks again!

Yep, dual ADC display cards are very, very rare. I don't think I've ever seen one. I know the G5 at work came with an ADC/DVI card, but that's not the same.

To answer your later question, yes. You can do that. Both cards would be driving one display so you'd get dual displays just driven by two separate cards.

 

[Slix]

Hey!

I finally got a chance to try out some stuff with my G4 MDD because I came across an older graphics card my dad had in his garage. I'm not sure exactly what card it is, whether it's a Mac or PC card, and why it's not working with my G4, so I decided instead to come here and ask you experts.

I looked it up, and I think it's an ATI Radeon 7000, but when I installed it in my MDD, no displays worked when attached, and it doesn't show very detailed information in System Profiler. It fits just fine in the PCI slot, and it has a VGA, S-Video, and DVI out, and I tried the VGA with a known working monitor and I don't get anything on the screen, nor do I get any addition information in the Displays System Preferences pane. I also looked into some information about flashing the card, but it seemed a little daunting, so I figured I'd wait and see if you guys can point me in the right direction so I don't break anything.

Here are some photos of my System Profiler and the card itself.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Thats a PC card (I would have guessed 9250) and won't work with OSX unless flashed with an OF(PPC)BIOS.

It should work out the box with Linux.

 

[eyoungren]

Most PC cards won't work in Macs unless they are flashed. That's why there's PC cards and Mac cards.

I actually have a Radeon 7000 sitting in my QS. It's a PC card but it was flashed a long time ago by it's original owner (not me). One of the better and dependable cards I have though.

 

[Slix]

Thanks for the replies you two. Looks like I probably can't use this card then without some handy work that I'm probably not capable of.

Apparently though, I should read up on things a little bit before even asking something like this. I for some reason checked the 1.25 MDD everymac.com page yesterday, and apparently its capable of running two displays right off the one ATI Radeon 9000 Pro card, one ADC and one DVI, so I tried it with a DVI to VGA adapter and a VGA monitor, and sure enough, it worked like a charm for dual displays. Looks like I might bring this machine to school with my 17" flat panel display to go alongside my small TV monitor I have at school soon.

 

[bunnspecial]

These both are being driven off an X800XT(Mac edition). Of course, since that card is dual ADC/DVI, I'm using an A1006 for the right display.

If I can get my desk rearranged to fit it, I'm putting a 30" Cinema on the right. I have the monitor sitting there waiting, although I managed to kill my first make-shift PSU so need another before I can a 30". If I had another 30" with a good enough panel to pass my standards, I might even do dual 30s although I'd have to drop down to a Geforce 6800 Ultra.

One other thing on video cards-I ran a G5 Radeon 9600XT in my Quicksilver for a while. Using it requires taping pins, and I had to do a little bit of soldering to get ADC working.