Dual Monitor Graphics Cards are produced with the help of dual monitor chips produced by companies such as ATI, Nvida, etc. Dual Monitor Graphics cards can be connected internally to the motherboard of a desktop computer. Thse graphics cards fit into one or more PCI / PCI Express slots in the motherboard and often comes with the connector port such as DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, etc to connect monitors or other display devices for displaying the output. A Graphic card is also known as a Graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or video card, whose function is to generate and output images to a display. Some Video cards / Graphics cards have added functions, such as MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding, displaying 2D or 3D output.
Dual monitor cards support splitting video signals to go across two monitors instead of one. This can be useful for Designers, Engineers, and Computer users who can benefit from a bigger viewing area. You may find a dual monitor card which supports one standard VGA output and one DVI output (which provides a higher resolution output for Monitors). The price range vary depending on the chip in the graphics card, in built memory and may other such technical specification.
Slot type for the Dual Monitor Graphics Card:
Graphics Card can have any of the three different types of slots. The type of slot determine what type of slot (AGP, PCI or PCI Express) would be required in the motherboard of a desktop computer to insret the dual monitor graphics card.
Given below types of slots in the motherboard have different shape and often you would find type of the clot printer on the motherboard near the slot to identify the slot type. In case you can have a look at the motherboard of a desktop computer, look closely at the motherboard and you may find slot type writen on the motherboard, which depends onthe manufacturer or have a look at the manual supplied with the board.
- PCI Slots are often white slots of your Motherboard.
- AGP Slots are often brown connectors slot which are four times the bandwidth over PCI. AGP video cards are now designed to work only with the AGP 2.0 and 3.0.
- PCI Express slot are often shortened to PCI slot designed to replace AGP slots and have larger amount of bandwidth resulting in improvement in system performance.
Please do try to find the slot type written on the motherboard before making a decision and if pssible verify your finding with the manual of the motherboard.
Connector Ports for Dual Monitor Cards:
- DB-15 VGA/SVGA connector commonly used for standard output to an analog monitor.
- S-Video output to connect a Television.
- DVI connectors are typically used to connect digital screen monitors. DVI connector types can be of three different types such as DVI-D (Digital), DVI-A (Analog), DVI-I (Integrated Digital/Analog).
- DisplayPort is the latest port type available for getting digital display out of the graphica card.
In case you are planning to buy a Dual Monitor Card, the port type available in the selected graphics card is one of the important thing to note. In case your dual monitor graphics card has one VGA and one DVI output and you have two monitors with VGA port available, you would need a DVI to VGA converteras well to connect your dual monitors to the graphics card.
Few Dual Monitor Graphics Cards:
Given below are few dual head / dual monitor graphics cards. In case you are planning to buy adual head graphics card, do some research on cost / tchnical specifications and only then place your order to get the best dual monitor graphics card according to your current / future needs.
- Matrox Millennium G450 Dual Head (32 MB).
- Jaton NVIDIA Ge Force FX5200 Dual VGA Video Card.
- Zotac NVIDIA Ge Force 7200GS VGA-DVI Video Card.
- Matrox Millennium P650 64 MB Graphics Card.
- ATI RADEON RX300SE-TD128E.