All of the cards that you can get with the Power Mac G5 have dual display capability right out of the box. At most, you'll need to buy a $20 adapter if your monitors have VGA connectors instead of DVI. This is actually a very common setup for many people who have G5s, and should present virtually no problem.
Yup, in fact, all of the cards, with the exception of the Geforce 6800 Ultra, which comes with dual DVI ports and a DVI->ADC adapter, come standard with one ADC port (for an Apple monitor) and one DVI port (for an LCD screen). So you can pretty much use any combination of two monitors (Apple, DVI, or VGA) and get it to work. Apple has made it pretty easy to use any monitors that you want to on the Power Mac.
I was going to create a new topic, but I am glad I searched first. My question was answered. I ordered a new Power Mac system last week. I included a 20" Cinema display with the order, but I also have a 17" SyncMaster 712N LCD that I use with the Windows box that the Power Mac is replacing.
I was going to ask if I could use a DVI->VGA converter so that I could use the SyncMaster LCD with the Power Mac so I could have two displays if I wanted to.
By the way, my system will have the ATI Radeon 9650 video card.
Of the current G5 computer graphic cards, the Single 1.8 comes with the NVIDIA GeForce FX that has a single-link DVI port and ADC port; the Dual 2.0 and 2.3 comes with the ATI Radeon 9600 that has two single-link DVI ports; and the Dual 2.7 comes with the ATI Radeon 9650 with one single-link and one dual-link port.
So kwsanders, you can hook your new Apple display to one DVI port and your SyncMaster to the other. If the SyncMaster is VGA, then use the supplied DVI->VGA adapter.
No, one is connected directly to the DVI port, the other is connected by the Apple DVI to VGA adapter that was included. As the 2nd monitor has a DVI input, too, I could connect it without the adapter, but then I would have to buy a new cable first. I had a unused VGA cable lying around...
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I was going to ask if I could use a DVI->VGA converter so that I could use the SyncMaster LCD with the Power Mac so I could have two displays if I wanted to.
By the way, my system will have the ATI Radeon 9650 video card.
So kwsanders, you can hook your new Apple display to one DVI port and your SyncMaster to the other. If the SyncMaster is VGA, then use the supplied DVI->VGA adapter.
My question is: can i connect a 20" cinema display (with normal DVI input) to the dual-link DVI output without an adaptor or damaging something?
It seems that the connectors are the same except that the dual-link connector has more pins?
Help much appreciated...
Originally posted by drazztikka
I ordered a G5 with radeon 9650 and 2 20" cinema displays, now i noticed that the 9650 has a DVI and a Dual-link DVI output.
I have just connected my two 17" (non-Apple) LCDs to my new G5 with a Radeon 9650 card. I just plugged them in.
Originally posted by drazztikka
So U used 2 identical DVI to VGA adaptors?
No, one is connected directly to the DVI port, the other is connected by the Apple DVI to VGA adapter that was included. As the 2nd monitor has a DVI input, too, I could connect it without the adapter, but then I would have to buy a new cable first. I had a unused VGA cable lying around...