Integrated + New Card for Dual Monitors

worc

Current card is an Integrated Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset giving me 1 VGA port. I'm looking at setting up dual monitors so will be buying a new graphics card, but was curious about whether I need a card that will support two monitors or whether I can run one off the Integrated card and the other off the new card?

Google search finds some people saying the new card must support two monitors and that the integrated one will not work with a new one - while others say it's fine to run one off each seperate graphics card.

Dual monitors are not for games or video, needed just to have word/excel file open one one and various PDF articles on the other so no major graphics performance needed if that makes any difference.

marco_polo

It would be all but impossible to find a graphics card that doesn't support at least two monitors nowadays, it can be done with two different cards, however there is much chance of running into problems if you use a single card that supports two monitors and it will be easier to setup.

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worc

Just checking but any graphics card I come across has one VGA and one DVI output - the monitors only have VGA input so is it just a case of getting a DVI-VGA adaptor/converter (like these) making sure it's a DVI-Male to a VGA-Female adaptor and all should be fine?

marco_polo

Yep if you already have a spare vga cable, or you can get a straight up DVI ->VGA cable either.