# Dual Displays on a Powermac g4



## srcurran (Sep 4, 2005)

I have a powermac g4 (quicksilver, 733mhz, tiger with the nvidia geforce2 mx 32mb) with dual monitors, both CRT, one with the adc -> vga adapter and the other is regular vga. Both monitors get a picture, however, they mirror and dont span. Does anyone know how to enable this, is there a software similar to the iBook hack for this card? Thanks in advance.


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## TommyWillB (Sep 4, 2005)

Is that a TwinView card?

My TwinView is 64Mb of VRAM (and works fine with 1 VGA + 1 ADC monitor)... I'm thinking your 32MB is not the TwinView.

If not it's possible that you can't get seperate signals from the two different connectors...


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## barhar (Sep 4, 2005)

Nvidia's Geforce2 MX web page is a bit vague; but, at Apple (beneath 'Graphics support') - the differences are listed.


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## TommyWillB (Sep 4, 2005)

Right... So only the TwinView drives dual monitors.

...but there is nothing stopping you from getting a cheap PCI video card to drive your VGA monitor.


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## srcurran (Sep 4, 2005)

I did some more investigating after I posted this and I basically think that this is not going to work. And what is keeping me from getting a cheap pci video card to run the other monitor is drivers... right? If I put any old video card in the mac it just wont work. The cheapest solition I have found is a ati 9200 refurb, but that is still $80. Any more affordable ideas? Thanks for your help.


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## TommyWillB (Sep 6, 2005)

There is always ebay...


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Sep 6, 2005)

You cannot stick any old PC video card in your Mac.  It won't work.  You can try your luck with "flasing" the ROM on the video card to a Mac-compatible ROM, but results are flaky at best.  It may or may not work, and it may or may not render your video card unusable in either PC or Mac.

You could write the best video card drivers day in and day out and never get them to drive a PC video card in a Macintosh computer.  Not being able to use a PC video card in a Mac has absolutely nothing to do with drivers and everything to do with the "firmware" or ROM on the video card itself.

You need a Macintosh-specific video card.  You do not need to install any drivers for 3rd-party Macintosh-compatible video cards, period -- they're all included in the OS already.

I recommend this one:
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7265&Item=ATI100436011OB
With that card, you could actually drive three monitors, or two monitors and a TV if you want... I've done it -- it's kinda cool for a few minutes, but is really more for the "cool" factor than actual usability.


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## nixgeek (Sep 7, 2005)

ATI now makes a RADEON 9600 PRO card that supports both the PC and the Mac out of the box (which I think they should have done years ago, but whatever).

http://www.ati.com/products/Radeon9600/Radeon9600propcmac/index.html


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## TommyWillB (Sep 10, 2005)

ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> You cannot stick any old PC video card in your Mac.


True...

But I don't think anyone here mentioned "PC" PCI cards.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Sep 10, 2005)

srcurran said:
			
		

> And what is keeping me from getting a cheap pci video card to run the other monitor is drivers... right? *If I put any old video card in the mac it just wont work.*


Not specifically, but this kind of implies it.


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## OrganLeroy (Feb 18, 2006)

ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> You need a Macintosh-specific video card.  You do not need to install any drivers for 3rd-party Macintosh-compatible video cards, period -- they're all included in the OS already.
> 
> I recommend this one:
> http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7265&Item=ATI100436011OB
> With that card, you could actually drive three monitors, or two monitors and a TV if you want... I've done it -- it's kinda cool for a few minutes, but is really more for the "cool" factor than actual usability.



ElDiablo,

I just bought that very card (ATI Radeon 9200 PCI), along with upgraded RAM, processor, and HD (all from OWC) to extend the life of my Sawtooth G4 AGP.

Here's my question: I edit video using Final Cut Pro, and I'd like to run side-by-side Apple displays. The ATI Radeon 9200 has one DVI, one VGA, and one S-video port. Does that mean that I need another card if I want both displays to get a digital signal?

Could I use the ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP card (original to my G4) to run the second monitor? That card has a digital port (see photo here), but it doesn't look like either ADC or DVI.

One last question: DVD Studio Pro uses hardware rendering when burning DVDs, and one reason I've upgraded to the Radeon 9200 is that the Rage 128 Pro often caused graphics to render upside down and backward. If I leave the 128 Pro installed and add the Radeon 9200, will DVD Studio Pro know which card to use for hardware rendering?


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## sinclair_tm (Feb 18, 2006)

ok, very few of the g4 towers can support dual monitors on the stock cards.  there are mac compatible cards that you can buy that do support dual monitors, vga and pci, all from ati.  macsales.com is the best place to get them, imo.  as far as dual digital, if the card has two dvi portsa, then yes, you can run two lcds.  but if it has only one, and the other is vga, you will have to get a second card.  i do belive that one of ati's pci cards does have dvi on it.  but goto macsales.com, select video upgrades, tell it your computer and it will list all the video cards that will work for you, and their specs.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Feb 18, 2006)

Most (if not all) Macintosh towers since the Quicksilver (with the NVidia GeForce TwinView cards) support dual-monitors out-of-the-box.

The one caveat with that is that the video RAM on the card will be split in half, so if you have a 64MB card, each monitor gets 32MB.


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## OrganLeroy (Feb 18, 2006)

ElDiablo,

I think you might have missed my post (a question to you) that re-started this thread. It's three back from this one. Take a look, if you'd be so kind.

Thanks!


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## eric2006 (Feb 18, 2006)

The 9200 supports 2 monitor alone.. so you could add in that as a PCI card, pick up a cheap CRT.. and have 3 (!) monitors.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Feb 19, 2006)

OrganLeroy said:
			
		

> ElDiablo,
> 
> I just bought that very card (ATI Radeon 9200 PCI), along with upgraded RAM, processor, and HD (all from OWC) to extend the life of my Sawtooth G4 AGP.
> 
> Here's my question: I edit video using Final Cut Pro, and I'd like to run side-by-side Apple displays. The ATI Radeon 9200 has one DVI, one VGA, and one S-video port. Does that mean that I need another card if I want both displays to get a digital signal?


I believe your sawtooth may have come with a Rage 128 Pro that supports ADC monitors -- in that case, you would just add the 9200 card and use the DVI port on it, along with the ADC port (with a DVI-to-ADC adaptor) to get two digital signals.



> Could I use the ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP card (original to my G4) to run the second monitor? That card has a digital port (see photo here), but it doesn't look like either ADC or DVI.


It looks pretty similar to DVI to me, but I can't be absolutely positive.  It doesn't look like ADC, though.  If it is DVI, then you can use the DVI on that card along with the DVI on the 9200 for two digital signals.  You can even do three monitors: one ADC-to-DVI on the Rage 128, one DVI on the 9200, and an analog CRT with VGA on the 9200 as well.



> One last question: DVD Studio Pro uses hardware rendering when burning DVDs, and one reason I've upgraded to the Radeon 9200 is that the Rage 128 Pro often caused graphics to render upside down and backward. If I leave the 128 Pro installed and add the Radeon 9200, will DVD Studio Pro know which card to use for hardware rendering?


Strange -- I do not use DVD Studio Pro all that much, so I can't say one way or the other what's causing that.  I'm not all that familiar with DVD Studio Pro's settings, but I would suspect it'd be one of three ways: a preference in the Preferences of DVD Studio Pro that allows you to choose between rendering video cards, a render-time option that allows you to choose what card to use at render time, or perhaps it renders on whatever display the DVD Studio Pro project window appears.


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## OrganLeroy (Feb 19, 2006)

ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> It looks pretty similar to DVI to me, but I can't be absolutely positive.  It doesn't look like ADC, though.



It turns out to be a DVI-D connector, unlike the DVI-I connector that is now much more common.

Adaptors between the two appear to be fairly easy to find.

This page has a bunch of images of various video connectors.

Thanks for the help!


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