dual monitor graphics card for G4

C

Carolyne Jansse

Registered
I'm a designer at a new job where most of the computers are PCs, hence there is little to no support for Macs from the IT department. I have a G4 and two monitors. I've been told I need a graphics card so I can use both monitors, which I REALLY want to do. What do I need in the way of a graphics card to make it possible for me to use two monitors?
 
What kind of G4 do you have, and what graphics card is installed in it, exactly? A lot of the later models came with graphics cards that supported two monitors out-of-the-box.

You can also use two independent graphics cards to achieve a dual-monitor setup as well, if your current graphics card does not support two monitors.
 
This is what I have:

Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 500 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1
 
Your model of G4 (gigabit ethernet) came with one of two graphics cards, so we need to know which one.

The simplest way to know if you can run 2 monitors is to look on the back of your tower, where the monitor connects, and see if there is another place to connect a monitor on that card. If there is, then you can use a second monitor. If not, you'll need another graphics card.
 
ra3ndy said:
The simplest way to know if you can run 2 monitors is to look on the back of your tower, where the monitor connects, and see if there is another place to connect a monitor on that card. If there is, then you can use a second monitor. If not, you'll need another graphics card.
Click to expand...
That's not necessarily true. A lot of earlier NVidia graphics cards for early Mac towers had two connectors (ADC and DVI or ADC and VGA), and did NOT support using both ports at the same time.

While it may be safe to assume that recent cards that have two monitor ports on the card can support using both ports simultaneously, it is NOT a "universal" method for determining if a graphics card can support two monitors, especially for older computers.
 
that mac did not come with a card that can support extended desktop, only video mirroring. so the best thing is for you to get another vid card. just make sure its a mac compatible pci video card. owc is a good place to get it.
 
Thanks for all your help. It's pitiful to be so helpless on this, but I always had IT people to depend on before this job, and as a result I worried about design and never the workings of my Mac. I guess that's over....

Okay, on the back of my tower there only seems to be one place to plug in a monitor. There is the "port" (is that the term?) where the current monitor is plugged in, and right next to it, on its left, is another port, which is a different size and shape, so I'm assuming it's not a place to plug in a second monitor. The place the monitor is plugged into has 15 pins and is wider at the bottom than the top. The other place is oval with a small point at the top, looks like it has many, many pins and says "Rated 28V DC 4A Max. to its left. So, if I need a graphics card, what is it I need? Or is this another monitor port? I fso, I don't seem to have any cables that fit it, so do I just need an adaptor or....?
 
It's another monitor port, most likely for Apple's older "ADC" monitors (that port you're referring to is an "ADC" port).

Like sinclair said, your graphics card does not support using both monitor ports at the same time. You'll either need to replace the current graphics card with a card that does support two monitors (like the Radeon 9600 or 9800, available here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/video/hardware/ ), or simply add another video card to your computer into a free PCI slot.

If you choose to add a video card, you MUST purchase a PCI-based video card. Just about your only option in the way of PCI-based video cards is the Radeon 9200 PCI edition, available on that same page I linked to.

Either way you go, it's a simple matter of just connecting both monitors and configuring them in the "Displays" pane of the System Preferences. If you choose to replace the current video card, then connect both monitors to the video card (you may need an adaptor, depending on what ports the card has and what kind of connectors your monitors have)... if you choose to add a PCI video card, then keep your current monitor hooked up the way it is, and simply connect the 2nd monitor to the new PCI video card and away you go.
 
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