[mattmavis]

hello all. if anyone has information on dual monitor support for the 400mhz G4 it would be most appreciated. I have two monitor and just trying to figure out the best solution. Do I replace the card I have with the Radeon VE mac edition (once it is released) or something comparible. Or do I add a second video card. I would love to also have video out support.

[FAerrorTAL]

gonna need more stats. if it's sawtooth or yikes. Sawtooth is newer, and has an AGP slot. this will be a big factor in deciding if a dual out card is right for you. also, what the monitors are. if one is agp and one is dvi you'll be set. if not, then you need another solution over the VE card. I think the best bet is to find a good PCI card that has the video out you want, works with your monitor, and use it alongside your original card.

to find out which model g4 400 you have, check the apple knowledge base for the most apparent external differences. you can also check the back of your computer, there is most likely a serial number and factory stats. if it says AGP, you've got sawtooth. that means that a new AGP slot VE card would work too. then it comes down to money.

hope that helps
~aaron

[mattmavis]

Originally posted by FAerrorTAL:
<STRONG>gonna need more stats. if it's sawtooth or yikes. Sawtooth is newer, and has an AGP slot. this will be a big factor in deciding if a dual out card is right for you. also, what the monitors are. if one is agp and one is dvi you'll be set. if not, then you need another solution over the VE card. I think the best bet is to find a good PCI card that has the video out you want, works with your monitor, and use it alongside your original card.

to find out which model g4 400 you have, check the apple knowledge base for the most apparent external differences. you can also check the back of your computer, there is most likely a serial number and factory stats. if it says AGP, you've got sawtooth. that means that a new AGP slot VE card would work too. then it comes down to money.

hope that helps
~aaron</STRONG>

Thanks you so much. I know I have the AGP sawtooth g4. as far as monitors go I have to VGA monitors, one apple and one hitachi. now that I think about it, my mac has two monitor outputs, one for the dgi and one for the monitor that came with my mac. I assume that the set as is would allow me to run one or the other but not both. Is it possible that this configuration will support dual monitor and if so could I get an adaptor to run the vga on the dvi?

Thank you so much for your help.

[MikeM32]

Thanks you so much. I know I have the AGP sawtooth g4. as far as monitors go I have to VGA monitors, one apple and one hitachi. now that I think about it, my mac has two monitor outputs, one for the dgi and one for the monitor that came with my mac. I assume that the set as is would allow me to run one or the other but not both. Is it possible that this configuration will support dual monitor and if so could I get an adaptor to run the vga on the dvi?

Feel free to research this yourself. But I'm pretty sure the card you already have will indeed only support a single monitor (either a DVI or VGA, but not BOTH simultaneously). I believe I've come accross that same question before and that was the concensus.

Provided you still have some PCI slots open, you're probably best off to find a separate card that has a VGA and an S-Video out. I really don't know too much in terms of what would be best for your system and your needs however. I've heard the nVidea cards are far superior to the ATI ones. You might just want to check out nVidea's and ATI's websites.

I added an ATI Orion a while back to my Beige G3/266 but that was simply for being able to run 2 monitors (one connected to the Orion card and the other to the original monitor port via an adapter). It's just the garden variety 16 MB card as I don't require S-Video Out or really have a need for anything super fast, as I'm not a gamer.

Mike

[CubieDubbie]

It's definitely like this. The card you presently have will definitely not support two monitors. You will have to have a second video card. Not knowing your machine (since I have an 867) you will have to research what cards are available. I have one Nvidia AGP card and one Radeon PCI card. After you get the second video card, you should be able to have both the ability to have mirroring and the ability to have an extended desktop. Or if you want, there is I believe at least one or two video cards available that will handle two monitors at one time. Whether or not they are AGP or PCI or whatever, I don't know. Doing a search of video cards for Mac's should yield the proper sites to look at. One dual monitor card that I do know of is the Promax card. I have no idea what they cost but, I do know they are made for your machine.

The Radeon Mac Edition is a very card with 32 meg's of memory on it. I have enjoyed mine very much. I don't remember what I paid for it but, if your going to go second video card route you should check it out. Good luck.