Need help with connecting second monitor with adapter

cj897

New Member
So I want to connect a second monitor to my PC, however it only has one VGA connection to the graphics card. I think that if I use a USB to VGA adapter then it should work, but im not sure. So firstly I would like to know if it will work at all, and then I have some other questions too. Since I have a graphics card, will the second monitor (The one I connect with the adapter) display my graphic cards good quality graphics or will it only display the standard graphics? I would also like to know if connecting the second monitor will lower the quality of my first monitor (The one plugged directly into my graphics card) at all. I may have a few more questions that i ask later as well. Thanks :)
 

Geoff

VIP Member
That would work, however you would bypass the video card in your PC with the one in the USB video adapter, so any gaming would likely not be possible.
 

cj897

New Member
Thanks, I didn't think that the second monitor would use my good quality graphics but i just wanted to make sure. Also, you said gaming would not be possible, would that only be on my second monitor? Meaning, would i still be able to play games just fine on my first monitor connected to the card or will it affect the quality of that monitor by having the second one plugged in?
 
You would still be able to play on your monitor hooked to your graphics card just change (windows key + p) your monitor setup to the primary monitor when you game.
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Some games will also, in fact, thankfully, allow you to set your intended monitor (alas, not many).

A bit curious about the ramifications for running a multimonitor game (say, Supreme Commander etc) although I suspect that during initialization, the game would rule out the limited capabilities of the USB graphics.

As for "good quality graphics", outside of the scope of gaming (which, realistically, the external USB video capabilities would likely not even permit), graphics are graphics. If it lights up dots on the screen it's good. A built in GPU, a cheapo GPU, a high end GPU and an external USB GPU all deliver the same graphics. The final image quality is determined by the display.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
As for "good quality graphics", outside of the scope of gaming (which, realistically, the external USB video capabilities would likely not even permit), graphics are graphics. If it lights up dots on the screen it's good. A built in GPU, a cheapo GPU, a high end GPU and an external USB GPU all deliver the same graphics. The final image quality is determined by the display.

Debatable, some cards and driver sets utilize different algorithms to render the same 3D scene.

In a 2D environment they're largely comparable though.
 

cj897

New Member
I wasn't wanting to play a game in two monitors or anything. I want the second monitor so that I can play a full screen game in my first monitor and have things like Skype or Google open in the other monitor. So I don't intend to use it for gaming.
 
A built in GPU, a cheapo GPU, a high end GPU and an external USB GPU all deliver the same graphics. The final image quality is determined by the display.

Play a newish game on something like a 9600 gso vs one of the latest cards then see if you still hold that opinion.
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Beers & Smellsorange: You've both selectively homed in on substrings from a paragraph that opened with "outside of the scope of gaming". I suspect there is also a blur between image quality and performance.

There would be some wiggle room (had I not scoped to non-gaming) about driver optimizations and featuresets and whatnot. The final display unit however, still represents the last mile and has final say on the image - after all, a screen that doesn't display the color green would probably be judged as "bad graphics", Titans or onboard be damned. i.e: so long as the device delivers the color green to pixel 500,255 when requested, it has done it's duty.

I'm sure there are counterexamples that fit within my scope -- I just couldn't think of a specific one. Let me know if you have a specific scenario in mind. :)


cj897 For your purposes, any device that physically connects should suffice. I don't know about models say, from from Targus etc so I could be a bit wrong but I think the majority of these types of displays use DisplayLink drivers so your experience should be roughly similar.

Something that you may wish to consider that hasn't been mentioned are USB driven displays such as units from AOC. There are some other products, like Lenovo but I think AOC has the most market penetration. These devices integrate the GPU component directly into the chassis.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
Play a newish game on something like a 9600 gso vs one of the latest cards then see if you still hold that opinion.
Praetor said outside of gaming. In gaming, that holds true in your example mainly because that outdated video card supports a much older version of DirectX, and would not even be playable at high settings.
 
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