G5 Quad Monitors

[shred444]

Im running a g5 dual 2.0 with a dual monitor 19'' display using both dvi slots in the back. I now just bought two more displays and im trying to use them through a pci video card in the back. I bought a radeon 9200 PCI dual monitor card...does anyone know if this will work? has anyone tried running dual video cards with a mac? I know it works for a pc....but thats a different story.


- shred444
commotiondesigns.com

[robbieduncan]

As long as you have bought a Mac card, not a PC one this will work fine, although I don't have a G5 to try it with.

[Sun Baked]

All depends on the video card you currently have and the power requirements of the 9200.

The top end cards deplete the PCI slots power supply and leave only 30W for all the PCI slots.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=1582569&postcount=19

[Platform]

There has been some pics here on the forums......PM with 3 ACD displays with the PCI card for the 3rd ;)

[shred444]

All depends on the video card you currently have and the power requirements of the 9200.

The top end cards deplete the PCI slots power supply and leave only 30W for all the PCI slots.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=1582569&postcount=19
yea its not a very high end card....it can handle some gaming and most 3d apps. so i dont think this will be a problem


does anyone know where those pics are?

[Mord]

the 9200 only has one dvi port and one vga port so if your useing flat panels you'll want a second 9200, and it'll be faster.

[Lollypop]

Does anyone know if its possible to have Quad monitors and have a G5 that still fully support Core Image on all screens?

[Mord]

if you flash a pci 5200 it would work, but i have only heard of one report of it working, most of them use strange roms, also the 5200 is generall slower than the 9200 but not the 5200 ultra.

[Platform]

yea its not a very high end card....it can handle some gaming and most 3d apps. so i dont think this will be a problem


does anyone know where those pics are?

Well if you search the forums you will find it in the pic gallery ;)

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=91613&highlight=Triple+Displays

Did it for you ;)

[shred444]

what is flashing a video card? is that like flashing the bios?

im pretty sure the 9200 can handle pretty much anything you throw at it. some games of course would be out of the question, no doubt.

[erroneous]

I have a 2x1.8G5, with a 6800GT main card (recently replacing a 9600XT) running 23" and 20" Apple Alu panels, and a 9200 pci secondary card running a 17" 1280x1024 Sharp lcd (needed a panel with a secondary VGA input to switch a PC through). Sometimes had the TV out on the 9200 running through a TV elsewhere in the room which I guess makes four. :)

The 9200 doesn't support QE by default, so I initially found having it active slows down the Expose/Dashboard transitions on all displays. If you force QE on the 9200, then Expose etc run fine, but large-area screen updates on the 9200 display are relatively slow; if I place a Safari window across the join between my 23" and the 17", spacing down a large document - eg, an LJ friends page - clearly lags behind on the half of the Safari window being output on the 9200 17" display. Playing avi/divxs, or an EyeTV output window on the second panel causes the video run at about half the normal frame rate. Reducing playback window sizes helps, but it's obvious that QE isn't coping well with the PCI interface. Effect seems true under Panther or Tiger.

Keep meaning to turn QE back off again, to confirm the lack of acceleration improves video/redraw performance, but well, I like my expose transitions. :)

Upshot, you can do triple/quad monitors, but don't expect too much from the displays on the PCI card.

[dsharits]

My MDD runs three displays on an AGP 9800 and a PCI 9200, and I could easily add a fourth if I wanted to. It works just fine, and it shouldn't be any different in a G5.

[shred444]

very nice. i like to hear good news. i should be getting that 9200 pci card by the end of this week, so ill keep you guys updated

[Lollypop]

I have a 2x1.8G5, with a 6800GT main card (recently replacing a 9600XT) running 23" and 20" Apple Alu panels, and a 9200 pci secondary card running a 17" 1280x1024 Sharp lcd (needed a panel with a secondary VGA input to switch a PC through). Sometimes had the TV out on the 9200 running through a TV elsewhere in the room which I guess makes four. :)

The 9200 doesn't support QE by default, so I initially found having it active slows down the Expose/Dashboard transitions on all displays. If you force QE on the 9200, then Expose etc run fine, but large-area screen updates on the 9200 display are relatively slow; if I place a Safari window across the join between my 23" and the 17", spacing down a large document - eg, an LJ friends page - clearly lags behind on the half of the Safari window being output on the 9200 17" display. Playing avi/divxs, or an EyeTV output window on the second panel causes the video run at about half the normal frame rate. Reducing playback window sizes helps, but it's obvious that QE isn't coping well with the PCI interface. Effect seems true under Panther or Tiger.

Keep meaning to turn QE back off again, to confirm the lack of acceleration improves video/redraw performance, but well, I like my expose transitions. :)

Upshot, you can do triple/quad monitors, but don't expect too much from the displays on the PCI card.

How much memory does your 9200 have? I was also thinking that the PCI bus might be a bottleneck but I was hoping enough memory and thus a bigger buffer to work from would reduce the limiting bandwidth of the PCI bus.

[erroneousuk]

How much memory does your 9200 have? I was also thinking that the PCI bus might be a bottleneck but I was hoping enough memory and thus a bigger buffer to work from would reduce the limiting bandwidth of the PCI bus.

It's an ATI Radeon 9200 Mac Edition 128M.

[shred444]

just as a follow up: i got one of the monitors. it works great, one problem though. sometimes itunes gets a little choppy if i move windows between video cards. not sure if i can adjust the settings to account for this.

[Calvinatir]

just as a follow up: i got one of the monitors. it works great, one problem though. sometimes itunes gets a little choppy if i move windows between video cards. not sure if i can adjust the settings to account for this.

you from Pepperdine?

[WillMak]

damn. thats pretty pimp. I thought you wanted to hook up for monitor not three tho? Can you watch movies on one screen, do work on another and have websites open on another without any slowdown?

[shred444]

you from Pepperdine?


no, Northeastern University in Boston

my 4th is coming in a few weeks. Samsugn doesnt make these anymore so they are hard to track down