Second Display on Mac G4

[davisjw]

Hey,

I have a PowerMac G4 and was looking to hook up another display to it. My question is what basic setup would be best when having a second monitor and looking on the Mac site they said I need to add another PCI Display card so what card would be the best deal? Thanks!

 

[davisjw]

Think I've done it

Upon looking more thoroughly within the forums and looking else where, I think an ATI Radeon 7000 PCI card will do the trick. But the 32MB kind of scares me.. If I'm working in Photoshop for instance will I see a large delay because of how low it is or will it be fine? The next up is the 9200 which'll cost about $100 more. Is it worth it to just hold up for a bit and get it or will it honestly not matter? Thanks! Sorry for the newb questions- haven't dualed before..

 

[UKnjb]

Hi. And welcome to MacRumors. Enjoy your time here.

Sorry I am so late in offering my 2 pennies' worth, but FWIW, I am also running a PowerMac G4 and --- and also a second monitor. I haven't had to buy another video card and it all works fine! Hmmm. I just plugged the second monitor in (a Samsung SyncMaster 152T) at the back, used System Preferences to detect displays, tweaked the settings for the Samsung and -- off I went! There have been no problems (at least for my relatively low-power usage) in running Photoshop - menus on the second monitor and activity on the primary one.

Are you sure that your existing set-up cannot take a second monitor? But I could easily be talking rubbish! It works for me, though.

 

[davisjw]

Thanks for the reply! I'll have to take another look at it but from what I could tell it was the generation before the Quicksilvers so I need to buy another video card. So the 32mb card will work alright without any major delays, thank you for your advice! I'll be running a 15" LCD Studio Monitor and 17" CRT Studio Monitor.

 

[garyyoung]

Second display

Hi,

I have a G4 Tower too, and recently hooked up a second diaply (Sony) Works well, without any additional cards or anything-my problem is that they both won't start up at the same time...I have to disconnect the Sony, start up the mac, when the Apple Cinema display comes on, I can reconnect the Sony and they both are there fr my use. I have tried Preferences and all those things, but nothing changes...not sure what is gong on.

Is there some way in System prefs to determine which display is the MAIN display??

GY

Hi. And welcome to MacRumors. Enjoy your time here.

Sorry I am so late in offering my 2 pennies' worth, but FWIW, I am also running a PowerMac G4 and --- and also a second monitor. I haven't had to buy another video card and it all works fine! Hmmm. I just plugged the second monitor in (a Samsung SyncMaster 152T) at the back, used System Preferences to detect displays, tweaked the settings for the Samsung and -- off I went! There have been no problems (at least for my relatively low-power usage) in running Photoshop - menus on the second monitor and activity on the primary one.

Are you sure that your existing set-up cannot take a second monitor? But I could easily be talking rubbish! It works for me, though.

 

[dpaanlka]

Hi,

I have a G4 Tower too, and recently hooked up a second diaply (Sony) Works well, without any additional cards or anything-my problem is that they both won't start up at the same time...I have to disconnect the Sony, start up the mac, when the Apple Cinema display comes on, I can reconnect the Sony and they both are there fr my use. I have tried Preferences and all those things, but nothing changes...not sure what is gong on.

Is there some way in System prefs to determine which display is the MAIN display??

GY

That really shouldn't be happening. The first display usually comes on a little before the second or third displays on my Power Mac. In system preferences, whichever display has the menu bar in it is the main display. If they both have a menu bar, then you have video mirroring instead of extended desktop.

 

[disconap]

It definitely shouldn't be happening, the stock card on the earlier powermacs shouldn't be able to support more than mirroring. What does your system profile say about the card?

To the OP, flashing is an option but requires some basic knowledge and a willingness to fry the card you're flashing. That said, I've flashed three cards with just basic knowledge (and help from StrangeDogs) and all 3 work perfectly. A little tweaking was required on the FX5200, though...

I'd say try to find a cheap Mac card, and if you can't, head over to StrangeDogs, check their list of older cards or write to one of the mods, they will flash for a fair price and/or sell you a flashed card. But if you're not doing 3D rendering or playing advanced games (like there are SO many of those for the G4, right?), the Radeon 7000 should actually be fine for your needs.

 

[dpaanlka]

It definitely shouldn't be happening, the stock card on the earlier powermacs shouldn't be able to support more than mirroring. What does your system profile say about the card?

False

 

[disconap]

Thanks for clearing that up...

 

[spinne1]

I recently was running four monitors on my Powermac G4/533. It works fine. I have a 9800 and a 7000. Each can run two monitors. I currently run three 19" CRT monitors (one on the 9800 and two on the 7000--I want the full 256 mb for the main monitor and I split the remaining 32 mb into two 16 mb portions for monitors two and three).

Look on your video card that you have. Is there only one hookup? If so, you need another video card (a Radeon 7000 is fine, and even a Rage 128 will work if you are on a serious budget). (More often than not if you hook up two monitors to one card you have to use the DVI connector on the back of the video card. If you don't have a DVI-based monitor, use the DVI-VGA adapter that should come with your video card.)

Hook up the second monitor with the computer off, then restart. Go to Displays under System Preferences and set the orientation and the resolutions. It should simply work with no further tweaking.