I'm looking for some components to build a new PC, and noticed that there are quite a few motherboards which have all three of DVI, VGA and HDMI.
I want to connect this to two DVI monitors, so my question is :
Can I use both DVI and and HDMI outputs of the (on-board) graphics of a motherboard at once?
e.g., This "ASUS M4A78 PRO" board :
has all three outputs.
Additionally: Is it possible to use all three outputs at once for triple-monitor goodness?
(I'm not worried about stellar graphics performance, as I don't tend to play many games on my PC, so on-board graphics are fine)
Best Answer
I've got a Gigabyte motherboard with DVI, D-SUB and HDMI onboard and I know that doesn't allow use of HDMI and DVI at the same time.
From looking at the manual for your motherboard (which is available from the QVL page at http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=EbXqq06yxpJwlABf ), the same is the case for your motherboard. You can use DVI and D-SUB at the same time, or D-SUB and HDMI at the same time, but not DVI and HDMI.
DVI and HDMI are variants of the same standards, or HDMI is a superset of DVI. Unlike DisplayPort they also require a separate clock per each connection, meaning there is a hard limit to amount of DVI/HDMI connections you can use at once. On most discrete cards the limit is 2, on integrated graphics it varies.