Hello, I am thinking of connecting a second monitor to my desktop computer. I have one done so at work, and I use it as an extended desktop and find it great for multitasking. However, my home computer only has one VGA output. Is there a way to connect a second monitor to a computer with only one VGA output?
Answered By
de Blair
10 points
N/A
#182372
Connecting a second monitor on a desktop computer
Hello,
Sometimes you feel like having an extra screen must solve lots of mess around working on multiple tasks simultaneously. Well, this is really very easy to achieve. You just need an extra screen, preferably of similar size (though that’s not necessary at all). Well, as you said you have a single VGA output in your machine, so I will describe the steps you need to follow for connecting an extra screen to your computer:
-
Connect a VGA cable to the VGA port on your computer to the VGA port of the external screen.
-
As soon as you will switch on the screen and your computer, your computer must recognize the newly added screen immediately.
-
Now you will be asked about the status of your extra screen. Whether you want to:
-
Extend your monitor
-
Clone your monitor
-
Or a primary desktop screen.
Choose your option according to your need.
I hope now you can add your external screen very easily.
Connecting a second monitor on a desktop computer
There is actually another way of connecting a second monitor even if your video card has only one video port which automatically restricts you from using a second display. You need to check your motherboard if it still has a spare slot. If it has or it has plenty of slots available, you can install a second graphics card regardless of the model of the first video card.
If your purpose on doing this is for workstation use and not for gaming then this is possible. When installing a second video card, both video cards don’t have to be the same model if you don’t need to combine both GPUs. The only problem if you do this is that, if you use a GPU from AMD and the second one is from NVIDIA, you can’t use Windows Vista because it only supports one graphics driver at a time.
But if you want to use it for gaming, both graphics cards need to be of the same model so you can use SLI or Crossfire to be able to combine both video cards’ GPUs. This will greatly increase the game performance.
