dual link DVI

[shacharoren]

hello,
what is a dual link DVI?
i'm not quite sure i got that and since i want to get the ACD 30" and it reqiuers a dual link i would really like to know.

 

[jaguarskx]

Dual link DVI means you must stick two DVI connects to your monitor so that you can use it at it's native (aka maximum) resolution. If you only stick in one DVI connection then the monitor will either not display anything at all or at about half the maximum resolution.

Dual DVI can come from one video card with two DVI ports at the back of the card. Or you need to have two video cards [either XFire (ATI) or SLI (nVidia) mode] with one DVI cable from each card connected to the monitor. This means your motherboard must be either CrossFire or SLI compatible and you must install two of the same exact cards in the appropriate motherboard.

SLI motherbaord => You must use two of the same Geforce cards

XFire Motherboard => You must use two of the same Radeon cards.

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If you plan on playing games with a 30" LCD monitor at max resolution then you must buy two high end cards to push that many pixels. Nothing less than two Radeon 2900HD for XFire, or nothing less than two GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB for SLI.

 

[shacharoren]

i actually am planning on SLI of 8800GTS 640MB, but only in the future.
at the moment i'm useing only one.
now this card has dual link dvi.
does that mean that i just use 2 cables from the card to the monitor instead of one?!
and you can relax, i am not planning on games with this workstation,
only 2d graphics and some video editing.
and one more thing,
if i do use 2 dvi cables from the card to the monitor, will i be able to connect another crt 19" monitor to this card and work them as a dual monitor, and i mean one big workspace??

 

[jaguarskx]

If you connect both DVI cables to the 30" monitor, then will not be able to connect a CRT monitor. You'll need another video card to do that.

 

[chookman]

Dual Link is done VIA one Dual link port. If your video card doesnt support Dual Link then you cannot run maximum res. Single link does only up to 1920x1200 but Dual link can do native 2560x1600. 8800GTS is dual link compatible so only one cble is needed.


Wiki for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-link_DVI