Dual head single PCI-E cards w/ portrait and landscape?

[aqm consultant]

Not sure if I'm lazy or not good at searching, so apologies if this is covered somewhere here and I haven't found it.
Does anyone have recommendations for a passive single PCI-E card that will do dual displays with DB15 outputs with one in portrait and the other in landscape? Seems like the PCI-E cards out there do DVI, but not old-style DB15 RGB. Are there adapters??
I'm building a new AMDx2 box (likely P150, Abit AN8 Ultra, AMD64 x2 4800+, Raid 1 Samsungs), but don't really feel like trashing a Viewsonic VA800 LCD (which I love in portrait mode) and a Viewsonic PF790 CRT (both lacking DVI).
I'm not a gamer, so framerate isn't an issue. Just want desktop space (and speed).
Thanks!

[autoboy]

Analog VGA is part of the DVI pinout. Any decent video card should come with a DVI to VGA adaptor.

[aqm consultant]

THANKS! Sounds like I need to spend more time at C***USA reading boxes.
The question still remains, however, about dual head cards that can support portrait on one monitor and landscape on the otherl I've no experience here. Do these things allow for separate drivers for each??
Suggestions??

[teknerd]

any recent card should be able to set different orientations/resolutions/color depths/etc for the different monitors.

[Chang]

The onboard IGP of my motherboard is able to power both my LCD over DVI (1920x1200) and my additional CRT over VGA (1024x768) at the same time. It rotates the LCD image fine. It's probably as much video drivers as it is hardware.

[feddup]

I own three graphics cards all with one vga out and one DVI-I out. DVI-I provides both analog and digital signals. Almost always a DVI to VGA adapter is provided but if not it's a $5 part. The three cards are a 9800XT, 660GT and a X850XT PE. I run them all dual monitor with a LCD in portrait mode and a CRT in landscape. I think with the right drivers most dual output cards will do what you're asking. I thought the Nvidia wouldn't do it but I just had to fight with graphics options. When you get it working right dual monitors with the extended desktop is pretty cool! Good luck!

[aqm consultant]

Thanks feddup! Any recommendations? What are the specific cards you're using, and are any of them passive cooling? Every time I go to Ati, Matrox, Gigabit etc. websites and start trying to sort through specs, I get a headache!

[feddup]

I can't help you with the passive cooling on a graphics card. Too risky for me. I think any ATI or Nvidia card with dual monitor outputs on the back can acomplish your dual/landscape/portrait monitor modes. Iy's just a matter of finding it in display properties. My three cards were listed above but no passive cooling.

[feddup]

I can't help you with the passive cooling on a graphics card. Too risky for me. I think any ATI or Nvidia card with dual monitor outputs on the back can acomplish your dual/landscape/portrait monitor modes. Iy's just a matter of finding it in display properties. My three cards were listed above but no passive cooling.

[teejay]

There is a chance that the cards at the really low end do not support dual-head: my server-rig has an Asus ATi9250SE card which has a DVI-D output next to the analog D-SUB. A DVI-D does not output an analog signal, so you cannot use both with CRTs.

I have no DVI screens to test with, so I cannot say if dual-head would work with a digital panel and an analog one, but chances are it won't.

[feddup]

I just assumed that all graphics card DVI outputs were in fact DVI-I (analog and digital) for backward compataabilty. I've put some time into the various DVI options. I've looked into DVI switches and DVI KVMs and what type of DVI you're working with is critical. If aqm consultant wants two CRTs operating then he needs to make sure the DVI output is in fact DVI-I. If one of the CRTs is going to be in portrait mode this would require that it's lying on it's side. I'm not sure that's going to fly without some sort of problems. I asked on several forums about two monitors one in portrait and one in landscape and got no responses whatsoever. Philisophically the more obscure and "wacky" your configuration endeavors are the more alone you're going to be when trying it. I looked on ATI's site and Nvidia's for mention of this in driver release notes and found nothing. You might just have to try it and see if it works. Good luck!

[qviri]

Just a note, an LCD doesn't have to mean DVI, and similarly a CRT doesn't have to mean D-SUB.

I've heard of some CRTs that do accept DVI input in addition to D-SUB, and lots of lower-end LCDs only accept D-SUB (like the one I'm using right now).

[aqm consultant]

I decided to check with Gigabyte tech support to see what they'd say.

I am looking for a PCI-Express (x16 slot) graphics card that has a passive (no-fan) heatsink for the GPU and will also support dual head displays on two analog monitors, one of which will be portrait mode (rotated LCD). I've looked at some of your manuals (e.g., 6600GT) and it's not clear if rotation of one monitor but not the other is supported.
Thanks,

Response:

Dear Customer,

All of our graphics cards with two outputs support independant monitor. The drivers will allow you to choose portrait mode.

Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products

I wasn't aware of the DVI-I vs DVI-D distinction since I have only analog (D-sub) inputs (one is a Viewsonic LCD w/ portrait option). All the dual output (1 DVI, 1 D-sub, and even one with 2 DVI's) card specs I've looked at have a DVI to D-sub adapter plug or cable, so I guess they've all been DVI-I. Looks like the 6600GT may be the one. May be hot, but it will be quiet.