Will my graphics card support 3 screens?

Will my graphics card support 3 screens?

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Discussion

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Wednesday
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Evening all

I would like to connect another display screen (Dell) to my current sony Vaio laptop and seperate samsung monitor .This will mean I will have three display screens including the laptop's . Would anyone know whether it will be possible please?

The Graphics card is ATI Mobility HD 4500 Series but I cannot find out how many displays it will support

I have bought a USB 3.0 to Dual HDMI Adapter from StarTech.com in the hope this will help to connect all three

Thanks for any advice

CorradoTDI

1,754 posts

186 months

Wednesday
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You're best to look at the USB docking stations that Dell do (D6000 etc) as you can then have a one cable solution that will also charge the laptop assuming it's USB-C charging?

Support depends on screen res and cpu - 3 x FHD are usually ok

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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Morning
Thank you Corrado for your reply , my Vaio is really old is a model Sony Vaio PCG- 718M . Battery lasts very little time so I just run it off the mains all the time . I dont think it can be connected in a docking station and reluctant to spend the money on one in case my Vaio fails soon

mmm-five

11,762 posts

299 months

Thursday
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Does that model even have a HDMI output? Looking it pictures it seems to only have a single VGA output. The other side only has 2 USB slots, and I can't find anything to say they support display out.



Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 17th July 11:22

Actual

1,290 posts

121 months

Thursday
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I haven't bothered with multi screens for a while so I might be out of date.

I was able to use a bog standard computer connected to multiple USB docking stations which each had HDMI ports.

My discovery was that despite the docking stations having their own graphics chips the graphics processing load was taken up by a single card and the extra graphics chips were just working as connectors. There is a setting somewhere to set a primary graphics card.

The result was quite satisfactory for basic windows based graphics without any 3D gaming etc.

GuyW

1,092 posts

218 months

Thursday
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It's hard to find the data for an old device, but it's likely ~15+ years old given the model number.

I'd have to question if it's even worth spending a single £ on it. The advances in tech since then, you'd really feel the benefits in changing to something newer.

xeny

5,012 posts

93 months

Thursday
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Twentyfour7 said:
I have bought a USB 3.0 to Dual HDMI Adapter from StarTech.com in the hope this will help to connect all three

Do you have a part no or specific model for this? If it uses Displaylink it will likely work, but performance may be so-so.

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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please see photos of my vaio ports

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
quotequote all

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
quotequote all

egomeister

7,183 posts

278 months

Thursday
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Is that Windows XP I see?

Unless you need such dated hardware/OS for a specific task, then buy a new PC. It will be leagues better than what you have

CorradoTDI

1,754 posts

186 months

Thursday
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Yeah I didn't realise it was that old but I'd say new laptop time - you need to be running Windows 11 by the end of the year anyway.

The DisplayLink USB docks are universal but do use resources - very proven and reliable solution though, and like I say, one single USB-C charges the laptop and connects to everything else for a nice clean setup.

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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Im currently using Windows 7 as havent needed to change yet
I dont see why windows 11 or 10 would influence my ability to use a third monitor
The vaio has excellent storage - wasnt able to find the same on alaptop I could afford before so kept using this

bangerhoarder

663 posts

83 months

Thursday
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No, it only supports one external monitor and you only have USB 2.0 so that won't work well for another monitor output.

The HD4*** series only support two monitors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_4000_serie...

GuyW

1,092 posts

218 months

Thursday
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If you're using it online, it'll be a matter of when, not if your device gets compromised. Not to mention software not that far off from not being supported at all.

Appreciate you're budget constrained, but I'd still honestly channel any funds at all into even a used 4-5 year old machine.

Twentyfour7

Original Poster:

644 posts

162 months

Thursday
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Thank you for your advice and wikipedia link
re upgrading my PC , how would it be compromised? I have additional virus protection
thanks

GuyW

1,092 posts

218 months

Thursday
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Also, another thought. You mentioned not being able to find another laptop with the same amount of storage.
Whatever you're storing locally on the device, do you have it backed up elsewhere? Assuming the worst case with a device that was compromised, damaged, stolen, the house catches fire etc. I'd strongly advise not to keep everything only on the laptop.

R.e. device vulnerabilities. Windows 7 support ended five and a half years ago. No updates, patches, security vulnerabilities mitigated. Even the best, paid security software will only do so much. A plaster for a gunshot etc.

mmm-five

11,762 posts

299 months

Thursday
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When you say it has 'lots of storage'...is that based on what was considered a lot 15 years ago? Is it fast SSD storage or slow HDD storage?

A small SSD is considered to be less than 500GB nowadays, and 1TB SSD can be had for less than £50. If it doesn't have an SSD and is running from a HDD (as the specs seem to suggest) then less than 1TB would be considered small nowadays.

A low-end Intel CPU from a couple of years ago (such as an i3-1315U) could be 5-20x faster depending on the task that that Pentium 4300 in the Vaio (assuming we've got the correct spec)...which is c.12 generations old.