Dual Head with two VGA monitors on a Radeon HD 6870

[Hamish Wilson]

So after seeing all of the glowing coverage that the Radeon HD 6870 was getting with the FOSS drivers on Phoronix I finally broke down and found myself a good deal on Kijiji that got me two Sapphire HD 6870 graphics cards for just $125.00 CDN. Performance wise things have been working great, but I have encountered a problem when it comes to working with my two VGA monitors.

The Sapphire HD 6870 comes with a Single-Link DVI-D port, one Dual-Link DVI-I port, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort. My primary head already has a VGA to DVI-I converter cable, which allows it to work on the Dual-Link DVI-I port without issue. Unfortunately the second head only has a male VGA output, and since I can not convert from VGA to Single-Link DVI-D, I was beginning to think I was going to get a new monitor.

Thankfully, I found out that you can convert from VGA to DisplayPort:

http://www.amazon.ca/Displayport-Female-Adapter-Cable-Converter/dp/B00HR5CV3U/ref=sr_1_35?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1418452098&sr=1-35&keywords=DisplayPort+to+VGA+Video+Adapter+Converter

My question now is, if I do get myself one of these adapters, could I continue to use both of my monitors in a Zaphod Mode setup as I did previously?

[Kano]

Why dont you use a dvi cable? Look for a white connector on your monitors. Otherwise i would geht something better.

[Hamish Wilson]

Both of my monitors only have VGA outputs, something I did of course check beforehand. I also have several spare VGA only monitors around my house, and through the use of this adapter I could in theory guarantee a certain amount of redundancy in case one of my current screens dies on me.

Besides, getting one of these DisplayPort to VGA adapters is still far cheaper than getting a new HDMI, DVI-D, or DisplayPort monitor. I am on a budget here.

[droste]

Yes this works for 2 monitors.

[Hamish Wilson]

Based on my research it looks as simple as replacing Option "ZaphodHeads" "DVI-0" with Option "ZaphodHeads" "DisplayPort-0" in my xorg.conf file.

I suppose the only way to find out now is to actually go out and buy the thing.

I might opt for a slightly more expensive one as the cheaper adapters are supposed to be a little fragile:

http://www.amazon.ca/Cable-Matters-Gold-Plated-DisplayPort/dp/B005RISR2S/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1418457252&sr=8-22&keywords=DisplayPort+to+VGA

[droste]

Yes that's all you have to do. And I would also recommend to spend a little more money than CDN$10 on this. It doesn't have to be the most expensive one, but maybe buy an article which has good reviews.

[Hamish Wilson]

Yeah, at this point I am probably going to go with the Cable Matters adapter I linked to previously on Amazon. It is normally around $35.00 CDN, but it is around 50% off at the moment and has nine very positive reviews to go along with it.

[Hamish Wilson]

Due to some holiday related delays my Cable Matters adapter only just arrived today, and the good news is that it works absolutely fine. I had a slight problem when restoring my old xorg.conf file, but that was because my main head was now on DVI-1 rather than DVI-0. Other than that everything is just perfect.