I recently changed from Windows 11 to Zorin 17.2. The third monitor for which I used a USB to HDMI adaptor stopped working. I am unable to get to work despite it having previously worked under windows and installing a display-link driver for it in Linux. My current set up is a HP Z440 using an nvidia k620 v2 graphics card, to which I currently have two monitors connected. 1. into the DVI port and the second into Displayport. So guys what's my best and simplest option for connecting a 3rd monitor? I have plenty of USB 3.0 ports available. Ideally I am hoping for an answer from somebody who has faced a simillar problem. As far as I can see my options are find a USB to HDMI adaptor that works with Zorin ( recommendations and instructions please) or to replace the graphics card with one with multi-monitor support. I was considering an HP NVIDIA Quadro NVS 510 which supports 4 monitors using mini display ports. I can buy one pre-owned for under £30. One last point I am not particualry interested in gaming so the graphics card's performance for when gaming is not particulary important for me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
You might want to consider a Radeon card instead of Nvidia when it comes to Linux as it should be a no-brainer due to driver builtin the kernel. Nvidia drivers has been flaky lately to put it mild.
For me, one particular frustration is the connection ports on Nvidia Cards. They clearly have a preference...
On the last two I bought, the ports were 1 HDMI - 3 DP
I have two monitor setup. I have lots of HDMI cables.
LOL
What this left me with was 1HDMI plugin and 1DP plugin. And this led to strange problems. Eventually, I gave in and bought DP cables and hooked all up to be uniform, solving issues but... why Nvidia?
I'm kind of surprised the usb to HDMI adaptor doesn't work, I've used a few (I can't remember the makes / models / etc right now) in the past that all worked without really needing to do anything.
As for @Aravisian, yes it's quite annoying that cards basically only have 1 hdmi now. However, I think everything should just go to displayport so there's no more cost associated with the port (royalty). And quite frankly, I like that displayport cables (at least most of them) still have a latch that helps keep the cable fully in.
I also noticed that DP seems to work better than HDMI. I have not studied into the differences and am not sure why there are two different ports... Not due to arrogance but lack of time. I can spend all day researching stuff I am curious about and never get anything done...
It never made it high on the list. Maybe the formation of this post will change that.
Throughput compared to hdmi (typically) is higher (although for most people that doesn't really matter, but it does for high-resolution, high framerate gaming)(and this is also not true depending what version of ports you have (IE 2.1 hdmi has more than displayport 1.4))
That's really about the main things anyone needs to know about it. Oh, and the no royalty thing.
thanks for your suggestions. In the end I swapped the graphics card out for a second hand AMD firepro v7900 with 4 x display ports (£20 on E-Bay). To connect the monitors I used 2 x Displayport to DVI-D cables and 1 x Display port to HDMI cable ( My third monitor didn't have DVI-D port) . It all just worked straight away. The only slight problem I have is the Zorin log in screen appears on the right hand monitor and not as I would prefer on the centre screen ( despite the centre monitor being set as my primary display in Zorin). Not quite sure how to fix this, but it is a minor problem and certainly something I can live with for the time being.