Calibrating Dual monitors

[LesC2009]

I'm going to be replacing an ageing PC shortly & was wondering about graphics cards, in particular if I want to calibrate 2 monitors with an X-Rite i1 Display pro - do I need 2 graphics cards or just one? (I believe it's something to do with LUTs - Lookup tables - but I'm really on shaky ground here!)

Even on X-rite's site they say this:

+Dual Monitors on Windows Platforms

Some Windows operating system are not able to set an individual ICC monitor profile for each of your dual monitors. This is something that is handled by the operating system and can be true for Windows XP, Vista, Win 7, and Win 8. There were very few graphics cards capable of applying individual profiles to dual monitors in Windows XP. Support for dual display profiling became more common in Windows Vista and it has become much more common in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

To calibrate and profile dual monitors on Windows based system, your video card (driver) should provide the following features:

- Support for individual Video LUTs (lookup tables) for both monitors (support of two graphic chips)
- Support for handling individual ICC profiles for both monitors
- Dual monitors will need to be physically connected to individual ports on a single graphics card setup...no splitters or switches!

If your video card does not support the handling of two ICC profiles, Microsoft provides a utility called Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet that allows to define individual ICC profiles for all of your connected hardware devices (monitor, printer, scanner, etc). This utility will run on Windows XP only. At the present time there is no work around for the Vista/Win7 platforms of this nature. If you are interested in further research on this applet you may locate the download and further documentation here.

X-Rite's Technical Support and Software Development teams have done extensive research using dual displays and the use of ICC profiles in these environments. We would like you to keep in mind that the most ideal way to run a dual display setup from one operating system is to have the ICC profiles applied from 2 separate video cards. This truly is the best way to ensure that the profiles are both generated and being applied correctly as so many cards do not allow the option to utilize separate LUTs from one card. If you are creating and using 2 profiles on one card and are having issues with color, contrast, brightness or others, you may want to disconnect the secondary monitor and then try reprofiling the primary display to verify the accuracy. Researching the video card through the manufacturer is also a great place to start to verify what the specifications of your particular card can handle.

FWIW, the card I was looking at was an EVGA 2GB GTX 960. Any thoughts folks?? Or is it just too much faffing about and I should just calibrate one of then ;)

[Tigger]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

sorry its something I've never done so can't help

[Colin]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

I have dual monitors on Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I have an Nvidia graphics card and use a Huey Pro for calibration. Each monitor calibrates properly and uses its own profile properly. Both monitors look the same to me colourwise even though they are from different manufacturers.

Not the same set-up as you but this works for me. If it was me I would just try it and see.

[LesC2009]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

I have dual monitors on Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I have an Nvidia graphics card and use a Huey Pro for calibration. Each monitor calibrates properly and uses its own profile properly. Both monitors look the same to me colourwise even though they are from different manufacturers.

Not the same set-up as you but this works for me. If it was me I would just try it and see.

Thanks for that Colin, good to know :)

I also wrote to EVGA as it was one of their Nvidia-based graphics cards I was looking at and was pleasantly surprised to get a prompt & fairly positive response as follows:

"Hi Les,

According to Nvidia, all cards with multiple outputs will support different colour calibrations on different monitors.

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/77

As always, making sure that you're running identical monitors from the same batch, or as close to each other in production as possible is also recommended.

Please contact us with any further questions.

Regards,
EVGA Support"

As you say, I think it's a matter of see what happens :)

[AndyA]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

I have dual monitors on Windows 7 64bit Ultimate. I have an Nvidia graphics card and use a Huey Pro for calibration. Each monitor calibrates properly and uses its own profile properly. Both monitors look the same to me colourwise even though they are from different manufacturers.

Not the same set-up as you but this works for me. If it was me I would just try it and see.

I have dual monitors, used with Windows 8.1 64 bit and a single Nvidia 560Ti graphics card. I also use a Huey Pro and after I've calibrated the first monitor, the software asks if I'd like to calibrate the 2nd monitor. I do this by dragging the on-screen Huey window onto the other screen.

[paulr5604]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

I have just calibrated my dual screen setup using a friends x-rite colormunki - display and now when I open the same picture on each of the screens at the same time I can't see any difference.

[LesC2009]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

Thanks Andy & Paul Looks like one card should do it....

[paulr5604]

Re: Calibrating Dual monitors

Sorry yeah I'm using a GTX465 card to drive both monitors