What hardware is needed for 3 monitor setup

Associate
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25 Jul 2009
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Hey guys,

What hardware do i need to run 3 monitors. My graphics card only has 2 sockets so am i just in need of upgrading the card which is a 4850HD to something else?

Cheers
 
Associate
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8 Sep 2009
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I don't really know but maybe this could work?

renderImage.image
 
Associate
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well it completely depends on what u wanna do, if you want it for gaming then wait for the 5850/5870 since theyl have 2 dvi+1display+1HDMI. Eyefinity loose gorgious btw.
but if its for work then theres specialist cards thatl do that but dont think OCuk sell them.
 
Associate
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I've got 3 solutions for you, but it depends on what you're going to do with it, of course.
1. Two graphic cards - they should have 3 or 4 monitor outputs, depending on second card. Pros: can be cheap as second card might be just el-cheapo-whichever-card. Cons: can be impossible under VIsta/Win7 which don't tolerate multiple instances of drivers, so in this case those 2 cards should be the same (like 2xHD4850), or use the same drivers (like HD4850 + HD3450).

2. Matrox TripleHead2Go: just buy it, plug it and use 3 monitors. Pros: easy. Cons: expensive.
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/

3. Wait for ATI Eyefinity. It's new technology by AMD which allows you to connect upto 6 monitors to one card. There's no such cards on the market yet, but maybe it's worth to wait - AFAIK it's in new HD58xx that come soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04dMyeMKHp4
 
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Associate
OP
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25 Jul 2009
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381
Thanks for the helpful replies guys.

I am running windows XP at the moment and have a 4850 HD card. In respect of option 1, does the 2nd card have any affect on performance, i.e displaying on very high settings, or would it just be used to simply feed the display to the third monitor in which case any card with the display port could be used and would not affect performance?

Cheers.
 
Associate
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2nd card shouldn't affect performance unless it's PCI card which can be a bit slow in some specific operations (like scrolling for example). I still don't know what this card is going to be used for - if it is just for displaying a toolbox in Photoshop - so PCI is quite enough and extra cheap. For 3D or multimedia usage better is PCIe card.
 
Soldato
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19 Jun 2009
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I run tripple monitors mainly for development, the cheapest option for myself was buying another graphics card to use with existing card, you really need a motherboard with an extra pci-e slot, else finding another DVI pci graphics card may be difficult.

My existing card was an old 7800GTX, and the new card was a GTX 260. I put the 260 as my primary card, and the 78000GTX as secondary.

If your going down this path it's a little easier if you have cards that use the same drivers, both those above do. Also if it's 2d work any cheap pci-e card from ebay will be fine, I almost purchased a 7100GS for £12, but got a good deal on the GTX 260.

The only downside with above solution is I can't run games over three monitors, 2 yes but not 3. You require a solution above if it's tripple monitors for gaming.
 
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