Need a new video card...

[satindemon4u]

Last night for black Friday I bought a TV that I am now using as a monitor. Doing so made me have a total of three monitors. Upon trying to set them all up in the NVidia menu it told me that my GPU could only support 2 different displays. I know I could get a splitter but I am looking to, if possible, have 3 DIFFERENT displays. As in a stretched desktop, not just duplicates.

So I was wondering what cards support this feature? Or rather, what exactly do I look for when searching for one that supports it.

Thanks guys!

 

[cheesy999]

Last night for black Friday I bought a TV that I am now using as a monitor. Doing so made me have a total of three monitors. Upon trying to set them all up in the NVidia menu it told me that my GPU could only support 2 different displays. I know I could get a splitter but I am looking to, if possible, have 3 DIFFERENT displays. As in a stretched desktop, not just duplicates.

So I was wondering what cards support this feature? Or rather, what exactly do I look for when searching for one that supports it.

Thanks guys!

AMD cards if you use a display port + Adapters to make use of the eyefinity, or i think very high end nvidia cards now support that

your best bet if you can't spare the funds for that now is using 2 cards, or even the motherboards built in graphics at the same time as the PCI-E graphics

 

[theonedub]

Nearly all Nvidia cards have a 2 display limit. Just recently we have seen the releases of certain Nvidia cards with new display logic that allows for more than 2 displays, but I do not think they are available or will be released in the US.

Pretty much any recent AMD card supports 3 monitors. So that's probably where you want to head.

If you wanted to keep your current card you could also have the option off adding a second low power Nvidia card solely for the third display. For example, in my computer I powered 2 displays off my 580 and used my GT530 to send signal to my 32" LCD.

 

[satindemon4u]

Didn't think to use the built in graphics at the same time...

 

[cheesy999]

Didn't think to use the built in graphics at the same time...

Yeah, it depends on the chipset but on AMD systems all you normally have to do is go into the bios and change the memory allocation from automatic to a set number (like 256MB) and it will function alongside the discrete one normally, this can be a bit tricky to set up though so it's best to use GPU-Z to see if you've got it set up correctly and if windows is actually detecting both cards

 

[satindemon4u]

Eekk. Makes me sort of nervous haha

Ok so I went in there and did some looking around....

is it the frame buffer size that I want to mess with and set to something like 256mb?

 

[cheesy999]

Eekk. Makes me sort of nervous haha

Ok so I went in there and did some looking around....

is it the frame buffer size that I want to mess with and set to something like 256mb?

That would appear to be it, but i have not used ATI's on-board graphics, i would get someone else to confirm this first unless you know how to reset the bios and/or are comfortable experimenting with settings

 

[theonedub]

Running the onboard AMD and discrete Nvidia 450 seems like it would result in a driver train wreck, but I couldn't find any info on whether or not it would actually work. I only have a 760G board available to me, so there is no way for me to investigate. Definitely post back if you get it to work.

 

[Yukikaze]

Running the onboard AMD and discrete Nvidia 450 seems like it would result in a driver train wreck, but I couldn't find any info on whether or not it would actually work. I only have a 760G board available to me, so there is no way for me to investigate. Definitely post back if you get it to work.

Back in the XP days I ran a pair of 8800GT cards and a HD2600XT (required for three monitors back then, since SLI and multiple monitors was a no-go back then) without any driver problems.

I doubt Win7 is going to be worse on the driver management front.

 

[theonedub]

Back in the XP days I ran a pair of 8800GT cards and a HD2600XT (required for three monitors back then, since SLI and multiple monitors was a no-go back then) without any driver problems.

I doubt Win7 is going to be worse on the driver management front.

That sounds promising then. The only info I had on mix matched cards came from what I read about Folding@Home, and it seemed like it was quite an issue. Did you have any issues with 3D/high performance with that setup?

 

[Yukikaze]

That sounds promising then. The only info I had on mix matched cards came from what I read about Folding@Home, and it seemed like it was quite an issue. Did you have any issues with 3D/high performance with that setup?

Nope, no performance issues as far as I recall.

 

[cheesy999]

I think windows 7 will allow for 2 completely separate display drivers to run at the same time, the only problem he might encounter is if he uses Vista as Vista will only allow one display driver to run at a time meaning both cards would have to be the same manufacture

 

[satindemon4u]

Using windows 7 x64.

Will test it out right now and see what happens! Will post back with results

Edit:
Went in and set it to 256mb. Saved the changed and started up and got the classic black screen stating that windows failed to start. Also, in those settings there is an option that is something like "primary video driver" or something, with 4 different options. I am guessing the one that is selected is my video card, but I don't know seeing as how the names seem to be like ghr4-ghn4-gdnd-a3erf (that is just button mashing not real names but you get the idea/setup of it)

Edit edit:
Tried setting it to 1024mb and I booted just fine after that. However my pc still isn't picking up the other monitor.

Edit edit edit:
Turns out setting to anything really, now works. As far as booting goes. Monitor still not being picked up.

If I buy like a $40 video card, will that suffice for the purpose of having another monitor? lol Would this work? PNY VCG84512D3SPPB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit DD...

 

[theonedub]

If I buy like a $40 video card, will that suffice for the purpose of having another monitor? lol Would this work? PNY VCG84512D3SPPB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit DD...

Yes, a second card would work (its what I was talking about in my first reply). $40 for a 8400GS is pretty pricey though. You can get a GT 210, 220, etc for cheap right now esp with Holiday Deals. Newegg has a GT 520 for $15 after MIR. Its a much more solid card that would have great use if it ever finds itself in another computer down the road.

EDIT: Its sold out But there are other deals out there http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3604734

 

[satindemon4u]

So am I forced to buy one then? A second card that is.

 

[Yukikaze]

Using windows 7 x64.

Will test it out right now and see what happens! Will post back with results

Edit:
Went in and set it to 256mb. Saved the changed and started up and got the classic black screen stating that windows failed to start. Also, in those settings there is an option that is something like "primary video driver" or something, with 4 different options. I am guessing the one that is selected is my video card, but I don't know seeing as how the names seem to be like ghr4-ghn4-gdnd-a3erf (that is just button mashing not real names but you get the idea/setup of it)

Edit edit:
Tried setting it to 1024mb and I booted just fine after that. However my pc still isn't picking up the other monitor.

Edit edit edit:
Turns out setting to anything really, now works. As far as booting goes. Monitor still not being picked up.

If I buy like a $40 video card, will that suffice for the purpose of having another monitor? lol Would this work? PNY VCG84512D3SPPB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit DD...

If you've booted into windows, you still need to enable the second monitor. Right click on the desktop and select "Screen Resolution". It should show up both displays there, with one being disabled. Click on it and choose "Extend desktop to this display" and then hit apply. Later adjust the resolution and position of said screen.

 

[satindemon4u]

Alright so I did that and the monitor came up, as in it was detected. However when I try to enable it that just kills off my other monitor and I am then left with one.

So here is what happens...

Currently: []=monitor
["No signal error][Working fine][Working fine]

If I try to enable the "broken" monitor via "Display device on VGA" I go from that to...

[Not working][working fine][not working]