Graphics Cards (Running Three Screens)

[Tony Harrison]

I recently bought a couple of 20" TFTs, and they run off a 512Mb Sapphire dual-head PCI-E card. No real problems there. Anyway, to run a third I heard someone say you can just throw in a second card. So I found an old (2003?!) Matrox dual head card, an AGP one, that I had kicking about and stuck it in. Windows now permits a third (and fourth) screen, but putting a 20" TFT on it isn't too good - the image is jerky when you move stuff about, and genuinely slow. I'm guessing it's because the card is 32Mb, and 1600x900 is too much for it.

So, should I buy a good 256Mb AGP, single port card to run the third screen? Also, how much load does this all put on the operating system, or is the idea of cards like this that they take all the heavy graphics processing away from the rest of the PC and do it themselves?

Finally, if I do have a third TFT on a single port card, is it beneficial to have this as the central of the three (being that if I watch any videos, edit any photos, it'll be on that one), or will they all perform much the same?

Thanks for any help!

[konstant]

32MB... there's your problem.

A GTX285 (or any decent card) will run many monitors absolutely no problems. But if we're talking low to mid range cards, then put your primary display on a separate card.

I know it's down to preference, but wouldn't you rather have one or two nice screens rather than several smaller, lower quality ones?

Edited June 18, 2010 by konstant

[Muel]

If you replace that AGP card with something like a NVidia 6200A 256mb, it'll be fine. I bought one for £25 about 2 years ago and it was enough to run 1680x1050 and even played some games on it.

If you're a gamer though, might be worth looking at getting a modern card, like an ATI 5850 and then getting a displayport adapter, then you could run eyefinity. (Everyone will say it needs to be an active displayport adapter, it doesn't as long as you get a displayport to VGA adapter).

[TROYston]

My spare pc, 

which is for sale if anyones interested, pm me (mid-high spec gaming pc cheap as its collecting dust)

Is running 2 bfg 8800's and can quite easily run 4 1400x900 screens off it.

Any game still plays at top spec,

I The problem you are getting there is the 2 different gpu's trying to run along side oneanother. 

I have tried a 8800 with a 7600 (found one lying about) and it didnt want to run 100% correctly.

 

[PaRtZ]

I The problem you are getting there is the 2 different gpu's trying to run along side oneanother. 

I have tried a 8800 with a 7600 (found one lying about) and it didnt want to run 100% correctly.

This is what I thought. I know its more money, but surely two identical 512mb sapphire gfx cards would be better?

I wanted 2 for mine, but my powercolour (4850 I think?) is too big and hangs over the second slot on my motherboard. I also dont have enough pci-e power cables for it. Or money

[Muel]

Mixing graphics cards should be fine if you're not running SLI or CF though?

If you're going to game though you'd be far better off getting matching ones. Another 5830 is on my list but I can't justify it at the moment!

[Mike Deere]

Matrox specialise in multi display set-ups. Their M-series cards can support up to 8 monitors up to 2560x1600 or something like that. Might have something to suit you.

Edited June 21, 2010 by Mike Deere

[Tony Harrison]

Thanks for all the feedback. It's not gaming, just a bit of photoshop and lots of web development work where I need the desktop space. I might buy a bigger monitor for the middle, like a 23" or something, and then run that off a separate card.

But either way, I think it needs to be two cards. The one I have now runs these TFTs together perfectly, but the Matrox card is just too old. I bought it back in 2003 because it had a TV out, and I wanted to put bike videos I made on to VHS to give to friends. I suppose there's not really a need for that anymore!!