Question On Using Three Monitors at the Same Time
Author
If I wanted to three monitors, I would have 1 AGP graphics card and two PCI cards? I want to do it as cheaply as possible but still have good picture quality. I saw some special Matrox cards which is a single card solution with mutliple outputs. I didn't realize they still made PCI based video cards. Can you guys recommend some? I'm trying to do some CAD developement. I want to stretch the CAD app over two monitors and have the third be open to MS Office (or maybe e-mail). You get the idea.
Author
As for the monitor issue, I use some reasonably priced flat LCD's. Thanks for the help.
Depends on your current video card setup. If your card supports dual-output (almost all recent cards do) then you should only need one additional PCI card to round out the set. If your card only has a single output, just buying a single dual-head PCI card will also get you a total of 3 displays.
Author
How's the picture quality? I know of plenty of good AGP cards, but what about PCI cards. I doubt ATI makes X800 PCI cards. Heck, they're phasing out AGP in favor of PCI-Express. You can't get the new X1600 in AGP.
If all you're doing is applications, you don't need much of a card to do an extra display. My GF4Ti4800 handles dual TFTs at 1280x1024 with no problems at all. I've used cards based on Trident's CyberBladeXP chipset to do dual monitors at similar resolutions, also with no problems. Windows in and of itself isn't very demanding on your video hardware (well, at least not until you get Vista).
Most of the good last-gen cards are still available in PCI variants, and a lot of budget/non-3D/barely-3D cards (like the CyberBlade chipsets) are readily available for very cheap.
Most of the good last-gen cards are still available in PCI variants, and a lot of budget/non-3D/barely-3D cards (like the CyberBlade chipsets) are readily available for very cheap.
Author
How is the installation? Do I simply pop the additional PCI cards in and the drivers handle the rest? One last question; Nvidia or ATI (hey if want to run OpenGL based games; Nvidia is the better choice)? If I already have an ATI, I probably have to hook up another ATI card. Thanks for all the help.
Once your second card is in and drivers are installed, plug in all of your monitors, then open your Display properties in Windows. You should see a little monitor image for each connected display device. The options for entering a full screen mode vary, but it should be pretty self-explanatory.
You'll probably also want to at least get the demo trial of UltraMon, as it adds a lot of invaluable multi-display functionality.
I usually try to stay out of the ATi-vs-Nvidia war, but I'd say in general that sticking with a single brand in a multi-display box is less likely to create problems.
You'll probably also want to at least get the demo trial of UltraMon, as it adds a lot of invaluable multi-display functionality.
I usually try to stay out of the ATi-vs-Nvidia war, but I'd say in general that sticking with a single brand in a multi-display box is less likely to create problems.
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