quad monitor with two PCI-E cards?

They make noise, too.

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shunx
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quad monitor with two PCI-E cards?

Post by shunx » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:00 pm

If I drop two dual-head PCI-E cards into the computer, should I be able to get quad monitor support with regular drivers by default?

And if I use the same SLI-compatible cards I'll also get SLI when using one monitor only, right? I'm thinking of using two passive 7600GSs.

angelkiller
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Post by angelkiller » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:30 pm

I think so. If you don't SLI them, you will have essentially, two separate video cards, working independently. Note that from what I've seen, a single 7600GT will out preform two 7600GS's in SLI. See Here. In terms of SLI, if you disconnect the other three monitors, SLI just doen't start working. You have to configure it in the drivers, the bios (I think), and on certain motherboards. So it's not automatic.

If you want Quad monitor support, I would look into two 7300GT's. Unless you are working with graphics, two 7300GT's will be cheaper and still give you quad monitors. Also note that for the price of (any) two video cards, you can get a single one that will outperform them.

shunx
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Post by shunx » Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:57 pm

Seems 7600GS SLI is sometimes slower/faster than one GT depending on the benchmark:
http://www.techspot.com/review/21-gefor ... page4.html

Now that I think about it, instead of getting two of the same card, I can instead get a much faster card plus a second card for 2D apps only. Maybe I'll wait for one of the new 8600 cards...

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:23 pm

Hello,

To answer your first questions: yes, and yes.

I have two 7600GS XFX cards with three monitors, and the fourth one would work. When you enable SLi, it only uses one monitor.

shunx
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Post by shunx » Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:46 pm

Thanks Neil. I read that some people have had issues getting three independent monitors. Apparently two of the monitors may be spanned together instead of being separate screens. Have you had this problem with your setup?

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:35 pm

Hello,

The desktop spans across all three just fine. They are all running a different resolutions with no problems. Some programs "like" to be on the Primary monitor, so you have to set the monitor you want to use for these as Primary. You can align them as you like best -- tops or bottoms aligned, or even have one above the others.

el_
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Post by el_ » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:39 pm

also there is a passive card that does 4monitors by itself but it is for 2d apps mostly and costs around 450. I'll find the link on the egg.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814133165

shunx
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Post by shunx » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:45 pm

Yeah I'm aware of that card. It's a nice solution but costlier versus two basic dual head cards. If you do any gaming you'd need another card too.

aristide1
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Post by aristide1 » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:13 am

Are you planning on looking at

T
h
e


M
a
t
r
i
x

?

Mikey
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Post by Mikey » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:49 pm

Personally i think 3 monitors is optimal.

My opinion might change if i got a 30" monitor, though ;)

shunx
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Post by shunx » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:58 pm

aristide1 wrote:Are you planning on looking at

T
h
e

M
a
t
r
i
x

?
That depends, is this the Matrix?
Mikey wrote:Personally i think 3 monitors is optimal.
My opinion might change if i got a 30" monitor, though ;)
Yeah I kind of lied about quad monitors. I need 4 ports but I'll be using 3 mostly, with the 4th one being a 120" projected screen used for movies and stuff.

ronrem
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Post by ronrem » Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:30 pm

Gigabyte has a mobo with a 3rd slot (m59 S5) The idea is the 3rd card gives you more monitors while the others can stay SLI. It can also do SIX monitors. Since used 17" CRT monitors are cheap now- that could be way cool.

Runn3r
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Post by Runn3r » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:42 pm

ya can never have enough monitors if ya playing in the biggest casino game ever ... tht is the financial markets

and yes..they appear to be THE matrix :p

regards
Runn3r

shunx
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Post by shunx » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:09 pm

yeah I'll be using the screens primarily for financial reports.

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:09 am

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Last edited by nightmorph on Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:55 am

Hello,

I just noticed on NewEgg that they are selling a special Matrox G450 PCI card that supports 4 monitors. Unfortunately, it is $550 -- and it has a fan...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814106001

shunx
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Post by shunx » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:00 am

Got any links to getting multimonitor SLI support in Windows? I think Nvidia never supported it officially.

An easy way I know is to use the Matrox TripleHead2Go adaptor which splits one output into three.

shunx
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Post by shunx » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:02 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:I just noticed on NewEgg that they are selling a special Matrox G450 PCI card that supports 4 monitors. Unfortunately, it is $550 -- and it has a fan...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814106001
The PNY card posted by el_ above is passive, supports 4 monitors and costs $450. Still not cheap though.

[Oops didn't notice Neil's post is about a PCI card -- I guess that'd be one way to add 4 monitors to any system]
Last edited by shunx on Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

floffe
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Post by floffe » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:38 am

nightmorph wrote:Sidenote: On Linux, you can get SLI on multiple monitors simultaneously. It's nice that the Linux nVidia drivers have a few features the Windows drivers don't. ^_^
Now, does it give any performance benefits? My friend got lower fps in linux when using SLI than without (6800 Ultras)

nightmorph
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Post by nightmorph » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:56 pm

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Last edited by nightmorph on Fri Apr 21, 2023 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

shunx
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Post by shunx » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:22 pm

nightmorph wrote:
shunx wrote:Got any links to getting multimonitor SLI support in Windows? I think Nvidia never supported it officially.[/url]
It's simply not possible in Windows, as far as I know.
I thought you're referring to some new hacks recently. There was a method which involved using a PCI videocard but it may not work for everyone: http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/in ... t6269.html
And now there's the easy but costly method of using the Matrox adaptor as mentioned.

Runn3r
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Post by Runn3r » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:30 am

here's a pic of me lookin at the matrix shunx...

4 monitors on 2 pci-e cards : 7600gt + 7300 gt in Antec Solo

Image

regards
Runn3r

shawn122
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Post by shawn122 » Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:28 am

thats alot of monitors :D

angelkiller
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Post by angelkiller » Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:51 am

Runn3r wrote:here's a pic of me lookin at the matrix shunx...

4 monitors on 2 pci-e cards : 7600gt + 7300 gt in Antec Solo
What motherboard are you using? Thanks.

shunx
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Post by shunx » Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:49 pm

So how quiet is that 7600GT, Runn3r? And how's it going with the charts? :)

Runn3r
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Post by Runn3r » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:34 pm

The motherboard in the Solo is an Asrock Conroe Xfire ... 945 chipset i think. Nice cool running board that always runs at much lower temps than my gaming/entertainment machine which has the Intel Badaxe. Both uses the E6600 cpu.

The 7600GT i got is the Gigabyte Silent pipe model. Umm.. there is NO noise on this one ... the 7300GT is also fanless. No noise video card setup.

The gaming/entertainment machine sits to the left of the pic and that has an additional 2 monitors so I can watch TV and readwebpages as well ... planning to get even more monitors as my trading accounts grow ... hopefully ... heh

Now toying with the idea of buyin a bunch of LCD monitor arms that attach to the wall so i can free up my desk for the numerous datasheets i use when I play the BIG CASINO ..

Oh..and that CRT will soon go as well...

regards
Runn3r

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