3 or 4 monitor desktop

H2 · Jul 29, 2005

Does anyone know if you can use a 7800GFX PCI-Express card for two monitors in one PCI-Express slot, and

Then run a 6600GT PCI-Express in the other slot and run two more monitors.

I want to do this with a DFI Lanparty UT nF4 motherboard.

I'm trying to get a 4 monitor desktop for example, Spreadsheet on 1, Word on 2, Internet on 3, video rendering on 4.

I made a post similar to this in the wrong section and didn't get much help.
Thanks in advance for your help.

kraftmayo · Jul 29, 2005

I dont think you can double up with different cards.

Blackmage · Jul 29, 2005

no you can't this will make sli active, you best bet would too be to get a PCI video card and use that.

Vulcan · Jul 29, 2005

Blackmage said:
no you can't this will make sli active, you best bet would too be to get a PCI video card and use that.

Uh.... First of all SLI doesn't work with two totaly differnt cards. SLI doesn't just magicly start workign by inseting two PCI-E cards. Second of all using both the outputs on both of these cards at the same time should work just fine.

Blackmage · Jul 29, 2005

Vulcan said:
Uh.... First of all SLI doesn't work with two totaly differnt cards. SLI doesn't just magicly start workign by inseting two PCI-E cards. Second of all using both the outputs on both of these cards at the same time should work just fine.

OK so too get two cards working on the PCI-E/SLI mobo you will need too change it from one lane(x16) too two lanes(X8) thus activating sli mode and as you said making the 6600GT and 7800GT incompatible , so i sudgest a PCI card and the 7800GTX which will be compatible and he would be able to get all 4 outputs? :shrug:

bchur83 · Jul 29, 2005

I run an X800XL and a X700PRO in my DFI NF4 UT Ultra-D, with a triple monitor setup. Works great. I dont see why Nvidia cards would be any different.

H2 · Jul 29, 2005

Hey bchur83,

Are both of your ATI cards PCI-Express? If they are I would think the Nvidia would work the same way.

Did you have to do anything weird to get your ATIs to work?

What you are doing is exactly what I want to do.

I wish someone was doing this with Nvidia cards now to be sure.

Thanks much guys for the advice and input on this.

MLMIB · Jul 29, 2005

dude, it'll work. if you had 2 cards of the same type you can use all four outputs OR enable sli to get the performance boost, but lossing 2 outputs.

bchur83 · Jul 29, 2005

H2 said:
Hey bchur83,

Are both of your ATI cards PCI-Express? If they are I would think the Nvidia would work the same way.

Did you have to do anything weird to get your ATIs to work?

What you are doing is exactly what I want to do.

I wish someone was doing this with Nvidia cards now to be sure.

Thanks much guys for the advice and input on this.

Yes, they are both PCI-E. I just plugged them both in, and installed the Latest Cat 5.7's.

The triple monitor setup is very nice. I was thinking of buying another Dell 20.1" WS, and go quad, but I missed out on the deal yesterday.

H2 · Jul 29, 2005

MLMIB said:
dude, it'll work. if you had 2 cards of the same type you can use all four outputs OR enable sli to get the performance boost, but lossing 2 outputs.

I thought that would work like you are saying but wasn't sure enough to buy an extra monitor and video card. Thanks for the advice.

I think I'll go with two 6600GTs for now because they are so cheap. If everything works like we think it will, I'll sell the 6600GTs in about 6 months and buy two 7800s when they drop in price.

This is going to be fun!

I have been using two monitors for over a year now and would never consider going back to one.

For you guys that haven't tried two monitors, you don't know what your missing. It's great, even if you use an old $75.00 CRT for your second monitor you'll enjoy it.

hafa · Jul 29, 2005

Go for it, H2. It will work just fine, just plug the video cards in and windows and the NVidia drivers will do the rest:

Like the sig says: 2x 6600GT & 3x Viewsonic VP191B. After 3 monitors, you'll never look back!

H2 · Jul 29, 2005

bchur83 said:
Yes, they are both PCI-E. I just plugged them both in, and installed the Latest Cat 5.7's.

The triple monitor setup is very nice. I was thinking of buying another Dell 20.1" WS, and go quad, but I missed out on the deal yesterday.

I saw that Dell 20.1 WS also. Yes quad monitors would be a sweet setup.
I'm glad to hear your setup was so easy to do.

Now I have to get started building a new computer bench that will hold 4 monitors. I'm excited now big time.

You should take some pictures sometime of your setup to show some of these guys. I think a lot of people would use more than one monitor if they knew how easy and productive it was.

H2 · Jul 29, 2005

hafa,

Very, Very NICE!

I just made a post 2 minutes ago saying someone should show their multiple monitor setup and tell people how easy it is to do.

I'm going to do it for sure now!

Nice pictures of your monitors!

Oni · Jul 30, 2005

There's a thread over at oc-rev.com that displays a 3 monitor setup. The center monitor is a nice Dell widescreen powered by the AGP card. The monitors on the side are powered by the PCI card, 'cause they're not in demand as much for tasks such as gaming.

H2 · Jul 30, 2005

Oni,

That is a nice setup. That would be a very good alternative for guys that don't have a Motherboard with PCI-Express and two expensive video cards.

It was interesting to see how the 20" Dell widescreen was the same height, vertical screen as the 17" Sonys.

In my experiance the height is important because when you move the mouse right or left you don't want it jumping up or down as that is distracting.

I am definately going to go 3 monitors very soon and 4 within the next 6 months as money permits. Multiple monitors are so cool.

hafa · Jul 30, 2005

Oni said:
There's a thread over at oc-rev.com that displays a 3 monitor setup. The center monitor is a nice Dell widescreen powered by the AGP card. The monitors on the side are powered by the PCI card, 'cause they're not in demand as much for tasks such as gaming.

It's too bad the gaming community has not embraced surround gaming. I find it a much more realistic experience, especially with simulators such as MS flight simulator and Rally Sport X. Perhaps FPS folks merely find it distracting. (OK, so I just branded myself a non-FPS gamer...so shoot me

)

H2 said:
I am definately going to go 3 monitors very soon and 4 within the next 6 months as money permits. Multiple monitors are so cool.

FWIW, I went with 3, rather than 4, because the center of the array with 4 screens is the line between monitors. This seemed a bit awkward to me.

3 or 4 monitor desktop

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