Gigabyte ga-a75m-udh2h + 3rd Monitor

[madmaxmarchhare]

All,

Sorry that this is a bit of a n00b question, but I'd appreciate it if someone could make some suggestions on a video card that I could put into my Gigabyte ga-a75m-udh2h between $50-$85 or so (if possible). I'd like to run a third 23" monitor (DVI) but (given that this board only runs two monitors) I'm not sure what the best options for adding a card to this motherboard would be. I assume I'd run two monitors off of the motherboard while the new card handled the other (or maybe the new card would handle two while the motherboard handled one)? Either way, I'm in your hands, and I'd appreciate any suggestions you could lend me.

Thanks, in advance.

If it makes a difference, all three of my monitors have DVI connections (and VGA, but I don't want to use those, obviously).

BTW, Also, I don't do any gaming, but I do watch Bluray movies while working on other things.

 

[RGone]

I saw that no one had responded in a few days so I thought to give a look see since I looked up similar for someone a few weeks ago. Which by the way, you can look up also.

So I copied your model motherboard as you have it listed in your post. Copied and pasted your listed model ga-a75m-udh2h into g00gle and NO hits except the hits leading directly back to this thread. NO other hits. I said crap0la. Such g00gle behavior usually means the term I am typing in is not common to anything else and thus likely an error.

I went to giga site and found that are two mobos similar to the model you typed into your post. They are the GA-A75M-D2H (rev. 1.0) and the GA-A75M-UD2H (rev. 1.0). NO ga-a75m-udh2h. Which motherboard do you really have?

 

[madmaxmarchhare]

Ah, both my apologies for the bad fingers (there were a ton of unrelated characters in that model number, tho) and my appreciation for your reply. I own the latter: GA-A75M-UD2H

 

[RGone]

Looks like this...

Okay this is how it looks and you will have to do a little following in your manual. There are things that we "must" imply from what is between the lines so that we wind up with onboard and add-in card to support 3 monitors. But I believe it is laid out pretty well below.

From >> mb_manual_ga-a75m-ud2h_e.pdf

Page #19 Setup AMD Dual Graphics Configuration.
Following along this is what it says with a graphic image beside the writing. The image is there but is very small.
C. Configuring the Graphics Driver
After installing the graphics card driver in the operating system, go to the AMD VISION Engine Control Center. Browse to Performance\AMD CrossFire™ and ensure the Enable CrossFire™ check box is selected. << Do NOTenable Crossfire and you will have onboard and an add-in card either of which should be able to use the same video card driver since the two cards (onboard/add-in) are both ATI of approximately the same power and age.

Page #21
A. Dual Display Configurations:
This motherboard provides four video output ports: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI, and DisplayPort. The table below shows the supported and unsupported dual display configurations. NOTE: look in the manual for that table and it will show which of the four video outputs will work together ONLY TWO at a time.

Page #45
Init Display First
Specifies the first initiation of the monitor display from the installed PCI graphics card, PCI Express graphics card, or the onboard graphics.
Onboard Sets the onboard graphics as the first display.
PCI Sets the PCI graphics card on the PCI slot as the first display.
PEG Sets the PCI Express graphics card on the PCIEX16 slot as the first display.(Default)
PEG1 Sets the PCI Express graphics card on the PCIEX4 Express slot as the first display.

The A8 APU and inbuilt AMD Radeon™ HD 6550D GPU work with discrete video cards HD 6450, HD 6570 and the HD 6670.


Lowest to highest price at NewEgg for the 6450 series ATI video card.
Remember there is also the 6570 and the 6670 that should also work but are of course higher in price.

So all things considered it will be better to get one of the three video cards recommended for Crossfiring with the A8 APU/GPU and then n0t enabling crossfire so the cards are independent and either of which should be able to be initialized first in bios and the amount of ram set aside for the onboard video can be set to 512 or 1024 again from within the bios. That about rounds it up.

 

[madmaxmarchhare]

Ok, I read that from the manual, but do I have to do a Crossfire setup? I don't game or anything. I don't even do "3D business graphics" of any kind. If I just slammed another card into the PCI-E slot, would it give me third monitor capabilities, or must I use a Crosfire configuration.

I do get your point about one of these cards being the _best_ option, though, since my motherboard will automatically Crossfire with them...

 

[RGone]

FROM my previous post #4 above.

Page #19 Setup AMD Dual Graphics Configuration.
Following along this is what it says with a graphic image beside the writing. The image is there but is very small.
C. Configuring the Graphics Driver
After installing the graphics card driver in the operating system, go to the AMD VISION Engine Control Center. Browse to Performance\AMD CrossFire™ and ensure the Enable CrossFire™ check box is selected. << Do NOTenable Crossfire and you will have onboard and an add-in card either of which should be able to use the same video card driver since the two cards (onboard/add-in) are both ATI of approximately the same power and age.

NO it would not auto crossfire since the manual is telling you to go and enable crossfire. What I was trying to ensure is that the board is looking for an ATI card. AMD recommends 3 cards and in the 6450 series are pretty darn cheap. So why not use one of three series of cards that would work but just don't enable crossfire and be pretty doggone sure the card/s would work?

 

[madmaxmarchhare]

I guess this is the part I don't understand, then:

Do NOTenable Crossfire and you will have onboard and an add-in card either of which should be able to use the same video card driver since the two cards (onboard/add-in) are both ATI of approximately the same power and age.

What if I put in an Nvidia card? I can see why I wouldn't want to enable Crossfire, but the rest of the sentence I find confusing in this context.

 

[RGone]

I went back and editted my post and you were already posting. I added this to my post.

NO it would not auto crossfire since the manual is telling you to go and enable crossfire. What I was trying to ensure is that the board is looking for an ATI card. AMD recommends 3 cards and in the 6450 series are pretty darn cheap. So why not use one of three series of cards that would work but just don't enable crossfire and be pretty doggone sure the card/s would work?

Now you can g00gle and see if there are any other answers. I have done it. What I wrote worked for another. But I will not post anymore in order to give another user an opportunity and inclination to post. Good luck to you and I hope someone with an Nvidia video card comes by.

 

[madmaxmarchhare]

Ok, so what I'm seeing is this: If I want to run two monitors in Crossfire mode, putting in another card of the same series will give me that option. If I don't want to use Crossfire, I don't enable it and then I can use, theoretically, two ports out in the on-board GPU and two in the AMD card I shoved in, for four monitors (possible more?) as the upper limit.

But, I guess the other option about just putting another card in is still out there. I'll have one in a couple of days, so I guess I can just give it a try.

Thanks for your input, though, that does clear up some of this for me (just remember: "cheap" is a very relative term lol).