3 monitor setup

[jabronidan89]

I'm building a new machine for 3 monitors (day trading.) I also want to play some games on it, not too intensive (getting COD4 and/or Fry Cry 2 for free), but just to kill some time. I will need each monitor to run separate apps, the ability to use all 3 monitors as 1 gigantic screen would be nice but not a priority.

I have already purchased this case- LIAN LI PC-65B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Also this CPU-Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775

I'm thinking about picking up two XFX PVT98GYDLU GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express. I'm not sure if they will fit in my case though.

If I could fit those two cards with no problem, that'd be great. If I could fit one of those cards with a cheaper card, such as a VGA 512-P3-N944-LR GeForce 9400 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express, that'd be fine too.

Thanks to any and all advice.
__________________

 

[Cheesetogo]

There's not really any reason to buy more than one high powered card. The second setup that you mentioned would make a lot more sense IMO, although a 9400GT is still probably overkill. All you need is an Nvidia card that has a DVI port.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well i hope you have a better PSU then the one listyed in your sig. 2 9800s will work fine. But they will need allot of power.

 

[jabronidan89]

That computer is separate, I'm getting a PC power, S75Q, the Silent one.

So a 9800GT and a small cheap card will fit fine?

 

[faxon]

one thing to keep in mind, afaik SLI doesnt work properly with multimonitors yet. the big bang driver is supposed to FINALLY support it, but as far as i know it still doesnt work. you can however try using multiple cards with their own separate drivers and seeing if it works, no guarantees though. i think crossfire doesnt have this issue though, but im not positive. you could also try finding a video card with more than 2 outputs. some come with HDMI outputs as well these days, which will work as a 3rd output natively with some monitors, and just requires an HDMI>DVI converter on others. these are the cards i found that had 3 or more outputs on a single card which you could still game on

HD4850x2: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102809
PowerColor HD4830 (sapphire doesnt have this feature): http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131129
Powercolor HD4850 (if your monitor can use displayport) http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814131125

9800GX2: good luck getting one of the sale ones. all the ones which have had the prices dropped so far are sold out. they have one avalable that is recertified though for only $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...e=GeForce%209800%20GX2

now, there are probably a couple i missed out there, and there are also low profile cards like the HD4350/4550 which have many versions with HDMI ports, but these also wont give you very good gaming performance. so, take your pick, or look around some more and see if you can find a better deal in a single card, esp for the HD4830 lol

 

[betasub]

Faxon, I don't think OP is talking about SLI. He's planning on using two independent cards to drive three monitors. The advantage of using two similiar cards (by this I mean both ATI or both Nvidia, and of the same generation) such as the 9800GT and 9400GT is that they will work using the same driver (this is a necessity if OP wants to use more than one graphics card in Vista).

 

[jabronidan89]

Yeah, no sli.

So a 9800GT and a 9400GT will be fine? The XFX and EVGA ones I picked out will fit in my case and I'm good to go?

 

[Lonyo]

I was using a 7800GT and 7200GS with no problems on 3 monitors (20" 1680 and 2x17" 1280x1024 either side).
You can sometimes use all screens as one monitor, but not in all games (and I don't know about Vista)

http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

^ that allows you to span games across all 3 screens, but the graphics are driven by only one card (e.g. the 9800GT only), and it doesn't work with all games, but it's still quite nice.
Honestly given my experience of dual monitors with ATI, and triple with NVidia, I would recommend 100% that you go with 2 NVidia cards for whatever setup you choose, and a 9800GT and 9400 would probably fit the bill quite nicely.

 

[jabronidan89]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
I was using a 7800GT and 7200GS with no problems on 3 monitors (20" 1680 and 2x17" 1280x1024 either side).
You can sometimes use all screens as one monitor, but not in all games (and I don't know about Vista)

http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

^ that allows you to span games across all 3 screens, but the graphics are driven by only one card (e.g. the 9800GT only), and it doesn't work with all games, but it's still quite nice.
Honestly given my experience of dual monitors with ATI, and triple with NVidia, I would recommend 100% that you go with 2 NVidia cards for whatever setup you choose, and a 9800GT and 9400 would probably fit the bill quite nicely.

Great, exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you very much. I'm ordering it right now.
Assuming both cards fit on my mobo of course.

 

[Chunkee]

any way to get 3 monitors on 1 card? independent of each other?

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: Chunkee
any way to get 3 monitors on 1 card? independent of each other?

TripleHead2Go.