6 monitors, 1 PC

[Knytestorme]

Hopefully a fairly simple question

I currently have an evga 780 SLI mobo with 3 PCIE slots in it. I'm running 2 7800GTX's to run 4 monitors on it, and then another 2 on a second PC but it just occurred to me that I could perhaps place a third card in the free slot and run the final two monitors off it.

Is this feasible to do, given I'm not running them in SLI and would I be able to slot a more current card (eg a 9800GTX+ or GTX260) in with the 7800's and have it play nice or will I have to upgrade all 3 cards at once?

 

[Dadofamunky]

Wow. what does your desktop look like? Please to post a link to a photo.

I would THINK you could just pop an 8800GT or something in there without any other changes, but I'm no expert in multiGPU.

 

[MarcVenice]

Any videocard with 2x dvi out will do. Look into a 9500gt or something like that. No need for something like a 8800gt.

If you do buy a 9800gtx+ or gtx260, it should work as well, just realize that when you want to game, it will be on 1 monitor, the other one will go blank afaik. Leaving you with a measly 5 monitors instead of 6

 

[Knytestorme]

Thanks for that, makes buying parts tomorrow easier.

Mainly need it for 3 things....dev work, audio work and running 5 instances of WoW (main reason for looking into adding a 9800 now and then replacing the 7800's after xmas if it works as I want) on one monitor each so looks like my concerns are sorted.

@Dadofamunky, desk has extra bracketing coming up out of the back with a 3 wide, 2 high configuration with 6 VESA adapters for holding the monitors. If I could find monitors without surrounds so the screens just meshed into one I'd be a happy camper. Will put a pic up once I things slow down here and I move my office around.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yes, post a pic for us

 

[Qbah]

No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: Qbah
No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

Ahh, you simply haven't lived until you've played a game on one monitor and watched a movie on the other. It's a beautiful thing. The other night I was playing WoW and watching Superbad.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: JimiP

Originally posted by: Qbah
No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

Ahh, you simply haven't lived until you've played a game on one monitor and watched a movie on the other. It's a beautiful thing. The other night I was playing WoW and watching Superbad.

Sounds fun, will have to try it out! But if playing a FPS and watching a movie...I wonder how many times I'll die...:laugh:

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Knytestorme
Thanks for that, makes buying parts tomorrow easier.

Mainly need it for 3 things....dev work, audio work and running 5 instances of WoW (main reason for looking into adding a 9800 now and then replacing the 7800's after xmas if it works as I want) on one monitor each so looks like my concerns are sorted.

@Dadofamunky, desk has extra bracketing coming up out of the back with a 3 wide, 2 high configuration with 6 VESA adapters for holding the monitors. If I could find monitors without surrounds so the screens just meshed into one I'd be a happy camper. Will put a pic up once I things slow down here and I move my office around.

Forget the 9500GT then. Not sure what resolutions you play your >>>>>5<<<<< instances of WoW on, but you may want something a bit more beefier than the 9500GT that marc suggested. But he didn't know you were playing WoW at the time of his post.

You might consider a 9600GT for your third slot.

 

[disports]

Originally posted by: Qbah
No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

How do you guys get the second monitor not to go black while playing a game on the first monitor? I've been trying to figure it out so I can do the same!

 

[imported_maxdad007]

I dont remember having to set anything just does it on my 8800gt. AFAIK was automatic.

 

[MarcVenice]

Originally posted by: smithrwon

Originally posted by: Qbah
No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

How do you guys get the second monitor not to go black while playing a game on the first monitor? I've been trying to figure it out so I can do the same!

I think with ATI, you have to make sure the desktop is extended to your HDTV, instead of cloned on your HDTV. I could be wrong though, I just recently got ati vidcards, and haven't tried gaming + watching a movie at the same time ...

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Knytestorme
Thanks for that, makes buying parts tomorrow easier.

Mainly need it for 3 things....dev work, audio work and running 5 instances of WoW (main reason for looking into adding a 9800 now and then replacing the 7800's after xmas if it works as I want) on one monitor each so looks like my concerns are sorted.

@Dadofamunky, desk has extra bracketing coming up out of the back with a 3 wide, 2 high configuration with 6 VESA adapters for holding the monitors. If I could find monitors without surrounds so the screens just meshed into one I'd be a happy camper. Will put a pic up once I things slow down here and I move my office around.

Forget the 9500GT then. Not sure what resolutions you play your >>>>>5<<<<< instances of WoW on, but you may want something a bit more beefier than the 9500GT that marc suggested. But he didn't know you were playing WoW at the time of his post.

You might consider a 9600GT for your third slot.

would your CPU and RAM even handle moving some WOW instances over to the main PC? maybe it is better to have 3 on one computer, and 2 on another for better performance.

 

[Qbah]

Yeah, I use the extend option. No clue why anyone would want to clone their desktop... Unless perhaps you have a laptop with a small/weak screen and have an extra LCD for it. Or perhaps you're doing a presentation or something. But in a regular case at home? No idea.

 

[Soulkeeper]

still no pic ?!?

 

[disports]

Hm well my second monitor isn't an HDTV. It's just a regular 19" CRT. I do have my desktop extended to the CRT. But no go, boo!

 

[styroe]

completely off topic, your title caught me off guard, 6 monitors 1 pc sounds like something in the adult section of a movie store... they still have movie rental stores, right?

Off Topic is that way <--------- Please keep that in mind in the future.

-Thanks
ViRGE

 

[styroe]

Originally posted by: JimiP

Originally posted by: Qbah
No idea how it looks for nVidia, but on my rig (ATi) I can watch a fullscreen movie (or whatever else actually) on one monitor and game on the other (none of the two go 'blank', I got a 24" Samsung and a 40" HDTV via HDMI from Samsung too). Doing so pretty often actually (Wall-E in HD and Fallout 3 recently ). Everything is buttery smooth and looks amazing (and relaxes me a lot ).

Ahh, you simply haven't lived until you've played a game on one monitor and watched a movie on the other. It's a beautiful thing. The other night I was playing WoW and watching Superbad.

Turns out I put all my eggs in one basket and got a 40 inch... it was cool at the time, but i never thought of simultaneously doing both, ARGH

 

[aka1nas]

If you're doing that many displays, you might as well play with softth as well and try surround gaming.

Softth

 

[SolMiester]

I thought the bang bang drivers allowed multi monitor gaming?