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Displays Triple Monitor Setup

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by jake9891, 26 Jan 2010.

  1. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    Hey Guys!!!

    I was talking to my mate at Uni today (we both have dual screen setups atm) and we both agreed that it would be cool to have 3rd monitor ;) and this is were the discussion started. We thought about different ways that we could get 3 monitors connected to pc and of course the most obvious was to get either:

    1. Graphic card that supports 3 monitors (probably expensive option)

    2. Go for Crossfire/SLI setup with some middle-range graphic cards (less expensive)

    and this is where we stopped.

    However, while looking at some reviews at bit-tech.net I came up with something else, but the only problem is that I don't know if this is going to work.

    I will start with some explanation. At this moment I have Asus P5Q deluxe motherboard, which from what I know supports Crossfire. On that motherboard I have got 3 PCI-E slots and I know that one of them supports 16x speed and the other 2 are only 8x. In this mobo I currently have XFX 8800GT with two monitors connected to it. I have also got old 8600GT in my spare parts box and here is my idea:

    Would I be able to use both of the cards on my motherboard (without using crossfire obviously) and connect 2 monitors to the 8800GT and one monitor to 8600GT to get triple monitor setup?? :)

    Please keep silly questions (such as: why would u need triple monitor setup?) to yourself and if you got the answer or better solution (in fact any solution) please sumbit it :)

    P.S. Sorry if there is a simillar thread already somewhere on the forum, I couldn't find one. Thx!!! :)
     
  2. Austin

    Austin Minimodder

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    ;) A gfx card supporting 3 monitors needn't be expensive. The latest range of 5000 series Radeons all support at least 3 displays (Eyefinity) but bear in mind the connectivity options as, certainly at the low-end, they may require a DisplayPort monitor or adapter which are both expensive.

    :thumb: You can simply add your 8600GT, on Win7 it needn't even be an nVidia card, but I would say it's ideal to have the full support and tweak-ability of a single card which natively supports triple-monitors (or more).
     
  3. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    Thx for the quick response, is there any risk that something could happen to my motherboard or one of the graphic cards when I will add 8600gt to the setup? Just want to make sure before I start taking my pc apart ;)
     
  4. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    you can do it with 1 5850 or 5870 and only have to use 1 card
     
  5. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    yes but as the Austin said it requires monitors with DisplayPort which I don't have
     
  6. feedayeen

    feedayeen What's a Dremel?

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    Shouldn't be any problem. My computer is currently running 2 x 9400s driving 4 displays.
     
  7. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    one more question before i disassembly my pc, in which slot should I put the 8600GT??
     
  8. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    They make adapters for that you dont have to have a DP monitor I know i call amd they have a list of adapters in the forums
     
  9. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    ok i know that, but have you seen the price of the cards you recommended? Sorry for not mentioning this before, but I would really not like to spend any money on this stuff. If I would have to then I would probably wait some time and then buy one of the cards you recommended. It is not urgent :) It was just idea that came up in our minds on 3 hours break between lectures ;) I appreciate your response, thx!
     
  10. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    5750 will do the same 139.00 uses just a little less GPU power than a 4870 and uses less energy
     
  11. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    thx Mikeyfly300! I really appreciate your response, but beofre I move on to buying new gpu I would like to first test the idea I came up with :) Can you just tell me one thing, in which slot should I put the 8600GT?? my 8800GT is in my first (blue) 16x slot and then I got 2 (black) 8x on the bottom. Should I put the 8600GT in the first 8x slot or move both cards to 8x slots? Remember I am not using crossfire or SLI :)
     
  12. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    I have just read thread on a different forum, the guy basically tried to put GTX 280 and 9800GTX+ on the same mobo as mine and it didnt work, but when he swaped the 9800 for 8800GT it worked fine, anyway guys wish me luck and I will see how it goes!!!! I will be back in 10 minutes (if everything works fine) :)
     
  13. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    ok (sigh) it doesnt work, I put the 8600GT in the second PCI-E slot (which is the first one of the black 8x slots) and after booting up windows 7 nothing happens, the 8600GT doesn't even appear in the device manager :( what should I do now guys??
     
  14. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    put the one with the most power closest PCI slot to the CPU
     
  15. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    what MOBO U using?????????
    and are running sli, if your in sli mode it wont work
     
  16. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    Mikeyfly300 have you read the whole thread? It says in my first post I am using the Asus P5Q Deluxe.

    ---- EDIT ----

    OMG Guys!!! I swaped the 8600GT for 6200 (really old gpu but fanless) and it works!!! I got triple setup!!!

    However, why the 8600GT didnt work?? Any ideas?

    I would rather use 8600GT, because it is a faster graphic card than 6200
     
    Last edited: 26 Jan 2010
  17. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    does the 8600 work by its self? I glad you got 3 monitors goinig
     
    Last edited: 26 Jan 2010
  18. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    cool Mikeyfly300, but this isnt really a place to post this can you move this to a different section? It wasn't show your built thread, so pls remove these pictures :)

    And yes the 8600GT works fine by itself
     
  19. Mikeyfly300

    Mikeyfly300 Modder and lapping specialest

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    Done sorry as i am new here my apologies
     
  20. jake9891

    jake9891 Loves Internet Shopping

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    No problem, make sure you do not spam any more threads :)

    Anyway guys, my triple screen is working now, but I still would like to find out why the 8600GT didnt work? Any particular reason you can think of?

    and also one more thing... of course my reason for triple screen wasnt games... because I do a lot of audio/video editing and file hanling and other stuff, but just out of interest how can i spread game across three monitors?? I managed to play crysis on dual screen... but... well... having crosshair in the gap between monitors didnt help, so i was just interesting how can you do that with three monitors :)
     

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