Graphics PNY Video Cards and the Triple Threat Monitors

Alright, well right now I'm running dual 19" Samsung 900NF monitors off a MSI g4Ti4200 128mb. I recently got a very sweet deal on a 22" Samsung 1200NF monitor and I'm looking to add it to my system. I've been saving my tax return for a vid card upgrade and i was looking at these:

PNY Verto GeForce FX 5900se Video Card / 128MB / AGP 8X / TV Out & DVI
Cost - $259.99 CAN
PNY GeForce FX 5200 Video Card / 128MB / 2x VGA / PCI
Cost - $147.99 CAN
So the idea is:

Left & Right Monitors: 19" Samsung 900NF monitors
Center Monitor: 22" Samsung 1200NF monitor

And I'm left wondering if the pny cards are any good, or if anyone can recommend similar replacements

 

Much better choice: PNY Verto GeForce FX-5700 Ultra. Its what I got, and I love it

 

I'm assuming that you haven't had driver issues? from what i've heard pny isn't really good for support.

BTW This is a graphics/video home workstation, i'm still a student doing work on the side.

 

Well, Ive had no problems whatsoever with this card, so I cant complain about customer support that I have never tried. If you are doing graphics work (IE 2D) A 5200 would be fine... Aside from the fact that card there is a frikkin Rip off Its the power of a GeForce 3 for goodness sakes! If you are doing 2D only, get something like a Radeon 7000; its cheap and will do your 2D ness easy. But if you are doing anything with 3D graphics, I definitely reccomend you get a 5700.

 

thanks for the tips, i'll keep it in mind, can't wait to get these three badboys set up

 

so i assume your going to do i agp and 1 pci card then right? with the 22 and one 19 one the agp and the other 19 on the yet undisclosed pci card?

 

Actually I was thinking of having the AGP run the 22 and the 19s run by the pci, since they will handle more 2d stuff anyways

 

Thats silly. The PCI bus isnt that big as it is; you dont need to flood your southbridge and overload the PCI-BUS with that; not to mention, you would have to pay a pretty hefty price to get a PCI video card that could support dual monitors. It would be much better to get an old 1 slot PCI video card, and use the AGP card for two of the displays. Then again, you could always get one of those devices that attaches to your VGA or DVI output that divides the signal and gives you a huge desktop Then you wouldnt need to bother with a PCI video card. If anyone knows what I am talking about, please tell, since I dont know what its called.

 

if it were me id get the 5900 for 2 monitors and then a GF2MX PCI for the third, since any proper 3d youd be doing on the main monitor anyway and you can get a GF2MX for peanuts. also you will want both cards the same, like dont get an nvidia AGP and a radeon PCI, that can cause problems

the 5900 is faster than the 5700Ultra, and sometimes even cheaper, so you would be better with that.

you wont have a problem with drivers, an nvidia card from any manufacturer can use standard nvidia drivers.
pny make decent cards but you many find some other manufacturers have them for cheaper, at the end of the day, a 5900XT is a 5900XT, regardless of manufacturer (cept for gainward, gainward rock )

i thoroughly recommend a program called ultramon for using mutiple monitors

 

Probably a good idea to go with Mr. Tad; I have only tried dual monitors once; he knows what he is talking about more than I do. A 5900 XT is essentially a mid-range card made from 5900 chips that are faulty somewhere. Subsequently, they are about as good as a 5700 Ultra; This thing kicks all ass Especially since it has a really nice heatsink/fan on it; the RAM on both sides has heatsink over them, even though that it is not required. I have never tried OCing the card though, since this is a family computer that I didnt pay for; so I cant do anything to it that might kill the machine.

 

I agree I am planning to put the big 22" on the agp, tho to save the strain on the card the pci will be dual vga so i'll run the two 19"s off of it since I'll be doing 2d and minor vid stuff on them, all the 3d and video effects/editing would be on the 22". I would definetly not mix brands since
A - I'm a diehard Nvidia Fan
B - The Nvidia cards seem to perform better on the stuff i do
but thanks for the tips i'll keep it in mind

 

Not necessarily true, they've put cheaper memory on them to cope with demand, they use 2.8ns memory rather than 2.2ns memory. The cores themselves are exactly the same, and more than capable of running at the same speed as a 5900, and in some cases a 5900 Ultra.

The 5900XT will beat a 5700U into the ground, simply because of the memory bandwidth that the 5900's have (256-bit compared to 128-bit).