3 monitors

[snouter]

I have a nice i7 920 homebuild with an HD4890 video card driving two monitors - 1680x1050 and 1280x1024.

I have another matching 1280x1024 monitor laying around, if I just pop in a 4350 or 4650 or 4670 video card am capable of running 3 or 4 monitors? I have no need for 4 monnitors, but would love to put this spare 1280x1024 monitor to work displaying e-books and API docs and so forth... No interest in Crossfire, the 4890 is overkill for the games I play...

I guess Windows manages the placement of the 3 montors, so I can have the 1280x1024 monitors as bookends to the 1680x1050?

BTW, Asus P6T Deluxe v2 mobo with an Antec TruePower 650w

thanks...

 

[brblx]

the answer is basically 'yes' to all your questions. you have plenty of pcie slots and a second ati video card would allow you to control up to four independent displays.

 

[snouter]

thanks... I figured as much... I've done it with Macs no problem, but for all of the talk I see about SLI and Crossfire (ie running 2 video cards with 4 outputs), I really don't hear much about 3 and 4 monitor set-ups?

I was going to buy a higher res main monitor, then I was like, whoa... a $50 solution is possible...

thanks...

 

[brblx]

you're not actually using crossfire. crossfire is used for driving multiple GPU's to work on rendering in the same program on the same monitor. all you have to do is stick in the second card, and windows will probably find the drivers (since you've already got the cat drivers for your 4890). then you can configure your displays through ati's control panel.

 

[snouter]

right on, I have no interest in Crossfire, so that's cool...

I just meant a lot of people have 2+ video cards, but I don't see a lot of chatter about 3 or 4 screen set-ups.