Cheap solution for 3 monitors

cctaylor88

Senior member
Nov 2, 2012
214
1
76
Currently I have dual monitors on my desk running just fine, and my big screen tv hooked up as well... but am unable to view all three at once. So what I currently do to watch movies and such is just mirror my main monitor and my TV while essentially "disconnecting" the secondary monitor. However, I want to keep this same setup (2 monitors, 1 tv) but add a third desktop monitor. I would like three independent monitors running at once, with the ability to "disconnect" one of them and utilize the tv as a monitor for movies etc... here is the problem. I have a gpu that only supports two outputs at once (hence why i disconnect one monitor to watch stuff on the tv) what is the cheapest way to go about this?
So to recap
Currently: have 2 independent monitors w/ability to switch over to TV
Want: 3 independent monitors w/ability to switch over to TV

My motherboard is the Asus M4A87TD/USB3 it has a single PCI Express 2.0 x 16 and three PCI slots
GPU GTX 460

Can I just buy a cheap video card and add it to a PCI slot? If I do this will it allow me to run 3 monitors independent of each other?

Also, I am not opposed to buying a new GPU in the $200 or less range that will support 3 monitors...just want them all on at the same time obviously and have the ability to switch over to the TV when needed (so technically 4 monitors need to be connected I guess, but only 3 at once is what I would like).
 

greenhawk

Platinum Member
Feb 23, 2011
2,007
1
71
for most nvidia cards (in the cheap end using the older gpu's) only ever supported dual outputs. So finding a pci nvidia card (as having two different gpu manufactures in one PC always had quirks when I have done it) is the better option, but PCI video cards are painful in terms of price vs performance. The only ones I have seen around last time I checked made getting a new video card a better option.

As to a single video card, I think some of the newer nVidia can do more than 2 outputs, but I am very sure they are not under $200.

So your options are to look at AMD/ATI's range of cards, specifically ones that can do Eyefinity (upto 8 outputs IIRC) and find one that has the outputs you want.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-eyefinity-technology/Pages/eyefinity.aspx