GPU Advice for 3 Screen Setup?

[Dorsalphin]

Hey guys,

I recently changed around the format of my home office and I now have a 50" 4k tv above my desk, which already houses my dual dell u2412's. Since the tv is right there I figure why not connect it to the pc too (via hdmi b/c no display port)? Problem is I'm pretty sure my current card (gigabyte gtx460 -- 5 years went by so fast!) only supports two screens at any given time. So I was hoping to get some suggestions and knowledge thrown my way as to how best to proceed.

I rarely game and when I do my gtx460 still runs everything I throw at it, so that tells you pretty much all you need to know there. I would still mainly use my two 2412's but it would be nice to have the option to throw things up on the 3rd screen (the tv) if needed. The rest of my rig is an i7 3770k, 16 gigs of ram, a couple SSD's, and a Corsair HX620 PSU, all running on a Gigabyte GA-z77x-UDH3 mobo.

There's no real budget but I'd prefer not to go out and overpay for a card I'm never going to fully take advantage of. Everything I read tends to assume that I'll be using my screens in side by side by side format but my setup is one of a pyramid so all this eyefinity talk doesn't apply to me.

TL;DR -- 3rd screen magically appeared above me and now I need a new GPU. Teach me the mystical ways of the tri screen setup.

 

[Headfoot]

r9 290 allows 3xDVI/HDMI off the single controller in it whereas cards before it only allowed you to get 3 or more monitors when you put the extras on displayport. If you need to run 3 hdmi I think r9 290/390/290x/390x/Fury/Fury X are the only ones that support that but I'm not 100% certain. Maybe Maxwell 2 does it too? Perhaps also the 285/380. Maybe the 260x/7790 as well...

I know I run 2xhdmi+1xDVI on my 290 now and it works

 

[thesmokingman]

You're not doing a Surround or Eyefinity setup so it really doesn't matter. You don't need a Fury or high end card unless you want one. Get whatever card that fits your needs for gaming, and don't worry about the multi outputs because all modern cards support at least 3 panels. However if you are connecting a tv sometimes I might get a very low powered card just for that because I don't want those settings attached to my gaming gpu. Also, AMD cards are generally slightly better at mixed display modes. Btw, you could just add another low powered gpu something 60 bucks ish just to power your tv.

 

[Dorsalphin]

whereas cards before it only allowed you to get 3 or more monitors when you put the extras on displayport.

Only the tv will be connected via hdmi and since I can run both my 24" Dell monitors off of display port connections if need be I don't think I will be limited to the new cards (at least as I understand it).

Btw, you could just add another low powered gpu something 60 bucks ish just to power your tv.

For some reason I had it in my head having two cards would cause problems if not identical and running in SLI. I'll have to look into this option b/c it sounds like this may be the way to go since my current card is working just fine for me and all I really want to do connect the tv. Any suggestions on low end cards that play well with other GPUs?

 

[Headfoot]

Try running the monitors off displayport and the TV off HDMI, it should work if you have enough displayports on the graphics card

 

[Dorsalphin]

Try running the monitors off displayport and the TV off HDMI, it should work if you have enough displayports on the graphics card

My current card is way too old and doesn't support 3 devices at once so I need to either upgrade it entirely or, if it's an option, buy a 2nd card just for the tv.

 

[KingFatty]

Does your motherboard support activating the on-board video output (from the Intel on-board graphics) while still keeping the GTX-460 active?

It would be essentially free to simply enable dual GPU output that way, using 2 outputs from the discrete video card to your displays, and the DVI output from the motherboard to the TV (using a DVI-HDMI adapter or cable).

If you can't get the motherboard to support both of your existing GPUs simultaneously, Gigabyte's website mentions something about dynamically switching between them, which might get the job done just as well for switching to TV mode: "Allows users to dynamically switch between built-in graphics and high-end, 3D discrete graphics cards."

 

[Dorsalphin]

Does your motherboard support activating the on-board video output (from the Intel on-board graphics) while still keeping the GTX-460 active?

It would be essentially free to simply enable dual GPU output that way, using 2 outputs from the discrete video card to your displays, and the DVI output from the motherboard to the TV (using a DVI-HDMI adapter or cable)."

Damn good question; I've never tried but maybe I'll get lucky and my board will allow both to operate at the same time. I'll start there b/c if I don't have to change anything that would obviously be the easiest and quickest route to take. Thanks.

 

[Headfoot]

My current card is way too old and doesn't support 3 devices at once so I need to either upgrade it entirely or, if it's an option, buy a 2nd card just for the tv.

Have you actually tried though? Displayport Displays are not the same as HDMI/DVI displays when it comes to counting how many it can do even on older chips. It may still not work but it cant hurt to try it if you havent already

 

[Dorsalphin]

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help. It took a bit of work but I ended up getting the onboard to work with the dedicated GPU so I'm up and running. It's not perfect but it'll work for now until I decide it's time to retire my gtx 460.