Multi-Monitor Video Cards

[Azmyth]

I work for a small company which needs video cards that support up to 8 monitors on a single workstation. I've done some research and I've only found video cards that support 2 and 4 monitors and some use PCI, yes... OLD PCI. Hardly any use AGP and almost none of them use PCI-e.

Has anyone hacked an 8 monitor system together? Are there 8 monitor video cards that use AGP or PCI-e?

Any help on this is greatly appreciated. I'm still researching but I'm not finding much else. Price is not really a factor and I can spend up to $1000 on a single card.

Many, many thanks in advance for any help.

 

[rbV5]

Check out the Xentera from Appian. These guys know multihead graphics, and have been building them for the financial markets for years.Link

 

[Azmyth]

No AGP or PCI-e with the 8 montior card

I'm putting this card in an Athlon X2 64 w/ 4GB of RAM and a 10k RPM HD and I think the video card will be a hugh bottleneck. I'm afraid the PCI slots are too slow for 8 monitors. Plus, the Xentera is a ATI Mobility 9000 chip.

Can you run the PCI-e card that support 4 monitors in SLI or just simply use the faster bus and run in dual mode? and will the slow graphics ship be a burden?

Again, many thanks in advance.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Azmyth
No AGP or PCI-e with the 8 montior card

I'm putting this card in an Athlon X2 64 w/ 4GB of RAM and a 10k RPM HD and I think the video card will be a hugh bottleneck. I'm afraid the PCI slots are too slow for 8 monitors. Plus, the Xentera is a ATI Mobility 9000 chip.

Can you run the PCI-e card that support 4 monitors in SLI or just simply use the faster bus and run in dual mode? and will the slow graphics ship be a burden?

Again, many thanks in advance.

I'd talk to the appian guys about performance concerns. I believe they support up to 32 displays on a single PC, so PCI may work fine for what you need to use it for. It sounds like you have a unique requirement, so I'd try the pros first and see what they say.

 

[erwos]

The Matrox G550e works in PCI Express x1 slots, and supports 2 monitors a piece. Combine them with a pair of PCI Express x16 P650s. It should not be overly taxing to find a motherboard with a total of four PCI Express slots .

-Erwos

 

[Azmyth]

I didn't know motherboards had more than 2 PCI Express slots. That could work.

The reason I want AGP or PCI Express is because I though PCI only could handle 133Mbps where as AGP can do 2Gbps and PCI Express can do 8Gpbs+.

Each monitor is going to run both 2D and 3D applications at 1600x1200 so I only assumed it was going to need the faster bus speed.

Maybe I'm wrong. I'll call up Colorgraphics and see what they say.

Keep the suggestions coming, though. They are really helpful!

Thanks

 

[rbV5]

Each monitor is going to run both 2D and 3D applications at 1600x1200 so I only assumed it was going to need the faster bus speed

Good luck on 3D applications. Most of these single PC multimonitor setups(quad+) are good for 2D, but piss-poor for 3D.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Each monitor is going to run both 2D and 3D applications at 1600x1200 so I only assumed it was going to need the faster bus speed

Good luck on 3D applications. Most of these single PC multimonitor setups(quad+) are good for 2D, but piss-poor for 3D.

Agreed - cards dedicated to huge numbers of monitors generally are not performance kings.

Perhaps you could run a setup where 4 of the 8 monitors would perform good 3D, and the other 4 are "2D only." This could be done easily with a 2x PCIe x16 board, a pair of dual-output high power cards, and then filling out the other 4 with lower-end PCI or PCIe x1 cards.

- M4H

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: Azmyth
Each monitor is going to run both 2D and 3D applications at 1600x1200 so I only assumed it was going to need the faster bus speed.

If you can find a solution for 8 monitors of accelerated 3D, let us know. I know nVidia supports acceleration on a per-card basis with multiple cards (ie, you can't drag across cards), but I am unsure whether Matrox has similar driver support. My guess is yes, though.

PCI Express is not a shared bus, which is why it's so excellent for things like this.

-Erwos