need 4 monitor support...ideas?

[MrDudeMan]

system specs

x2 3800+
DFI LP NF4-D
2gb DDR400
7800GT
2x 2405FPWs

i actually need more monitor space. i have 2 spare 15" LCDs but i dont know what video card would best suite this system as a secondary.

i play games fairly frequently, so it cant interfere with that. i use ultramon btw, so when i open up a game, i click disable secondary monitors. i assume this same feature will work with 4 monitors.

do i need to get another Nvidia card to avoid having driver issues? i dont need dual DVI, but if there is a good deal on a card with dual DVI, i can always convert to VGA.

also, can i put another, different card in the PCI-E x16 slot? or do i have to use a regular PCI slot?

price range is 40-80. i would prefer to spend lower than higher as this only has to support 2d and dx9. mem size shouldnt make a difference, right?

thanks!

 

[lifeblood]

Get a second vid card. Stick with the same GPU manufacturer. ATI drivers do not play nice with nvidia drivers. Any older video card will do. I have a 6800GT PCIe and a FX 5200 PCI and they work well with each other. I would try to stick with DVI and convert it to VGA when needed. Eventually VGA will go away.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: lifeblood
Get a second vid card. Stick with the same GPU manufacturer. ATI drivers do not play nice with nvidia drivers. Any older video card will do. I have a 6800GT PCIe and a FX 5200 PCI and they work well with each other. I would try to stick with DVI and convert it to VGA when needed. Eventually VGA will go away.

can i use another PCI-E card? or do i need to get a PCI card only?

 

[MrDudeMan]

what about this?

Text

can you use different PCI-E cards?

 

[zephyrprime]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
what about this?

Text

can you use different PCI-E cards?

Should be able to.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
what about this?

Text

can you use different PCI-E cards?

Should be able to.

k, ill give it a go. its pretty cheap so no harm done if it doesnt work i guess.

 

[morgash]

u might wanna research that card a little more. It says "supports 256mb". that would have me a little worried that it is referring to turbo cache. if it started eating up ur RAM to feed its slow as hell self well, that wouldnt be good. stick with something with onboard RAM only

 

[MrDudeMan]

i said i wont be using it to play games. 64-128mb is way more than enough to run a 2d environment smoothly. i run a lot of stuff at once, usually using 1.25-1.7gb of ram, but big deal if it needs to borrow some...

it wont do that though. not in windows anyway...and this card will never be used to play any sort of game.

 

[lifeblood]

The 6200 LE you chose requires a PCIe 16x slot. Do not get it unless you have an SLI board or you won't be able to use it and the 7800 GT. I agree with morgash to stay away from anything that uses turbo cache if you can.

 

[lifeblood]

I quick check on your board shows that it is SLI, so ya, I think the card will be fine although I don't like turbo cache.