nvidia: Why only 2 monitors?

[Dropmachine]

Why? Why do they only output 2 monitors when they have 3/4 connections? Is it just a driver issue that says do 2 only? I don't get it. If they would do more they'd be more attractive to people like me who wants a triple setup for illustration...

any ideas?

 

[Genx87]

I believe it is a hardware limitation.

 

[Lonyo]

They can't generate the clocks for more than 2 outputs, and haven't sorted out giving more outputs for Displayport displays.
There is a GTX460 with 4 outputs from Zotac which all work (although no idea if they support NV Surround), or you can buy 2 cards, or get low end card with multiple display outputs (but one which won't allow gaming).

Or obviously buy ATI if you have a Displayport monitor/get a Displayport adapter.

 

[Seero]

Why? Why do they only output 2 monitors when they have 3/4 connections? Is it just a driver issue that says do 2 only? I don't get it. If they would do more they'd be more attractive to people like me who wants a triple setup for illustration...

any ideas?

What are you talking about? What 3/4 connections? Which model is it?

 

[Genx87]

I believe the 400 and 500 series have 2xDVI + HDMI. But you can only use 2 of the 3 to drive a monitor.

 

[Seero]

I believe the 400 and 500 series have 2xDVI + HDMI. But you can only use 2 of the 3 to drive a monitor.

Nvidia cards can only support up to 2 display at a time with the exception of dual GPU card like 295. Even with 295, user can only gain access to 3x display as 1 GPU controls 2 DVI ports, and the other GPU controls the HDMI port when the card wasn't set to "multi-GPU" mode.

If 3xdisplays is that important, you can simply get another card, or Triplehead2go. The variation of ports are built for options, not extensions.

 

[Termie]

I believe it is a hardware limitation.

They can't generate the clocks for more than 2 outputs, and haven't sorted out giving more outputs for Displayport displays.

This.

Only Displayport is able to drive multiple monitors with a single clock generator. Any card that relies on VGA, DVI, or HDMI for multi-display capability will be limited to the number of clock generators on the video card, which is almost always two.

 

[Vette73]

Yea if I remember the story, anadtech review?, it was a couple people inside AMD/ati that came up with driving more than 2 outputs and was their secret project. So it was not even a company wide thing.

If not for their little thing on the side AMD would probable be 2 display only as well.

 

[digitaldurandal]

I believe the 400 and 500 series have 2xDVI + HDMI. But you can only use 2 of the 3 to drive a monitor.

Yes because they use the same part to drive all three. One just switches to sending signal to HDMI.

I agree with the OP and have often lamented that I cannot get a single nVidia card for surround gaming. However I guess they won because I bought two, therefor I apologize for not doing my part to influence them to remedy the situation.