Quad Video Card - 4 Monitors 1600 X 1200 DVI

[Inayat]

Hello people.

I am looking for a video card that will run four LCD screens at 1600 X 1200 each, preferably with DVI for each monitor. I don't do any videogames, so 3D graphics acceleration is not a factor. That being said, it would be nice for the card to have basic DirectX compatibility as I think I read that the next version of Windows will sort of require it.

I have done some research, but there doesn't really appear to be a lot of competition in this category.

The front runner at this point seems to be the Xentera line from Colorgraphic.

http://www.colorgraphic.net/newsite/products/xentera_gt4_models.asp

They have an AGP and a PCI Express model that does exactly what I was asking for. 4 X 1600X1200 run with DVI. Also, it is based on the Radeon 9000 chipset and hence is DirectX compatible.

They even have one that dos 8 monitors. I thought what I had in mind was overkill, and that is a step beyond even my limits.

It doesn't look like there is anything in the Matrox line which does what I'm asking. I thought the Matrox G450 MMS was it, but it only does a max of 1280 X 1024 when using DVI. It's analog resolution is higher.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/user_manuals/g450mms/g450mms_en.pdf

I know ATI has announced their FireMV line, which will include a quad 1600 X 1200 DVI model. A couple concerns about that would be that the FireMV might be overly expensive, even for this category, and it doesn?t have any 3D capability whatsoever, i.e. not DirectX compatible. This only concerns me as I want the card to be compatible with Longhorn or whatever the next version of Windows is called.

http://www.ati.com/products/firemvseries/

Does anyone have any experiences with any of these cards?

Is there anything else I should be considering?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Sunner]

How about getting two video cards with dual DVI outputs?

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Sunner
How about getting two video cards with dual DVI outputs?

yeah, esp with nforce 4 boards have 2 pcie 16 slots, this shouldnt be very difficult.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: Sunner
How about getting two video cards with dual DVI outputs?

yeah, esp with nforce 4 boards have 2 pcie 16 slots, this shouldnt be very difficult.

not sure about that, i could be wrong though. but if u meant a SLi set up then think again, with SLI you can only use the outputs on one card. the other 2nd card doesnt out put any signal, it sends it to the 1st card instead.

but if u meant just runing 2 seperatly then i dunno maybe

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: Sunner
How about getting two video cards with dual DVI outputs?

yeah, esp with nforce 4 boards have 2 pcie 16 slots, this shouldnt be very difficult.

not sure about that, i could be wrong though. but if u meant a SLi set up then think again, with SLI you can only use the outputs on one card. the other 2nd card doesnt out put any signal, it sends it to the 1st card instead.

but if u meant just runing 2 seperatly then i dunno maybe

That's what I was thinking since he mentioned that 3D performance was unimportant.
Say two Matrox Milenniums running separately.

Never done it myself though, so no idea if it would work, but I don't see why not

 

[Arcanedeath]

As long as you get Nvida cards or at least cards from the same maker you should be able to run 2 graphics cards w/ Dual DVI to get what you are looking for and it would be far cheaper than getting a single card that supports quad DVI @ 1600x1200. IE you could use 2 Geforce 6600's or 6600GT's w/ Dual DVI and not run them in SLI mode and get 4 displays.

 

[Redfoot]

The DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 ULTRA-D is touted as being able to run two PCI-E cards simultaneously (non-SLI). If you want to futureproof, give them a look. Or you could always find some ATI 9200's and GeForce 5500's that are PCI based, though I have no experience with a two card system. Stick to the same manufacturer, that is for sure.

Good luck.

-Redfoot

 

[JMag]

Are there no PCI(not express)Dual DVI cards? I know I have a 9200SE that's PCI which I got as a backup card and I can't quite remember atm but I am pretty sure it is 1 VGA and 1 DVI... It would seem there would be a PCI card which has DUAL DVI...