Tri CRT output?

[Maezr]

I've got three monitors, all CRT.. Two 15", one 21". I'm building my computer now.. I'm going to be running a lot of pretty graphic intense stuff (lightwave, 3ds max, among others..)

I can have a card on both AGP and PCI, correct? I was thinking one video card for the primary (21" monitor) and then one video card on PCI for the two 15"s. Would this work? What video cards would you suggust?

 

[Maezr]

If I could get a response to this, it'd be much appreciated.

 

[TerryMathews]

Well, you were halfway there on your own. No one makes an affordable tri-head or quad-head video card, so let's look at your limitations. Since you've only got one AGP slot, you'll need at least one PCI card. nVidia cards are the only ones that support multi-card OpenGL rendering, and then only on the Quadro series.

Since the only PCI card nVidia makes is the GeForce2MX, you might as well get a dual head AGP MX400 and a dual head PCI MX400, to give yourself room to expand. It should be fairly easy to mod those cards to be Quadro2MX400s. If you're not comfortable modding them yourself, I'd say you should be able to pay someone to do the mod for you fairly cheaply.

 

[Maezr]

Erm, what exactly to you mean by modding them?

And, as far as room to expand.. I doubt I'll add a fourth monitor, if I get a new one, I'll ditch one of the 15"s and replace it with something larger. Again, though, for the larger monitor, I'd like to have a better video card, because I'll be running the majority of intense things on there..

Edit: Oh, the GF2 MX series only allow two CRTs if it has a second ramdac.. and, erm, as far as I know, it's not even possible to add a ramdac, right? 😱

 

[TerryMathews]

The mod involves the movement of two resistors.

I know that the MX only supports two monitors. That's why I said you would need one AGP card and one PCI card. There is no point in getting a faster AGP card as you would be limited by the PCI card's speed, since it is only available as a GeForce2MX400...

I know this is complicated, but it's the only way to get OpenGL acceleration on more than two screens. No-one makes an affordable quad-head card. :disgust:

 

[Maezr]

So would it not really be worth it? I wouldn't even need the opengl on all three, would I? At the most, I'd be using two for the intense stuff, and a third for maybe browser and smaller things..

I still don't understand the Geforce II MXs.. They say they can support dual CRTs only with a second RAMDAC.. Do some come with a second? Do you need to add one somehow? 😱

 

[AA0]

for dual monitors, ATI is the best way to go, IMO. The 7500 and 8500 both have dual monitor standard. If you have 3 monitors and are heavily into that kinda work, you would want to spend the money investing in a firegl or quadro card. There are a lot of pci cards around, from voodoos, to mxs, to radeons.