using pci and pci-e to support 4 lcd's??

[jklmt]

Have been thinking of buying new system from either dell, hp, or gateway. Is it possible to have pci and pci-e cards working together to support 4 lcd's. Some say vista won't support it b/c it will interfere w/ Aero capabilities. I've been looking at the dell XPS 420w/ x38chipset but it only has one pci-e slot. So i'm thinking of adding an additional pci card(same chipset)...will it work?? No gaimg here....

 

[Billb2]

Hmmm. interesting question.
I know you can not run two different drivers from the same manufacturer (ie. two different nvidia drivers) for the same buss. For multiple cards you have to run the same driver for both cards.
But can you run, say, an nvidia PCI driver with an Nvidia PCIe driver? I would think not though I don't know.
Best bet would be ATI on PCI and Nvidia on PCIe (or vice versa). That I know will work.
Then there's the Nvidia Quatro cards..........

 

[mypaisa]

I was just about to post the exact same question. I just purchased a quad monitor stand and four 24" displays, and now I need a pc and video card to go with it.

The two cards I found that seem to be what I am looking for are these on NewEgg:

PNY VCQ440NVS-PCIEX16-PB Quadro4 NVS440 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Workstation Video Card

ATI 100-505115 FireMV 2400 256MB DDR PCI Express x1 Low Profile Workstation Video Card

The PNY uses the MDS-59 connection and is pciex16 whereas the ATI uses the VHDCI connection and is pciex1.

Does anyone have any experience with these on XP and Vista?

Can anyone shed some light on the two types of connections and what the benefits of either may be? I am a trader - not a gamer or 3d designer - I just needs something to drive 4 displays. Should I get two cards instead?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Twsmit]

Vista requires the same drivers for both video cards so I don't see a problem if you buy the same GPU such as a 8400 GT in both PCIe and PCI form.


EDIT: And as long as you use a compatible driver that works with both cards you could even match a pair of different cards, such as a 9800GTX and a 8400 assuming they use the same driver which I think is the case now.

A quick glance at newegg shows that PCI cards are quickly disappearing, the most modern appear to be ATi HD2400's and there are hardly any cards with dual DVI output.

If I were the OP I would try and find a board with dual PCIe x16 and match a midrange card that is capable of gaming with a low end dual DVI card, that is what I would do if it were me.

 

[mypaisa]

TWSMIT - Thanks for the speedy reply. The only reason I was trying to choose one cared to drive 4 displays is so that I would have the option of adding another card (additional displays) in the future without upgrading the PC. Do you have any input regarding pcix16 (version 1) versus pcix1 (version 2) - the PNY card comes in both flavors and I am not sure which is better.

 

[Twsmit]

There is no difference on current generation video cards. PCIe 2.0 provides more bandwidth and voltage, both of which are not necessary.

 

[MartinD]

Hey

Newbie to the forum here. I have a similar situation but running 1 x pci and 1 x pci-e cards to run 4 screens.

I've got an ATI Radeon X1550 in the PCI-E slot and an nVidia GeForce 6 in the PCI slot.
Doesn't matter what I do, I can't get the nVidia to show anything more than 4bit colour and 640x480 resolution. I've installed, reinstalled, removed and installed the drivers more times that I can remember and searched all over Googleand for answers but I'm getting nowhere.

Anyone got any suggestions?

(sorry to hi-jack the thread, btw)

Cheers,

Mart

 

[Jax Omen]

this isn't a thread-jack, it's a necro. Make a new topic instead of reviving old topics.