Videocard suggestion for running 3 monitors?

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Productivity class, general office, Running such stuff as Outlook, Sharepoint, Excel, etc. I assume there are single cards able to run 3 monitors now days, but not sure on the low end what is out there. Don't need some blistering Eyefinity setup, just for general office tasks.

Suggestions?

 

[lifeblood]

Yea, two cards.

In the old days I ran a AGP and PCI cards. Nowadays I get a board with two x16 slots and run two low end PCIe cards. I ran run rig with two monitors plugged into the discreet graphics card and the third monitor plugged into the IGP. If you can find a PCIe x1 card you like that will also work, but I haven't seen very many of those.

The trick to this is two inexpensive cards. Now that CPU + GPU chips are coming out, NV and AMD just aren't making the low end cards anymore so you'll have to settle for earlier generation cards. With XP you had to run two ATI or two NV cards that used the same driver, but with Win7 your no longer stuck with that.

 

[RussianSensation]

You can get it done on 1 modern AMD card or this HD6770 for $88 after 20% off coupon. There are 2 main options:

1) DVI + DVI + Displayport
2) DVI + HDMI + Displayport

For either option, you have to get an Active DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.

If you want another option, you can get 2x NV GPUs that will drive 2x 2560x1600 displays each for a total of 4. For that you need 2x Full length PCI Express slots (doesn't matter what speed 4x/8x/16x).

Zotac GT430 40607-10L is $40 a piece.
http://www.zotacusa.com/specsheet/ZT-40607-10L.pdf

This assumes you aren't going to be using these cards for gaming on 3 screens.

 

[reallyscrued]

Lots of options, lifeblood's the easiest.

If you got 2 PCI-E slots, everytime Newegg has a sale on an open box 5450/6450 or a 9600, jump on it. Grab two, and don't look back.

Don't do one card unless you want displayport hell and sometimes you'll have issues running like, 2 h.264 videos at a time and what not.

Oh, get the same brand for both cards, try to get them to match you onboard too.

Having both nVidia and ATI drivers at once on a machine is just asking for trouble.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like things really haven't changed. All our 3 monitor rigs are doing as noted, 2 low end cards of the same mfg (Nvidia on most). Thought maybe someone was making a low end, triple setup pushing 1920. Guess there isn't money in it

Will grab a couple of $40 cards and keep on like we have been. Windows 7 sure has been a huge improvement over older versions when it comes to multi-monitor support.

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like things really haven't changed. All our 3 monitor rigs are doing as noted, 2 low end cards of the same mfg (Nvidia on most). Thought maybe someone was making a low end, triple setup pushing 1920. Guess there isn't money in it

Will grab a couple of $40 cards and keep on like we have been. Windows 7 sure has been a huge improvement over older versions when it comes to multi-monitor support.

Windows 8 should be even better for multi-monitor use. The problem is not just lack of cards that support more than 3 monitors under $100, but in general the market for good sub-$100 desktop GPUs is pretty much dead, which makes the choice even harder nowadays since AMD and NV no longer make cards specifically for sub-$100 GPU market on the desktop. Whatever you see < $100 is mostly outdated/old generation cards (except HD7750).

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I've actually found that the best solution for a lot of our mobile workers on laptops with docking stations are those $100 USB monitors. They just work. Not fighting with drivers, or slots and power issues. Perfect for field use as a second monitor, and when in the office as a 3rd monitor for Outlook.

I may just order another one of those plug ins than try and do a traditional setup.

 

[lifeblood]

You can get it done on 1 modern AMD card or this HD6770 for $88 after 20% off coupon. There are 2 main options:

1) DVI + DVI + Displayport
2) DVI + HDMI + Displayport

For either option, you have to get an Active DisplayPort to HDMI adapter

I didn't bother mentioning this because of the necessity of the Displayport monitors or active adapter. Once Displayport screens become more prevalent then this will be the easiest method.

 

[KingFatty]

I'd think that if you need to spend extra money on a displayport adapter, then why not get 2 cheap cards instead. I mean, you could potentially get two $15 (after rebate) cheap cards to support up to 4 monitors, which is about the same cost of a cheap $30 displayport adapter alone.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Thanks for the suggestions, ended up grabbing two open box 8400GS for $25 a pop. Yeah they are old, and going in an Optiplex 390, but should be fine for Excel and Outlook type programs.