What card to get for a triple monitor setup?

[Zer0Cool]

Hello,

I currently have one 24? monitor and one old school 16? LCD that both connected to a single 9800GTX video card. I play WoW and I cant say I get the best of FPS there, but it?s playable. I am currently in the process of adding two additional 22? or two 24? inch monitors for a triple monitor setup. I know that you need ether 2 video cards in order to be able to use 3 monitors or a single ?Radeon HD 4850 X2? that has 4 DVI ports.

My question is will my FPS better benefit from having a one ?Radeon HD 4850 X2? and have all 3 monitors connected to it or to connect the 2 secondary monitors to a 9800GTX and ether get a GeForce GTX 285 or a 295 modal video card and have my primary gaming monitor connected to it? The secondary monitors will be used for IE, Ventrillo, MIRC, AIM?etc

Someone told me that ?its better to have a single ?Radeon HD 4850 X2? then a second add on card because you cut down on the latency between the data (image) transfers to the second and third monitor.? Tell you honestly I?m not sure what he means by that, but here are my current specs, also keep in mind that I?am in the works of upgrading to the i7 processor with the x58 mobo.

My current specs;

- DFI LP UT P35 MOBO
- Intel Q9450 (Quad Core)
- GeForce 9800GTX
- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2
- 3X WD640AAKS HDD (2 in RAID 0)
- Dell 24" 2407WFP-HC Monitor -
- Razer Barracuda? AC-1 (Sound Card)
- 850W PSU

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I recently picked up a PCI 8400GS to run three monitors along with my PCIe 8800GT (no more PCIe slots on my motherboard).

For normal stuff, it does seem to work fine, occasionally I notice a little lag when moving windows onto the monitor that's driven by the PCI card. This might be what that reference you mentioned was talking about. Generally speaking, though, it hasn't bothered me much, since I don't move windows between screens that much. I can't comment on gaming much, but it hasn't really affected the performance I see in Final Fantasy XI one way or the other.

If you're intending to span the game across multiple screens, obviously that might be different, but it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do.

 

[TheInternal]

the 9800 GTX is struggling with WOW? My 6800 Ultra powered WOW at 1920x1200 full detail settings at very acceptable frame rates ._.

That sounds fishy.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: TheInternal
the 9800 GTX is struggling with WOW? My 6800 Ultra powered WOW at 1920x1200 full detail settings at very acceptable frame rates ._.

My 7800GT was giving teens at times at 1280x1024. I highly suspect you're talking about some time before they did the engine update.

 

[somethingsketchy]

With the rig you have I would suggest you add a second card and put the second and third monitors on the second graphics card. Have your current 24" run on the 9800GTX and play WoW off of that. Since I have never really played any MMOs (my preference is towards FPS's and RTS's), but I suspect the second card will take some of the load off of your 9800GTX.

Especially with the quad core processor (either Q9450 or i7) you'll be hard-pressed to have issues with latency. Short of running anti-virus, music, Firefox with 10+ tabs, etc. I don't see how you would run into a latency issue if you used two different cards at once.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: ZetaEpyon
If you're intending to span the game across multiple screens, obviously that might be different, but it doesn't sound like that's what you want to do.

Agree that a low-end card (compatible with the primary card's Nvidia driver for Vista) would be the simplest and cheapest solution for 2D apps/windows on the 2nd and 3rd monitors.

Spanning a 3D game across multiple monitors is normally a big load on the graphics card, calling on multiple large frame buffers.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Or you could just get a 4850x2 1GB and call it a day.

 

[Zer0Cool]

Thank you for your quick responses guys!

1st. I?m not looking for the most cheapest way, but instead the one that will give me the most performance. I am NOT trying to play on all 3 monitors, no just one, both of the secondary monitors will be used for IE and a bunch of different apps. However If I do decide to accomplish that, how can that be done? Assuming I?m aiming for at least a decent gaming performance. Can that be done with 1 9800GTX and 1 of the Nvidia 200 series cards?

2nd. The latency issue that I think he might of been referring to is due to my DFI P35 MOBO. I have only 1 PCIE1 at 16X and the other is at x4. If I would to place 9800GTX on a x4 rail and connect 2 secondary monitors to it & then get one of the Nvidia 200 series cards and place it on a 16X I should be fine right? (This is only for a 1 middle gaming monitor, the other 2 are for apps)

4th. Another question is, out of what 2 setup?s will I get better performance? Option 1 I just mentioned on top ^^^ option 2 is to get one 4850x2 (4 DVI slots) and connect all 3 monitors to it. Which option will give me better performance?

5th. Do I need to download/install 2 sets of different drivers since Nvidia 9800 & 200 series cards use differnt drivers.

Please keep in mind that I am planning on upgrading to an X58 mobo with the i7....etc.

 

[imported_Ivan244]

What about Matrox Triple Head2go?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

 

[CurseTheSky]

I just recently upgraded from an 8800GTX to GTX285 at 1920x1200.

With the old card, WoW was consistently dropping into the mid to low 20s in highly populated areas in Northrend (Dalaran, etc.), and in areas with a lot going on in the distance (many trees, lots of objects or units, etc.) Indoors and in outdoor areas without too much happening, I would stay around 60-70 FPS.

With the new card, I still dip down into the mid to high 20s every once in a while in Dalaran, but no where near as much. The biggest improvement came from outdoor settings, where I usually hover around 40 FPS in crowded areas, or 100+ FPS otherwise.

With old world content, both cards walk all over it, obviously. The moral of the story is, don't expect a $200 graphics card to get you insane FPS numbers in Northrend. Try turning down your shadows and your view distance a bit - that'll help the most. Disappointing? Perhaps, but at least they made the new areas look a bit more interesting...

 

[aka1nas]

Unless you are trying to run games across multiple monitors(using a TH2GO or Softth), the combination of cards should not be relevant.