Help with 3 monitor setup?

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iiayjayo

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Oct 15, 2013
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Here is my current PC: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FZ8MXL

I have an Asus monitor that supports HDMI, VGA, and DVI.

I have two Asus monitors that each have 2 HDMI ports, and one VGA port.

My GTX 660 has HDMI, VGA, DVI, and DisplayPort.

My question:
What is the best way to set up 3 monitors for an extended desktop? I DO NOT plan on gaming on all 3 monitors simultaneously. I only want to game on one monitor. But I want to have all three available for the extra desktop space.

Is it possible to have one monitor connected through HDMI, one through DisplayPort, and one through DVI, each one running to my single graphics card? Please help, I've been Googling about this for several hours, and I don't want to spend money on something just to have it not work for me.

Thanks for your time.
 
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turkey3_scratch

turkey3_scratch

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The amount of graphics outputs that are on your GPU are the amount of monitors that GPU will support. If there are 3, then it can support 3 monitors, If there are 2, then it will only support two monitors, and a third would require an additional GPU. It doesn't matter in what way you connect to the monitor, just as long as you actually connect.
 
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iiayjayo

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I thought I read somewhere that one of the monitors HAS to be DisplayPort, and something else about Active/Passive adapters. I tried to read up on it, but I don't really understand it, when it's needed and when it's not.
 
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iiayjayo

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Also, I feel like I should mention that if DP is required for one of the monitors, I won't EXACTLY be using DP to connect to one of my monitors. I would have to use a DP to HDMI cable since none of my monitors support DP. Would that be a problem? This is all assuming that it is in fact necessary to have at least one DP connection.
 
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iiayjayo

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Okay, awesome, so this is the connection I'm wanting to do:

DVI Port on GPU ---> DVI Cable ---> Asus VH236H DVI Port
HDMI Port on GPU ---> HDMI Cable ---> Asus VN247H-P HDMI Port
DisplayPort on GPU ---> DisplayPort to HDMI Cable This ---> Asus VN247H-P HDMI Port

This should be okay?
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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If all 3 monitors are 1080p, it won't make a difference. The only differences apply to higher resolutions, like if you plan to split-screen a game and run it on all 3 simultaneously in which case with nvidia cards you need to have identical monitors (or so I understand). Standard hdmi is only capable of 1080p, as is dvi, but depending on the exact card you have, dual link dvi will support higher resolutions, as will display port.
What I've found with my monitors and my 660ti is that no matter what connection I've used, my dual link dvi is monitor #1, primary on boot, and the dp/hdmi/dvi is secondary on boot until nvidia control panel steps in and changes that order. Currently both monitors are dvi on gpu because I prefer the hard screw-up type mount to the easy plug of the hdmi/do. At 1080p I've seen exactly no change in either as far as performance goes. Considering I have 2x dvi, vga, and dp, I'd say I'd have to use dp, if I added a 3rd monitor, just to be able to keep the 1080p
 
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k1114

k1114

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Yes that's ok.

@karad, Hdmi and dvi (dl) are capable of 2560x1600 @ 60hz. Only sl is limited to 1920x1200. Dl dvi can also do 120hz but hdmi can't. They can also do 4k but you have to lower the refresh rate to 30. They don't need to be identical monitors for surround.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Well I knew hdmi is capped at 60Hz with dvi (sl), and dp/dvi(dl) will go higher, but I guess I was wrong about the 2560x1600 for hdmi, I thought that was an hdmi 2.0 standard, not hdmi 1.0, so thanks for that clarification. :)

I'm a little confused however, last I heard from nvidia, for nvidia surround to work it needed identical monitors for 3x but a 4th monitor could be added although it had to be a separate gpu, not in sli, and must be a different model entirely. For a simple desktop extension however, you could use any monitors, but the smaller nvidia cards would only support 2 monitors, the 3rd coming from igpu. Or is that info kinda outdated and slightly skewed too?
 
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k1114

k1114

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Hdmi 1.3 supports 2560x1600 @ 60 which was on the 400 series so you are quite outdated. We're at hdmi 1.4 now with 2.0 out but just not on gpus yet. 2.0 supports 4k/60 and 120hz; finally surpassing dl dvi.

Identical monitors has never been a requirement for anything. Not for amd or nvidia. They only need to be the same res. You can actually have different res monitors and just have them set to the same res.

Lower end kepler cards only have 3 ports so only support 3 monitors. Otherwise kepler supports 4 and any previous gen only supports 2 monitors. I mention generation instead of series since series are mixed gens. Even the 700 series still has some fermi models; the 730 128bit version and the 705. Since kepler supports 4 on a single card, what you mention about the 4th monitor needing to be on a separate gpus refers to fermi and earlier. Since they only support 2 monitors, surround needed to use the 2nd sli card for 3 monitors and there was no accessory monitor support. But again, monitor model has always been irrelevant.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Ugh, ok, now I feel old. It's been so long since I actually thought about some of that stuff, lol, I do appreciate the upgrade info. Last time I broke down and read all that stuff was when the 600 series was still hot and the 700's were new.
I guess even nvidia can be a little slow on the editorial upgrades.

Thanks again :)
 
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