Triple Display with 8800GTX

[BMS]

Hi,

Hopefully a quick question for your. I currently run a single 22" (1680x1050) monitor through a 8800GTX. I am becoming increasingly tempted by multiple monitors and was thinking of splashing out on 2x either 17 or 18" 1280x1024 monitors for either side of my display. I have come across a splitter cable that splits 1x DVI output into 2x VGA outputs and was thinking I may be able to hook up my 2x new monitors to the graphics card in this manor. I have also looked at the matrox triple head2go but it appears you need 3x identical monitors for this.

Is the way i mention above possible or will i need to buy a 2nd graphics card or is there any other solutions?

Thanks in advance for your reply

 

[choirbass]

afaik, for the th2g, having 3 identical displays is only 'recommended', to keep continuity in bezel spacing, brightness, temperature, etc. especially where the digital editions are concerned, simply because they offer bezel management as a way to 'merge' the monitor images together so theres no gap between them. so if you were to have 3 different monitors for example, a 15", a 30", and a 22", it really wouldnt look good, beyond that though, no reason you shouldnt be able to. if youre concerned about differences in resolutions however, your only real limitation is resolutions offered by the th2g drivers (eg, 4megapixels @ 1920x1200x2 or 1280x1024x3), or in whatever other res combination you end up with to arrive at that limit.

 

[Heyyou27]

The problem with that DVI splitter if it even works properly, your videocard will see both 1280x1024 monitors as one 2560x1024 display and you will not be able to use them on either side of your 22" monitor properly. I found it was much easier to buy a second low end card for using more than two monitors.

 

[DarkOne0]

The best way to do it would be with a Matrox Triple Head 2 Go.
That is an external box you plug in the DVI output from you card and then outputs that to three DVI or VGA monitors. Your computer thinks it running one big monitor. You can use any card you want. Im using it with an 8800GTX and I can run UT3 on all three monitors surround style with everything maxed out at at least 45 fps. While doing that I can output my secondary dvi output to my 40" Samsung at 1080p with out a hicup. Its quite impressive.

DVI edition
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php

Analog edition
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/home.php

 

[BMS]

The problem with that DVI splitter if it even works properly, your videocard will see both 1280x1024 monitors as one 2560x1024 display and you will not be able to use them on either side of your 22" monitor properly. I found it was much easier to buy a second low end card for using more than two monitors.

Does this mean if I bought say an 8500 or something (to keep the dx10 going) i would only have the power of the 8500 to display games on the monitor. The reason I wanted to use the 8800GTX was to distribute it's power accross all 3. Would i for example be using the gtx to disply the 22 and a 17, and a lesser card to render images etc on the 2nd 17?

Thanks for input so far.

 

[strpdgato]

There is an app called SoftTH
http://www.kegetys.net/SoftTH/

SoftTH allows using three monitor "triplehead" with Direct3D 8 and 9 games without special hardware. You need three monitors attached to PCI Express video cards. Only one card does all the rendering work, so secondary card can be a low end card, only Direct3D support is required.

There are no resolution limits, as long as your card can push them. Obvious limitations though, dx8/9 only, no multi-gpu, 2nd card must be on PCIe bus, etc. But hey its worth a shot.

 

[geofelt]

There are very few games that are designed for multiple monitors. You can read about the issue here: http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/guide/gaming.asp

That said, a second monitor is one of the best additions I have ever made to my system. I would suggest just adding a second identical monitor to your existing 8800GTX and see how you do. I have tried adding smaller, different monitors, but you just can't get the colors and appearances to match the main monitor. If you still want the two side monitors, get a second vga card in the 6000 to 8000 series which will use the same nvidia driver.

 

[aevm]

I totally agree about getting identical monitors. That is, buy two new monitors exactly like the one you already have. If that's not possible, sell it and buy 3 identical monitors. Trust me, it's annoying to use different monitors. I have a 20" and a 21.6", both just fine, but put together it's not so great. They have different heights and they start at different heights (the stand is taller on one of them).