Hello,
Questions about mulitple monitor use and video cards. I’m not interested in games (I know, go somewhere else to find answers), but I know that game technology is the cutting edge of the computer industry. So I know I will get the best and most accurate answers here versus some other places.
Usage: three or four monitors to display as one desktop so I can drag windows of various applications amoung them. 2D financial charting and streaming mostly.
Monitors: I will start out with three 20” at 1680x1050. I would like the ability to change in the future to two 24” at 1920x1200 and one 20” at 1680x1050, all running together as one desktop (yes, the different resolution of one would be on purpose). In that future 2-24” and 1-20” setup, I may even add one more 24”.

My reserch tells me my choices are:

Quadro FX 4500 X2 at over $3000, way more card than I need.

Quadro NVS 440 PCIEX-16 at $450, is this enough card for my resolution desires?.

ATI FireMV™ 2400 at $400, reviews talk about driver issues.

Radeon HD 3870 X2, the Asus version EAH3870 X2 looks great and even better with a current rebate so total cost is $ 320.

run two 8800GT’s. I would choose the 8800GT over lesser cards becuse of a current rebate on the 8800GT’s making each card $130 so $260 for two, which is not that much more than say two 8600’s.

Price is a concern, but reliability and ease of use across multiple monitors is the most important.

The 4 DVI outs on one card is nice, but I have no problem with two 8800GT’s if syncing them together is not a continous maintenance problem.


The rest of the story?. I will either buy a tower from a gamer in my town at a great price(680i SLI motherboard, thermaltake 800 watt SLI PSU, etc.etc), or build one to meet my needs.

I would greatly appreciate the input of this community.
Thanks

Would love to know the answer to this too.. was planning on using only 2 22" LCDs at 1600x1050 resolution and thought a single 8600 or 8500 series card would be enough for work related things.

Things do need to be smooth across monitors, with smooth scrolling of large PDFs etc .. what kind of card would this need?

Hi, Let's close this thread as I re-asked / re-phrased the question in a more recent post.

need help!! multi monitor non gaming???

Thanks to all