3rd monitor...what am i missing

[somdow]

SUP SUP all.........

first time poster...not sure why i never registered b4 since every google query ive ever had thats of any relation to hardware always leads me here lol......never hit me
to look for forums lol.......

anyways.

my ? is,

im interested in having 3 screens up at the same time and all sharing screen space. currently i have a 23" hdlcd and a 20 incher of the same make n model.
i want to get another 20incher of same make n model but my video card ( bfg geforce gtx 260 ) has only 2 dvi slots...and what i think is an svideo (really?!) lol
anyways.......so my ? is, since my mobo (asus m4a785- m ) has onboard video (hdmi and a dvi slot ) can i plug my yet to be bought 3rd monitor and get video out of it aswell
or???

if i cannot, then what do i have to do to get the 3rd monitor up?

thanks in advance.

 

[Mousemonkey]

As you only have one PCIe slot (which is in use) it's either a PCI card or a 5xxx card of some description.

 

[loneninja]

You either need an ATI Radeon 5XXX series card that supports Eyefinity and a display port monitor or display port adapter from your video card. Or you need to run more than 1 video card.

I've heard of onboard ATI chipsets being used at the same time as an ATI discrete card, but I'm not sure how that's done.

 

[somdow]

so lets say that i bought a mobo with 2 pcie slots as oppose to one,

since i have this gtx260, can i plug in my older 9800gt and use it in the way i need it to plug in a 3rd monitor?

oh oh....and if you answer is "yes" to ? number one then

i guess another ? is, since their both bfg geforce cards (gtx260 and 9800gt ) can i SLI them?

edit*** and another ? this eyefinity thing right......will that allow me to plug in 3 monitors? like is there a video card that supports 3 slots? to be clear im more interested in plugging in 3 monitors for work purposes.....though thinking about eyefinty and seeing it in action.....making me wornder...ive had this card for less than 30 days so i may take it back

 

[4745454b]

Try using the onboard video. Unplug one of your monitors and try to get it to work with the onboard. If you can get it to work, then just buy the new monitor and plug it into the card. If you are looking to game on all three like an Eyefinity setup you can't do it this way. If your using vista and the onboard is an AMD GPU, then you can't do it either. As for your next post...

Yes, if you bought a new mobo you can. Same limitation applies however. You won't be able to game on all three at once like an Eyefinity setup.

No, you can't SLI them. You'd need another GTX260 to SLI them.

Eyefinity allows you to use one video card to power and run 3 monitors. They will act like a single larger monitor. Think of it as Tri-SLI, but for the screens and not the cards. If you can take the GTX260 back I would. Grab a 5770 or 5850 depending on your gaming needs and enjoy.

 

[somdow]

but see.......this is whats confusing me....okay

you saying that unless i get an eyefinity ready ATI card, i wont be able to make 3 screens show the same in games.....err share screen for games. but otherwise i can go with my prev thought of buying a mobo with 2pce slots etc........this part i understand.

but what im wondering is, if eyefinity is so strict in the way it uses the hardware to spread the multi screen gaming love to 3 screens..........before we even get there, does an eyefinity card hold like 3 slots or someething that allows me to connect 3 screens to it? like 3 dvi slots or 2 dvi adn one hdmi etc......... if not then how would i connect 3 monitors to one card?

i guess what im missing is the setup hardware wise to get 3 screens up n running.


edit*** and also the cards referenced about , the 5770 and the um 5850, aside from the eyefinity thing, are they that much better than the gtx260?

 

[hang-the-9]

You can use your onboard to view the 3rd monitor, but not for gaming. You will just have the basic Windows functions. There are several toutorials on how to setup gaming in 3 screens, do some web searches. Probably an article or 2 on Toms.

 

[somdow]

so youre saying that I CAN use the 3rd monitor via onboard...like a 2 monitors on vid card and 3rd onboard????

cause i was under.....well i know that back in the day you had to disable the onboard video in order to use the 3rd pty vid card.....is this not the case anymore?

and if it IS the case, can i share errr.... i mean drag content from one screen to the other, or am i restricted to sharing stuff on the screens that are plugged into the vid card.

sry for all the ?s but i dont have a 3rd monitor to add to the party lol. im planning to go today after work for another 20" but want to make sure b4 i put the $$$ down.

 

[hang-the-9]

so youre saying that I CAN use the 3rd monitor via onboard...like a 2 monitors on vid card and 3rd onboard????

cause i was under.....well i know that back in the day you had to disable the onboard video in order to use the 3rd pty vid card.....is this not the case anymore?

and if it IS the case, can i share errr.... i mean drag content from one screen to the other, or am i restricted to sharing stuff on the screens that are plugged into the vid card.

sry for all the ?s but i dont have a 3rd monitor to add to the party lol. im planning to go today after work for another 20" but want to make sure b4 i put the $$$ down.

I have setup quite a few systems using both an add on card and the onboard, and you can split the view across all 3. This is with an * though, your system drivers and motherboard may vary. I'd give it a 90% chance of working though.

 

[somdow]

well i ended up buying the ati 5770 for about 190 more or less...........
and it has a display port, an hdmi, and 2 dvi.

tried to plug em all in and was told i need a um.........some kind of 100$ adapter.

 

[Mousemonkey]

An active display port adapter perhaps?

 

[4745454b]

Or you need a screen that runs on DP and not VGA/DVI. Either or.

 

[somdow]

hmm....well i i guess ill have to go the slightly more expensive option of the display port and then the 3rd 20" monitor cause i dont think this model comes with a display port thingy in the back...i could be wrong though...

i pulled this 17 inch one i forgot i had in my closet and pluged it into my mobos onboard dvi (via adaptor) and vga and nothing came through....is there anything in specific i have to enable/disable or??? is it just not going to work that way?

 

[hang-the-9]

hmm....well i i guess ill have to go the slightly more expensive option of the display port and then the 3rd 20" monitor cause i dont think this model comes with a display port thingy in the back...i could be wrong though...

i pulled this 17 inch one i forgot i had in my closet and pluged it into my mobos onboard dvi (via adaptor) and vga and nothing came through....is there anything in specific i have to enable/disable or??? is it just not going to work that way?

Check in device manager that the onboard video is not disabled. If it looks good, go to display properties and see if it shows you all the monitors with one greyed out. You usually have to enable 2+ monitors, they will be seen but not used till you do that.

 

[somdow]

hmmmim not sure i mean

when i go to DeviceManager, i dont see anything about my smaller 17" when plugged in, only picks up the 23 and the 20.

like under the display tab, i see my ATI card and nothing else.
under Monitors, i see the 23 and 20 and thats it.

am i missing something as to why the default stuff isnt on there?



EDIT***


also, unless you enlighten me on another possibility of getting this to work via VIDcard/onboard combination , it looks like imma have to buy that active display port adapter thing..........

my new ? is, i did a quick search for hdmi to display port cable and got a few hits.............can i use that since the cable is like 30 bucks....or do i HAVE to get that 100 dollar adapter to make this thing work the way i want to? to make eyefinity work the way it has to???

 

[4745454b]

Check the bios, the onboard GPU is probably turned off. The question is can you turn it on with the GPU plugged into the PCIe slot.

Eyefinity will work with some passive adapters. The problem is AMD couldn't make it work with all of them, so they just said you need an active one with is guaranteed to work. I think it was Hardocp who had a list of possible passive adapters that would work. If you do some digging you might be able to find such a list. If its not worth your time just buy the active one.

 

[somdow]

The last few ?s are.

1. as far as the 3 monitors go, the xfx rep told me the only way to get a 3rd monitor going was to hook one up on the display port....

so my ? is, if i want to go the cheaper route and get a display port to hdmi cable (around 30 bucks)
can this work? or am i 100% stuck to only doing the 3 monitor way with an active display port adapter for 100$ ?

honesttly right now, i game on my pc but not THAT much so i dont care too much for eyefinity though im sure its nice. im more wanting to get 3 monitors up n running.

 

[jomofro39]

You MUST use the DP to use eyefinity. There are two VERY good in-depth articles on Eyefinity on this site, just do a search in the site, I believe the articles' names are..."AMD's eyefinity technology explained" It comes in two parts, and the second one will answer your 1st question, along with a lot of your other ones I have read here. Just read up on those two articles, you should have learned everything you want from those two articles.
Basically, it boils down to the cards only able to display to two ACTIVE displays, and that can be either two DVIs, one DVI and one HDMI, etc. etc. I am not even sure if that is correct of off the top of my head, but the articles explain EVERYTHING you are asking here.

Look em up, your prayers will be answered. And resist buying on impulse next time, as you might have noticed, buyer's remorse is terrible when the card doesn't do what you want. (I accidentally bought a 5770 without eyefinity capability the first time).

 

[4745454b]

Here is the link I was talking about I hope...

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2009/11/30/eyefinity_using_active_adapter

A passive DP to VGA adapter might work...

 

[somdow]

i guess ill have to spring for the display adapter....i went to my mobos bios and the default was set to have the onboard graphics on...or rather, it said that

"when PCIe graphics is set to primary the onboard graphics is set to auto "
then next to it there was a lil text that said that pretty much, auto meant 'on' as default.

to be safe, (from 3 options - auto,on,off) i put it to 'on' then came back in and tried everything i could and nothing.
so i dont know...............active display adapter looks like is next. i wanned to get a cheap solution to this since imma spend like 175 on this monitor.........but MAN!!!!
pc wants more lol.

thanks fellas for all the input/help.
yall get any other ideas lemme know.

peace