Buying a video card/s to hook up 3 monitors

[Rich6]

Hello,
What is the cheapest and best video card for what I want to do? I am about to buy a dell computer with an i5 processor. I want to connect 3 monitors. I am not planning on playing games, just looking at email and spreadsheets.

 

[DM186]

You will need Two cards and what size and brand is the PSU? I got that no games. The power supply will help you to figure out what kind of cards you will need and what res you will be using on the monitors. what model of Dell are you getting?

 

[badtaylorx]

what.....no thats not correct

if its for business dont forget,,, this thing going to MAKE you money so a lil extra aint gonna kill ya'

that being said this card will run 3 displays either as one big display or three seperate displays provided one of the connections uses a "display port" cable

if you cant afford a "dp" capable monitor they do sell dp adapters...just make sure you get the "active display port adapter"


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=458908&CatId=7005

90 dollars

not too bad

good luck

bTx

 

[Guest]

the cheapest in my opinion would be a "Radeon 5450" for around $40

 

[a little black duck]

If you're not planning on gaming then pretty much any hd5xxx or hd6xxx series amd gpu will run 3 monitors. Perhaps something like a hd6870 or hd6970 might be what you're after.

 

[DM186]

what.....no thats not correct

If I have made a mistake here please help me out I do not want to point him or her in the wrong dircetion. From what I have been told and I was under the impression to run three monitors you need 2 cards in sli and running two cards you need a some what of a PSU to push the cards. What if he has crapy PSU? Now if you can run 3 monitors on one card than I am totaly in the dark on this one. So please help him and educate me. If I am wrong I would want someone to help me learn and understand



Edit: I just read the rest of your thread now I know and Thanks for jumping in.

 

[Deemo13]

AMD has this thing called Eyefinity, and it allows the user to run 3 monitors on a single graphics card. One of those ports must be a Display Port though. Generally, monitors do not come with display ports on them, so one will need a Display Port adapter, which converts it to a DVI signal.

Now, if you are buying a Dell, chances are that it will not come with a PSU (power supply) of over 300W-350W. In that case, one of the best cards that will actually run on that PSU is around a 5670/6670 (they are the same, just rebadged)

Here is an example:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1366279&CatId=7005

It must have that "Eyefinity" compatibility to be able to run 3 monitors and have a landscaped display.

If gaming is on your list, this may be an alright card, just don't expect Battlefield 3 or anything. If you want gaming, a 6870 with a better PSU would do nicely within a general budget.

In response to DM186, you can run 3 displays with 2 SLI'ed cards (I believe) but you would need a large power supply, a bigger case (probably wont fit in a Dell case) and another motherboard, as the board in the Dell computer is most likely M-ATX form factor and will contain only one PCI-E x16 slot for a graphics card.

 

[DM186]

AMD has this thing called Eyefinity, and it allows the user to run 3 monitors on a single graphics card. One of those ports must be a Display Port though. Generally, monitors do not come with display ports on them, so one will need a Display Port adapter, which converts it to a DVI signal.

Now, if you are buying a Dell, chances are that it will not come with a PSU (power supply) of over 300W-350W. In that case, one of the best cards that will actually run on that PSU is around a 5670/6670 (they are the same, just rebadged)

Here is an example:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1366279&CatId=7005

It must have that "Eyefinity" compatibility to be able to run 3 monitors and have a landscaped display.

If gaming is on your list, this may be an alright card, just don't expect Battlefield 3 or anything. If you want gaming, a 6870 with a better PSU would do nicely within a general budget.

In response to DM186, you can run 3 displays with 2 SLI'ed cards (I believe) but you would need a large power supply, a bigger case (probably wont fit in a Dell case) and another motherboard, as the board in the Dell computer is most likely M-ATX form factor and will contain only one PCI-E x16 slot for a graphics card.

Thank you Deemo13. I know now a lot more that I thought I knew

 

[Rich6]

I just talked to dell chat on line and they said the power supply for the mini tower is 300 watts. I f I move up to an XPS 8300 it has a 460 watt power supply.

 

[Deemo13]

If you got something as I mentioned above, the increased power supply would not be needed. It is generally known here at Toms' that the 5670 and 6670 can run on a 300W generic power supply; I installed one on a buddy's computer awhile back and it runs fine. He had an old HP. The one listed will give you the Eyefinity you need. The XPS 8300 does come with a 6670 at one of the options, but there is no way to be sure that it actually has the Eyefinity capability on it.

 

[Deemo13]

And according to the Dell website, the 6670 listed would not support Eyefinity, one would have to get the 6770, which is more expensive and does not fit your needs.

 

[theuniquegamer]

I can tell you that the amd 5670 or 6670(reference)) are the best cards that can handle a 3 monitor setup at your price point without need to upgrade your psu also in 6670 you can get blueray support as additional feature

 

[Rich6]

So if I am getting this right I can buy the original Dell with the 300 watt power supply and then buy 2 5670 video cards and install them. At that point I will be able to connect 3 monitors to those 2 cards. Is this right?

 

[Deemo13]

No no no. The Eyefinity allows the user to run 3 monitors off of one graphics card. Therefore you would only need one 5670 or 6670 to run it. Make sure it has the Eyefinity capability though.

I'm almost certain that you can't put 2 5670 cards in a Dell computer unless it is a high end XPS.

 

[Rich6]

Ok I looked up the Asus card on Tiger Direct for $99.99-10=89.99 and it has 3 ports. I assume I hook up 1 monitor to the DVI port, 1 monitor to the HDMI port, but I never heard of a display port which I guess I would connect to the 3rd monitor using the adapter you talk about. Alternatively I was looking at the Diamond 5670PE51G for $75 that has a DVI port, an HDMI port, and a VGA port. In that case I would hook up a monitor to each using those 3 connectors directly. Am I correct?

 

[Deemo13]

Cards with a VGA will not have Eyefinity on them. I will send a picture of what it looks like when i get on my computer (I am on my phone)

 

[Rich6]

On the Diamond specs it says (ATI Eyefinity Technology) from what your saying I guess that is not good enough. That gets me back to buying the Asus but I looked up Display Port Adapter at Tiger and the prices ranged from $7 to $90. What's the difference?

 

[Deemo13]

If it states that it has Eyefinity then it must. Most ATI cards do have it, it usually says it in the product description, so look for that.

 

[a little black duck]

I know sapphire bought out an eyefinity card, flex hd6670. It had no display port connections, and was 3 monitor capable, but I don't know if any of the others bought one out.

 

[Rich6]

Best answer selected by Rich6.