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Started by rixtertrader | | 14 answers
3 Monitor System - Asus P5W DH Deluxe - Best Options?
I have an Asus P5W DH Deluxe motherboard. It is supposed to be crossfire supported according to specs.

I have a single ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card and attached to this are two monitors.

I'm interested in expanding this system to 3 monitors, but my card only have two DVI connectors.

I'm at a crossroads here.

1. Should I buy a new motherboard, then buy two graphics cards?

2. Should I buy two graphics cards?

3. Do I only need to buy one more graphics cards?

4. Is there an option I'm not thinking about that can allow me to add one more monitor?

As to how I wish to use this additional monitor (in case it is important), it is to simply expand my desktop (more space to work with so I can have more apps running on top).

I'm looking for the LOWEST PRICE option, not a performance bump (unless I can pretty much get both of course). Just want to add one additional monitor.

Any suggestions, help, tips, face slaps (wake up!), etc?

TIA
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Best solution chosen by legend001523

September 12, 2014 12:10:30 PM

Well, unfortunately I marked the "Best Solution" incorrectly.

With much respect to legend001523, and much thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, I have to post this REVISION because of what I was able to determine by experimentation.

I've come across an older card that is an ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB RV730XT. This card is not as good as the one I'm currently using, the ATI Radeon HD 4850.

The answer I was given and had accepted was that you cannot have two different cards in this system in order to add an additional monitor.

However, when I placed the 4670 onto my motherboard with the existing 4850 and then ran the ATI Catalyst software to identify the boards and provide the drivers, after the reboot I am not able to use 3 monitors!

In fact, I set my Primary monitor as my left one and arranged them from left to right, and I'm able to move my mouse across all three monitors seamlessly as one large desktop, exactly what I wanted to do.

So the CORRECT ANSWER is that YES you can add two different display cards onto the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe motherboard and it will work.

a b Ĉ ASUS
a b U Graphics card
a b C Monitor
a c 81 V Motherboard
September 6, 2014 11:18:11 AM

Yeah you understand correctly
September 6, 2014 11:16:13 AM

legend001523 said:
No, you can't if they're not the same card


So if I had two ATI 4850 or two ATI 4870, although not crossfire or SLI, it would work?

But putting a 4850 and a 4870 in the machine would not work?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Thanks!
a b Ĉ ASUS
a b U Graphics card
a b C Monitor
a c 81 V Motherboard
September 6, 2014 1:22:43 AM

No, you can't if they're not the same card
September 5, 2014 8:15:09 PM

The integrated graphics is not DMI, and I'd rather use that.

So back to my original question.

Can I have two graphic cards plugged into the Asus P5W DH Deluxe mother board (the two PCIe x 16 slots) that are NOT tied together via SLI or Crossfire, just stand alone boards that may not even be the same board, and use them to run 3 monitors to extend my desktop.

Please. Yes...or no? I still do not know the answer based on this discussion.

Thank you. :-)
September 5, 2014 3:32:03 PM

rixtertrader said:
All I want to do is to expand my desktop across three monitors. My card only handles two monitors. My motherboard has two PCI-Express x16 slots, which means I have one slot available for another card.

I just want to know if I can just pop another graphics card into the machine so that I will have two additional DVI ports to plug monitors into, and whether that would work, and that would allow me to EXPAND my desktop. If I move my mouse toward the other monitor, it goes there like it is just one desktop. That's all I'm trying to do.

My motherboard is an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with two PCIe x16 slots.

No, I don't need this for gaming.

Thanks.




Are you using your output off your motherboard? If not you can use inter grated graphics of your CPU

a b Ĉ ASUS
a b U Graphics card
a b C Monitor
a c 81 V Motherboard
September 5, 2014 3:28:31 PM

You can just get rid of your current card and get a 6850?
September 5, 2014 3:23:55 PM

All I want to do is to expand my desktop across three monitors. My card only handles two monitors. My motherboard has two PCI-Express x16 slots, which means I have one slot available for another card.

I just want to know if I can just pop another graphics card into the machine so that I will have two additional DVI ports to plug monitors into, and whether that would work, and that would allow me to EXPAND my desktop. If I move my mouse toward the other monitor, it goes there like it is just one desktop. That's all I'm trying to do.

My motherboard is an ASUS P5W DH Deluxe with two PCIe x16 slots.

No, I don't need this for gaming.

Thanks.

September 5, 2014 11:29:27 AM

rixtertrader said:
CommanderCrap said:
Replacing is your answer or if you like AMD go with a r270x or higher
You can't run them together you can SLI 2 gtx 770s together regardless of brand but will be as slow as you worst card you can't SLI a gtx 770 and a gtx 760
Same with AMD but you have to have same brand and make
You also have to make sure they have the same amount of ram if you sli them


I'm now getting more confused. If I replace my Ati with a Gtx, how does that get me to 3 monitors? If you are saying I should replace one Ati with two Gtx boards, how does that keep the cost down?

I'm not a gamer. This is my business machine and I only want more desktop space.

Also, are you saying that I have to SLI the boards and that simply having two graphics cards not SLI or Crossfire cannot work for expanding my desktop with 3 monitors.

For example, putting an Ati 4850 in with say an Ati 4870, both having two DVI ports would not work?



Sorry I thought you were on about 3 monitor gaming all you need is a GTX 760
Don't worry about anything like SLI or that
My bad
Sorry for confusing you
a b Ĉ ASUS
a b U Graphics card
a b C Monitor
a c 81 V Motherboard
September 5, 2014 11:15:27 AM

Are you trying to game on all 3 or? I'll try to explain in detil

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