DescentBB

So I'm now privileged enough to have myself 3 LCD's I can hookup for a triple monitor setup.

I'm currently running a dual LCD setup with the dual heads on my cough*nVidia 6600GT*cought, yea yea its outdated but does the job, sort off . The way I understand it is I now need to get myself another display card to put into my PC to be able to run the third monitor after which I'll be able to setup the triple monitor in the same fashion I do with the dual setup via the nVidia control panel.

But this brings me to my main question, the second display card. First of I'll be sticking with a nVidia based card. Secondly my PC is rather old an MSI K8N mobo with an AMD Athlon64 3200+ CPU (luckily it has to PCIe slots as the mobo is a SLi board, but I know running the triple monitor setup in XP you can't run SLi that and the two cards need to be the same models too) so that is my main considerations when deciding on the GPU.

With that said I'm of the opinion I should not spent to much on the second GPU at all but would like it to be an upgrade to the 6600GT to maybe prolong the life of the pc for a while more till I can do a proper upgrade on the whole system in which event the current GPU acquisition will become the secondary card. So this card needs to be a upgrade so that I can play some of the newer titles at decent FPS with some of the eye candy I'm currently forced to miss out on. E.g. I had to play Far Cry 2 on Low - Medium settings and would like it if I could have done it on Medium - High IQ. The budget I'm aiming for on this would most likely be $100-150.

I'm also on WinXP and will most likely not go to Win 7 until I upgrade due to some soundcard problems I have with Win 7 on my current system thus a DX10/11 card would be overkill to.

I've been asking at the retailers what they have available for me and it would seem I' looking at either a 9000 series particular the 9800GT (cheapest good performance card of the day) or a 250GTS for a bit on the max of my budget. I would have liked if I could afford a the 260 range GPU but I think at almost double my budget it would be bottle-necked by my system in any case.

So should I rather spend that little bit more and go with the 250GTS so that I wont be kicking myself at the end of the day when I do upgrade or doesn't it really matter that much as it will be the secondary card in any case?

any cheap PCI/e video card would fit the bill to run a third card.

Can XP run 3 monitors is the question.

Or you could spend around $150 on an ATI Radeon HD 5770 which is considerably faster than even a GTX 260 and can drive all three monitors from a single card. I know you want to stick with nVidia, but right now with the exception of the GTX 470 and 480 which don't make sense for power/heat/noise reasons nVidia is so horribly behind ATI that their products simply don't make economical sense. Granted nVidia drivers are usually better for most games (but can have their own issues such as the recent debacle with their drivers shutting off the fans on some cards causing overheats/burnouts).

Here is a benchmark of a decent selection of cards in Far Cry 2: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2947/5
Its also worth noting that Far Cry 2 is very demanding on the CPU and definitely will be CPU limited on your single core Athlon 64. See the CPU bench on it here: ( http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/49 ), even my Core 2 Duo @ 3 GHz stalls out my 8800 GT at 40-42 FPS at any resolution under 1280x960 with optimal quality and 4x FSAA.

Also, here is anandtechs main FC2 review (a little dated): http://www.anandtech.com/show/2673

you'd also need to look at possibly a new PS too if you want to get a new high-end card.

Okay it might be time to wake-up to reality and put my bias aside

Took a quick look at the prices and thou the price of the HD 5770 is a bit more than what I was aiming for the performance difference to a nVidia based card in that price range it make a lot of financial sense. For just a little bit more than what a GTS250 would have run my bill up I can get a HD 5770 that out preforms a GTX260

Now the recommended PSU for the HD 5770 is 450W and I'm currently running a 400W aint murphy a %$%##. I'd probably get away with the 400W or would you all advise against sticking with my current PSU? Just running a DVD rom DVD burner (both of which I seldomly use and if I do I tend to just use the DVD Burner) 2 HDDs and 2 80mm cooling fans.

My next question would then be towards what Krom mentioned of being able to run all three screens from the single display. What I'd like to know then is I'll be using the 2 DVI's and the Display Port via the Eyefinity software? I just want to know do you need to get an separate adapter for it to convert the 3rd screens' plug (in my case it will be a 15pin VGA plug) to the display port or are those usually included in the bundle with the display card or should I be on the specific lookout that is does include it?

Also will the eyefinity allow me to run my setup in a similar way I'm running it now (dual view) Meaning that all the screens are seen as individual and doesn't span windows across the display (eg if I maximize an explorer window it would just max on screen 1, not spanned over both)? Would it allow for different resolutions to be setup, as the one screen is a wide screen? Planning on running it as follow 19-22w-19.

Come to think of it with the Eyefinity software I should be able to actually use it to run my games across all three and not just the one as I'm doing now, if the CPU will allow it

(PS: I'll try to read up on some of my questions too as I just spat it out as it came to mind )

Thanks

Sorry for the double post but for some reason my edit on the above post didn't want to take

[edit]
Okay at a quick glance http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pa ... nfigs.aspx it doesn't list WinXP nor mentions I can run the setup 19-22w-19?

-Okay from a bit more reading it would seem that the screen size may differ but it needs to be the same resolution, thus a 19-22w-19 won't work 19=1280x1024 & 22w=1680x1050.

Also it would seem that I'll need a Displayport to VGA adapter and those are sold separate

-Okay just came across another little hick-up with eyefinity running on 3 monitors. Feel free to correct me if this have changed or is still an issue. Besides my not seaming to be able to run different resolutions you need an active displayport converter to enable a 3x1 span group otherwise you'll be stuck to 2x1 + extended or something like that. Now that is more or less like my dual setup but one would like to be able to span all 3 monitors without needing to buy a $100 active adapter otherwise what's the point of having eyefinity

So given that my LCD's are different sizes eyefinity might not seem to be an option for me then thus I might be forced to sticking to my initial idea of getting a second GPU to just power the 3rd LCD and be able to run independent resolutions If that's the case I don't think one should mix up one ATI and one nVidia GPU and rather stick to 2 nVidia cards.

With the ATI (Eyefinity cards that support 3 monitors) set up, it has to be a \"Active Displayport Adapter\" unless you have a native Displayport in one of the monitors. Displayport will eventually replace DVI and HDMI on all monitors. An Active unit rnages anywhere from $99~114 and they are all from the same company with different brand names on them. It requires a USB port in addition to being connected to the monitors DVI Port.

As far as setup the general requirement is the Monitors must have the same native resolution to engage the 'Eyefinity Surround Mode' yet can expand your desktop with any monitor re otherwise.

I have the ATI HD 5870 CARD and will purchasing the 2 additional 22\" monitors and if required the 'Active Adapter' in the next few months just for Widescreen Gaming Surround. The bonus will be the massive desktop real estate for mutiple application use.

My orignal plan was an nVidia card and the Matrox TripleHead2Go Digitial Edition but that would cost much more from a new system build prospective

BUBBALOU wrote:As far as setup the general requirement is the Monitors must have the same native resolution to engage the 'Eyefinity Surround Mode' yet can expand your desktop with any monitor re otherwise.

So do you mean that I'll be able to then run my current setup 1280x1024-1680x1050-1280x1024 in a 3 extended setup (sort of like my dual view right now just with a 3rd screen added) with say the 22" as my main display on which if I want to play games and so forth it will then just load on the 22" leaving the two 19"'s in windows? And this will only require an passive adapter to work that is about $20 as the surround mode wont work until I either get another 19" or 2 more 22" with the same native resolutions

Eyefinity is just a technique for stitching three identical resolution monitors together so Windows thinks it is one monitor with three times the horizontal resolution.

You can skip running it in eyefinity mode and run three different resolution displays and Windows will work normally thinking they are three different monitors which is what you want.

Just out of curiosity, what connections are all three of your monitors using? Are they all DVI or is there some VGA in there too? If they are all DVI then you should be able to run a triple monitor setup (not eyefinity) with only a cheap Mini-DP (or HDMI) ---> DVI adapter.

BUBBALOU wrote:it has to be a "Active Displayport Adapter" unless you have a native Displayport in one of the monitors.

Saphire Tech

Same Monitors = Superwidescreen "Eyefinity"

Different Monitors = Stretched Desktop Only

Passive DisplayPort Adapter = useless with ATI cards

BUBBALOU wrote:Passive DisplayPort Adapter = useless with ATI cards

Yup, it would seem that way after all...

Krom wrote:

BUBBALOU wrote:Passive DisplayPort Adapter = useless with ATI cards

Yup, it would seem that way after all...

From what I've read that is true in so far as you wanting to run Eyefinity to stitch together all 3 screens for a 3x1 config but if you use a passive adapter you will be limited to 2x1 plus the extended 3rd, well that is how I understood it.

At the moment I more interested in just being able to to play my games on my "new" widescreen and have the 2 19" LCD's on each side in the same way as my current dual view setup where playing video/any application window/games are only displayed on one of the screens and when maximized max on the screen it is open under but when not maximized you can just drag and drop it to the second screen max it there and it will then maximize on the second screen. Currently my system will be way to weak to be able to benefit from 3x1 eyefinity setup in any gaming experience, or at least that is my opinion.

But to answer Krom's question the screen connections are as follow:

The 2 19"'s are twins (meaning the same models) and have both DVI and VGA ports (15pins) (LG L1953T) and the 22" only have a VGA port (LG W2234S) The reason I went with the 22" LG was because of the price tag it was selling at and the screen dimension and layout is nearly perfect with my two 19" screens and will line up nicely.

OFCOURSE I could just go big and buy me two more of the 22" LCD's that will work out roughly double my current budget for a display card :/ with the idea of setting it up with an possible upgrade in mind to run 3x1 and just get a decent GPU next month and upgrade the rest of the system then as the cash becomes available

Choices choices

When you read about people using passive adapters on a ATI card look alittle further... they purchase an active adapter shortly afterwards because they do not work. It's your choice to waste money on a paperwieght.

Point taken...

I'm now doing the maths and considering too just upgrade my system one shot now instead of partially and then later again because that usually tends to end up costing more and you also don't end up with what you wanted

Thinking down the line of a Core i5 750, 4gb Ram, Radeon 5850 with a 650w PSU and 2 more of those 22\" LCD's.

Side note, sorry I just need to vent:
Did go to get them 22\" LCD's today. I called to ask if they had stock the guy said they only have two left. Asked him to hold it for me will try to fetch it during the day as they couldn't hold stock for me till the next day. I was extremely busy today and had a full schedule of stuff to do but said fine I'll come fetch it during the day. Got to the store they only had \"one\" left, apparently they couldn't hold both for me after I asked them to do it and the guy said okay because it was there last stock. I also specifically asked the guy to hold me two of the same models but in my rush to get it before the store closed I didn't take the previous model number with but had the receipt with the bar code and little description with me but no model number. So first after being ticked of because they only held one I said fine just give me this one but something bothered me so I checked the bar code of this screen to my previous purchase and they were the same so I went on my way. When I went to the cashier I paid with my debit card and only then noticed that the box was marked with a different size. I asked the cashier to stop but apparently my transfer already went through and she could stop it. Thought okay maybe I'm just misremembering the packaging as I bought some stuff for the office as well. But when I got home low and behold its the wrong model (W2243S and not W2234S)! So I'm currently totally p!$^#d to say the least. First they tell me they have two of the W2234S and will keep it for me, then they don't keep it as they said, then it ends up not being the right one either. Plus I just checked their pamphlet too and they advertise the 22\" with a res of 1680x1050 thus the W2234S but sells the W2243S which have a 1920x1080 So yea somebody is getting a peace of my mind tomorrow! They will either have to produce two of the correct screens for me or I want my bloody money back All I can say right now is that, that is BS service and they better not give me grieve tomorrow