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Choosing the right graphics card

cr0ss

cr0ss

cr0ss

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Joined
30 Mar 2013
Posts
5
Hi All,

I'm in the market for a new graphics card which has the ability to run two VGA monitors and one HDMI/Display Port Monitor? Would you know of any cards which can do this? I have a budget of around £150 max.

Alternatively would it be better to convert and run all 3 monitors with DVI?

Thanks in advance for your time,

Aaron
 
Thanks for your reply.

Had a quick look at the spec. Will this card allow me to run my two VGA monitors and the HDMI one?
 
You could use a DVI splitter for your two VGA monitors and display port for the final one, fairly certain this can be done.
 
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If the 7850 is the same as the 6870, you will need one monitor running off one of the mini displayports to allow 3 monitor support.

So one vga could run from an active minidp to vga adapter.

The other vga could use a dvi to vga adapter, which most cards come with.

And your last monitor runs off the hdmi connection.

What monitors are you using?
 
MoodyB said:
If the 7850 is the same as the 6870, you will need one monitor running off one of the mini displayports to allow 3 monitor support.

So one vga could run from an active minidp to vga adapter.

The other vga could use a dvi to vga adapter, which most cards come with.

And your last monitor runs off the hdmi connection.

What monitors are you using?
Click to expand...

Hi,

thanks for your reply. I'm using two HP w1907v 19" monitors and am waiting on delivery for 1 Dell u2913wm 21:9 29" monitor.
 
Well the Dell comes with a minidp to displayport cable, according to the reviews, so that takes care of the minidp requirement for AMD cards & 3 monitors.

As for the 2 side vga monitors, one could use a dvi-vga adapter that normally comes with any gfx card & the other would need an active hdmi-vga adapter, which cost around £10.

Or ask MilanoChris to explain the DVI splitter as I haven't used one.

Another option would be a GTX 660, as they don't care which kind of monitor connection is used for the 3 displays afaik.

You'd probably still need an active hdmi or displayport to vga adapter of some sort though, as most cards come with only 1 dvi-i output. Can't think of one that has 2 x dvi-i outputs.
 
You can use a DVI splitter which splits into two VGA sockets, such as this one:

CWzelHo.jpg.png


They aren't sold on OcUK but if you Google you'll find a supplier.
 
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MilanoChris said:
You can use a DVI splitter which splits into two VGA sockets, such as this one:

CWzelHo.jpg.png


They aren't sold on OcUK but if you Google you'll find a supplier.
Click to expand...

This wont work.

At best it will clone the DVI output to 2 VGA monitors...which is useless unless that is what the OP wants.

There are proprietary versions of that 'splitter' but it's for proprietary cards that come in slimline business systems like Dell/HP sell.
 
Hi All,

thanks for your feedback,

I don't think the splitter solution will work for me as i dont want to mirror the image on the two VGA displays.

I will take a closer look at the 7850, and see what the total cost is including all adapters etc...

Just out of interest, Do you know of any cards that will run these three monitors at a lower price say sub £100 for example?

Cheers,
 
Sin_Chase said:
This wont work.

At best it will clone the DVI output to 2 VGA monitors...which is useless unless that is what the OP wants.

There are proprietary versions of that 'splitter' but it's for proprietary cards that come in slimline business systems like Dell/HP sell.
Click to expand...

Ah okay cheers.
 
cr0ss said:
I wont be using this machine for gaming. Only for general use and light editing/media.
Click to expand...

One of these cards should be fine AFAIK:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-298-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1699

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-029-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2304

Edit!!

This should be the cheapest card to run three DVI monitors though:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-309-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1985

It has two DVI outputs and an HDMI output. It comes with an adaptor for the HDMI output.

Here is a review:

http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-radeon-hd-6450-flex-edition-graphics-card-review/
 
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Then a sub £100 card should be fine then.

It might be worth checking to see if the editing app makes use of Cuda or Direct Compute acceleration.

If it does then that'll decide whether you go for Nvidia or AMD.

The Nvidia 600 series cards support 3 monitors on one card, but you'll still need an adapter of some kind.

On AMD have a look at Sapphire Flex cards. They also support 3 monitors without the need for an active minidp adapter.

Edit - Cat beat me to it. Mobile browsing is too slow
 
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