triple monitors on the cheap

Muel

Muel

Muel

Soldato
Joined
26 Jun 2009
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Location
Sheffield
I'm comtemplating running triple monitors. I have a cheap 22" LG, and a 28" Hannspree.

These 22" LGs can now be had on ebay for around £50-60, so I'm thinking of getting one. The problem is, I have a 4670, which can only handle 2 monitors at once.

Basically I need advice, how do I connect 2xVGA monitors and one DVI/HDMI monitor to my computer? Another graphics card?

I won't be gaming across these monitors, it's purely for pimpness/nerdiness/desktop work.

I'm going to upgrade to a 5770/5850/5870 at some point aswell, not decided which yet but it'll probably be the 5770.

EDIT: My motherboard is an ASUS M4A79XDT EVO, apparantly when running two graphics cards, they drop to PCIEx8, but on reading this it looks like that will make very little difference when gaming on the main card, even if I upgrade to a 5770? It's around a 2% drop in the benchmarks.
 
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the 8x speed won't make a difference, though buying a second card now, when you might upgrade to a 5770 or something later on is a touch wasteful as a 5770 can do 3 monitors off one card anyway.

However the 5xxx series cards HAVE to have one of the monitors as displayport to drive 3 monitors off one card, 2 dvi and 1 display port, 1dv, 1 hdmi, 1 displayport, whatever combo really, just one has to be displayport so I'd consider getting another 22" if thats what you're doing but going with a newer model with display port on if possible, selling your current card and picking up a 5770 now.

The cheapest option is getting a cheap 22" and really any graphics card, if not using it for gaming at all you can really put any dirt cheap 2nd gfx card in there to run the extra monitors.
 
I'd rather not go for a display port monitor really, as this will only be a tempory setup, the 22" will be coming with me to Uni in september to plug into my netbook. (I very much doubt there will be space for my main setup in a uni house bedroom).

If I get another of these cheapo 22" LGs and a horrid tempory graphics card to go with it, it'll cost around £60 I reckon. A Displayport 22" would be probably double that, and I fancy the idea of having two matching 22"s with the 28" in the middle for a while. :P

I'm not a heavy gamer at all, in fact I haven't played one for months. All I do now is uni work and web development.
 
You can use an Active Displayport Adaptor to connect a Non dispayport monitor, therefore, all you need is either a second vga for the third monitor... or buy a 5 series ATI card And an Active Dispalyport Adaptor :)
Much cheaper than buying a Monitor With Displayport....!
 
At £70-80 for the adapter, I think a £10 nasty horrid graphics card is a better option. :P

Thanks anyway though! Think I'm sorted now.

Anyone got any recommendations as to what card to get? As long as it works with a 4670/5770 with no worries then I'm fine with it. Is there likely to be any flickery nasty screen effects when dragging windows across onto the extra graphics card's screen?
 
That could work.

Missed out on ebay and there's nothing, so I posted a topic in Wanted in MM.
 
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