Adding a 3rd monitor?

[Kremlar]

Looking to add a 3rd monitor to my PC for office use. Nothing fancy, no gaming or anything...

I currently have a PCIe-based nVidia 7600GS video card with dual monitor outputs. Tried adding a PCI-based Radeon 9250 card, but the system kept hanging on bootup after the driver was installed.

I then tried swapping my primary card out with a PCIe Radeon HD 2600XT video card, and got pretty much the same results.

What am I doing wrong? What's the best way to add a 3rd monitor to a PC?

Any single-slot 3 monitor cards out there? I wouldn't be against replacing my primary card if I could get a solid solution.

Thanks guys!

 

[fleshconsumed]

I believe matrox makes triplehead card as well as some sort of video splitter that can split video input from two inputs into three monitors at 12x10, however as you have noticed resolution might be an issue. I think it was a bad idea on your part to mix ATI/NVIDIA, you should have gone with one maker from the beginning. Try cleaning your registry from any driver remnants, and then install ether two ATI or two nvidia cards. I'm not running triple display, but I do run dual card/dual monitor (one monitor on each card) 8500GT and 6200LE and they run fine.

 

[dderolph]

Originally posted by: fleshconsumed I think it was a bad idea on your part to mix ATI/NVIDIA, you should have gone with one maker from the beginning.

I agree with that. I'm running dual monitors, using a separate video card (1-AGP [Fx5200], 1-PCI[GeForce4 MX440]) for each monitor. But, I've had three monitors connected by adding yet another PCI card (GeForce2 MX200); that was basically just a test and it worked fine; I don't have enough desktop space to use 3 monitors on a regular basis.

The two cards I'm using are both nVidia graphics chips. The third card mentioned above is also nVidia.

 

[Billb2]

The drivers are conflicting. As you are finding, you can not run ATI and Nvidia cards on the same buss at the same time. Some say it will work (ATI and Nvidia) if one is PCIe and the other is PCI or AGP, but I guess that doesn't work for you.

An easy solution would be two Nvidia dual output cards(I've run 4 monitors on this setup) or two ATI dual output cards. That way both cards run with the same driver. I'm currently running an Nvidia MX440card and a 3DFX 5 5500 card with one monitor on each with excellent results. No driver conflicts.

In case anyone is interested, PowerStrip will overclock both cards (Nvidia and 3DFX) at the same time, so no need for two overclocking utilities.

 

[dderolph]

Originally posted by: Billb2
An easy solution would be two Nvidia dual output cards(I've run 4 monitors on this setup)

Well, he would not need two dual output cards unless he thinks he might want to add a fourth monitor. For three monitors, he could use one dual output card and one single output card.

 

[aka1nas]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
Looking to add a 3rd monitor to my PC for office use. Nothing fancy, no gaming or anything...

I currently have a PCIe-based nVidia 7600GS video card with dual monitor outputs. Tried adding a PCI-based Radeon 9250 card, but the system kept hanging on bootup after the driver was installed.

I then tried swapping my primary card out with a PCIe Radeon HD 2600XT video card, and got pretty much the same results.

What am I doing wrong? What's the best way to add a 3rd monitor to a PC?

Any single-slot 3 monitor cards out there? I wouldn't be against replacing my primary card if I could get a solid solution.

Thanks guys!

What OS are you on? On XP, you should be able to mix GPU vendors. In Vista, the two cards must be able to use the same display driver. I'd recommend trying to just use one vendor either way.

 

[thatbox]

I've used an AGP GF4 Ti4200 (and later an AGP 9800XT) [for monitors 1+2] together with a PCI Radeon 8500 [for monitor 3] with no troubles. I just had to install the driver manually to make sure the installer didn't try to take on more than it was supposed to - so, through Device Manager, finding the .inf file.

 

[Kremlar]

I am having no luck whatsoever. Tried a couple different PCIe (ATI and nVidia) primary cards, and a few different PCI cards (ATI and nVidia) as the secondary card, all different combinations. This is under XP Pro.

I contacted Intel (motherboard mfg), and they say a PCI video card is not supported with this board. Board only has a single PCI slot, and is running the latest BIOS. They suggested using the integrated video + an ADD2 card, but they seem difficult to find and I want digital outputs for each monitor.

I'm considering trying a PCIe x1 card for the secondary video, or maybe finding a single card that can do 3 monitors.

Any other suggestions?