Three Monitors

boyles23

Does anyone know of a video card that supports three monitors of the same standard. We have a video card with two monitors running off the dual VGA outputs. The third output is S-video and even trying to use some type of converter in between it wont get the signal. The motherboard wont let us use the on board and the video card at the same time like the previous computer did when it supported three monitors.

Any ideas?


Thanks,

bighornsheep

If I am understanding your situation properly, you want to use both of the VGA/DVI outputs and the TV output (s-video) on your video card. I don't think this is possible with most of the video cards that I have seen.

Solutions that I would recommend is getting a PCI card that is relatively "new", such as a nvidia MX4000, or ATI Radeon 9600.

dynamik

You could always pickup something like this: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/

http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/categories.asp?CategoryID=80&Column=2

That's probably more than you want to spend though. I'd just go with the above suggestion and add another card. What OS are you using? You should be able to configure everything in display properties.

Also check your BIOS settings. It might just be disabling the on-board video when it detects another graphics card by default. Sometimes you can change this to allow both to function simultaneously.

RTmarc

boyles23 wrote:

Does anyone know of a video card that supports three monitors of the same standard. We have a video card with two monitors running off the dual VGA outputs. The third output is S-video and even trying to use some type of converter in between it wont get the signal. The motherboard wont let us use the on board and the video card at the same time like the previous computer did when it supported three monitors.

Any ideas?


Thanks,

I've got one in my machine at work that will support up to four monitors. If someone doesn't post a video card by Monday, I'll post which model I have. It's a nVidia Quadro something. I'll check when I head back to the office.

remyforbes777

Why don't you get a couple of video splitters. It's cheap and it works. You can have up to 10 monitors hooked up on a xp machine.

dynamik

remyforbes777 wrote:

Why don't you get a couple of video splitters. It's cheap and it works. You can have up to 10 monitors hooked up on a xp machine.

That would have the same output on each screen though, wouldn't it? I believe he is looking for three independent screens...

remyforbes777

dynamik wrote:

remyforbes777 wrote:

Why don't you get a couple of video splitters. It's cheap and it works. You can have up to 10 monitors hooked up on a xp machine.

That would have the same output on each screen though, wouldn't it? I believe he is looking for three independent screens...

No in XP in the display properties you can select the option for extend my desktop across this monitor. That will allow you to extend your desktop across three different monitors. so if a picture is big enough to fill all three then it would. i have two monitors now with a splitter and I have some windows open on one monitor and some windows opened on another monitor.

dynamik

Gotchya. So it's something similar to what I recommended in my first post? I just assumed it was simply replicating the signal because it was cheap. The Matrox unit is $300.

Do you have any brand recommendations?

You can add another PCI card for $30-40, which seems to be the most economical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%201069609642&bop=And&Order=PRICE

JDMurray

Do you want to extend a single Windows desktop across three monitors, have the same desktop fully on each monitor, or have a different Windows desktop on each monitor?

remyforbes777

JDMurray wrote:

Do you want to extend a single Windows desktop across three monitors, have the same desktop fully on each monitor, or have a different Windows desktop on each monitor?

Good point JD, I was simply referring to extending a single Windows Desktop, but how do you have a different one on each monitor using the same windows system?

boyles23

No, we want it to have three independent screens for usage. We have had it before but when we switched out computers the new one didn't support it. I think last time we had the current video card with 2 VGA outputs and also used the onboard. I was thinking another video card but was asking some opinions before buying one or going with some sort of splitter. Thanks as always for the responses and help.

Regards,

RTmarc

I'm using a nVidia Quadro NVS440. Works perfectly.

Lee H

I'm using a nVidia Quadro NVS440. Works perfectly.

Hi

This graphics card has 2 X DVI ports, i guess you are using the on-board VGA for your 3rd monitor.

Does this need enabling in the BIOS and not all motherboards support it, i dont think mine does

Am i correct or have i missed something


Lee H

RTmarc

Nope. It uses a specific video splitter that comes with the card itself. It will support up to four independent monitors. I also use Realtime Soft UltraMon.