4 screens, pci gfx card. plz help

[s a m]

Hi,

Sorry for bad title, but wonder if anyone could help me on this one… I currently run two screens on my computer for split desktop, but I am trying to run four.

My graphics card is a dual screen AGP, what I am thinking is if I get a dual screen PCI card I can end up with 4 monitor outputs, I seam to remember being told that you could get dual screen with an AGP+PCI, so would this principal of 2 x 2 to make a quad.

Any particular manufactures? I looked on ebuyer and cant actually find any reasonably priced PCI graphics cards… don’t need anything fancy, no games, just a bit of light photoshop and web design.

Thanks,

Sam

[ultimasimon]

Whats up. Been watching Swordfish ?

Dont know about 4 screens. I know you used to be able to run an AGP and a PCI for two screens but not so sure about running four because the driver software might be the limiting factor. I am sure someone on here will have the answer.

You can run three monitors on one card though, with the 512gpu Matrix Parhela. It will run all 3 displays @ 3840 x 1024 @ 32bpp. If they did it in a PCI card as well, in theory you could run six But don't expect it to be the anywhere near the fastest when compared to the latest generation ATI's and Nvidia's.

The Parhela was launched in the hope that software games would take to it and provide triple monitor support. In reality I think there has only been a few games which did, MS Combat Flight Sim was one IIRC. One of the Sys Admins ordered a high specced Workstation and it came with a Parhela. We hooked it up to 3 tfts and in the flight sim it gave you a front and a left and right display. Quite cool but lots of money for a gimmick. If you play games a lot and get 'eye rash' from too much gaming, you will suffer to the power of 3 with this setup

www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=416&catid=2

[catretriever]

Not sure about the twin adapter method, but at work we use the...

Matrox G200 Multiscreen

..for our quad-headed Bloomberg terminals.

It's like Cape chuffin Canaveral round here I tell ye

edit: just seen these ones on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=180&item=5153568195&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=27388&item=5154701909&rd=1

>> Edited by catretriever on Friday 7th January 07:29

[_dobbo_]

catretriever said:

Not sure about the twin adapter method, but at work we use the... Matrox G200 Multiscreen

Have one of these myself. Great for multiscreen, but can't run the resolutions I want - lack of memory I suspect.

[catretriever]

Yep...limited to 1024 pixels on the vertical

[IPAddis]

The Matrox G200 was used in the navigation console of the Ark. Haven't Matrox got a new dual-headed card?

Ian A.

[_dobbo_]

IPAddis said:

The Matrox G200 was used in the navigation console of the Ark. Haven't Matrox got a new dual-headed card? Ian A.

Probably but our IT budget doesn't stretch to letting me run 4 monitors at a higher resolution than I already do!

[FrenchTVR]

I successfully used a Matrox G400 in the PCI slot alongside my Matro Parahelia to give 4 monitor output. Have been told that it can be a b**tard to get to setup properly, guess I was just lucky.
Have to say I find the Parahelia to be a really good card. I use it for CAD and photo editing.

[TeamD]

Piece of cake, I've run up to 8 screens off of one PC before , allbeit with a bit more expensive adapters, but the cheap way can be to just add 2 x Single PCI adapters if you have enough slots free.

Allegedly you can run up to 10 screens (MS originally claimed 16 when they released Win98 but appear to have backed down on that!) but I know of a few specialist companies that are talking about 32+ with specific kit.

I couldn't live without my multiple screen arrangement now! Although I find it tricky to fit more than 3 monitors on a desk!

[s a m]

Thanks guys.

No not inspired by Swardfish, but I have been using 2 screens for about a year, but still not got enough work space .

Should I get a dual screen PCI or 2 x normal PCI’s?

Any advice as where to get these for a good price? I really want to be able to run atleast 1600 x 1200 on each additional screen.

I have taken a pic of the inside of my PC, there are a few free PCI slows, and a blue looking back to front PCI at the bottom.

There is 1 ram slow free I think, I have 2 x 512mb in the other 2 slots, do you think I can stick a 1gig stick in the remaining slot?



Thanks,

Sam