Setting up triple monitors

A

aye29

Weaksauce
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Jun 20, 2006
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I have a GTX260 with 2 DVI output and my motherboard also has additional onboard video with DVI and VGA output. Would it be possible to set up a triple monitor setup with could span a the desktop across all three monitors? I know how to do it with dual displays but I'm just not sure if it would work with three monitors connected to two different video chipsets. The motherboard is an Asus P5Q-VM with Intel GMA X4500HD.
 
You will need another video card. If you are running Vista, make sure it uses the same drivers as your gtx260. It functions exactly the same as setting up the second monitor. You cannot do this with your motherboard integrated chipset, as it is disabled when a video card is present afaik.
 
I think I wasn't too clear on what I was looking for.

I'm not interested in gaming on all 3 monitors, I think the bezels would drive me nuts.

I would like to be able to use the three monitors as separate desktops for example having a movie open on my center monitor while having my stock monitoring software on the left and spreadsheets on the right while still being able to move my mouse cursor across all three monitors. Or having a game open in the center screen with Firefox open on the other two.

Is that possible with what I have or would I need additional hardware (either a Matrox adapter, one of those new AMD video cards or another nvidia card)?
 
Guess I'll just have to get another cheap card. Thanks for the help.
 
aye29 said:
I think I wasn't too clear on what I was looking for.

I'm not interested in gaming on all 3 monitors, I think the bezels would drive me nuts.

I would like to be able to use the three monitors as separate desktops for example having a movie open on my center monitor while having my stock monitoring software on the left and spreadsheets on the right while still being able to move my mouse cursor across all three monitors. Or having a game open in the center screen with Firefox open on the other two.

Is that possible with what I have or would I need additional hardware (either a Matrox adapter, one of those new AMD video cards or another nvidia card)?
Click to expand...

This is possible, though I personally have had issues with a full screen video losing focus sometimes when doing other stuff on a separate monitor, but what you've described should work fine as-intended with three video inputs, two on one card and one an another. Matrox adapters are for those who want to have all three monitors in on the game, which AMD's Eyefinity tech is about to render obsolete.
 
So i'm guessing no one that replied actually read the original posters situation.

You should be able to run two monitors off the card and one off of the mother board. I just set up a friends computers with this same set up but he was using an ati card and amd chipset so they both used catalyst control center and i'm not familar with how intel drives it graphics chipset. Either way thought at that point it's a software issue as you have 3 outputs available to you.
 
Syntax Error said:
This is possible, though I personally have had issues with a full screen video losing focus sometimes when doing other stuff on a separate monitor, but what you've described should work fine as-intended with three video inputs, two on one card and one an another. Matrox adapters are for those who want to have all three monitors in on the game, which AMD's Eyefinity tech is about to render obsolete.
Click to expand...

Were you using 2 cards using one set of drivers or cards from 2 different manufacturers? I know I can add another nvidia card to get more video outputs but can I used 2 outputs from an nvidia card and another from an intel card?
 
aye29 said:
Were you using 2 cards using one set of drivers or cards from 2 different manufacturers? I know I can add another nvidia card to get more video outputs but can I used 2 outputs from an nvidia card and another from an intel card?
Click to expand...

As I said:

Vista: You have to use two GPUs which use the same drivers. (Buy another nvidia card)

XP(+ win7?): You MIGHT be able to use your dedicated card for two outputs and enable the integrated GPU for the third, but this is not possible on many motherboards.
If that doesn't work, any card should work.

I used a Matrox Mystique 4mb card on a third monitor a couple years ago along with a 8800gts in XP.
 
Belgain Roffles said:
Vista: You have to use two GPUs which use the same drivers. (Buy another nvidia card)

XP + win7: You MIGHT be able to use your dedicated card for two outputs and enable the integrated GPU for the third, but this is not possible on many motherboards.
If that doesn't work, any card should work.
Click to expand...

This guy got it right. If your motherboard doesn't auto-disable the integrated graphics card and allows you to turn it back on with an add-in card installed, you can use the integrated video card in Windows XP and Windows 7.

aye29 said:
I'm not interested in gaming on all 3 monitors, I think the bezels would drive me nuts.
Click to expand...
Well, if you do get three screens set up on two video cards, you could give SoftTH a try to see how you really like it. You'll already have all the hardware you need, so no harm in giving it a shot :)
 
Belgain Roffles said:
As I said:

Vista: You have to use two GPUs which use the same drivers. (Buy another nvidia card)

XP(+ win7?): You MIGHT be able to use your dedicated card for two outputs and enable the integrated GPU for the third, but this is not possible on many motherboards.
If that doesn't work, any card should work.

I used a Matrox Mystique 4mb card on a third monitor a couple years ago along with a 8800gts in XP.
Click to expand...
Thats not right.

I have a matrox card & have run the onboard (nvidia) GPU with win2k, xp & vista..

- WIN2K you can run different drivers, but you must only run one desktop manager (matrox).

- XP. this was a real pain to get working, and any 'auto updates' had a habit of disabling the setup & meant a reinstall of the drivers.

-vista. works great, but you need the right driver ;)
 
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