4 Monitor Setup

K

Kero_1116

Weaksauce
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
75
Currently I have a 8800gt 512mb card with a GA-P35-DS3R. I am looking for the cheapest way to get 4 monitor setup. Is the best and cheapest way to get it is to get another 8800gt and a motherboard to support sli? thanks!
 
Your solution you mentioned is probably your best bet at this time. I'm assuming though that 4 monitor setup is for desktop purposes and less for gaming purposes. If you wanted to drive 4 monitors for gaming, you'd probably need to wait for Fermi's release and SLI two Fermi cards together. Two 8800GTs just wouldn't have the power to run 4 monitors in games reliabilty with good fps unless you dropped the resolution pretty low.
 
i will probably use one or maybe 2 monitors at most for gaming. i just want desktop space

where can i get the 8800gt anyways now in Canada? it's so old now :(
 
Just get another mobo that has 2 pcie slots, no sli needed and get a cheap GFX card like an 8600gt and your good to go
 
jvz555 said:
Just get another mobo that has 2 pcie slots, no sli needed and get a cheap GFX card like an 8600gt and your good to go
Click to expand...
thanks for ur recommendation

i'm trying to make this the most cost efficient :)
but i dont mind paying a bit more for something that is a considerable upgrade

doesn't my mobo hv another pci-e slot?
 
yeah what jvz said if you want to keep it cheap as possible. $70-100 for a mobo and another $50 for a video card (multiply by ~2/3 if you buy used) and youre set. another option is to find a 4850x2 for ~250 new, ~150 used. it has 4 dvi ports, 2 for each 4850. and you can easily turn on xfire to make both 4850s run only 2 of the ports, which is great for gaming. thats what i have an i love it. got mine for $150 shipped off the forums a few months ago. just another option if you want to keep you motherboard and spend that extra money upgrading. or HD5XXX if 3 monitors will do.
 
ekuest said:
yeah what jvz said if you want to keep it cheap as possible. $70-100 for a mobo and another $50 for a video card (multiply by ~2/3 if you buy used) and youre set. another option is to find a 4850x2 for ~250 new, ~150 used. it has 4 dvi ports, 2 for each 4850. and you can easily turn on xfire to make both 4850s run only 2 of the ports, which is great for gaming. thats what i have an i love it. got mine for $150 shipped off the forums a few months ago. just another option if you want to keep you motherboard and spend that extra money upgrading. or HD5XXX if 3 monitors will do.
Click to expand...
which mobo should i get that is better than what I currently have? I don't want to spend money on a mobo that is a downgrade to what I have now.

and thanks!
 
Well if you wanna upgrade, i say go for a p45 to the least, a UD3P should be perfect, but If you want better performance, you can get another 8800gt for around 55 used [H]ere and might as well get a least a 680i, i would recommended a 780i.
 
well upgrading your mobo is an iffy subject. personally, i dont like to do it. :p if youre planning on overclocking then a nice P45 board will help you get a little higher than a P35, but really not a lot. imo its usually not worth the extra price. for example say you have an E8400. i have seen a gigbyte GA-P35-DS3L pull 4GHz on one, and i can only do 4.3GHz stable on my P45. theres no guarantee what your specific cpu and mobo can do together. and other than overclocking, there isnt much difference between mobos unless you need some feature you dont have now like better RAID capabilities or something.

so since you already have a decent board, thats why i suggested getting new card and just popping it in. so say you buy a mobo and another 8800gt. that costs you about $300 new, or about $200 used in fs/ft, and you can sell your old mobo for ~60. a 4850x2 on the other hand, will cost you $250 new, or $150 used. then you can sell your 8800gt for about $60, making it more like $200 new or $100 used. and according to toms, youd get more bang for less buck. (consider 2x8800GTs to be about equal to a 9800GX2.) i just think thats a really good board, and unless you really want to do SLI for some reason (i think its almost never the cost-effective route) then consider a single card with 3 or 4 ports. if your board already had sli capabilities, then that would have been easiest, but it doesnt. :/
 
If you have XP or 7, you can with any combo of cards you want (depending on what you want to do on them of course). I did this for years. If you have Vista, you will have to use the same driver for both cards.
 
combination of cards.

Vista wouldn't run aero unless all the cards used the same driver (which meant that mixing nVidia and ATI sucked).
 
A Powercolor 5770 Eyefinity 5 would be perfect I guess. No idea when its going to be released though.
 
If you just want more desktop space, find any pci graphics card and plug it in. Windows 7 can run AMD/ATI and Nvidia at once, though keeping it to a single driver might help avoid conflicts. I just used my main gaming card and a $25 2600xt for a long time. You don't need to upgrade anything, just toss in the PCI card and plug in the monitor.

Something like this would be all you need:

http://www.amazon.com/Nvidia-GeForc...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268612143&sr=1-10

You can probably find something better/cheaper in the FS/FT forums.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top