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Optimal setup for 3-4 monitors.

C

Cardinalduke

n00b
Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
53
I would like to run either 3 or 4 monitors off of one computer and am looking for the best way to make it happen.

I currently have an Nvidia EVGA fermi 460 as my primary GPU.
I also have two other GPU's,

1. GeForce 9600 GT
2. GeForce 8400 GS

and with them three monitors:

I-Inc 28" 1920x1200 (hdmi or vga only)
Dual 23" Acer 1080p (hdmi, vga or dvi)

A fourth might be another i-inc or possibly an HDTV.

My MSI Mobo (790XT-G45) does not support SLI as far as I know. I do think it could handle crossfire however if memory serves.

What is the best way to make this actually work?

So far I have tried simply plugging in one of the other Nvidia cards along with my fermi and I have yet to get it to boot.

1) Make an attempt to get two of the GPU's above cooperate with one another? If so, what steps?

2) Perform open heart surgery on my case in a drastic attempt to attach three devices to the fermi 460 and forget the fourth monitor. Currently, the HDMI port won't work with the two DVI's attached. Space lacking.

3) Buy or trade in for two new GPU's that would ostensibly work together. If so, which (since clearly I did not plan this perfectly ahead of time)?
 
Yeah, I am not well up on SLI, but, I think you need the cards to be roughly the same for SLI to work, and you need sli if you want to plug in more monitors.

So you would need to get another 460, but, like you said your motherboard only supports crossfire. So you can do some of the following :-

1. sell all three graphics cards and get an AMD card that supports eyefinity.

2. sell the the 9600gt, 8400gs and the motherboard and buy a cheap sli mobo and buy another 460.

Do you intend to game on this or is this only for work?

For option 1 you would need some display port adaptors to make this work. I think you will need two for four monitors. If you are not gaming then option1 might be the best, you can just get an AMD 6850 and two display port adaptors and this should work fine for you.
 
Thanks for the response reaper. Based on your post, I have a few other thoughts and concerns.

I don't intend to game on this unit. For work and HD movies mainly. Given, that, it might open up another can of worms, but I would like to find a card that is relatively quiet. My 460 is too loud for my taste but otherwise performs admirably. I would assume that the 6850 is loud like its predecessors. I had a 58XX and attempted to make it fanless by attaching an aftermarket cooler. It keeled over quickly and that is when I bought the 460. I suspect the reason it keeled over might be tied to my aftermarket efforts.

I physically looked at the 6850. It appears as though it would take four monitors (as long as the two dvi connections did not interfere with one another vertically (I am assuming it takes up two slots). I use pretty thick 50 foot DVI cables from monoprice. The two HDMIs look like they are spaced decently from pictures and wouldn't interfere.

I probably already have the needed cables:
1) 2x 50 ft DVI
2) 1x 25 ft male HDMI, male DVI
3) 1x 25 ft male to male HDMI
4) Lots of other small cables that don't seem to help me out much since they are too short.

I'd hate to buy the 6850, then run into the same space issue I am having with the 460 or have it be too loud like the 58xx I had previously. Any other thoughts based on that info?

Edit: Another thought based on your post. Wonder if a display port adapter might be slim enough to get to the HDMI slot that I currently can't fit the cable into on my 460?
 
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You don't need SLI support in order to use two Nvidia cards on most motherboard. So little need to buy a SLI capable motherboard just for multi-monitor support. Now your boot issue could be due to the motherboard being defective, both cards being defective, PSU can't handle the load, or the motherboard can't handle two cards well.

For now, go into the BIOs and make sure that it's initiating/starting the video card in the first PCI-E slot. Then try again.

Also the HD 6850 does not support 4 monitors. In addition, you're not seeing two HDMI ports: You're seeing a single HDMI port and a Display Port, a new display adapter type. They're incompatible with one another. At most, the HD 6850 will support three monitors: Two monitors connected via the DVI ports and one connected via the display port. The HDMI share the same digital output as one of the DVI ports on that card. So if you use that HDMI port, it counts towards one of the DVI ports in the above three monitor config. Now if your monitor does not have Display Port, you can use a Display Port to DVI or VGA adapter. However those range from $20 to $100 and sometimes may or may not work.

Oh and that applies to the GTX 460 as well: It only supports two digital outputs. So it does not support more than two monitors at once. Using the HDMI port counts towards that digital output limit.
 
I agree with the first guy sell your stuff get your money either get 2 460s or get a higher end 6950 and that card with its 2gb ram will smash all of this and more! And you can do SLI on a none sli board man ... just google it and you can see how to everywhere! It works and work not bad at all!
 
Plugging in the second video card should* work. I would remove the GTX460 and test the 8400GS and 9600GT by themselves first. Next thing I would check is if your power supply is a piece of crap. And check each PCI-E slot with one card at a time. If both video cards work and you have a decent PSU, I would contact MSI support.

Bottom line:

- Almost any 2 video cards will support 3-4 monitors.
- You can plug in as many video cards as your system supports.
- Each video card can only support 2 displays normally.
- Video cards do not have to match.
- Crossfire and SLI is not needed. This is for gaming performance.
- Eyefinity and Surround Vision is not needed. This is to treat multiple monitors as a single monitor; mainly for games.

And as far as connecting 3 monitors to a single video card, almost all video card support only 2 displays no matter how many connection are on the back of the card. This is limited by hardware. An exception is ATI new HD5*** and HD6*** series card that use displayport, but these cards still only support 2 monitors when displayport is not used. Displays 3, 4, 5, etc need to be using the DP port.

Pretty much what Danny said.
 
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Well, since you are not gaming then my post was kinda useless :)

What operating system do you have?

But, I do have the solution for you I think, sell all your cards, and buy a 5450 like the one here on newegg if you are going to go eyefinity route,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161323

or this one if you just want to go the route danny recommends

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102882

They are passive cooled so they cooled so will be completely quiet. They will be useless for gaming, but, for HD movies they will be fine and they do support bitstreaming of the HD audio to your receiver.

You will have money left over after selling your other graphics cards, so, if you want to go eyefinity you can at a later date. Just if you are thinking about going the eyefinity route you will need an active display adapter and for the fourth monitor/HDTV just make sure it has an onboard display adapter, will make things much easier :)
 
I managed to get the system up and running nicely with both the 460 and 9600 installed. I am now working off three monitors and could easily run a fourth!

Danny and ClearM4,

Thank you both for the clarification. It made my task much easier knowing what limitations I have and what to expect.

I felt I had a good PSU in a Seasonic 650 Gold.I then tested each PCI slot and the 9600 by itself. Worked. I flipped PCI locations for the two cards respectively and got it to boot, but it didn't seem to pick up the driver. Restarted and it grabbed the driver. Working now. System seemed to be a little bit picky getting it going but I can't complain about the result.

Reaper12,

Thank you for the suggestion. I will consider selling at least one or two of the cards I have now. I have an older rig that is under repair at the moment and I may end up turning that into some type of media server. Might be nice to have all my cards as passively cooled. Thanks again.
 
Happy days, I am glad you got it working with spending no money :) that's alway good.
 
Well I tried the same thing with my GTS 8800 and a Geforce 9000 something. Would not work, etc. From comments on here, I gathered that the cards must share the same drivers for them to actually work. Since then I gave up and went to ATI.
 
CiscoInside said:
Well I tried the same thing with my GTS 8800 and a Geforce 9000 something. Would not work, etc. From comments on here, I gathered that the cards must share the same drivers for them to actually work. Since then I gave up and went to ATI.
Click to expand...

Depends on the OS you are using. Windows 7 and WinXP can install both ATI and Nvidia drivers at the same time, Vista can't.

The 8800GTS and 9*** should have worked fine.

What did not work about this setup?
 
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NVidia cards are DVI, and are limited to two ports per card, so two monitors is all you can do on one card.

If you are scaling up beyond 2, and you arent gaming, a single, display port equipped, ATI card is a more economical solution IMO (and thats coming from a tri-sli GTX 580 user :D)

Now if you dont want to sell your current gear/arent doing a new build/want to keep those monitors... Then in that case you can use all of them AFAIK (the cards you have). You wont be doing SLI. SLI will just be disabled. You will simply be leveraging Windows inherant capability of running multiple GPUs. You will then use the Windows display control panel to manage the multi-display desktop.

I dont think there should be a problem having an 8 series, 9 series and Fermi. The fact that you couldnt get it to boot is a bit odd. Check your BIOS settings for "Init DIsplay Device" somewhere under advanced settings. See if you can point that setting at a specific PCI-E slot.

Also, are you sure it didnt actually boot and that the problem wasnt that it was simply initializing the card the monitor wasnt attached to? Did you have monitors on all the cards?
 
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