Triple Widescreen Monitors - Problem with 3rd

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ryang

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May 28, 2005
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I recently built a rig for a trader who works at home.
Gigabyte DQ6
Intel 6600 DC
4GB DDr2 6400 Ram
Zalman 9500 hsf
Antec P180 case

Ati X800 AIW PCIE
Nvidia FX 5500 PCI

The HP f2105 screens run at 1680x1050 widescreen. The initial setup went fine, the 2 cards all saw the monitors max resolution in windows. Lately, the 3rd monitor running off the PCI card has lost that, and defaults back to the multiple res. choices up the cards max. 1680x1050 is an option, but when set to that, the monitor puts on black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

I know these arent the greatest cards, but it was a same day in the store type of deal to get him up and running with a nice rig. He doesn't need high end cards, just the ability to have 3 independent screens, with a tv tuner to watch a little bloomberg on the right monitor. The monitors go in the 3-1-2 config, 1-2 running off the ATI, 3 running on the PCI. We discovered that ATI's media center crapware locks the tv window to the center screen only.


Anyways, my issue and concerns are these:
How can I recongifure the pci card to see the native resolution? I've done countless driver reinstalls.

Am I better off going with a dual nvidia PCIE setup? I tried to bring in a second ATI PCIE card, and it had the same issue, 3rd monitor not being recognized. I abosolutely hate ATI drivers and software.

Any help is appreciated. If I had more time, I would have done a dual 7600GT in non SLI mode ( I don't think the board does SLI anyways)

Ryan
 
• 1600 x 1200 maximum resolution per display * <The HP's native res is 1680x1050

I checked out Matrox earlier, as it sounded like a good option. I'm not sure how the monitors will take 1600x1200, or if they will go out of range. They are on VGA cables using DVI>VGA adapters.
 
ryang said:
They are on VGA cables using DVI>VGA adapters.
Click to expand...

Are you saying you currently have all of the monitors hooked up vga instead of dvi? Personally, i'd pop in a second PCIE ati card and run it off of that. I have an x800 and x600 in a 975 board running 3 displays, works perfectly. Then you don't have to worry about using ATI and nVidia drivers at the same time.
 
I think the problem you are having stems from the fact taht youare using a PCIE and PCI card at the same time.
I work at best buy, and I set up a quad-monitor display in order to sell a bunch of open-item monitors, and what we did was use 2 normal PCI, PNY GeForce 5200 GS's. They both have dual VGA output (fine for a day-trader). With this setup, windows automatically detected both cards and we didn't even have to mess with NVidia's dumb software ore settings. Just had to click 'extend deskop to this monitor' for each monitor in the display poroperties box.
Was pretty flawless.
On an Emachines with a celeron and 256 mb of ram no less.
 
I don't know if this is the same issue or not. I bought a DFI lanparty ultra-d motherboard that is supposed to do something called "dual xpress graphics." basically all it does is allow you to run two separate Pci-e cards. Now, I've never gotten it to work. its really a pain. It could mostly be that I only have one Nvidia and one ati card. I was thinking of switching to a pci card to see if that would help at all. I highly doubt it.

its nice to know a few people can get 3 or 4 displays working at least.
 
Why do ppl think there are problems running ATi and NV cards/drivers at the same time? Just because the !!!!!!s hate each other doesn't mean the cards/drivers do! :D

I run SLi with an ATi PCI card, both with latest Cats and Forceware with ZERO problems and haven been for about a year now....

So apart from 'urban myths' and BS, why is this constantly said?
 
...mainly because many people HAVE had alot of problems with the drivers. Especially when replacing one brand with another.
Seems to be more prevalent when replacing an Nvidia card with an ATI...
 
Modred189 said:
...mainly because many people HAVE had alot of problems with the drivers. Especially when replacing one brand with another.
Seems to be more prevalent when replacing an Nvidia card with an ATI...
Click to expand...

But that isn't this scenario at all....and the problems ppl have are their own doing anyway.

They are being run in tandem, not replacing. When run in tandem there should be be no problems
 
Tigerblade said:
But that isn't this scenario at all....and the problems ppl have are their own doing anyway.

They are being run in tandem, not replacing. When run in tandem there should be be no problems
Click to expand...
Oh I know. I was just saying that I have seen alot of people with issues like this that are fixed by using one brand card (if in tandem) or uninstalling the previous card's drivers (if replacing).
 
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