As-per the title. Not talking about surround gaming here, just running all 3 outputs simultaneously for triple monitor desktop work. I feel like I should know the answer to this but my knowledge is a bit rusty
Unlikely - Low end cards don't typically output to more than 2 screens Nvidia website says "Multimonitor -> yes" for 630 http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt-630-oem/specifications but it says "Multimonitor -> 4 Displays" for 670 http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-670/specifications So I think it's just avoiding saying it can only do 2 displays. wikipedia says they're all rebrands, and only the latest architecture support more than 2 outputs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_600_Series
Why not buy 2 of the cheap cards you mentioned? If your motherboard has 2 PCIe slots, you could easily buy 2 of these cards and have money left over for a RAM upgrade for the price of the lowest end model that DOES support 3 monitors. If you don't have 2 PCIe x16 slots, they do make cards that have PCIe x1 connectors on them.
GT640 is the lowest model that officially supports more than 2 monitor from one card. I do not know if the Lucid MVP found on current gen Intel motherboards can use onboard for a 3rd monitor.
Thanks for your replies. That was the only sort of information I was able to find. I find it very annoying when nobody (even nVidia themselves) makes it clear exactly what is and isn't supported - they just use ambiguous language like "multimonitor". I'm not actually putting together a system, I'm just after an answer to whether those cards (and if not, which cards at the lower end of the range) can support 3 monitors. Sounds like you're saying no, in a very round-about way Right, thanks.