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Gfx Setup to Run 3 Displays

Karacis04Karacis04 Member Posts: 2
in Hardware

I am currently running a 550 ti. I would like to be able to run my 2 monitors as well as my TV off the same computer. I only game on one monitor, but like to have a movie or something going on the TV and misc on the other monitor. What's the best/easiest way to go about this? I'm looking at the 590, but a little on the fence about the cost/benefit.

 

Thanks!

Comments

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    You'll also  need a TV tuner card.

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,355

    If you're only going to play games on one monitor, then the other two don't need a high end card.  You could grab a low end card and run the other two off of that.  Sticking the other card in a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot that is only wired for x4 electrical bandwidth doesn't matter if you're not playing games on it.  If you're running Vista or XP and want to add a second card, then it would need to be Nvidia, as you can only have one video driver active at a time.  If you're running Windows 7, then you can have both AMD and Nvidia graphics active simultaneously, so you could go with either vendor.

    If you want to run three monitors off a single card, then any Radeon HD 5000 series or later card with a DisplayPort monitor port (which many have but some don't) and at least three monitor ports in total (which they essentially all have) can do that.  That takes a $30 active DisplayPort adapter unless one of the monitors is DisplayPort, however.

    The noteworthy exception is Sapphire's FleX cards, which have some stuff built in to be able to run three monitors (or likely four) off of a single card without expensive adapters.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=-1&isNodeId=1&Description=sapphire+flex&x=0&y=0

    A Radeon HD 6770 will get about the same performance as your GeForce GTX 550 Ti.  A Radeon HD 6850 will be much faster.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,355

    Also, don't get a GeForce GTX 590.  It's a terrible card that makes sense for basically no one.  The point of the card was a marketing stunt, and even the marketing stunt ended up failing.

    Recent AMD GPU chips have support for either 4 or 6 monitors built into the GPU chip.  Nvidia has never made a GPU chip with support for more than two.  So for good multiple monitor support, you have to go with AMD.  You can kind of hack around it with multiple Nvidia cards, but it's not as good as having proper hardware support for it.

    Also, if you've got the huge budget for a GeForce GTX 590, then just wait and get a Radeon HD 7970 when it launches on January 9.  That will be a much nicer card, and have adapters included so that you can support three (or maybe four) monitors right out of the box, without needing a separate purchase.

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,412

    For the monitor, getting something with a display port input will get you a good monitor, but they average $300 per monitor.  I was recently looking for a new monitor and this one caught my eye.  It supports an open 3D standard so you can run it in 3D mode with an AMD video card.

    Samsung S27A750D $599

    Or you can get 3 of these for a really big display:

    ASUS VE276Q $289.99

  • kadepsysonkadepsyson Member UncommonPosts: 1,919

    I agree with Quizzical's suggestion to wait for the 7970, and would like to add a bit.  The card supports up to 5 monitors I believe, and with the 3 GB memory on the card, it can tackle the higher resolutions easier while still supporting nice things like anti-aliasing.  It should also end up less expensive than the 590.  And as he mentioned, it does include the neccessary adapters in the box with the card, so there is that too for multi monitor use :)

    If you feel like sticking with Nvidia, then yes you'd need two cards to do 3 monitors at once.

     

    Edit: most of what I wrote was if you intended to do something like Eyefinity - but if you intend to do 3 seperate things, then yeah you might not need as much graphics horsepower to get it done.

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    nVidia needs either SLI or special edition cards to support more than 2 monitors.

    AMD cards, most every card can support 4, and some as many as 6 monitors.

    You will not require a tuner card more than likely. There are DVI->HDMI adapters, and DisplayPort->HDMI adapters, and even some adapters that will take either DisplayPort or DVI and turn it into composite video or S-Video for older TV's. Most TV's have HDMI inputs anymore, and some even have DVI. There are many video cards with HDMI ports built directly in, but the adapters are fairly cheap and easy to get, so I wouldn't make that a requirement.

    If your only gaming on a single monitor, then you probably don't need a whole lot of horsepower. A single AMD card would be what I would recommend. The upcoming 7970 looks to be awesome from the early reviews, and price-wise would be about $150-$200 cheaper than a 590. The existing 6800 or 6900 series could do what you are wanting fairly well too, the 6850 would be a mild upgrade from your 550Ti, but anything in the 6900 series would be a fairly significant upgrade.

    The 590 is a bad card engineering-wise, and cost/benefit makes it even more unattractive.

  • Karacis04Karacis04 Member Posts: 2

    Thanks for all the replys, very helpful. New member here, been watching for a while but decided to jump in!

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