Triple displays

dahamsta

I have a Dell 3008WFP and I want to add two 2007FP side displays to it. I currently have an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+, what's the best approach for expanding? I've run multiple monitors before but only on the one card, and I presume adding a card is a better, and cheaper, than buying a quad.

Should I keep the 3008 on the current card and put the new displays on another one, or vice versa? Will another 9800 be ok or should I get something else? I presume Windows 7 will handle the three monitors out of the box? And can I restrict the taskbar to just just center monitor?

This isn't for gaming btw, more productivity.

SickBoy

You'd be better off selling the 9800 GTX and getting a low end nVidia 6xx or AMD HD7xxx card to power the 3 monitors.
You should be able to pick up something for ~ €120 - €130

yomamasflavour

Assuming you're planning on using those displays at their full resolution (2560x1600 + 2 x 1200x1600) means that you want an overall resolution of 4960x1600. Which is massive and beyond the max capabilities of a 9800GTX (which is 2560x1600).

A 9800 only supports two monitors (or three via devices like matrox triple head to go). Best bet is to get a cheap 5 series like a 5850/5870 second hand for maybe a €100. Then you'll have a setup that natively supports triple screen and will have the power to run that sort of resolution.

A 9800 is quite underpowered even just for basic tasks at those sort of resolutions. There's also the likelihood of your current graphics card failing to factor in (due to the nvidia 8/9 series design flaws).

dahamsta

Thanks for the feedback so far, but:

@SickBoy, I thought the only Nvidia cards that did 3+ were Quadros? And the AMDs you mentioned don't seem to go past 2 either.

In both cases, the 9800 works fine for what I use it for now, so I'm not sure why I'd be replacing it.

@yomamasflavour, obviously from my post I'm aware that it won't support 3 displays.

Again: no gaming. I don't need super-duper SLI and yadda-yadda, the most intensive thing I do is remux the occasional video, and a bit of intensive graphic editing if I can't avoid it and the client is a moron that provides massive images.

90% of the time I use this computer for development, so multiple Firefox windows, multiple explorer windows, various clients open for SSH, FTP, password manager, etc. I just need more desktop space really. Bit wary of the 2007FP's EOLing, so now's the time.

SickBoy

dahamsta wrote: »

@SickBoy, I thought the only Nvidia cards that did 3+ were Quadros? And the AMDs you mentioned don't seem to go past 2 either.

Once upon a time maybe but these days 3 monitors are nearly standard from all nVidia Geforce and AMD HD series cards.
Take a look at this GTX650 for instance. According to the specs it will power 4 monitors with a max resolution of 2560x1600 on the digital outputs and 2048x1536 on the VGA output. All for a tad over €120

yomamasflavour

I'm not even talking about gaming, nothing but top end sli 6 series nvidia or crossfire 7 series ati, as in €700 - 1000 on graphics cards alone is going to be able to game at that resolution.

5,6,7 series ati support eyefinity (native triple screen) not too sure on nvidia but their newer series also support triple screen natively.

dahamsta

SickBoy wrote: »

Take a look at this GTX650 for instance. According to the specs it will power 4 monitors with a max resolution of 2560x1600 on the digital outputs and 2048x1536 on the VGA output. All for a tad over €120

Thanks. So that'd work in this instance then, with the 30" and one 20" on the digital ports and the other 20" on the analog port? Having one on an analog port won't affect the quality or colour reproduction on that monitor?

Fair enough @yomamasflavour. Sorry, hardware's never been my bag. I like code.

BTW, with these cards, can I restrict the taskbar to just the center display? It's been a while since I ran two.

yomamasflavour

Why would you use the analog vga connector? If you're buying the gtx 650 - it has 2 DVI, 1 HDMI.
Wouldn't it make more sense to connect the 3008WFP via HDMI then the two 2007FP via DVI?

Not much point having super high resolution digital screens and then using a poor quality analog connector.

As for the taskbar you can restrict it to the centre display and then just use the side ones as spare space. Though if you do it this way it won't allow you to fullscreen an app across all three displays.

Though considering you're not going to be gaming / video playing across all three anyway it's probably not an issue.

dahamsta

Been a while since I bought the 30, didn't realise / forgot it had HDMI.

No reason for full res so that'd work nicely, and sure if I do need it I can reconfigure

Would you recommend any card in particular?