Adding a 3rd monitor

[ub3rman123]

I've got two monitors right now and it's pretty useful. They're both plugged into an nVidia card, but there's an integrated graphics card already on the motherboard. I found an older CRT monitor and thought I'd put it to good use as a third monitor. From most of my research online, I've learned that I need a second card for a third monitor. That's where the integrated card comes in. In theory, the integrated card should work in the same way as installing two graphics cards.

 

Unfortunately, the computer doesn't seem to read the integrated card if the nVidia card is plugged in. It only connects the third monitor if I disconnect the other card. What should I do to make the computer read both cards at the same time?

[Paxan_1]

Hi,

 

i can't imagine this will work. If you have another NVidia card maybe it should work. For Ati it is called Eyefinity, but you need 2 Ati cards for 3 monitors. I think i have read something about that it is possible with Nvidia quadro cards, but i'm not sure about this for NVidia.

[Erik005]

There is probably no way both the integrated card and the nvidia card will work but you can try.

 

You check the bios and turn on the integrated card but most likely this will turn of the other card.

 

The easiest way to run three monitors is getting an ati card form the HD5000 series or above, you will then also need a monitor with a displayport or a very expensive active converter to a displayport.

 

The bottom line is this will cost a lot of money so it is probably not worth it.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Erik005

[bben46]

Mixing ATI and Nvidia probably isn't a good idea as they use completely different driver sets. Instead, get another Nvidia. One that uses the same driver set as the one you already have will probably work better.

 

Try the Nvidia site for more advice, they have a multi monitor forum there.

[ub3rman123]

So if I locate a second video card, it should work? Does the quality of the card affect performance?

[TheTerminator2004]

A potentially cheaper alternative may be to use something like a Matrox Triplehead box. You plug all 3 monitors into the box, then plug the box into your computer - to the computer it just looks like you have one really wide monitor, but the box spreads the image out across all three. It effectively gives you one desktop of (up to) 5760x1080 resolution, which can be better than the way dual monitors are normally handled (though I don't know much about eyefinity, so I can't really compare them).

http://http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

EDIT: It would be nice if

Edited January 12, 2011 by The_Terminator

[prandiningrat]

In theory, the integrated card should work in the same way as installing two graphics cards.

if you try to mixed integrated GPU thats won't work. Integrated GPU is integrated with your motherboard chipset and take your system ram to work ( if thats work in my theory will decrease your system performance). so you still need second GPU for your CRT monitor.. some motherboard vendors recommends that you should disable integrated graphics if you using external graphic cards..

ATI and Nvidia can be mixed but for now need materialization of Lucid Hydra chip in motherboard.. Lucid Hydra chip allows mixed and matched multiple GPUs between ATI and nVidia with 100% performance scaling.(solution if trying to use multiple gpus)