I need some help form the hardware gurus here. My old PC finally gave up, RIP, and I got a new one, unfortunately all my AGP, and PCI video cards are obsolete and will not work with this system. It has one PCI express x16, and four PCIe x1 slots. It came with a nice video card but it's only for one monitor, I need to power up 3 more monitors from one card. Can somebody please recommend a Quad video card, PCIe x16, that will run with 4 24" monitors? The resolution I'm using is 1900x1200. I will appreciate any advice, thanks. J
Well, I'm sure Gnome will chime in on this one, but until he does, my 2 cents worth. Although there are good quad cards out there, they are more expensive than just adding a few new cards to your system. You generally want your cards to be of the same brand to avoid driver issues (although not absolutely necessary). So it might help if you posted the brand here. gnome is very happy with the nvidia quadro NVS 285 & 290 cards. (name is a misnomer, they are duals). You can get them cheap as well via Ebay. Going this route you'd want to remove what you have now and sell it. I was going to buy these as well, but decided to just go with two 30 inch screens in a complete system upgrade (need higher end card). Jay
check out the Matrox quad video card that came out this spring. It should go for around $750-$900/ea depending on the vendor here is their link www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series//m9140lppciex16/features/ I've run two Matrox quad cards(pci-e x16) in my pc to run 8 monitors for the last two yrs with no problems at all and great performance. If thats more money than you want to spend then just buy 2 dual video cards(total cost for both less than $400) like "Jayford" and "just21" just mentioned.
Great suggestions guys, thanx a lot. I was looking at Radeon 2600 XT X2, but those fans turned me off. My old PC was driving me nuts, sounded like a hairdryer, lol. So, passive cooling sounds like a good idea. Jayford, which cards do you use with the 30"s? Also, will I need a bigger power supply for a quad card? THe current one is 400W, Q6600 processor 4Gb Ram, 2HDs 250Gb and 500Gb
Solution1, low cost 4 monitor ATi Rage XL 32mb PCI quad video card. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=CL-VGA-CARD-WB&cpc=SUGG
New? You're kidding, right? It was new in about '99. It's in the Rage line... Looks like it supports only CRT output. Never seen RJ45 output ports before. Weird.
You already have the right answer; NVS440. you can get it from newegg.com made by PNY. This 1 card will run all 4 monitors, and you will not need a larger PSU (power supply). You will need 2 (DMS-59) adapters (find the old dell ones on ebay) to plug in your 4 monitor's DVI or VGA cords to the card.
Thank you for the suggestion Nuts. I don't think buying this card is a good idea...it states somewhere that the card sends the video of "server-quality". Besides at 32Mb (8mb/display) I'm not sure what max resolution can this card handle. Or refresh rates. Certainly wouldn't like to stare at a 60Hz refresh all day long... Thanks anyway.